The USB Type-A are called “standard”, which almost all devices used today, albeit with the USB-C reversible things are changing. However, sometimes it is difficult to get it right to connect them the first time, so we are going to give you some tricks so that you always get it right the first time when connecting your USB .
It seems absurd, but keep in mind that the USB Type-C connector (reversible USB-C) was actually made this way so that it did not matter in which way it was connected , unlike USB Type-A, which can only fit into a sense. In fact, there are even memes and “sayings” in computer jargon that say that the USB should be connected three times: the first does not go in, you turn it around, the second does not go in, you turn it around again, and the third time you can already connect the USB correctly (the grace is that in the third the connector is in the same direction as in the first).
To contradict the meme, we are going to teach you some tricks so that you always get it right the first time when connecting your USB devices with the Type-A connector.
How to always connect USBs the first time
The USB Type-A connectors are rectangular, so they could be connected either way or the other. However, this is not the case, since internally they have a hollow half, and in the other half there is a plastic piece on which their connectors are located. This is a male Type-A connector, the one carried by devices such as mice, keyboards, or USB pen drives.
And these are the female connectors, the ones that, for example, carry the motherboards on the back of the PC, or those that have the PC boxes on the front. They are exactly the same as the male connectors but in reverse, since they also have a half with a piece of plastic with the connectors that, precisely, will make contact with the male connectors.
Knowing this, the trick is as follows: when the female USB connector is horizontal, that is, with the widest part parallel to the ground, we must connect the male USB with the area of the plastic piece facing down and the area hollow up.
If, on the other hand, the USB connector is vertical, as is the case in the vast majority of PC cases, then the way to get it right the first time is by placing the area with the plastic on the left. In other words, if we are holding the male connector with the right hand, the thumb will be on the connector area with the plastic piece .
Of course, if the female connector of the motherboard is behind the box and the front of it is facing us (so we will have to connect blindly), we will have to take the connector the other way around since it will be rotated with respect to our position. If it were on the front, you have to do it as we have explained in the previous paragraph.
This is the “science” when it comes to always getting it right the first time when we want to connect a USB. Anyway, do not despair, since we already told you at the beginning that if you do not manage to connect it to the first, you will achieve it to the third.
There is another less elegant way to know how to connect a USB-A to the first one, and that is that in the area where the male contacts are, there is also the plating of the connector itself, where it is seen how it is divided by a vertical strip.
This is always the same in all connectors and saves us from having to look inside the USB-A and never fail.
