iPad Pro connected to a Thunderbolt Dock with just a USB-C cable

Introduction

Recently picked up a Thunderbolt 3 dock and while waiting for cables and adapters to arrive to attach it to an old mac. I wanted to try and see what would happen if I plugged in an iPad Pro 3rd Gen 11", since that has Thunderbolt 3, and has a charging cable that should plug in, physically.

Conclusion

In short, it did not work as a thunderbolt connection and was kind of expected, but it still can charge the iPad. No other functions worked.

iPad Pro comes with USB-C cable, which is not a thunderbolt cable and is only suitable for charging and usb data transfer.

The Bad news

The iPad shows an utterly silly less than helpful error message, “Cannot Use Thunderbolt Accessory, Thunderbolt accessories are not supported on this iPad”

Why no I disagree, this iPad Pro does support Thunderbolt the specs says so, this is just another case of a poorly worded error message. So yes if you mix up your thunderbolt and usb-c cables be on the lookout for this misleading error. Your probably using the wrong cable.

Why Apple shows the above error instead of a something more sensible like “Cannot Use Thunderbolt Accessory”, “Thunderbolt accessory not supported with a USB cable.” remains to be understood by me?