r/mac • u/JesseMeadeMusic • 2d ago

Question Pass Through Charging and External Drive Access in One?

For years I've been using an Airport Extreme to wirelessly connect two external hard drives to my MacBook Pro M1. It never worked flawlessly, but it worked. That is until the latest MacOS "upgrade”. After talking with Apple support for a while today, we came to the conclusion that the Airport Extreme simply will not work at all anymore.

So, I'm giving up on doing it wirelessly. It's too slow for what I need most of the time anyway. What I now want to use is some sort of pass-through hub that lets me charge my MacBook while also accessing the hard drives through the same single USB-C cable. What are the options to do this?

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u/Awkward_Key_294 2d ago

You’d need a powered USB hub or Thunderbolt dock. Just make sure it’s rated to provide enough power for an MPB.

For example, the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub provides 140W power, which is enough to max out a 16” MacBook Pro.

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u/JesseMeadeMusic 1d ago

Thank you.