Your pile of USB cables may include some USB 2 cables, some that only support power, and maybe even Thunderbolt cables. It’s time to get your affairs in order before you throw the wrong cord in your travel bag.
USB cables come in all shapes and sizes, and the physical connector is not representative of its capabilities. Using the wrong USB cable shouldn’t cause any real damage, but your charging and data speeds may be more limited than the connected devices support, and some cables don’t support data transfers at all. Organizing your pile of cables now can save you a lot of frustration later.
Not all USB cables are created equal
The most common USB cables have a USB Type-A connector on one end (the classic USB port), while the other end has USB Type-C (the smaller reversible plug found on many phones, tablets and laptops) or Micro-B/microUSB (a thinner plug used on cheaper and older electronics). You may also have some cables with Mini-B (a small connector used on many accessories and older electronics) on one end, or one of the many other physical connectors that USB has used over the years.
Unfortunately, the cable connectors tell you Nothing about what they should actually support. A USB Type-A to C cable can handle USB 3.0 or higher speeds, can be limited to USB 2.0, or can even have no data pins and only support charging. You can’t know until you try. Some cables do marked with colors to indicate speeds, but nothing stops cable manufacturers from disguising a cheap cable with different colors.
The charging cables are especially annoying. On a recent trip, I couldn’t connect my camera to my laptop because the microUSB cable I pulled from my stack before I left would only charge. Oops!
Lightning strike also contributes to this confusion. Early Thunderbolt devices and cables used the Mini DisplayPort connector, but Thunderbolt 3 and newer versions use the same Type-C connector as many modern USB devices. All Thunderbolt 3, 4, and 5 cables are USB cables, but not all USB cables are Thunderbolt cables.
Apple
Most Thunderbolt cords have a lightning bolt on the connector and most are stiffer than a regular USB cable. Apart from that, they can easily be mistaken for USB C to C cables.
How to get organized
The best first step in organizing your cable pile is to sort the charging cables. You can do this by finding devices that use a data connection, such as a phone or external drive, and connecting them to a computer or tablet with a cable. If anything happens other than just charging, such as files appearing or a sync prompt, you have a data-capable cable.
For example, if you have an iPhone, iPad, or Android device with a USB-C port, connect it to a computer or tablet using one of your USB-C cables. If the cable supports data access, iPhone and iPad devices will say Trust this computer? quickly. On Android devices, you may need to tap the charging notification and check if File Transfer is one of the available options. If the cable only charges your device and there are no options to enable file transfers or a data connection, you have a charging-only cable.
Alert on iPhone asking ‘Trust this computer?’
If you find a charging-only cable, put it in a separate pile from your other cables. Repeat this process for all your USB cables. You may need several different types of devices to properly test all your cables, unless you have adapters that also support data transfer. Also make sure your test devices have a working data connection with at least one cable so you know you have a working control variable. Stick to the scientific method.
Once you’ve identified your charging-only cables, you can reuse them for connections that don’t require data. They are still useful for charging stations/docks, USB security cameras, car chargers (excluding Android Auto), and so on. If you have some left, or aren’t using them yet, keep them separate so you don’t have to do another round of testing.
Next, you might consider putting all your cables in an organizer, if you haven’t already done so. I bought three plastic storage organizers for my cables and other computer accessories, and then used a label maker to label each drawer. You could also just use label stickers and a pen, you don’t have to feel like it.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Nerd
I have a few bins that consist only of USB cables, while others contain adapters, USB drives, SD cards, Ethernet cables, earbuds, USB wall chargers, and so on. Keep your charging cables and data cables in separate bins, otherwise your charging cables may go somewhere else since you won’t be taking them with you for file transfers or traveling.
You can further organize your cables by testing the maximum supported speeds on each device, but that’s a problem more involved process which requires a sophisticated connected device to test the limits of the cable. Sorting your charging cables and organizing them by connector type is a huge improvement in itself.
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