Inside the cables are manufactured and tested to a different spec and there’s actually identifiers within the cable that let computers and peripherals know whether it’s a Thunderbolt 3 cable or just a regular USB-C cable. To expand further, USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are great but they can be really confusing and one of the things that we’ve gotten consistent feedback from customers about is the confusion over cables and unfortunately, USB-C cables and Thunderbolt 3 cables actually look identical.Īlthough the USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectors looks the same, they are actually not.

These messages can pop up because the cable being used to connect the dock to your system is not a Thunderbolt 3 cable, but rather a USB-C charging only cable. “Thunderbolt device functionality might be limited make sure the Thunderbolt device you’re connecting to is supported by your PC.” “Cannot use the Thunderbolt 3 accessory please connect the accessory to a thunderbolt port on this Mac.”

Originally authored by: Bernie Thompson, February 25, 2019Įver come across either of these Thunderbolt error messages when connecting a Thunderbolt 3 device (such as our TBT3-UDV docking station) to your Mac or Windows laptop and can’t figure out why?

Bluetooth usb 3 port for mac