Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

Reviews for Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 58 reviews

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Thunderbolt to firewire adapter for older camcorder Mini DV (Panasonic)

    • Written by from Norwalk

    7 of 15 people found this useful

    Previously used firewire 400 on old mac. Bought a firewire 800 cable 9-4 pin and adapter.
    New firewire cable worked in my daughters Mac Book Pro 2011. Imported video---so I know that part works.
    I added the adapter for my retina Mac Book Pro 2012.. I does not recognize camcorder.
    Either its the adapter or the imovie 11. Next I will try a different import program and see if it recognizes camcorder. I have so many old tapes to transfer!

    Was this useful? Thunderbolt to firewire adapter for older camcorder Mini DV (Panasonic)

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    works, but...

    • Written by from Stuttgart

    7 of 7 people found this useful

    Works fine with digi 002 and focusrite saffire 24 audio interfaces.
    BUT (and thats why only 3 stars):

    Because thunderbolt only delivers 7w thru the FW adapter many bus powered FW-devices need an ac-adapter.

    Not all FW800 to FW400 adapters are working with the thunderbolt adapter. Some of my adapters let go power through the cable but the interfaces for example are not recognized. Sonnet FW800 to 400 is working fine with apples thunderbolt to fw

    Was this useful? works, but...

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    No thunderbolt port next to the firewire?

    • Written by from New York

    15 of 17 people found this useful

    It does what it's supposed to, but I don't understand why it doesn't have another thunderbolt port on the the firewire end, I can't connect two displays and still use firewire, unless I use the HDMI, but than I need another adapter. I thought one of the strong points of thunderbolt is the ability to daisy chain.

    Was this useful? No thunderbolt port next to the firewire?

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Not working with (at least) RAID 0 FW800 drives

    • Written by from Washington

    31 of 32 people found this useful

    I'm very disappointed with this cable. For whatever reason, my Late 2012 27" iMac will not recognize the self-powered FW800 externals that I have been working with for years. I'd love to know why.

    Was this useful? Not working with (at least) RAID 0 FW800 drives

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Slow and unreliable connection

    • Written by from Bellevue

    38 of 38 people found this useful

    This has proven to be a poor substitute for my years-long trusted FW800 connection to my external, self-powered, hard drives especially my Drobo drive.

    I've been simplifying my setup for my brand new iMac 27" and have kept only the Drobo drive on FW800, through this adapter. My transfer rates have been cut in half to barely USB 2 speeds, and even more problematic the connection hangs several times a day, likely when the bus goes to sleep. I therefore have to reboot my Drobo several times a day, whereas it has been running flawlessly and without interruptions for three years now.
    Needless to say FW800 is no longer an option for me. And given the very high prices, Thunderbolt is not yet an realistic alternative for mass storage.

    Was this useful? Slow and unreliable connection

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Compatibility Issues

    • Written by from Peachtree City

    20 of 20 people found this useful

    I had no problem using the adapter with external powered Firewire drives. Unfortunately, my bus powered portable Firewire drives (2 different bands) were not recognized and would not boot despite the drives appearing to be powered (LED & spinning disk). I verified the issue on two Macs, a late 2012 iMac and a Macbook Air. Bummer!

    Was this useful? Compatibility Issues

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Thunderbolt to FW 800 to FW 400 adapter does not support Hasselblad cameras

    • Written by from San Lorenzo

    51 of 52 people found this useful

    Well dang... A brand new Macbook Pro Retina, new Photoshop, new Lightroom and I bought the 2 adapters recommended by Apple- Thunderbolt to Firewire 800, Firewire 800 to Firewire 400- to dump my 132 meg photographs onto my shiny new 16 GB Ram machine... Say What??
    NO GO!!! Oweeee. I called apple tech support, the guy runs a few PRAM reset programs and then proceeds to tell me to bring my new computer into an Apple store, the nearest one being about 7 hours round trip.
    Let me explain- the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter works great on my Lacie hard drives. The Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 works great on my older MacBook Pro Firewire 800 port to run the same hard drives. So I guess the adapters are fine.
    So WHY Can't the combination work together to run a powered Firewire 400 drive???
    I am irked as the Apple tech/sales guy who helped me put this computer together told me Apple had the solution when clearly it hasn't been sorted out yet.
    As I said back up there- DANG!!

    Was this useful? Thunderbolt to FW 800 to FW 400 adapter does not support Hasselblad cameras

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Slower than USB 2.0

    • Written by from Baltimore

    35 of 38 people found this useful

    Data transfer speeds were significantly slower using this adaptor compared to USB 2.0 to interface with an external HDD.

    Was this useful? Slower than USB 2.0

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Firewire drives way slower through adapter

    • Written by from Austin

    41 of 42 people found this useful

    It works fine, but if you are currently using a Firewire drive with your non-retina macbook, be aware that using the adapter (required for retina macbook pro) makes the drive much slower, at least for large writes.

    I copied a 32GB file to my WD MyPassport Studio external firewire drive at it took ~30min when copied from a Macbook Retina Pro 15" SSD (via adapter), compared to ~10min when copied from a early-2011 Macbook Pro 15" SSD (which has a much slower internal drive).

    Was this useful? Firewire drives way slower through adapter

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    No Firewire 400 if bus power is needed.

    • Written by from Madison

    33 of 33 people found this useful

    I have an external FireWire 400 drive that does not require a power supply when connected to either a FireWire 400 or 800 port (with 400 to 800 cable). When I try this Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter with a FireWire 800 to 400 cable, it does not work. Apple should either put this in the description, fix the issue or sell a Thunderbolt to FireWire 400 adapter.

    Was this useful? No Firewire 400 if bus power is needed.

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Only works in one way...

    • Written by from Carlsbad

    147 of 398 people found this useful

    I purchased this cable to plug my 1TB Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt portable drive, into the Firewire 800 port on my older 17" MacBook Pro (which has no Thunderbolt ports). It didn't work. I called Buffalo tech support, who told me the drive will not work this way. It has to be plugged directly into a Thunderbolt Port.

    So I give this product 2 stars mainly for the product description, which clearly explains that the cable plus into a Thunderbolt port to give you an FireWire 800 port... but does not explain that the cable WILL NOT connect a Thunderbolt peripheral to a Firewire 800 port. I think it was a logical assumption that it would...

    Was this useful? Only works in one way...

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Having problems with bus powered drives

    • Written by from Lyndhurst

    285 of 315 people found this useful

    I am a video editor. I own many FW800 drives. None of my drives that I use in the field work unless I'm connected to power. This is a major problem for me. When I'm in the field capturing footage and need to offload data to a drive, I have to use my old laptop.

    Was this useful? Having problems with bus powered drives

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    no bus power for Focusrite Saffire Pro 24

    • Written by from Zofingen

    114 of 129 people found this useful

    Finally it's here and it's a great product, however my Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 won't power up on bus power - I have to use the external power supply. 7W should be enough to power the device....

    Was this useful? no bus power for Focusrite Saffire Pro 24

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works great with SL 10.6.8

    • Written by from Brooklyn

    27 of 31 people found this useful

    I was pleasantly surprised that the adapter worked with my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

    Was this useful? Works great with SL 10.6.8

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    MacBook Pro Retina to Firewire 800 Blu Ray Drive

    • Written by from TACOMA

    51 of 55 people found this useful

    Wow... BluRay on MacBook Pro Retina to LaCee BluRay drive w/Toast11...50GB data storage on a DVD sized package. The Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter makes it happen. Now able to back up my 500 GB hard drive to optical media without taking up cases of DVD's. Makes My MacBook Pro even more usefull. Also great for in-house BluRay production on a Mac. Thanks Apple for the Thunderbolt GB Ethernet Adapter and now this Firewire 800 Adapter.

    Was this useful? MacBook Pro Retina to Firewire 800 Blu Ray Drive

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Worked well for powering my external hard drive.

    • Written by from Colorado Springs

    48 of 54 people found this useful

    I plugged it into my Lacie rugged HD (the one with the orange rubber cover), and it worked great. Powered it up and transferred files as it should.

    Was this useful? Worked well for powering my external hard drive.

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works As Advertised

    • Written by from Indianapolis

    28 of 32 people found this useful

    Since purchasing a MacBook Air last summer I have been waiting for the release of one of these. This summer I purchased the new MacBook Pro Retina to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro, so it is helpful to now have FireWire available on both notebooks. USB 3.0 on the new Retina Pro is faster for my external drive (70-90 MB/s) but FireWire is faster than USB 2.0 on my Air (40-50 MB/s compared to 25-30 before), so I will now use that instead. I recommend this product to anyone who still has FireWire devices but wants to use a thinner, more powerful computer.

    Was this useful? Works As Advertised

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    DOES NOT WORK WITH iOmega eGO

    • Written by from EL MONTE

    23 of 24 people found this useful

    Well basically... It doesn't work with iOmega eGO. Lights comes on but no connection. This is probably my 5th review ever in my life so this shows how frustrated I am. I want people to avoid buying a hd in hopes of having this $30+ disappointment free up a usb slot... I opt out from getting a USB 3.0 drive to save up on the limited USB but that plan failed...

    Other people are having the same experience with HD that doesnt have a dedicated power supply.

    Was this useful? DOES NOT WORK WITH iOmega eGO

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Awesome Solution!

    • Written by from Los Angeles

    17 of 18 people found this useful

    I have the 2011 MacBook Pro and even though I have a Firewire 800 port, I needed this adapter so I could connect my media drive and my time machine back up to my MBP at the same time. The transfer rate of the adapter is extremely fast for being a thunderbolt to firewire 800 cable and I am happy I was able to get this. I definitely recommend this to everyone because it is worth every penny!

    Was this useful? Awesome Solution!

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Cheapest option to use MBA in Target Disk Mode

    • Written by from Westpymble

    20 of 20 people found this useful

    This adaptor works as promised. Price is not cheap but reasonable compared to its 50$ or so Thurnderbolt cable. This is the cheapest option to use recent Mac with no FW but Thunderbolt in target disk mode.(assuming you have fire wire cable).

    USB 2.0 vs FW: Previously I used USB 2.0 + MBA set up for photo editing on the go and it was very sluggish. Connecting to same drive via FW800 + Thunderbolt adaptor makes it more workable.(Still some sluggishness for RAW). Some quick transfer speed test showed 1.5-2x faster rate for transferring file. This may be the best adaptor to have for Thunderbolt equipped MBA(with no USB 3) if you want to store a lot of large size file on FW ext hdd and need reasonably quick access.

    One caveat is size and cable thickness. Cable thickness and adaptor size makes it quite a bit rigid and make it difficult to use in tight spaces like airplane etc. It sticks out quite a bit too(as you can imagine from looking at the pics)

    Was this useful? Cheapest option to use MBA in Target Disk Mode

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