[acchow]

On Mac, You can establish a thunderbolt-bridge network connection and then share files.

But it's not automatic. You gotta do it manually https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-conn....

I would have expected airdrop to automatically switch to thunderbolt if such a connection exists, but it doesn't.

[jasomill]

Unless something has changed in recent macOS versions, by default:

1. Thunderbolt Bridge exists and is enabled.

2. All active (enabled, connected) interfaces get link-local IPv6 addresses.

3. All active interfaces without static or DHCP-assigned IPv4 addresses get link-local IPv4 addresses.

3. Multicast DNS (Bonjour) is enabled.

So basic networking should be automatic, though no file sharing services are enabled by default.

[acchow]

That's great! I wonder when they will automatically switch Airdrop over to thunderbolt when one is available.

[zbrozek]

I'd like to do this with actual universal serial bus (USB), not peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) on a universal serial bus connector.