WhatCable

About

WhatCable is a small macOS menu bar app that tells you, in plain English, what each USB-C cable plugged into your Mac can actually do, and why your Mac might be charging slowly. USB-C hides everything from a charge-only USB 2.0 cable to a 240 W, 80 Gbps cable behind the same connector. WhatCable is for anyone with a drawer of identical-looking cables, and for engineers and IT staff who need to diagnose docks, displays and chargers. macOS already exposes cable and power data through IOKit, and WhatCable turns those readings into clear answers instead of raw numbers. It reads the port, cable, charger, adapter and connected device together, checks them against USB Power Delivery rules and is careful never to claim more than it can know. It was created by Darryl Morley under his Bitmoor label, became a hit on GitHub with thousands of stars, and has been covered by The Verge, ZDNet, 9to5Mac and MakeUseOf. Users can also contribute observations to a public database of how real cables identify themselves. Highlights: • Charging diagnosis that shows whether the cable, charger or Mac is the bottleneck • Cable e-marker details: speed, current rating and chip vendor • Data-speed and display diagnostics that explain what limits the link • Mid-session fault warnings for overcurrent and dropped connections • Charger power profiles with the negotiated profile highlighted live • Thunderbolt and USB4 fabric view with lanes, generation and tunnels • Desktop widgets, a command-line tool with JSON output, and 19 languages • Pro adds a power monitor, deeper port diagnostics, cable history and a terminal dashboard WhatCable is free, and its source code is MIT-licensed except for a proprietary Pro module. WhatCable Pro is a one-time £9.99 for up to two Macs, with no subscription and a 14-day refund window. It requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple Silicon.

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