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OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock not compatible with M1 Max

Nomad110 said:
I can confirm that the Sonnet dock works perfectly. I too had issues with my OWC gear, specifically their 10Gig ethernet adapters. This is what I use with my M1 Max. I actually hang my Pro Display XDR with a 50' Corning Thunderbolt 3 optical cable and also a 10 Gig Sonnet thunderbolt off of the dock without any issues. Its really amazing tech and Sonnet supports Apple Silicon perfectly.

Echo 11 Thunderbolt 4 Dock - SONNETTECH

Thunderbolt 4 docking hub with Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), USB 3.2 Gen 2, Ethernet and audio ports, SD card slot, 90W power delivery, and 4K, 5K, 6K, 8K support.
www.sonnettech.com www.sonnettech.com
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That dock looks interesting, it's still working fine for you? I have a M1 Max and a Pro Display XDR coming soon.

Seems to be the only one so far that claims that support and can charge your M1 Pro/Max while using a Pro Display XDR and have TB4.
 
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Hjupter Cerrud said:
That dock looks interesting, it's still working fine for you? I have a M1 Max and a Pro Display XDR coming soon.

Seems to be the only one so far that claims that support and can charge your M1 Pro/Max while using a Pro Display XDR and have TB4.
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Yes…it’s flawless. OWC gear still super buggy for me. Sonnet properly supports Apple Silicon/M1 Max.
 
tractorii said:
Got the same problem. Brand new install from factory MacBook M1 Pro 16". No migration. Installed the dock ejector. Still says No OWC dock Attached. Gotta wait til they open to resolve
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Update on this. You have to plug the host machine in the FRONT. Works when you do this. I really don't want a wire sticking out the front. You would would think the front was reserved for transient and casual devices. We'll see what else comes up
 
Can confirm OWC TB Pro dock is not compatible with my new M1 Max. Not that I like the dock anyway, but use it for the 10G Ethernet with my 2019 MBP. Can't stand the fan and don't like that it doesn't have audio I/O.

Sonnet dock looks OK. I wish they would have given us a real ethernet port with 10/5/2.5/1G support. Even if it meant taking away a TB expansion port. And the audio combo port is stupid. Give us separate in/out. I think it's the only dock out there with TB4 support at the moment.

I also have the Caldigit TS3+ dock, two of them here. Originally I paired one with my 2016 MBP and then picked up a second for an iMac Pro and it was great. I went along just fine with them and then upgraded the 2016 to a 2019 MBP... The TS3+ dock would improperly negotiate power with the newer MBP and it ended up cooking my brand new 2019 MacBook Pro shortly after I got it. Went back and forth with Caldigit and Apple and lots of finger pointing. But Apple repaired the MBP and Caldigit ultimately apologized -- after probably cooking a few more and finally releasing the v44.1 firmware update.

The TS3+ docks are really good, but I'm a bit shy of them. And all docks really.
 
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Just received yesterday the OWC TB4 dock. So far so good. I have the MBP Max 16" connected to it and two ACD 30" displays. Wacom tablet and no issues so far.
 
What finally worked for me (OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Mac Pro M1, Monterey) eventually came down to following:
1. Install the eject util, including clearing any Security & Privacy preferences actions
2. Booted into Recovery mode to**enable kernel extensions**. That’s part of the eject util install and seems like an easy step to miss. I opted for “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers” radio button.
3. Booted back into normal mode after enabling the kernel extensions and no joy. Still didn’t work. I then tried to re-install eject util. It didn’t re-install but it did indicate high power ports are enabled, so I had that going for me, which is nice.
4. Used the eject util to eject volumes verifying the eject util was tip top.
5. I then unplugged the dock’s thunderbolt cable from my laptop and powered down. I then plugged the dock's thunderbolt cable into my Mac and powered it on. Link light came on, and the Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot interface went online.

So this is a peel the onion kinda thing with two things going on: The eject util and the need to configure security settings associated with that install, and then the fact that you can't just plug an external dock in to a booted up Mac and expect an external network interface to work.

First you need to get through all the steps to install the eject util. That enables the high power ports, and the kernel extension allow it to use a network interface not physically on the laptop.

After that, you may then start to run into the scenario where, if you remove/re-attach a dock with a network interface, without rebooting, no joy. However, if you boot up with the dock connected, (maybe connect it after booting, I haven't tried that yet), then I see it work. Sounds like that's a Mac issue, although I'm guessing that behavior is by-design as a security measure.
 
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Mine works perfectly - OWS Thunderbolt 4 /USB-C dock. Working on Monterey 12.1 on iMac 24" M1 and on MBP 16" M1 Max! Love the product.
 
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Just like Wheelson mentioned above and also mcvaughan in a few post the OWC Dock Ejector def addressed my issues with my Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock. My 16' m1 Max was setup from a timecap backup. Both of my dell monitors were just blinking on and off but after the install of the tool and a restart it seemed to have fixed my issues. Hope that helps

www.owcdigital.com

Dock Ejector

Upgrade the RAM and storage of nearly any Apple computer at MacSales.com. We also provide refurbished Macs, external storage, docks, accessories, and more!
www.owcdigital.com www.owcdigital.com

I have a older GEN and it seems OWC says it supports M1 Mac's......Good Luck. These docks are pricey and this is annoying.
 
Yep. TB3 Pro dock working perfectly on 16" M1 Max running Mac OS 12.1 and the Dock Ejector tool installed.
 
Djrightonbeat said:
Troubleshooted all day with OWC AND APPLE
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I just brought up my new Macbook Pro Max with OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock. Seems to work well, except that the dock doesn't wake up from sleep mode when the MBP does. I have to unplug the dock and plug back in. Annoying. I notice that the OWC TB3 dock has a firmware upgrade to fix this issue. Wonder if the TB4 dock needs one too.
 
AppliedVisual said:
Yep. TB3 Pro dock working perfectly on 16" M1 Max running Mac OS 12.1 and the Dock Ejector tool installed.
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Wanted to ask you a few questions. I have been on the phone with OWC 4 times. Have gone through the whole dock ejector thing and lowering OS system security to still have two displays that flash on and off in sync as though there's a bandwidth issue or something. Port wise I was using Display port to display port on the dock for one monitor and on the other I was going display port to usb C dongle to the dock. I'm able to get the monitors to stop flashing on and of one after the other by increasing the resolution but once I open my actual Mac or restart the machine we are back to the same crap. I set this Mac up from a time machine backup for my 2019 MBP i9. Do you mind telling me what cables you are using for your monitors , what resolution are you able to run both of them at? I have literally spoken to OWC 4 times about this and the last rep told me I needed to give ACTIVE cables a try to possibly help with bandwidth. I see you said on December 13th that you could confirm that the OWC TW dock doesn't work but I didn't see if you were speaking of the pro version or the other. Then the message you posted on the 22nd say the "The TB3 pro dock is working perfectly on your 16" M1 Mac running Mac OS 12.1 and the dock Ejector tool.On my tool after 3 uninstalls and reinstalls still shows a Greyed out "Safe to Unplug Dock". I don't really have anymore patience for this thing lol and just need a reliable solution. Let me know your thoughts.
 
I have my MBP 16" Max connected to 2 HP monitors. Both monitors are connected by HDMI cable to the usb-c ports on the OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock (the new one they just released). Resolution is set to 2048x1152. It also works higher, but I can't see the printing when it's that small. Whenever my Mac goes to sleep and I wake it, the Mac comes back up but the monitors don't. I end up having to unplug the dock or reboot the computer. I also have an OWC USB-C Travel Dock E that I use for travel. I just got this as well, and was using it last week. This portable dock doesn't have that problem. It works fine. So the problem is definitely with the OWC TB4 dock. I plan to call them one more time, and if I get another load of BS the dock goes back for a refund. As far as the cables, they are just ordinary HDMI to USB-C cables I bought on Amazon. Nothing fancy, and they seem to work fine. OWC needs to own up to the problem and fix it. I read that their previous dock (TB3 dock) had the same issue, but they issued a firmware fix to correct it. They need to stop screwing around and just fix the TB4 dock as well.
 
Which TB3 ? The regular or the Pro? Where did you read about firmware updates? Where are they because I couldn’t find anything about any firmware changes on the owc site. Let me know……I’m almost fed up with them….5th phone call and who is trying to have issues everytime they sit down to get some work done? Smh I’m super frustrated rite now. Have spoken to someone new every call and even is I ask they always seem to evading connecting you with the previous rep. There products are you costly for this type of stuff….just be honest lol. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work is what I say.
 
Thadpryor said:
Wanted to ask you a few questions. I have been on the phone with OWC 4 times. Have gone through the whole dock ejector thing and lowering OS system security to still have two displays that flash on and off in sync as though there's a bandwidth issue or something. Port wise I was using Display port to display port on the dock for one monitor and on the other I was going display port to usb C dongle to the dock. I'm able to get the monitors to stop flashing on and of one after the other by increasing the resolution but once I open my actual Mac or restart the machine we are back to the same crap. I set this Mac up from a time machine backup for my 2019 MBP i9. Do you mind telling me what cables you are using for your monitors , what resolution are you able to run both of them at? I have literally spoken to OWC 4 times about this and the last rep told me I needed to give ACTIVE cables a try to possibly help with bandwidth. I see you said on December 13th that you could confirm that the OWC TW dock doesn't work but I didn't see if you were speaking of the pro version or the other. Then the message you posted on the 22nd say the "The TB3 pro dock is working perfectly on your 16" M1 Mac running Mac OS 12.1 and the dock Ejector tool.On my tool after 3 uninstalls and reinstalls still shows a Greyed out "Safe to Unplug Dock". I don't really have anymore patience for this thing lol and just need a reliable solution. Let me know your thoughts.
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First off, that dual displays through the same TB port via the dock thing is not going to work in many cases. It will only support it properly if the displays are mirrored (the same) and then you may get sync issues if the displays are different and have or request different timings. You may have had success with this on older Mac hardware, depending on which model/ GPU was present. Apple has pretty well stripped all the MST/multi-stream support from the DisplayPort signaling without being in a Thunderbolt wrapper. So if you want multiple displays chained off one DisplayPort, you're basically stuck going with a TB3/4 supportive monitor that supports their display chaining. Like the LG UltraFine...

Might have to just plug that USB-C connector for the second monitor directly into the MBP.

I'm not running multiple monitors this way, or at all really. I have a 24" Dell 4K monitor that I'm using with my new MBP as a secondary display. It's using the included DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable running from the DP port on the dock to the mDP port on the monitor.

As for your "safe to unplug dock" being greyed out. I think that only lights up if there are certain ejectable devices like storage attached. I'll have to play with it and see. Other Thunderbolt/USB peripherals are supposed to be hot-pluggable with no specific need to preemptively eject them.
 
AppliedVisual said:
First off, that dual displays through the same TB port via the dock thing is not going to work in many cases. It will only support it properly if the displays are mirrored (the same) and then you may get sync issues if the displays are different and have or request different timings. You may have had success with this on older Mac hardware, depending on which model/ GPU was present. Apple has pretty well stripped all the MST/multi-stream support from the DisplayPort signaling without being in a Thunderbolt wrapper. So if you want multiple displays chained off one DisplayPort, you're basically stuck going with a TB3/4 supportive monitor that supports their display chaining. Like the LG UltraFine...

Might have to just plug that USB-C connector for the second monitor directly into the MBP.

I'm not running multiple monitors this way, or at all really. I have a 24" Dell 4K monitor that I'm using with my new MBP as a secondary display. It's using the included DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable running from the DP port on the dock to the mDP port on the monitor.

As for your "safe to unplug dock" being greyed out. I think that only lights up if there are certain ejectable devices like storage attached. I'll have to play with it and see. Other Thunderbolt/USB peripherals are supposed to be hot-pluggable with no specific need to preemptively eject them.
Click to expand...
 
For clarity I think either you missed what I was saying or I wasn't clear enough when it came to display port. I have dual Dell S2721qs monitors. They are not daisy chained and aren't thunderbolt. On the rear of each monitor I have a display port cable being used. One monitor is going straight to the display port in on the rear of the dock while the other has a dongle on the end of the display port cable and it is doing to one of the thunderbolt 3 ports on the dock. I have tried both the 15w and 60w and they both seem to do the same thing when it comes to not working. I don't see why anyone would want to spend as much money as one of these docks cost if they are really only planning on using a single external monitor (to each is own) lol. I hip to the whole MST situation and know that won't work with Apple I just can't figure out the issue with this. I was thinking possibly the cables but then again I'm like they work just fine with my intel base i9 / 2019 MBP. CaDigits stuff works lol ALL of it where as OWC is struggling. Only a hand full of folks I've seen say there OWC docks work...... both the regular thunderbolt 3 and also the thunderbolt 4 I've seen folks having issues.
 
Checking in with a 14" MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro CPU, and an OWC TB3 dock.

The Ethernet sometimes fails to enumerate. It's intermittent, difficult to reproduce, which makes diagnosing a challenge. However, I have been able to cause Ethernet to not work, or to have 1 or both displays fail to light up. Not always.

I have a couple of Intel Macs (2017 MBP, 2018 MBP) and the Dock works great. All peripherals enumerate correctly.

A first-gen M1 MacBook Pro (2020, not the M1 Pro/Max) can only support 1 external display, so if I unplug one of them, the Dock works fine. This is a limit of the Mac, not the Dock. Not a good candidate to test/reproduce this issue.

I suspect the device is running out of bandwidth internally, and only under some very precise conditions depending on the order of enumeration. My host cable is an Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable, 0.5m, which is capable of 40Gbps and advertised as such in the Mac System Information report.

I have the following attached:

- Front USB-C: portable hard drive
- miniDP: Display 1 @ 1920x1080 (Dell
- TB3, port 1: host connection to Mac
- TB3, port 2: Display 2 @ 4k60 via HDMI < TB3 (the accessory is made by Uni and sold on Amazon)
- Ethernet, 1Gbps
- Optical Out
- USB 3.0 port 1: a hub with 6 devices connected:keyboard, mouse, usb audio adapter (for wired headsets), webcam, plantronics USB headset dongle (2x) for wireless headsets
- USB 3.0 ports 2-4 are not in use.
- There are no (micro)SD cards in the Dock.
 
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I have had similar issues; it did not recognize my wacom tablet, simple wired dell mouse, logitech unifying receiver etc but it was reading the sd cards or usb-c card reader that i plugged in and also my 5k monitor was working fine too. So Most devices were not seen by my pc or not working at all. After many emails going back and forth with Owc technical support they concluded it is working just fine, these issues are originated from faulty devices or incompatibility issues of those third party brands and i should contact them, namely logitech, wacom and dell as my dock is working properly!
Naturally i didn't!!
I contacted the online german shop that i bought the unit. They sent me a new one and now wait for it; it is working magnificiently.

The conclusion is:

Owc support is ridiculous, as they know nothing john snow..
And the unit is actually great, if you are having a problem with it, it is probably a faulty dock, ask them to replace it..

(M1Max 24gpu10cpu)
 
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BobSc said:
Which version of Monterey. Didn't the USB issue just start with 12.3? It would be very helpful to know if those who have USB issues are using verion 12.3 of Monterey.
Click to expand...
Yes exactly, i have had issues with 12.3 and before 12.2.1 i think. But issue is not related with OS thats for sure. Some units are faulty straight out of factory
 
I've got a MBP 14" M1 running 12.3.1 and connected to an OWC TB4 dock.
All has been well for a couple of months.
Today, my USB keyboard and mouse (two separate devices from different manufacturers and with separate dongles) aren't working.

Things I've tried:
  • Restarting the MBP
  • Shutting down completely and restarting
  • Connecting the dock to three different TB ports - including on both sides of the device
  • Moving the dongles to different USB ports on the dock
  • Checking for updates to the "OWC dock ejector" tool
The only thing that worked for me was cycling the power to the dock and then reseating the USB dongles.

Ironically, I moved to MacOS from Windows and one of my daily annoyances with my old ThinkPad was the need to cycle the power to my dock whenever I arrived back at my desk.
 
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