How to transfer files between two MacBook Pros using Thunderbolt 3

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[lizybloom]

amaze-balls. I clicked four or five different links before finding this tutorial and it is by far the easiest to follow. Thank you!

[franciscooolopez]

It's been MONTHS and I still finish the sentence for you.

This is Jeff..."with iDownloadBlog". Then I say darn & correct it "with 9to5Mac".

I'm a JB fan not an iDB or 9to5 fan. For life.

[rafaelbitanga]

It's almost 2020 and I find myself needing this! Thank you!!!

[vakarami]

I can't believe that nobody on the YouTube hasn't mentioned this magical trick! Tnx 👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏

[scart-]

Perfect. Between this & your target disk mode vid, my new 2019 iMac & my old 2011 are playing nicely together. Cheers

[eliteman]

Hey, just a quick note, slightly unrelated but your video helped me figure out using the ethernet port for my late 2009 Imac 27", an HP Mini USB C dock, and a cat5e cable, allowed me to connect the two computers to transfer large video files for editing on my wife's 2017 macbook via the dock with the Ethernet cable.

[jakthebomb]

This is way overcomplicated vs just using Target Disk Mode. Hold the T key down on your old Mac while powering it up. Then hook a Thunderbolt Cable from one Mac to the other. You will now see the old Mac's SSD mounted like a external drive on the new Mac. Quick and Simple, none of this IP address bs.

[trumanhw]

Thank you Jeff - I cannot BELIEVE I was ignorant of this. When people teach me mac stuff like this (moving data quickly) it's RARE - and for that, I'm always doubly appreciative!

I did recently purchase (forgot name) NVMe external drive enclosure... and I have a picture of me transferring a drive to a new retina 15" (faster SSD than 13) and it did 130GG (yes, bytes) in about 40 seconds. It did just under 3GB/s. SERIOUSLY. :D

The enclosures like $440 - and then it's not the most elegent system for installing drives... but it works! I also now have a 2TB SSD in my retina 2015 getting read speeds of 2800MB/s. :D

[KevStevens-Music-Drums-Art]

Brilliant! Thank you, Jeff. I want to connect a late 2009 iMac running High Sierra to a late 2012 iMac running El Capitan to be able to share files like this. I just need to find the correct thunderbolt cable for the job that fits both old iMacs. They are updated as far as I can go without the risk of losing essential software.

[warrenmcclure]

One thing I do enjoy about usb c, you can do just about ANYTHING with it. I do still miss the magnetic charger from the older Macbooks. If Apple could somehow make a usb c charging cable connection magnetic then I would be in love with usb c but until then

[WAYCOVE]

Thanks for the video. Although when my thunderbolt is connected to both Macs; the status says not connected and it does not change to self assigned IP on either of the Macs. Any idea whats going wrong here? any help would be much appreciated!

[FEFE]

3:55 That was around 70-150MB/s ?! When transfering files over my gigabit LAN, I have around 110MB/s. Can you do a speedtest (with Blackmagic), so we can see the real read and write speed!

[Maruszan]

Followed all steps, however, the bridge never changed from "not connected" to "self IP" 1:20. Any thoughts for troubleshooting?

[dartspc]

Thanks for this informative video. I have followed the instructions multiple times and I am not able to connect my 2 MacBook Pros. When I Connect to Server, I receive the following error message: "There was a problem connecting to the server (where the xxx is the correct IP address of the MacBook Pro). There are no shares available or you are not allowed to access them on the server. Please contact your system administrator to resolve the problem".

Note:
I am the system administrator on both MB Pros.
I also turned off FileVault on both MB Pros as I read in the below thread that the connection will not work with FileVault ON.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[ameenajaan]

Thanks ...very informative I don't have thunderbolt to thunderbolt but have one thunderbolt to hdmi adaptor, if I buy other thunderbolt to hdmi connector, will that work in a same way ...
both macs are MacBook Air ...

[wissenknowledge]

Nice video 😀😃May be you should add couple words regarding Filevault.. if it is not disabled -> the transfer wont work 😟 Thank you 👍

[zynan]

Great tutorial. Easy to follow. Convenient for moving large files.
Would this work between a MacBook Pro and a Windows desktop or laptop, if both had Thunderbolt 3?

[SangatSingh]

Can you use the cable that comes with the macbook pro to charge it ?

[ripudamansinghverma]

Will i be able to transfer files from my old macbook with thunderbolt 2 to new macbook with thunderbolt 3 using a cable setup of thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2

[mgsandler]

April 2024. And a life saver. Thank you.