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macOS Monterey Users Report Connectivity Issues With USB Hubs

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Some Mac users who upgraded to macOS Monterey this week are experiencing problems getting USB hubs and other USB-based devices to work properly with their machines, based on scattered online reports.

generic-usb-hub.jpg

There have been several reports on Reddit, Apple's Developer Forums, and Apple's Support Communities about the issues. In some cases, users say the the USB 3.0 ports on their hub no longer work since upgrading to Monterey, while HDMI, USB-C, and other hub ports continue to work as expected.

In other user reports surfacing online, the USB hubs fail to work at all. Some of the problems even relate to Apple certified hubs. Reddit user Flyersny81 relates their experience:
My USB-C hub has issues with this update. The HDMI port connected to my second screen is working on the hub but none of the USB3 ports are working at all. I have tried different C ports on the MacMini and different hubs (I have 4). I also replicated this issue on my M1 MacBook Air after updating to Monterey. Here is the hub I am using. These hubs worked perfectly in Big Sur.

Had a call with Apple support and they said to try an Apple certified hub. I used this one I had floating around in my bag and both the HDMI and USB3 ports worked on it. I tried to daisy chain the Amazon hub to the Apple hub but that didn’t work either. Support told me that many people have been complaining about this issue and it will hopefully be fixed in the next patch to be pushed out.
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In other cases, the USB hubs work except for the power delivery port. For some, it's the additional connectivity provided by external displays that no longer works, with the power delivery affected in particular. From Apple's Developer Forums:
PD (Power Delivery) over USB-C also stopped working on my MBP 2018 after updating to Monterey (12.0.1). I use a Philips 346P1CRH. Everything was working flawlessly with Big Sur.

- TommyWi

I have the same issue with my MBP M1 2020 connected with an external Monitor HP S340c. Power Delivery (PD) and Video-Connection not working (but Mouse and Keyboard is still supported/working).

- Tiggar

Same problem as everyone, bought 34" Philips 346P1CRH/00 and everything worked fine on BigSur... After updating to Monterey, the video and ethernet works, but power supply is cut off. I'm on an M1 Macbook Air. :/

- lenskdav

Essentially, Monterey has broken support for a WIDE number of USB Hubs. Some USB Hubs work but certain ports on the hub do not, some Hubs do not work at all.

For me, USB-C & HDMI work on the hub, but my USB 3.0 port will only power devices and there appears to be no data transfer.

This issue is absolutely a Monterey bug. My devices were working fine prior to upgrading, and I have been able to replicate the issue and narrow it down by testing against a device that does not have Monterey installed.

- macmjs1996
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Many of the reports are from owners of M1-powered Macs, but not all. Some users have reported similar issues on Intel Macs. Based on user discussions, USB issues were reported in early beta versions of Monterey, suggesting this could be due to a legacy bug that Apple has still not patched.

As such, the problems appear to be evident in all versions of Monterey, including the latest 12.0.1 version. Suffice to say, anyone who has yet to upgrade to Monterey and relies on a USB hub is advised to hold off upgrading until Apple issues a fix.

Article Link: macOS Monterey Users Report Connectivity Issues With USB Hubs
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/29/monterey-usb-hub-issues-reported/
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Reactions: RandomDSdevel and Wildkraut
Welcome to the future, where you are forced to use expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs to do just about anything and a software update can just break them without warning... At which point you are of course told to just buy a new, even more expensive one. Just to do things that used to be built into the computer.
 
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Yes, USB-PD from my (USB based) dock is broken after update to Monterey, and it work flawlessly on Big Sur. It is just too hard to make it charge my MacBook Pro, I have to plug it in and disconnect for a lot of time to let my Mac recognize that there is a power source. My Thunderbolt based Dock works fine, and my monitor can charge my Mac if directly plug in.
 
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baryon said:
Welcome to the future, where you are forced to use expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs to do just about anything and a software update can just break them without warning... At which point you are of course told to just buy a new, even more expensive one. Just to do things that used to be built into the computer.
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"expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs" ?

Can I suggest you don't go for the 18 carat gold-plated variants and just use the £20 or so ones that everybody else uses?
 
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baryon said:
Welcome to the future, where you are forced to use expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs to do just about anything and a software update can just break them without warning... At which point you are of course told to just buy a new, even more expensive one. Just to do things that used to be built into the computer.
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But how is it "the future" when they've just released laptops which bring back other ports, negating the need for adapters? And people are only using USB-A adapters because they have legacy devices and old cables so that's not really the future either.

Breaking usb hub functionality though is obviously terrible.
 
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Reactions: DaMacMan1, osx86, whoknows2597 and 4 others
Thought I would post my Monterey experience here: So far, everything has been a great experience. I use an Anker 10 port powered USB 3.0 hub with a late 2015, 27" iMac. Haven't experienced any USB problems at all. I've actually been searching from time to time to see how fast people would start reporting issues, and this seems to be the first genuine one to come up.

The only issue I've experienced has been slow time machine backup, which I posted a thread for. That turns out I was using the wrong settings for my setup. I disabled encryption, and it's been going faster now. The other thing regarding that is I've added considerably more to the system since I did my first full backup so a new one is going to be longer because of that, and having quite a few large things to backup. With all this said, I'm using a MyPassport WD 4TB USB 3.0 drive for my backup, and it's been fine with the exception of the above. In fact, Monterey has fixed a bug I was having with Big Sur, that I would consider equally as important to me as non working USB would be.

FYI: The hub I use, has 7 USB 3.0 type A ports, and 3 dedicated charge ports (that don't do data.)
My Monterey install is an upgrade from Big Sur, and not a clean install.
 
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I have network and USB issues with my M1 Mac Mini using a cheap USB-C hub. I also have occasional network issues with my MBP 16 with no hub in use. For the network issues, they appear to be DNS related. Rebooting 'fixes' the problem but is a pain and not the solution.
 
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chochazel said:
But how is it "the future" when they've just released laptops which bring back other ports, negating the need for adapters? And people are only using USB-A adapters because they have legacy devices and old cables so that's not really the future either.

Breaking usb hub functionality though is obviously terrible.
Click to expand...
Notice that the ports came back in a machine with an M chip… I don’t think that’s entirely coincidental.
 
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In my case, I can’t get the 27” Apple Cinema Display’s camera to work via my QGeeM DisplayLink-enabled hub. It’s has 3 USB3 ports, and the Dispaly is connected to one of them with a USB cable. The sound works via the USB connection to the Display’s speakers, but the Display camera delivers a blank image even though the camera’s green light turns on. Same exact setup worked in Big Sur just fine.
 
This is nothing new. It affects Big Sur too. My M1 Mac mini once crashed completely because I put an SD card in my hub and with my Intel MacBook Air I can't even use one of my external drives through the USB-A hub that I have for it.
 
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Fortunately, my USB C hub still works perfectly in Monterey or I'd be livid right now cuz this thing only has two ports. o_O
 
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MrGimper said:
"expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs" ?

Can I suggest you don't go for the 18 carat gold-plated variants and just use the £20 or so ones that everybody else uses?
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Heh? How about those THUNDERBOLT hubs? Those bad boys ain’t cheap, and they are NOT made out of 24K gold.
 
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MrGimper said:
"expensive adapters and ridiculously expensive hubs" ?

Can I suggest you don't go for the 18 carat gold-plated variants and just use the £20 or so ones that everybody else uses?
Click to expand...
But Apple suggests you only use Apple certified ones as the non-Apple certified ones might stop working randomly just like they did now due to Apple's own update. And Apple certified ones happen to be the expensive ones.

The ones Apple sells cost $69 for the "USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter" and if you only need ONE USB port (you will need 2 or 3 in real world scenarios), then it's indeed $19 but you'll more likely be buying 3 of them for $57. And since they're made by Apple the cable will probably fray after 1 year so you'll be buying 3 more a year later. And then 3 more the year after.
 
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