Owners of 2020 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models released earlier this year are complaining of problems using USB 2.0 accessories with their machines when connecting through a hub or adapter.
MacRumors reports there are a number of complaints on their forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Communities. Users report devices connected to the Mac randomly disconnect, as explained below by a MacRumors reader.
At random times the USB devices connected to the mac though a usb-c hub would just lose connection and stop working all at the same time. This happened with two different USB-C hubs (both expensive, one of them is Satechi which was recommended in many threads), so I am leaning towards ruling out the hubs being at fault.
I’m connecting a few things in the hub – HDMI for an an external monitor, USB audio interface (powered by the mac) and a mouse. When the issue occurs, the mouse and the USB audio interface stop working, but the HDMI connection continues to work without issues, each time.
The issue happens at random moments and there are no steps to reproduce it. It seems to be happening more often when at least two usb devices are connected at the same time.
Numerous other users complain of disconnection and freezing issues when connecting their USB 2.0 accessories to their Mac through a hub. However, there doesn’t appear to be a clear pattern as to what accessories freeze or when the issue rears its ugly head.
Devices that cause issues require a UBC-A connection, including keyboards, mice, and other accessories. The issues do not appear to be restricted to a particular brand of hub, and complaints are apparently limited to USB 2.0 accessories, with no issues arising with USB 3.0 and 3.1 accessories.
One Reddit user was able to solve the issues with a pricey Thunderbolt CalDigit hub, but whether that fix will work for all impacted machines is unknown
Apple is aware of the issue and is likely working on a fix for the problem. Although Apple has replaced some of the affected machines with new models, the problem continues to persist with the new Mac.
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