v1.3.0-beta.3 is up

[darrylmorley]

@jimmyorz @aguilaair @cannotcollide @Caruso8677 @Mostxlnt @aldobalducci @themadturk7

Hello all, and sorry for the gap since the last update. I'm still working hard on making WhatCable better, and this build is the biggest single change so far in the 1.3.0 line.

Download: https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable/releases/tag/v1.3.0-beta.3 (grab WhatCable.zip). Your normal Pro key works, nothing changes about licensing.

What's new since beta.2

• Connected devices now shows what is plugged into what. Behind a dock chained off a display, that list used to be one flat pile. On my own setup it was twelve rows, five levels deep, nine of them hubs, with the display and the Ethernet adapter lost in the middle. Now the Thunderbolt chain is the shape of the list, and each device sits inside the thing it is actually plugged into. Same setup, four rows.
• Hubs are hidden by default. They are plumbing, and they are roughly half of every device list. "Show N hubs" brings them back per port, and the CLI still prints everything.
• A device that names itself is no longer listed twice. A dock that reports its own name over USB used to appear as both the dock and a device inside itself.
• Devices are named by their maker where the name alone would not tell two apart. Four identical "USB2.0 Hub" rows are not a device list.
• The mid-session fault banner stopped blaming you. It fired after two connection events, which one ordinary reconnect can produce on its own. It now waits for four and describes what was seen without the accusation.
• Cable Diagnostics stopped stuttering. It was running its own copy of every hardware watcher alongside the app's. One set now, shared.
• Six more cables in the database, and cables reporting a placeholder vendor ID are no longer described as coming from a registered vendor.

What to look at

• The connected devices list, especially on a dock, a display with USB ports, or a daisy chain. Does the tree match what is physically on your desk? Does each device hang off the right thing?
• Show hubs, then hide them again. Nothing should move between the two views. If a device jumps, that is a bug.
• If you have a daisy chain, the second device should appear in that list at all now. It never used to.
• Anything WhatCable cannot work out is left at the top of the chain rather than guessed at. A device in the visibly wrong place is worth an issue.

@cannotcollide and @aldobalducci, your setups are the closest to what this was built against, so your reports are especially useful here.

Known and deliberate: the device count at the bottom of the popover still counts some hubs twice. USB 2.0 and USB 3.x are separate wires, so one hub chip registers with macOS twice, and I would rather leave a duplicate in the count than risk hiding a real device to remove it. Tracked, not forgotten.

Anything that looks off, reply here and I'll spin it into its own beta-labelled issue. Even a plain "looks fine on my [Mac]" is genuinely useful.

Thanks all.

[jimmyorz]

Looks fine on my mac mini M4😉

By the way, it looks like the new .stringsdict entries for Show %lld hubs and via %lld hubs were only added to the English localization. The corresponding entries may have been missed in the other localizations, and the Hide hubs string also appears to be missing.

[darrylmorley]

Hi @jimmyorz, good catch. All three are fixed and translated across all 19 languages, and I've added a check so untranslated strings can't slip through again.

Ships in the next release. Thanks for spotting it.

[cannotcollide]

The ability to hide hubs is fantastic, it makes reviewing how everything's connected so much easier to parse.

I will note, though, that it's weird that the USB receiver, iPad, the unknown device and the texas instruments device are enumerating under the OWC Express 1m2, rather than the dock itself. Furthermore, the Texas instruments device jumps from sitting under the OWC to under the 2.0 hub when hubs are revealed. Please see pictures

[darrylmorley]

Two things here, and only one is a bug.

The jumping is expected. Revealing hubs inserts the levels that were hidden, so anything sitting on a hub gains indentation. My "nothing should move" line was too strong. What can't change is which dock a device belongs to, and the TI device stays inside the OWC subtree in both your screenshots.

The placement looks wrong, though. Those hubs are named "TBT4 Pro USB2.0 Hub (CalDigit, Inc.)", which is the CalDigit's own hub silicon, so I'd expect your receiver, iPad, Unknown and the TI device to be on the CalDigit rather than the OWC. Your second screenshot supports that: the USB3 branch is also CalDigit hubs and sits under the dock correctly. Same dock's hubs, two different owners.

Does the OWC Express 1M2 have USB ports on it at all? If not, that settles it.

Either way, could you run the test kit? Settings > Contribute Diagnostic Data > Proceed. It captures the USB tree and the Thunderbolt fabric, which is what this logic reads, so I can replay your setup instead of reconstructing it from screenshots.

Yours is the most complex chain anyone has reported, which is presumably why it found this. Thanks.

[cannotcollide]

The OWC Express 1M2 doesn't have any USB ports other than the USB4 upstream port to connect to the Dock. It is purely a USB4 NVMe enclosure. Here are pictures of my Mac's Thunderbolt and USB trees when the OWC is connected directly to the Mac and with nothing else connected.


As you can see, there's nothing enumerating under the USB tree when the OWC is directly connected.

With everything reconnected, I just ran the test kit. I'll now update to beta 4 and we'll move from there!

[themadturk7]

Everything looks fine on my M3 MBA.

…

On Jul 30, 2026, at 6:57 AM, Darryl Morley ***@***.***> wrote: @jimmyorz <https://github.com/jimmyorz> @aguilaair <https://github.com/aguilaair> @cannotcollide <https://github.com/cannotcollide> @Caruso8677 <https://github.com/Caruso8677> @Mostxlnt <https://github.com/Mostxlnt> @aldobalducci <https://github.com/aldobalducci> @themadturk7 <https://github.com/themadturk7> Hello all, and sorry for the gap since the last update. I'm still working hard on making WhatCable better, and this build is the biggest single change so far in the 1.3.0 line. Download: https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable/releases/tag/v1.3.0-beta.3 (grab WhatCable.zip). Your normal Pro key works, nothing changes about licensing. What's new since beta.2 Connected devices now shows what is plugged into what. Behind a dock chained off a display, that list used to be one flat pile. On my own setup it was twelve rows, five levels deep, nine of them hubs, with the display and the Ethernet adapter lost in the middle. Now the Thunderbolt chain is the shape of the list, and each device sits inside the thing it is actually plugged into. Same setup, four rows. Hubs are hidden by default. They are plumbing, and they are roughly half of every device list. "Show N hubs" brings them back per port, and the CLI still prints everything. A device that names itself is no longer listed twice. A dock that reports its own name over USB used to appear as both the dock and a device inside itself. Devices are named by their maker where the name alone would not tell two apart. Four identical "USB2.0 Hub" rows are not a device list. The mid-session fault banner stopped blaming you. It fired after two connection events, which one ordinary reconnect can produce on its own. It now waits for four and describes what was seen without the accusation. Cable Diagnostics stopped stuttering. It was running its own copy of every hardware watcher alongside the app's. One set now, shared. Six more cables in the database, and cables reporting a placeholder vendor ID are no longer described as coming from a registered vendor. What to look at The connected devices list, especially on a dock, a display with USB ports, or a daisy chain. Does the tree match what is physically on your desk? Does each device hang off the right thing? Show hubs, then hide them again. Nothing should move between the two views. If a device jumps, that is a bug. If you have a daisy chain, the second device should appear in that list at all now. It never used to. Anything WhatCable cannot work out is left at the top of the chain rather than guessed at. A device in the visibly wrong place is worth an issue. @cannotcollide <https://github.com/cannotcollide> and @aldobalducci <https://github.com/aldobalducci>, your setups are the closest to what this was built against, so your reports are especially useful here. Known and deliberate: the device count at the bottom of the popover still counts some hubs twice. USB 2.0 and USB 3.x are separate wires, so one hub chip registers with macOS twice, and I would rather leave a duplicate in the count than risk hiding a real device to remove it. Tracked, not forgotten. Anything that looks off, reply here and I'll spin it into its own beta-labelled issue. Even a plain "looks fine on my [Mac]" is genuinely useful. Thanks all. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#489?email_source=notifications&email_token=BVZARADQRORH5Z6U2LNSB6T5HNH4TA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDKMRUG42DPJTSMVQXG33OU5WWK3TUNFXW5JLFOZSW45FMMZXW65DFOJPWG3DJMNVQ>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BVZARACCM6A6KAJ2UPDFG7D5HNH4TAVCNFSNUABJKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTEMRWGI4DMOJRGA5UI2LTMN2XG43JN5XDWMJQGUZDINZUG6QXMAQ>. Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/BVZARACLFSUPR5CDG5ADYOD5HNH4TA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDKMRUG42DPJTSMVQXG33OU5WWK3TUNFXW5JLFOZSW45FKMZXW65DFOJPWS33T> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/BVZARABUP4SDPLB57B5VVJT5HNH4TA5CNFSNUABBM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63RPGEYDKMRUG42DPJTSMVQXG33OU5WWK3TUNFXW5JLFOZSW45FOMZXW65DFOJPWC3TEOJXWSZA>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you were mentioned.

[aguilaair]

Looks great!