2015 MacBook Pro intermittent/flashing connection to iOS Devices

I've seen a lot of runaround and nonsense info about this issue in the forums (low battery, bad cable , bad device, etc.) but no real resolve -- so let me offer this up and ultimately ask some questions.


I have a 2015 MBP Running High Sierra.

When I connect my iOS devices (iPhone SE, iPhone 4S, iPad 3) to my computer via USB>Lightning cable, the connection is "rhythmically intermittent" (this is the best way I can think to describe it). I can see that the issue is caused by the "usbd" process.


(Meaning...kill the process and it's resolved).


Unfortunately the system will simply restart the process. So to keep that from happening, run this command:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbd.plist

Verify that the process is no longer running in Activity Monitor.


My questions:

  1. How vital is usbd? I can see in the man page, that it's strictly for USB iOS devices (none of which work when it's running). Can I kill this permanently without ill side-effect?
  2. Has this been patched in later OSX versions? I have zero desire to update, but it this has been fixed, I'm willing to change my tune.

Posted on Feb 9, 2020 11:17 PM

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2015 MacBook Pro intermittent/flashing connection to iOS Devices

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