I gather that the centre (rear) Thunderbolt port on the Mac M4 has certain restrictions as to its use.
A brief description of these would be useful.
A brief description of these would be useful.
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PIG IN THE MIDDLE
- Thread starter BorderTerrier
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It is special as it is the DFU port. The only restriction is that if you want to install macOS onto an external drive you should not connect it to the DFU port...as explained by Apple in this article, which has a link about identifying the DFU port on different models.
I think this is a fairly new thing from Apple as I have not seen it mentioned in many many articles and threads about external booting, and I have installed macOS on externals many times without knowing about it.
On the Mac mini it’s the only port that can be used to connect another Mac running Apple Configurator software do a Device Firmware Upgrade to Revive or Restore the Mac’s firmware.
I don’t know if that is the port that can be used to do that on other Macs.
I don’t know if that is the port that can be used to do that on other Macs.
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That port is present in all T2 and Apple silicon Macs. But it was news to me that you can’t use it to install macOS on an external drive. I guess maybe access to firmware is needed during the install process, and using it for the install prevents that.
I also learned a new expression! “Pig in the middle” isn’t common in the US and I’d never heard it. Love it. We call that kids’ game “Keep away” which isn’t nearly as flexible as an idiom.
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