Cable Detective
Decode USB-C & charging ports
Only for Mac
Free
Mac
Cable Detective tells you exactly what each USB-C, Thunderbolt, and MagSafe port is doing on your Apple Silicon Mac, right now.
USB-C ports look identical. They behave wildly differently. Plug something in. Cable Detective decodes the live state for that port:
- Power direction and wattage. Who is charging whom and at what negotiated USB-PD contract. The charger's full advertised PDO menu, the selected PDO, and the rated maximum.
- Cable identity. SOP / SOP' / SOP" e-marker reads. Vendor and product IDs decoded against the USB-IF database. No invented specs when the cable does not answer.
- Data speed. USB 2.0, USB 3.x SuperSpeed, USB4, Thunderbolt. The lane state, not the marketing on the box.
- DisplayPort lane state. How many lanes, at what link rate (RBR, HBR, HBR2, HBR3, UHBR), whether the alt mode is actually active, and how many display sinks the controller sees.
- Connected devices. The accessories behind a hub or dock, identified by their USB host descriptor and physical port path.
- Plain-English explanation. An optional Apple Intelligence layer summarises the report. On-device only. Off by default.
Cable Detective has zero network. There is no server. No account. No telemetry. No analytics SDK. No crash reporting. The optional AI explanations run on Apple's on-device Foundation Models, on your Mac. The optional "Did we get something not quite right?" button at the bottom of every report copies a redacted version to your clipboard and opens your browser - the app itself never makes a network request. If we wanted to phone home we would have to ship a new build with new entitlements. We do not.
Apple Silicon (M-series) Mac running macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later. Apple Intelligence is optional and can be enabled or disabled at any time.
Free, for starters. No subscription. No account. No in-app purchase. Family Sharing supported.
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Version 1.8.0:
- Stability fix for Macs that hiccupped when plugging or unplugging a cable: Cable Detective no longer reads a port controller while macOS is still handling the plug event, and a burst of plug events now results in a single read once the port has settled. If you saw a power error or a freeze on connect or disconnect, please try this build.
- New: report a bug straight from Settings and About. It builds a redacted report covering every port on your Mac plus your Mac model and macOS build, and you review everything in your browser before anything is sent.
- Reports only claim what the port actually reported: no DisplayPort "active" when the link is idle, no device called a hub when it is a phone or a drive, no cable details on an empty port, and no speed warning for a plain USB 2 cable that is working as built.
- Apple Intelligence panels are now fact-checked against the port's own readings: any wattage, speed, voltage, or lane count the port did not report is rejected and the explanation is regenerated.
- Ports are always listed in the same order, counts read as English, and the About tab shows the real version.
- On-device only: Cable Detective still makes no network requests.
The developer, Franz Enzenhofer, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Franz Enzenhofer
- Size
- 4.3 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 Franz Enzenhofer / fullstackoptimization.com
