Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

kkng

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 22, 2018
38
55
I recently bought an M1 MacBook Air. My plan was to mostly use it at home, attached to a 24" FHD monitor via a USB-C hub, while being charged through the USB-C hub simultaneously. If needed, I'd attach external HDDs, or the bluetooth dongle of my mouse to the hub. So I'd only have 1 cable attached to my MacBook and the rest attached to the hub.

I bought an Anker 555 PowerExpand 8-in-1 USB-C hub, which supports chargers up to 100W and has a Passthrough-Charging/USB-C Power-Delivery function. Since the hub itself draws 15W of power, I additionally bought an Anker 735 GaNPrime 65W charger, to make sure that the hub, the peripherals attached to it and the MacBook get enough power to function and be charged properly.

While waiting for the delivery of the parts, I stumbled upon the issue of M1 MacBooks being bricked by USB-C hubs, because people used them to charge their M1 MacBooks via passthrough-charging/PD. I know that Apple has released the macOS BigSur update 11.2.2 last year to address this issue, but I can't find any clear statements on whether the issue has been really completely fixed now or not.

On the contrary, people still seem to be unsure, as I can see in this thread and various comments under YouTube videos related to this topic. On the other hand, that thread was posted shortly after the release of macOS 11.2.2.

I came across the recommendation to plug the charger directly into the MacBook's TB port and plug the hub separately into the second port, in order to avoid Passthrough-Charging via the hub and charge the device directly. This workaround has been recommended in this video, which was uploaded before the release of the macOS 11.2.2 update and also in this very recent blog post on "Created Tech".

Right now I'm leaning more towards using both ports separately and charging the MacBook directly via the charger. But I'm not sure, if the MacBook's port can provide enough energy to the hub, in order to use it with a 24" FHD monitor, a bluetooth dongle and an external HDD permanently attached to it. My question for this scenario is: Does anyone know, the maximum current the TB port of the M1 MBA can deliver? Would this work? Additionally I'd like to know: Would it make a difference, if I used the original 30W charger of the M1 MBA in this scenario, or the Anker 735 GaNPrime charger? Could the MacBook draw more power from a more powerful charger, to deliver it to the attached hub and devices attached to the hub, if needed?

My main question still is, as stated in the header: Is there still a risk of bricking your M1 MacBook when charging through a PD USB-C hub? Maybe it could help, if I got to know, if there were any cases of bricked devices, even after having updated on 11.2.2, since most reports seem to date back to the time before the release of the update.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Last edited:
I know that there are plenty of people who didn't have any issues (probably the majority), but I don't think it was just "a small number of devices" affected by this issue. There were even reports of people with bricked M1 MacBooks, who had been using Satechi hubs, which they purchased directly from Apple. So this doesn't seem to have been caused by "cheap hubs".

I just want to know if this issue is definitely fixed now and I can use my hub to charge my Mac and attach whatever I want to it, without having to worry about when it might brick.
 
Last edited:
I was well aware of the issue at the time and avoided charging my M1 MBA through my USB-C pass through Anker hub. After the update which was reported to have fixed this I started using the Anker and more recently a Sitecom all USB-C pass through hub, without problems.

Once these situations start, the rumours echo round for years as Google never forgets.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
  • Like
Reactions: Wackery and jdb8167
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.