Thunderbolt Display drops USB ports

[JoeLouw]

No solution

Looks like this is a problem been going on for a while. Come Apple fix this, it's going to be 2 lines of code and will take you like 3 min to do.

I have a similar problem, I have it when I turn on my MacBook Pro and close to to work on the 27" with full wired keyboard, I have NO Keyboard while it's connected to the 27" display. I have to then remove it plug into the Macbook it self and work for a while like that, later on I can then remove it and plug it in the back of the 27" then it works, but it's painful. If you paid over $3000 for all this you want it to work.

Other than most of you guys here, my USB ports ports work when I connect other devices onto it.

Joe

 

[vumad]

I was getting really annoyed with this problem. I had my iPhone sitting in a docking cradle attached to my thunderbolt display. I'd often find that when I removed the phone from the cradle it was only partially charged as the USB ports on the display had dropped. In order to get an alert when the problem happened I connected a USB pen drive to the display, that way, when the USB ports shut down I received a pop-up saying that the disc had not been ejected before being removed. On two occasions I noticed that the port shut down immediately after I connected or disconnected my iPhone (4S). I subsequently moved the iPhone to one of the USB ports on the Mac itself and I have not seen a recurrence of the problem since (almost four weeks ago).

 

[willydimes]

Hey were you able to duplicate the issue in store? Mine drops every week or so then when I unplug laptop or screen it usually comes back. I honestly think it was related to the recent software update to it.

 

[vumad]

No, I can't reliably reproduce this. All I noticed was that on both the occasions I captured the USB ports dropped the instant the iPhone was connected / disconnected.

 

[simonrim]

Simple Fix

This was super frustrating but the solution for me will hopefully help someone out .....

Turn Off Mac

Unplug the power cables for Thunderbolt monitors

Wait 5 secs

Plug them back in. (If you have your iPhone plugged into one of the USB ports on the back of your Thunderbolt Monitor you should hear the device connected sound when plugging them back in. Unplugging and plugging the Monitors back in seems to reset the ports)

Turn on Mac

Everything should be just fine and dandy

 

[Naio]

I started to experience this more than a half year ago with it connected to a rMBP 13", Late 2013.

When it occurred, the following happened with the Thunderbolt Display:

• The ports stopped functioning.
• The camera and speaker stopped functioning.
• Unable to change display brightness.

It essentially a become a regular computer display that you couldn't even change brightness on.

And the following issue always occurred: The display was slow to wake from sleep. It appeared that as soon the computer went to sleep, the computer and the display would disconnect from each other. Sometimes they wouldn't even find each other until I restarted the computer.

I turned in the display for repair at the end of my 3-year AppleCare in September, 2014 and they replaced the logic board with the ports.

The issue occurred a lot less frequently after the repair, but it was still there.

A month ago, it became much, much worse. It felt like I was not far off throwing the display away.

However, after reading this thread, I decided to purchase a Thunderbolt cable and see if that would help.

It fixed it. The issue has not occurred once since I started using a normal Thunderbolt cable.

There must've been something wrong with the one-in-all cable. Could it be wear and tear? Maybe, but I don't disconnect the computer that often. It was often over a week before I disconnected the Thunderbolt cable, so it would truly suck for those that connect/disconnect the Thunderbolt cable daily if it was wear and tear causing the issue.

And don't worry, I disconnect the charging cable to drain the battery.

 

[itbeme]

Madness

Madness. That`s what this is. Every damn thing I have connected goes out (USB, Ethernet as well) it all falls down. I give it 1/2 hour - maybe every freaking hour.

But then again, folks let's face the facts, Apple doesn't give a rats rear end about us folks who have paid good hard-earned money for a faulty product. Oh yeas they could fix it as someone pointed out - but that would mean stealing resources from the latest new toy that we see dangling from the wrists of anorexic fashion models. They stopped caring about us a long, long time ago.

Its fun to rant, but don't expect "Designed in Cupertino, Ca USA" to do a damn thing. Oh, did I mention, I am out of warranty - as well as out of patience.

 

[MiamiC70]

I am having the exact same issue. Some attribute it to FW v1.2 but it's been months and I have heard nothing of a FW v1.3 to address the issue.


Update: Open "Display preferences" then turn off "automatically adjust brightness". Did that right after this post and has not had disconnect issues since.

 

[MiamiC70]

Anyone have any success diagnosing this issue or how to fix it?

 

[MCAsan]

Once in a blue moon my USB keyboard will stop working. I just restart my Mac and all is OK. Nothing special about my ATD in that. Don't be surprised if any USB based device gets its status screwed up and you have to restart to reset it. Note that does not happen with my TB based LaCie drives connected via the ATD.

 

[Raublinger65]

Once in a blue moon my USB keyboard will stop working. I just restart my Mac and all is OK. Nothing special about my ATD in that. Don't be surprised if any USB based device gets its status screwed up and you have to restart to reset it. Note that does not happen with my TB based LaCie drives connected via the ATD.

I had similar issues with my ATD. USB Ports dropped and the Camera quit working on the ATD. Took it to the Apple Store and replacing the cable that connects the ATD to the MacBook Pro fixed the issues.

 

[MCAsan]

Not a cable issue for me. A simple restart would reset the ports and protocols.

This week I replaced my ATD with a Dell UP2414Q 24" 4K monitor. Works like a champ with my 2013 15" rMBP. That monitor has a 4 port USB 3 hub that works just fine. Don't miss ATD's ethernet port as I do 802.11AC wifi.

 

[thebrane]

AN INTERESTING SOLUTION

I'm dealing with the same crap (No USB, Display Output, FaceTime Camera etc)

Tired SMC, PRAM, turning off etc etc and finally tried a second, independent Thunderbolt cable expecting a fix, but no...same old issues. Very annoying...

HOWEVER, I can get the peripherals to work by opening YouTube in Chrome and streaming any video, then restarting my MacBook Pro and selecting "Reopen windows when logging back in"

This seems to somehow trick the display because after restarting and logging back in, the Display Output & all other peripherals come back to life when it opens up the video again in Chrome.

Unfortunately, though, after 5-10 mins, I lose the damn peripherals again and I'm back to square one. (Incredibly frustrating)

Try it for yourself. I'd be interested to see if this works for others, too.

Does anyone know what is happening here?