USB problem/Thunderbolt on Mac mini M4

BerkeleyBernie wrote:

I think it is a physical hardware problem in my case— the rear ports do not provide a secure fit. Slight movement of a cable is enough to disconnect an external drive. In my case, I have a powered OWC 11-Port Thunderbolt Dock (with 2 drives attached) connected to a rear port. I've now tried 2 thunderbolt cables to connect the dock to the rear ports on the M4 Mac Mini and I've tried 2 of the 3 ports.* Both cables and both ports have disconnected with a slight movement of the cables (at the Mac Mini end of the cable). Both cables are new that came with products (i.e. external drive enclosures).

It shouldn't be necessary to use something like this. I haven't found it necessary on my Mac, and have no idea how well this gadget works – but in case the link is helpful:

Other World Computing – OWC ClingOn USB Type-C Connector Securing Device

I have the exact same issue on both my M4 Mac Minis. I am using an older wired Apple-branded Mac keyboard (with the numeric keypad), and a USB-C to USB-A dongle or cable always works in the front ports but not on the back ports.

I don't think it's the dongle; I think it's the keyboard. I connected a Logitech mouse using the same dongle to a port on the back, and it works 100% of the time...

Hmmm....

I can't wait for the Satechi M4 mini hub too!!!

Not made by Apple, clearly. Try this one: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC9C4AM/A/thunderbolt-5-usb%E2%80%91c-pro-cable-1-m

You're welcome.

To put it simply, the Thunderbolt ports on the Mac are a combination of high-speed data connection and power delivery, and it also carries compatibility with USB protocols. You can therefore use it to connect simple, less expensive USB devices to your Mac and the more expensive Thunderbolt specified storage, monitors, hubs and other devices. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were. That's why in descriptions, the ports are often labeled as Thunderbolt/USB. I agree that marketing could be better.

The rear-panel USB-C ports on the M4 Mac mini are multi-purpose ports that support

• Traditional USB (I'm guessing at up to 10 Gb/s)
• USB4 (up to 40 Gb/s)
• DisplayPort
• Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40 Gb/s)
• [M4 Pro chip models only] Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120 Gb/s)

They adapt to whatever is plugged into them.

The front-panel USB-C ports on the M4 Mac mini are single-purpose ports that support

• Traditional USB (up to 10 Gb/s)

You can think of the USB-C connector as being like the concept of a "Swiss Army knife", and the things that live on it as being like the "blades". Some Swiss Army knives have more blades than others; and some USB-C ports offer support for more types of things than others.

All of the USB-C ports on a M4 Mac Mini or M4 Pro Mac mini - front or back - should support USB 3 devices.

The rear-panel USB-C ports are the only ones that also support USB4, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt. So normally the issue would be that you tried to plug something into a front-panel port that needs a protocol only available in the back. (Like a display or display adapter; or a hub that has both HDMI and USB-A ports.)

My cable is 12" long and works perfectly fine in the front but not the rear ports. It's an Apple production issue if everyone on here is having the same issue with the rear ports. I'm sure we're all using different cables and different devices but experiencing the same problem with the same ports, and we all are fine when we use the front ports

Ich habe gerade sehr lange mit dem Apple Support gesprochen!

Mein Problem: Die Logitech Maus MX 3S ruckelt und stottert was das Zeug hält wenn ich es an den hinteren Anschlüssen verwenden möchte. Vorn sind die 2 USB C bereits komplett belegt mit USB Hubs für meine Festplatten. Den Dongel der Maus in die Hubs geht auch nicht, ruckelt ähnlich stark. Einzig direkt an einen der vorderen Buchsen scheint zu funktionieren. Das habe ich allerdings noch nicht ausgiebig getestet.

Der Support verweist auf Apple Peripher Geräte und ist selbst ratlos. Meine Anmerkung, das es ja keine Apple Hubs für TB (hintere Anschlüsse) gibt, macht auch keinen Unterschied in der Beratung/Auskunft.

Alles in allem sehr traurig was da Apple auf den Markt gebracht hat.

(All dies, mehr als 7 externe Festplatten, Logitech Maus, Drucker, Scanner etc haben mit dem M1 einwandfrei funktioniert)

:-(

Ich hoffe jemand von Apple liest das hier mit!

I'm surprised this thread has seen no posts since early February. I have a Mac mini M4 w/512GB drive and it is basically a brick due to this problem. I've had to completely remove my external USB drives, USB wired or USB wireless (Logitech) keyboards and USB label accessories since they all fail within 30 minutes or so. This is true with the front or back ports. I'm currently only running with a Thunderbolt drive plugged into the back and have to use a small bluetooth Apple keyboard which I don't like. I've reported this to Apple a week ago and they acted surprised and claimed they hadn't heard of the issue. They want me to take it to the Apple Store and I will but not looking forward to hauling all this equipment into the store to set up and wait 30+ minutes for it to act up knowing I'll be leaving there with no remedy to the situation other than possibly a replacement Mac mini that most assuredly will have the same issue. Aargh!

I have similar issues. Keyboards and mice plugged into the back Thunderbolt ports on my M4 mini will randomly stop working, requiring a physical disconnect and re-connect. These are native USB-C connector devices; I'm not using USB-A to USB-C converters.

Looks like these back ports are becoming a fairly well known issue, based on just a few minutes' web searching.

Hopefully fixable by a firmware or OS update!

The same on my side: external hdd worked fine since yesterday. I also tried to swap cables and connectors without luck. it only works with pendrive, so I think it can depends on power supplied either front rather than back. I also heard some strange electrical noise when putting on/off cables on front usb. I booked an appointment at Apple Store let's see what will happen.

Update -- I had disabled sleep on my M4 Mac mini, and that seems to have reduced the incidence of the KB/mouse becoming disconnected. However, it still happened a few weeks later. So I decided to punt and just go back to using my wireless Magic Keyboard and a new Logitech bluetooth mouse. I may get a wireless version of that wired Keychron mechanical keyboard at some point.

Sounds like the problem is how well USB-C sockets hold plugged-in cables, in general – rather than anything to do with Thunderbolt. I believe in this regards, the Lightning connector was a bit better than USB-C – even though the Lightning connector is not nearly as capable as USB-C.

I have a related problem. I just migrated to the Mini M4 from a 2015 iMac, and my backup protocol involves old HDD/SSD disk enclosures with USB connectors.

These work fine when plugged into the front USB-C ports (with adapters where required).

The same disks fail to mount when plugged into the rear T-4 ports.

Am I doing something wrong, or just not understanding the interoperability?

Thanks, Servant of Cats.

Alas, I have just one Thunderbolt-compatible peripheral – the case for my external SSD (which does the heavy lifting alongside the 256GB internal). Also, my problem is the reverse of what you have mentioned. The drives are working fine in the front (USB-only) panel ports, but not in the rear (USB++) ports.