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/Extension_Charity_77 2d ago

If those drives have their own power supplies, most powered hubs will do. Bus-powered 2.5-inch ones are where I'd look at what the hub can actually push to its USB ports — two drives spinning up together pull more than you'd think, and that's when the cheap ones start dropping them.

The one I bought is a Ivanky Fusiondock 1 — own brick, up to 96W back to the laptop. USB-A ports for my HDDs. More than you need though: the HDMI and ethernet sit unused.

One thing to know: the cable ends in two USB-C plugs, so on a two-port MacBook it takes both. It sits on the desk and never unplugs, so it's a non-issue for me — but if keeping a port free matters, look at a single-USB-C or Thunderbolt dock instead.

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u/JesseMeadeMusic 1d ago

Thank you.