I don't believe that is true based on when I researched this cable. I will double check.
Here is the description on the Amazon page I bought it from:
Description
This USB 3.0 dual charge cable is made for connection and additional power supply of your USB 3.0 devices. Thus you can connect e.g. external 2.5 or 3.5 HDD enclosure or other USB 3.0 external hard drives etc. With the USB3.0 adapter extension code connecting to your notebook or PC without additional power supply .
The USB3.0 cable extensiion offers a convenient connection to hard-drive enclosures, printers, modems, cameras, and other USB-compatible devices.USB 3.0 standard support data transfer speed up to 5Gbps, 10x faster than USB 2.0 cable.
Yes, as I said:
- The cable plugs into your computer's USB3 host-A port
- It takes that USB feed and splits it into:
A. A USB3 data and bus-powered feed, and
B. A USB3 bus-powered feed
In other words, everything is flowing from the single-ended side to the double-ended side. That cord does not allow power to be injected into anything, it merely splits the power coming from a computer's USB hub.
No you are wrong. The single ended side is a female USB connector, so it can't connect to the PC's female USB port. Read the description more closely and go to the product web page.
Otherwise we will agree to disagree, but thanks for your assistance, it's much appreciated.
Well, without knowing what product you're talking about, everything is guess work. The only link you posted was to the external drive you are using. In reference to this Y-cable you've purchased, all you've posted is a picture. And from the posted description with the picture, it is not going to serve the purpose you are hoping for.
If you have additional information, then please post. But otherwise, without concrete details everything is guess work. We can't magically know your exact situation unless you provide the details.
Sorry thought I posted a link for this too. Did you see the description from the page that I posted a few posts up though, or did that not go through? That explains what this product is intended for and specifically mentions USB 3.0 external HDDs.
Yes, now I see the product page, and it describes the exact scenario I am: it is to split a single connection from your computer, and use that single connection to offer both a regular (power+data) connection to one device, and a secondary (power only) connection to a different device. In short, it shares your computer's—or in your case, your Shield's—bus power to 2 separate devices, one with data access to the host (your Shield) and one as just a dumb consumer (ie, a phone).
The device you purchased will actually reduce the power provided on the USB bus, not increase/supplement it.
But as I said, this can’t be the case because the single ended part of the Y is a female connection, as is the PC’s (in this case the Shield’s) USB port is also a female port connector. Please explain how this would work then?
Plus the other connectors are males and should be females to accomplish what you’re saying.
I'm just relaying what is implied by the description. There is nothing in that description that indicates it pulls in external power and merges it.
Also, there are many male-male and female-female USB-A adapters.
For your sake, it'd be nice if I were proven wrong.
So they design a cable for a certain purpose, but then purposely make you buy 3 gender bender adapters to accomplish what the cable itself is “supposedly” already designed to do in your eyes? 
I think your need to be correct is clouding your judgement here and not allowing yourself to understand fully what is being conveyed by this product’s description and what it’s intended purpose is.
Let’s just agree to disagree and move on, but thanks for trying to help. It really is sincerely appreciated.
Years ago I had some external USB drives that came like this.. two usb connections daisy-chained, to allow it to draw more power than it could normally get from a single port. They were refurbished and cheap, and they didn’t work very well. But that may not have had anything to do with the double connections. The cable is pretty cheap, so you’ll only be out a little bit if it doesn’t help. Worth a try if you can afford it.
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I have a DVD CD Writer that uses that type of Plug and it works great will not work if plugged only to 1 USB port so I believe that type of cable will help as long as you have 2 usb ports free.
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I have a DVD CD Writer that uses that type of Plug and it works great will not work if plugged only to 1 USB port so I believe that type of cable will help as long as you have 2 usb ports free.
Years ago I had some external USB drives that came like this.. two usb connections daisy-chained, to allow it to draw more power than it could normally get from a single port. They were refurbished and cheap, and they didn’t work very well. But that may not have had anything to do with the double connections. The cable is pretty cheap, so you’ll only be out a little bit if it doesn’t help. Worth a try if you can afford it.
Yes I’ve had devices use this type of double USB connection before as well.
I already have it and it’s already connected from the Shied to the external HDD. It has seemed to be more steady for a longer period of time since my daughter was able to install it for me. If it made it draw half the power as was stated, then I would’ve had more and worse issues I’d imagine.
I’m going to have her put a power block on the power side of the Y cable. If that doesn’t solve everything I’m going to swap in a new powered hub or just go with a new HDD with external power.
I hope this cable works for you in the manner expected; I would happily like to be proven wrong. If so, please post a link to this thread—and the post referencing this cable—to the Shield forum/thread. I feel a consistent power supply to external drives on this hardware would alleviate many complaints in this forum.
I've been using an external, USB3.0, bus-powered 1TB Seagate HDD connected to my Mac Mini with Channels DVR for a solid year with only 1 issue.... For the first couple of months I noticed that after about 3 weeks of uptime, the drive had a tendency to disconnect for no apparent reason. So I added a scheduled task to the Mac to automatically reboot once a week. Ever since, I've never had a problem with the HDD.
Yeah I am not sure there is a way to schedule that on a Shield, but if anyone knows please post here. I have a Smart WiFi AC Plug that I am configuring to send there so it can be installed on the Shield. This way I can remotely reboot it anytime I need to. It has a schedule feature, so I think I will set it to reboot at least once a week, maybe more, sometime in the middle of the night.
So far what I have done has kept it quite stable all week and I FINALLY got through a Thursday night of multiple recordings without it crashing on me, not allowing me to log in without having my daughter do a reboot manually. I think the combination of giving it more stable power with the Y cable, removing all the apps that weren't needed anymore (anything I could that allowed me to remove it and wasn't Channels DVR) as well as installing the latest Shield software update. I will keep my fingers crossed! At least I know I am on the right track with all the awesome help here from members and Devs, so thank you all!!!
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You may want to hold off on that particular avenue: the SD forums have noted problems with WiFi AC plugs causing problems. (The posts were specifically about Belkin Wemo plugs, but others may cause problems, too.) I believe the main issue was about the plug causing interference with too much network/wifi traffic, but I'd recommend checking with them about other known issues/brands.
Awesome tip, thanks! I will check into that. Of course it's always something, isn't it? 
If whatever brand smart plug you ordered does cause issues as noted above, you could try a tp-link kasa smart plug (HS105). I've had my shield dvr server plugged into one for awhile now (to remotely reboot, if ever needed), and it is very close to two Quatros and a Prime. Luckily i haven't experienced any interference issues as far as I'm aware, so just throwing that out there.
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I actually have the TP-Link HS100. Hopefully it works without issue as your HS105 does.
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