2018 Mac mini has ethernet port issue.

[philipma1957]

My year and 6 month old Mac mini has an ethernet port issue. It dies and sometimes comes back to life. Sometimes it does not.

I am running via wifi to get around it.

I am considering get a thunderbolt hub from caldigit

CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock - 87W Charging, 7X USB 3.1 Ports, USB-C Gen 2, DisplayPort, UHS-II SD Card Slot, Gigabit Ethernet for Mac & PC, Thunderbolt 4 Compatible (0.8m/2.62ft Cable)

CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock - 87W Charging, 7X USB 3.1 Ports, USB-C Gen 2, DisplayPort, UHS-II SD Card Slot, Gigabit Ethernet for Mac & PC, Thunderbolt 4 Compatible (0.8m/2.62ft Cable)

www.amazon.com

So does any one have problems with the ethernet jack on their 2018 mini.

I did standard trouble shooting.
Not an eth cable issue.
Not an eth jack on my router issue
Not an eth jack on my switch issue

All cables 3 tested work on my 2014 mini
All jacks 4 tested work on my 2014 mini
And the eth switch works on my 2014 mini

The eth comes up for 5-10 seconds on the 2018 and drops out.

Suggestions on a fix.
I pretty much was looking for a reason to buy the thunderbolt hub from cal digit. But I would not mind having a fix to the eth port.

 

[harriska2]

Mine is on ethernet. No problems for over 2 years. That said, I'm not on gigabit ethernet.

 

[jeyf]

inspect the ethernet port for lint dust
small bugs crawling out form the macOS software

 

[philipma1957]

Grabbed the calDigit thunderbolt 3 hub all is well.

 

[McCarron]

I have been having problems for a month or two, doesn't drop out just gives odd "SSL Errors" when downloading files or System Updates. Replying here incase others find this in searching with similar issues.

After a lot of troubleshooting now running off a USB-C Ethernet port just fine, WiFi worked too but this is faster.

Very odd. I am not going to look into a repair as I'm sure a newer Silicon Mac Mini Pro is on the way that I'd want to upgrade to.

 

[Honza1]

Mine does not have any issues, but it is only few months old. There are generic ethernet to USB (A or C) dongles which I used when I needed ethernet for Air. They seemed to work fine and were not expensive.

 

[Steviewest]

A 2018 Mac Mini at my work (running Catalina) is having ethernet issues. Sometimes it locks up the ethernet port on the router so that port stops working, plugging into a different port or rebooting the roouter gets it working.
This only happens when the Mac is first powered on after being off overnight. Seems like the autonegotiation is failing and somehow causing the router's port to go offline. Have swapped router and used different cables, but this intermittent problem persists.
I'll have a look at detailed logs when I get a chance to try and pin it down further.

 

[Steviewest]

I had a look at the System Report: our 2018 Mac Mini reports having the Aquantia AQC107-AFW ethernet controller. This is the optional 10Gigabit ethernet controller rather than the standard Broadcom BCM57766 Gigabit ethernet controller. I'm surprised at this, as when we bought this Mac Mini secondhand, I assumed it just had Gigabit ethernet.
I see from this Apple support thread that somebody else had the same problem with the 10Gb ethernet connecting to a 1Gb ethernet switch/router in 2019:

MacMini 10G Port Lockups - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I'm hoping that when I upgrade it to Big Sur or Monterey, the Aquantia driver will get upgraded from the Catalina version 1.0.64 and that might address the problem.

 

[Boyd01]

My 2018 Mini (purchased from the Apple Refurb Store two years ago) also has the Aquantia AQC107-AFW (version 1.0.64 was pre-installed). I didn't want 10gb ethernet, but the Mini had all the other specs I wanted and I had been watching the refurb store for a month, so I went for it.

Has been working fine on my gigabit LAN ever since I got it. However, there has been at least one other thread here about a similar ethernet problem on the 2018 Mini.

Lost Ethernet port - 2018 Mac Mini

I have the 10GbE port on my 2018 Mac Mini. Yesterday I upgraded to a major new release on my NAS and it required me to rework my Mac's network shares. During a reboot on the Mac, I noticed the port on my switch flashing red. Yup, "no cable attached" warning in network settings. So far...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[pshufd]

Our 2018 mini is five years old and has not had any problems with Ethernet.

One thing that I've found, though, is that the plastic tab holding the cable in often break or lose the ability to bend all the way back so that the cable doesn't stay in. I have this problem with the cable on my 2020 mini right now. Whenever I touch the mini, the cable pulls out. Unfortunately it's a long cable and runs behind a bunch of things so it's on my list of things to do but I don't think that I have any spare long cables with the tab intact.

 

[Honza1]

Our 2018 mini is five years old and has not had any problems with Ethernet.

One thing that I've found, though, is that the plastic tab holding the cable in often break or lose the ability to bend all the way back so that the cable doesn't stay in. I have this problem with the cable on my 2020 mini right now. Whenever I touch the mini, the cable pulls out. Unfortunately it's a long cable and runs behind a bunch of things so it's on my list of things to do but I don't think that I have any spare long cables with the tab intact.

These little tabs are annoyingly fragile, but they can also be easily and cheaply replaced - in few seconds. Check Amazon or other retailer for "RJ-45 Easy Plug Repair for Cat5e & Cat6". I bought box few years ago and fixed few cables which would be real pain to replace.

 

[jrlcopy]

My 2018 Mac Mini 10Gbe Ethernet port just died, legit woke up, checked the email, jumped in the shower, came back and it had died.

Tried updating, restarting, resetting NVRAM/PRAM/SMC.

Different ports on the switch, different cables, tested the same run to my laptop, all worked, but the Mini's port is busted.

Damn, disappointing.

 

[Honza1]

My 2018 Mac Mini 10Gbe Ethernet port just died, legit woke up, checked the email, jumped in the shower, came back and it had died.

Tried updating, restarting, resetting NVRAM/PRAM/SMC.

Different ports on the switch, different cables, tested the same run to my laptop, all worked, but the Mini's port is busted.

Damn, disappointing.

Annoying, but unless you have AppleCare and can get it fixed for free, the fix is cheap - buy ethernet dongle which is MacOS compatible and you are done. Many of us are now living with ethernet dongles, since ethernet ports do not exist on notebooks anymore.