Snapmaker A250 won't connect to anything via USB-B

I’ve been trying to calibrate the E-steps on my printer but I haven’t been able to get a reading for the current e-steps.
I’ve tried connecting to it directly but keep getting “The machine is not ready”
and I’ve tried connecting through Octoprint but I get “Offline (Error: No more candidates to test, and no working port/baudrate combination detected.)”

I learned I had to plug my Snapmaker into the computer and then turn the SM on - otherwise it wouldn’t connect for me.

Isn’t the computer connection the mini-USB?