My Samsung external SSDs came with a USB-C to USB-A cable and a USB-C to USB-C cable so that computers with either port type could be used. I always leave the C to A one in the drive and just put a four inch A to C adapter (by Anker) on the dangly end depending on the machine I'm connecting to (rather than always switching the whole cable at the SSD's C orifice). Never had any problems and had good speed. But just now, I could not get these SSDs to work properly with the new M1 Macbook Pro with Monterrey. These drives are the ones with the fingerprint decrypting. Some Internet comment reported solving this by making sure you use the original Samsung cable. So, the four inch adapter was my problem. Just using the C to C cable resolved the matter. Some people are saying the problem only started with Monterrey. I'm just a bit surprised.

Never lose the cables that come with your drives and rely on ones begged, stolen or borrowed from elsewhere.