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USB Accessories disabled. Unplug the accessory...

This just popped up. A search on the message results in basically useless answers. In my case everything was fine and my 2023 MacBook Pro 16" screen went to sleep. I am running Ventura 13.3.1.


I have 7 attached drives with one directly connected to a thunderbolt port and the others hanging off a daisy chain of thunderbolt 4 hubs plugged into another thunderbolt port. None of the drives dropped, or at least I didn't get a message that a drive was disconnected. I see all 8 drives, including my internal one, still mounted on the desktop. I have nothing connected to my third thunderbolt port. So what accessory was disconnected? I should add that all the drives are working properly; not just showing on the desktop.


Looking at the USB tree in the System Information app I see all my drives connected.


I am going to reboot, but this message makes no sense. It really needs to explain what USB accessory was disconnected. Only the single drive, a Sandisk 4TB, would even be drawing power. The thunderbolt hubs should be providing power.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Apr 14, 2023 12:24 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 14, 2023 8:00 PM

If the device disappeared/dropped, then macOS may not know which device it was. Besides, the device which dropped, may not have any problems if the USB bus was utilizing too much power. If multiple devices are using power, then it may just be random which one is dropped in order to reduce the power draw on the bus.


Now for the possible issue here which has not been considered:

Maybe a USB-C port is bad. It does not necessarily need to be in use.


Maybe one of the Thunderbolt devices had an issue where somehow it triggered the issue (or like I mentioned, perhaps the port those Thunderbolt devices are connected has a problem....remember the USB-C ports on that Mac handle both Thunderbolt & USB. Even though it may be using the Thunderbolt protocol, a defective port may for some reason believe USB power is being used.


Maybe it was not an external device. Some internal components actually use the USB bus such as the built-in camera. I'm not sure how the built-in keyboard & trackpad operate these days, but historically they were USB devices as well.


Maybe there was a power issue with the SanDisk drive, but it recovered quickly enough so not to affect anything.


A defective cable could also possibly trigger a problem.


If it keeps occurring, then you are going to have to experiment and leave one device disconnected until you discover the culprit. You may even need to inspect the internal contacts of the cable connectors and even the contacts of the USB-C ports of the laptop, however, those contacts within the USB-C port on the laptop are very hard to see clearly. Many times I have thought they were clear, but after taking the laptop apart to get a clear view of the ports I discovered corrosion or even burn marks. So just because the contacts look good doesn't mean they really are since they are so hard to see. It is amazing how many USB-C ports I find with corrosion from liquid damage (only takes a drop).

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2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 14, 2023 8:00 PM in response to Jerome Vitner

If the device disappeared/dropped, then macOS may not know which device it was. Besides, the device which dropped, may not have any problems if the USB bus was utilizing too much power. If multiple devices are using power, then it may just be random which one is dropped in order to reduce the power draw on the bus.


Now for the possible issue here which has not been considered:

Maybe a USB-C port is bad. It does not necessarily need to be in use.


Maybe one of the Thunderbolt devices had an issue where somehow it triggered the issue (or like I mentioned, perhaps the port those Thunderbolt devices are connected has a problem....remember the USB-C ports on that Mac handle both Thunderbolt & USB. Even though it may be using the Thunderbolt protocol, a defective port may for some reason believe USB power is being used.


Maybe it was not an external device. Some internal components actually use the USB bus such as the built-in camera. I'm not sure how the built-in keyboard & trackpad operate these days, but historically they were USB devices as well.


Maybe there was a power issue with the SanDisk drive, but it recovered quickly enough so not to affect anything.


A defective cable could also possibly trigger a problem.


If it keeps occurring, then you are going to have to experiment and leave one device disconnected until you discover the culprit. You may even need to inspect the internal contacts of the cable connectors and even the contacts of the USB-C ports of the laptop, however, those contacts within the USB-C port on the laptop are very hard to see clearly. Many times I have thought they were clear, but after taking the laptop apart to get a clear view of the ports I discovered corrosion or even burn marks. So just because the contacts look good doesn't mean they really are since they are so hard to see. It is amazing how many USB-C ports I find with corrosion from liquid damage (only takes a drop).

Apr 15, 2023 1:20 AM in response to HWTech

I understand about the USB versus Thunderbolt protocols. All my drives are USB so the only devices showing in the Thunderbolt tree are the hubs. All of the HDD drives show in the USB tree.


I just hope that my basically brand new MacBook Pro is not having USB port issues. Sadly it can happen. And the Sandisk drive is only a few months older than the MacBook Pro. I will just wait to see if this happens again. I have rebooted. So far so good. And as you said, it could also be a bad cable or a cable that is failing.


Another question I have is whether the USB port being flagged is in the MacBook Pro or if it can be one of the USB ports on the hubs. I have not checked every device. For example, two of the drives attached are WD My Book Duos. Each one of those has a USB3 hub with non-HDD devices such as my Blu-Ray burner attached.


My iPad Pro 12.9" had to be replaced under Apple Care because the USB-C port died. Apple didn't attempt to diagnose why it died. So I know USB-C ports can have problems. But the iPad wasn't brand new either.

USB Accessories disabled. Unplug the accessory...

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