Thanks sirozha, yes I saw and just re-read your 2/23 post, and I do not have the AVB/AEB enabled. I don't recall if I undid that a while back or if the default is "off"... However, as I mentioned, going static IP and additionally adding a new "fresh" ethernet driver has significantly reduced the frequency of the disconnects. In fact, since I wrote this yesterday, I have not had any! SO, cautiously optimistic... It would be interesting to return to DHCP and see if the disconnect frequency increases, but I will save that for later curiosity...
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macOS Monterey 12.1 Thunderbolt Ethernet problems
- Thread starter sirozha
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I’ve been running on DHCP for two months now with the Apple Thunderbolt to GigabitEthernet adapter with AVB/AEB disabled. I haven’t had a single disconnect since I disabled AVB/AEB.
I tried this with my Apple Thunderbolt 2 Ethernet adapter using an Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter and initially my M1 Pro MBP got an IP address via DHCP, but after unplugging it and re-plugging it back in, my MBP just started using a self-assigned IP address. I tried your fix with setting Configure to Manually and disabled AVB/EAV Mode, but it had no impact. Nothing else was connected to the MBP at the time. It will only use DHCP if I have it set with a manual address, so it behaves no differently than my TB3 CalDigit dock ethernet ports or my USB-C Anker ethernet adapter unfortunately. Hoping for an official Apple fix soon...
This doesn’t seem to make sense.
I’ve been running on my solution with DHCP enabled for months. It works perfectly: not a single disconnect.
Doesn't work for me.
MBP 16" with TS4 and 12.3.1. Hardware tab set to manual, full duplex (no power saving options enabled). As soon as the machine wakes from sleep, the ethernet device shows up as "cable disconnected" and only rebooting solves it. Looks like I'll have to disable sleep to avoid this until Apple fixes their stuff.
Oddly enough, my Thunderbolt ethernet adapter seems to be working reliably without needing a manual address specified after the macOS 12.4 update today. I'll plan to try it with my Anker USB-C ethernet adapter and CalDigit TS3+ docks tomorrow, but so far this seems promising.
I have a 5 in one USB-C Ethernet hub from Anker and a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express hub with Ethernet and it is working just fine when you just use the Ethernet port in single mode.
However, when you set up the Dongle to be part of an Ethernet-Aggregate bond, a restart can cause your mac to reboot right after logging in (Monterey 12.4). So far I've had reboots only with the Belkin. The Anker doesn't do this.
To fix the reboot-problem with the Thunderbolt dongle, I do a PRAM reset. But this also has a side effect: the thunderbolt device does not show up under devices after the next reboot. Doing the PRAM reset YET AGAIN fixes this.
But now, the Ethernet bond shows one of the dongles as "invalid link". This invalid link also happens with the Anker.
So deleting the bond and making a new one from scratch SEVERAL TIMES solves the problem.
I have to do this every morning
and hope this gets fixed with a future Monterey update
However, when you set up the Dongle to be part of an Ethernet-Aggregate bond, a restart can cause your mac to reboot right after logging in (Monterey 12.4). So far I've had reboots only with the Belkin. The Anker doesn't do this.
To fix the reboot-problem with the Thunderbolt dongle, I do a PRAM reset. But this also has a side effect: the thunderbolt device does not show up under devices after the next reboot. Doing the PRAM reset YET AGAIN fixes this.
But now, the Ethernet bond shows one of the dongles as "invalid link". This invalid link also happens with the Anker.
So deleting the bond and making a new one from scratch SEVERAL TIMES solves the problem.
I have to do this every morning
and hope this gets fixed with a future Monterey update
Nah, it never worked properly in 12.5 - at least for me and I haven't even tried 12.5.1 yet...
This thread is useless. I started the thread, and it was purely about issues with Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapters. People started posting about issues with USB-to-Ethernet adapters. Even though the USB adapter connects into the same port on the Mac as the Thunderbolt adapter, and the other end of both is Ethernet, those are not the same thing.
So, I fixed my issue with Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter many months ago, and I haven’t had any issues since. The problem with USB-to-Ethernet adapters is a different issue, so there should have been another thread created for this. I asked a few people to remove their irrelevant posts about USB-to-Ethernet adapters from this thread and start a new thread, and some did. Again, this thread is useless at this point. You can’t fix two unrelated issues the same way by lumping them together.
Apparently, some folks can't differ between Thunderbolt and USB-C - but who can blame them?
Your ethernet still works after allowing the laptop to goto sleep?
It only works for me if a disable allowing sleep.
Unplugged the dock, which put my laptop to sleep. When plugged back in, after a few seconds the ethernet connection came back. Seems to work for me, but I don't let mine sleep while docked.
Ah, it's the sleeping while docked that messes things up for me 12.5.1 but seemingly not in 12.5.
There's a firmware update for the TS4 which should solve this problem. Unfortunately the updater is still only available for Windows.
With 12.5.1, my Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Mini HD is not being recognized anymore and has stopped working completely...
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Thanks for pointing to that. I hadn't realized and wow, that's a bit of an embarrassment for them as a brand with such a cult Mac following to not support updating from a Mac. I have a Windows laptop, but with no TB port.
interesting. I have contacted Belkin support and am hoping they just take it back. if they release a mac firmware updater that would be ace! let's see what comes out of it.