Apple related question

[YeOldeStonecat]

OK yup I'm not very savvy on Apple products. Have the boss of a foundation I take care of she's all gung ho about Apple, hates Microsoft. So she's been nagging me to let her get a Macbook and get it setup on their network. She finally gets her Macbook (non-pro)..but I mentioned she should ask the Apple store about a docking station and peripherals...monitor, keyboard, mouse, power, network, etc.

So I go there and she has a nice little Macbook, and some Belkin docking station that connects with what looks like a USB-C cable but I understand it's also Thunderbolt. (has a lightening bolt symbol on the cable and where it plugs in in the docking station).

When you plug it into the Macbook..in the upper right a warning pops up about the system not supporting thunderbolt.

Is this a "OK we don't care" warning...and all functions will still work over USB-C?
Or...is this Belkin docking station now sort of neutered a bit and she should exchange it for some model that works with a regular Macbook non-pro.

 

[Krynn72]

Does it still charge the computer properly? I would guess that if it does, it might be slow charging. I can't imagine everything will work without real thunderbolt compatibility.

Also ew. The regular MacBook? Bleaugh.

 

[mraikes]

OK yup I'm not very savvy on Apple products. Have the boss of a foundation I take care of she's all gung ho about Apple, hates Microsoft. So she's been nagging me to let her get a Macbook and get it setup on their network. She finally gets her Macbook (non-pro)..but I mentioned she should ask the Apple store about a docking station and peripherals...monitor, keyboard, mouse, power, network, etc.

So I go there and she has a nice little Macbook, and some Belkin docking station that connects with what looks like a USB-C cable but I understand it's also Thunderbolt. (has a lightening bolt symbol on the cable and where it plugs in in the docking station).

When you plug it into the Macbook..in the upper right a warning pops up about the system not supporting thunderbolt.

Is this a "OK we don't care" warning...and all functions will still work over USB-C?
Or...is this Belkin docking station now sort of neutered a bit and she should exchange it for some model that works with a regular Macbook non-pro.

While I don't know the answer to your question, if she's going to see that error message every time she docks, replace the Belkin.

 

[HCHTech]

The cable and port are the same between USB-C and Thunderbolt, but when a thunderbolt device connects to a Thunderbolt-aware mac, you get faster data transfer.

 

[Markverhyden]

Macbooks to not support Thunderbolt even though the port is the same. Another reason why Macbooks, like their predecessor's, iBooks, are a big step down.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207443

 

[cyabro]

The USB-C port on the smaller 12-inch MacBooks isn't Thunderbolt 3 compatible.
Not sure exactly what that means though, if everything on the dock is working.
Probably find that connecting something like a thunderbolt monitor or storage device won't work.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Not sure exactly what that means though, if everything on the dock is working..

That's what I'm not sure of yet, so far she's only had the Belkin docking station connected for power. No peripherals connected yet. So I'm not sure if this warning is more of a "you won't get full performance" warning like us Windows users would get if we plugged a USB2 stick into a USB1 port? Still works..just slower. Or if she actually loses the ability to use some peripherals though the Belkin dock...like if there is an HDMI monitor on it, or ethernet.