2017 MBP and Thunderbolt Display: No ethernet connectivity

[doalwa]

Hello beautiful people,

I've recently swapped out my aging early 2013 rMBP for a brand-new 2017 15 inch MacBook Pro.

I have a Thunderbolt Display at home which I plan on using with my my new machine.

Ordered the overpriced Thunderbolt3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and the display is working as expected.

Graphics, USB, sound...everything works as it should.

Apart from ethernet. The Thunderbolt-Ethernet bridge device in network settings just states that no network is connected.

I tried removing the device and adding it back, but that doesn't change anything.

Is this intentional? Or am I doing something wrong here?

I'm running OSX 10.13.5 on my new machine.

Thanks in advance,

Dominik

 

[treekram]

What adapter are you using? To me it looks like the Belkin adapter they sell at the Apple Store and a lot of the other adapters I see on Amazon here in the US are using USB 3.1 and not Thunderbolt. So it won't show up as a Thunderbolt-Ethernet bridge device. If you run the System Information app, click on Thunderbolt and see if it shows up there. If it doesn't, click on USB and see if it shows up there. I don't know how the USB-C (USB 3.1) to Ethernet adapter would work, but if it is USB and not Thunderbolt, that may help finding a solution.

I don't know if using USB 3.1 to deliver the IP packets is inferior to Thunderbolt or not - that's something that should be looked at.

 

[doalwa]

Hi treekram,

thanks for answering!

I'm actually using the official Apple-branded adapter. Bought it directly from the Apple store.

I just checked System information, and the Thunderbolt display is shown under both the Thunderbolt and USB sections.

But it's working now: I simply plugged the Thunderbolt adapter into the uppermost left Thunderbolt port of my MBP and suddenly I have ethernet connectivity.
As soon as I plug it into any of the other ports everything works apart from ethernet.

This strikes me as quite strange...I though all four Type-C ports on the 15 inch MBP were 100% Thunderbolt 3...seems like there is something different with this single port?

Anyway, its working now, thank you again!

 

[treekram]

Hi treekram,

thanks for answering!

I'm actually using the official Apple-branded adapter. Bought it directly from the Apple store.

I just checked System information, and the Thunderbolt display is shown under both the Thunderbolt and USB sections.

But it's working now: I simply plugged the Thunderbolt adapter into the uppermost left Thunderbolt port of my MBP and suddenly I have ethernet connectivity.
As soon as I plug it into any of the other ports everything works apart from ethernet.

This strikes me as quite strange...I though all four Type-C ports on the 15 inch MBP were 100% Thunderbolt 3...seems like there is something different with this single port?

Anyway, its working now, thank you again!

Glad it's working for you! In the Apple US Store (online), I only see the "Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter" (and the older Apple Thunderbolt 1/2 adapter). The Belkin adapter looks like what an Apple adapter would look like but if it is an Apple adapter, I wonder whey they wouldn't be selling it in the US. Or, perhaps they're not disclosing that it's a Belkin adapter in Europe.