MBP 13 2020 won't recognize USB devices from TB dock after sleeping and connecting to the dock. After unplugging the dock MBP crashes and does SMC reset

I've now raised a case with Apple.

It's very important we all do this.

The support guy I spoke with said he couldn't find any specific notes about this issue on their system. So I've sent him a link to this thread.

He said he would get it escalated with the Engineering department, and thought it sounded like firmware update would be required.

Perhaps the more people that raise a case, the more likely this will get resolved sooner.

I am having the same issue. I have a MBP2020 13" attached to CalDigit T3 Plus. The dock is connected to 2 external monitors, an audio interface, an external web camera, and an external mic. Occasionally, I would connect an external SSD to it.

When I first set up my CalDigit T3 Plus in July, every thing was working fine, and up powering on the CalDigit T3 Plus, it wakes my MBP and turns on everything. This has been the set up I ran since I purchase the items in July. However in Aug, when I power on my CalDigit as normal, I realized that my Audio Interface was not connected (via USB). I unplugged the cable to my MBP and my MBP crashed. However, upon restarting, everything was ok. I thought that this is a once-off issue but ever since the issue continued.

I thought it was the CalDigit issue and I contact CalDigit. They did some checks and told me that they will replace my unit. Upon receiving the new unit, I tried the set up again and it did not work. Contact CalDigit and they recommended me to contact Apple. I contact Apple and they changed my logic board. However, upon receiving my MBP (after 2 weeks), the issue was not resolved. I contact Apple and CalDigit again. Apple recommended that I factory reset my MBP but that did not help. CalDigit shared that it seems to be an issue related to a macOS Incompatibility issue. That is how I ended up here and also sharing my experience.

I am still waiting for a response from Apple since last week. I really hope something can be done to resolve this soon...

A repro case? Wonderful! Find an Apple store where they have that monitor near a MBP and do it until they accept it as true.

Take the appropriate COVID precautions, obviously. But make it so, please!

I just did a fresh installation of 10.15.5 and 10.15.7, I was able to plug and unplug the Thunderbolt 3 monitor from 10.15.7 3 times, then it crashed with Kernel Panic. Then I did the same test with 10.15.5 24 times with no crash, I just simple stopped there. This confirms that it is a SW issues, not HW. Now I am going to test 10.15.6.

I have the same problem with my all new MacBook Pro 2020 13" (i5 10th gen, 4 TB3-Ports) with an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock. I've tested a "small" USB-C-Hub (just with 1 HDMI-Port and just powering over the Apple Power supply): No Problems so far. I suspect there is a problem with the "big" Thunderbolt Docks with own power supply and own chipsets for multiple monitor setups... Hope they fix it soon. Until fix, i just take my USB-C-Hub and a second USB-C to DP-Cable for 2 Monitors. With this combo, no crashes so far.

I have used Big Sur Beta 10 (the one you are using now) for 2 weeks without any problem, right now I am using Big Sur 11.0.1 (released yesterday) without any problem as well.

2 days ago Apple silently released a new version (print screen below) of Catalina 10.15.7: 19H4 vs 19H2 released a month ago, I haven't tried it yet, but this new version of Catalina might solve the issues with the dock and TB3 displays.

My "responsive" Apple senior advisor has gone off the radar. I am struck reading all of these responses about how prevalent this issue still is (even with many of those who took the risky leap to Big Sur) and I am cynical about the efficacy of posting here in the hopes that Apple engineers will solve a bug that should have been taken care of in Catalina many months ago. Can I suggest a "power in numbers" approach and encourage everyone to contact an advisor (either via phone or email) and tell them that if they can't resolve this well-documented problem—in Catalina and Big Sur—you would like a full refund for the laptop? I realize this seems like a long shot but if there are a bunch of people making EXACTLY the same request it might have real power in making Apple focus on and finally resolve this issue. This will take just a few minutes of your time—far less than the endless semi-solutions (buying two power adaptors, coming up with ever-changing rituals of disconnecting/reconnecting hubs, etc. etc., upgrading to a bug-filled new OS, etc.) we're all coming up with.

If any of you are into this idea, let me know and we can coordinate a response that will have maximum impact.

I just managed for the first time to get my USB devices back into a working state without having to restart.

This morning I plugged in my MBP (13inch, 2020, 4xTB running Catalina 10.15.7) and, like so many days before, neither my TB dock network port worked nor my USB devices.

I tried out something new today by putting the Mac into sleep using Command+Option+Eject, then (just out of desparation) power cycled the dock (OWC TB3 Dock), disconnected and reconnected the dock (on a different TB port) and afterwards pressed a key on my Apple BT keyboard to get the system out of sleep again. And voila, my USB devices appeared again.

My Gigabit port provided by the dock still did not work (i.e. it shows as "not connected", the RJ45 port itself indicates a link and activity just fine).

The problems with restoring LAN connectivity on my TB dock after disconnecting this 2.5k+ USD device in the evening, taking it home and reconnecting it in the office on the next morning already led me to use WIFI instead. Why don't we hear from Apple admitting that this is a problem and that they are working on it?

I am realizing that I am going to have to purchase a few USB-C docks instead of my TB3 docks to avoid this issue moving forward - at least for now. If anyone else is just using a single display (in my case 1 large ultrawide) then this is the best workaround...

Same issue. MBPro13 2020 Intel Core i7 running 10.15.7. I use two docs, CalDigit TS3+ and OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock. Every reconnect results in unrecognizable USB ports including hard drives, mice, keyboards. Have to restart every time. I tried all the usual troubleshooting methods including SMC, nvRam resets and safe boot with no resolution. I thought I had a solution for a short time with changes to the energy saver settings but that did not work after a couple of successful sleep reconnection cycles. The sad part is that this machine ran fine until one of the 10.15.x upgrades (unfortunately I didn't pay attention to which one caused the problem).

Please Apple, fix this problem.

I can't upgrade to Big Sur since that broke my audio hardware drivers and won't work with the work VPN. I'm in upgrade ****!

Well it's more like chipset drivers issue.

Maybe if we can grab kexts from the earlier macOS, we can use these to mitigate the issue.

Document it. Write a blog post. Post it to HN and let everyone here know.

Same issues with StarTech TB3DK2DPPD TB3 dock. Having said this the setup worked flawlessly up to 10.15.5 which broke it. Apple needs to fix it, the TB3 dock manufacturers can't.

I have filed a bug for MacOS 10.15.5 and 10.15.6

It is not happening only with Macos Catalina but with Beta 4 of BigSur beta. Feedback assistant could be used for submitting bug. I have tried that ... Don't have time to install Beta 5 which was issued this week but reading at list of changes i see no mention of USB/TB3 and assume this very same bug is still well and alive in Beta 5 of BigSur.