With the new Apple concept of removing most of the ports, including HDMI and Internet, (I have only two on the 13-inch MacBook Pro), I purchased a Hub with USB-C to connect to the MacBook. It has the HDMI and internet and the earlier six USB ports for webcam, microphone, external HD, iPhone, etc.
Since Monterey the USB ports on the Hub are not working.
I checked that the Hub is fine with my older MacBook with the previous macOS, and the USB ports worked.
It seems that the hubs are a Monterey problem. I had a long chat with Apple Support last night and she couldn't fix it.
The HDMI works fine.
The Chat advisors suggested Safe Mode at start up, but that didn't work.
She also said:
"Take care, and I will say this is turning out to be a known issue. Many folks report this specific brand and Monterey do not play nice. A scattered report or two that a higher quality cable changed matters. Some folks reporting things like one cable out of 4 good enough to work. Apparently USB 3.0 and straight USB-C are *very very very* tightly standards compliant and it's not letting stuff by even a fraction off, even when that would be meaningless. Which is....not cool, but at least this gives you a starting point.
"Just to add, a close look at a lot of these odd named USB docks/hubs one will see that a lot have exactly the same ports in exactly the same position, just with a different case wrapping the same circuit board. Since they are all using the same chipsets and one exhibits an issue, then all the variations will likely see the problem.
"Unfortunately, most of the vendors of these hubs have no expertise or even knowledge of what is going on inside and cannot provide any help or firmware updates, if it is even possible with these designs."
But the base design for these hubs must have had Apple's blessings earlier as they did work.
I contacted the supplier of the hub.
I wrote that since the macOS Monterey update the USB ports are not working. Is there an upgrade available. The Hub ports work fine with previous macOS.
Reply was "After the update, apple Monterey OS cannot support the hub's network port and USB port functions.
"There is no solution for the time being. Can only wait for Apple's subsequent patch.
"If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me."
So until Apple updates Monterey to work on hubs we'll have to wait.
Apple chat advisor said to five Apple feedback and "let em have it both barrels"
