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I currently have the following configuration at home.

  1. home computer, macmini, with two thunderbolts, each connected to an external monitor, and a USB2 connected to a usb2 hub for keyboard and mouse.
  2. work computer, mac laptop, again with two thunderbolts connected to external monitors (the same) and a usb-c to usb2 connected to mouse and keyboard hub.

Note that I am reasonably certain that each monitor needs a different thunderbolt port to handle the monitors. I don't think I can drive both screen from a single port.

When I want to work, I unplug the two usb-c and the usb2 from the macmini, and plug them in the laptop. As you can imagine this is very annoying and I would like to have a better solution so that I don't have to mechanically change the cabling. I was looking for a KVM solution that would support USB-C, but both hubs and KVM in the USB-C domain seem to be very lacking, which makes me think that controllers are not there yet. Is there a possible solution to optimise my workflow? Is it even possible today?

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  • KVM in the desktop space are generally pretty niche, and have a lot to conform to in terms of technical capabilities, so they are generally a little slow to improve compared to PC hardware. I'd be looking for solutions in software, though I am not sure what the options are for mac. Jul 18, 2020 at 19:56
  • USB C is so many different things, HDMI, power cable, USB3.1 this make building a host switcher problematic.
    – Jasen
    Jul 18, 2020 at 21:32

3 Answers 3

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Is a USB-C hub/KVM possible?

Absolutely. Since USB-C supports keyboards, mice, and video signals, as well as audio, there is no technological reason this cannot be done.

KVMs arent as popular as they used to be. In the enterprise, KVMs were common in server rooms and data centers. They have been slowly phased out, as manufacturers starting integrating integrated lights out (ILO) remote management into their servers. Essentially, this was another computer integrated into the computer that gave administrator the functionality of a KVM and far more. As for consumer level KVMs, they have never been particularly common. Various remote access software, such as VNC, RDP, Synergy, etc is far more common. I think once USB-C has become the de facto standard, then KVM manufacturers might make a pure USB-C KVM.

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  • So you are telling me that currently the only option I have is to switch cables. Jul 20, 2020 at 15:42
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Yes - I use the Sabrent KVM, and am very happy with it.

It handles a single HDMI monitor, and so doesn't quite handle your situation. The way it works is you have USB-C from each computer. That handles the data and video connection to the computer. You then have HDMI out from the KVM to the screen. You also have 2 USB 3 (USB-A) connectors. I have then connected a USB 3.0 HUB (all USB-A) as a breakout for the connecting devices.

There is a button that you can press that switches between the two. In my case I have 2 Macbooks either side of a monitor, and switch between those.
If you have two monitors, then you might need to get two KVMs, or if the monitors support daisy chaining see if that works.

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This is an old post, but it came up in my search today. I've just picked up a VisionTek VT4950 to try and solve this problem.

There were also some interesting solutions (though not many USB-c based ones), over at LevelOneTech

A bit exxy, but hoping for a solid fix.

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  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review
    – Toto
    Nov 28, 2023 at 9:01

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