Front USBC (Not Thunderbolt 4) ports on a MAC Studio (M2 Max Chip) issue.

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Front USBC (Not Thunderbolt 4) ports on a MAC Studio (M2 Max Chip) issue.

Hello. Just purchased a new Mac Studio (M2 Max Chip). The ports on the front of the unit are USBC and not Thunderbolt 4 (those are on the back - Ultra model has them on front and back). I have an OWC powered Thunderbolt 4 hub and that works great. BUT, I just noticed that if I use these front USBC ports for an external USB Hardrive (with adapter cable to USBC), some mount but many don't. I can literally take the same drive and cable and it mounts to my Mac Book Pro but not here. These are older external drives (non solid state) but they don't require a separate power supply. I'm trying to figure out if I have a hardware issue (brand new machine). Anyone else have an experience with this? Phone plugs in and gets power so there is clearly power there but is it being choked? Is it the data speed? Can't figure out why these drives won't mount (using the hub, they are fine but again, I want to make sure I don't have two lame ports on a brand new machine). Thank you!

Posted on Sep 4, 2023 4:54 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2023 6:00 PM in response to AlecJay

It sounds like you have been good about those details. It also sounds like this is more than just a power problem.

Architecturally, the Thunderbolt ports come from inside the System-on-a-Chip. In the Ultra version with two chips, both front and back are Thunderbolt, but each set comes from a different chip.

On the Max model with only USB-C on the front, Apple has never clearly stated where those come from, so failures of other chips or broken wires or connectors might be more common.

I suggest you run the diagnostic. But it really only tends to catch GROSS issues. Then consider calling Apple support. Link in the word Support in the lower left of the forum pages, or:

Support

.

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,555 points

Sep 5, 2023 4:27 PM in response to AlecJay

Most mechanical drives do not work well (if at all) from just bus powered. SSD is not an issue. You should always use a powered enclosure for all mechanical drives.

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Answer 3

AlecJay Author

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4 points

Sep 9, 2023 3:23 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Bought it from B&H Studio (we are filmmakers) so they just swapped the machine out when the same drives and cables worked fine in another one.

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Answer 4

Sep 4, 2023 5:39 PM in response to AlecJay

to check the power situation.

 Menu > about this Mac > (system report) > Hardware > USB

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Answer 5

Sep 5, 2023 5:28 PM in response to AlecJay

at the tip of the lowest, rightmost arrow, it says: Current Available in milliAmps

what is that number?

with the drive plugged in that port, what is the next line: current required in milliAmps??

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Answer 6

Sep 5, 2023 5:44 PM in response to AlecJay

We answer a lot of queries where the user says the drive does not appear on the desktop. Later versions of macOS, by default, DO NOT show drives on the Finder Desktop or in the sidebar. You may need to adjust Finder preferences as well.

The real arbiter of whether the drive "shows up" is whether it appears in Disk Utility, shows its make&model, and has a reasonable non-zero size/capacity.

Maybe you already worked through all of that, but it seems worth a mention for those who will find this post by searching.

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Answer 7

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,555 points

Sep 6, 2023 4:52 AM in response to AlecJay

I use thumb drives and the SD card slot on front and have no issues so not sure why your drives do not work. As suggested verify if they show in disk utilities

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Answer 8

AlecJay Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 9, 2023 3:06 PM in response to AlecJay

Thanks for the help everyone. We confirmed it was a hardware problem and it has been fixed.

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Answer 9

AlecJay Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2023 4:33 PM in response to tbirdvet

Thank you both for your responses. The power specs came in just like the above which led me to test a simple USB Thumb drive (with adapter). Doesn't mount in the front ports but works fine in back Thunderbolt or USB. Works fine from hub (also connected to back ports). Also, update - the same spinning drive and cable works at times and not others (multiple types). In a nutshell, trying to figure out if Apple included two iPhone charging ports for cosmetic reasons on a $3K machine which are otherwise useless OR do I have a problem with this specific machine?

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Answer 10

AlecJay Author

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4 points

Sep 5, 2023 5:33 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks Grant. It gives the same figures as your diagram. 896 used; 900 available (when the drive does mount). I realize that it is so close that in a real world situation it might fail which is why I tried a thumb drive (way less amperage) and it still failed.

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Answer 11

AlecJay Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2023 5:48 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant,

Excellent question. Yes, I have done this. Come to think of it though, I did not do this with the thumb drives but had done it will all previous failures. I will double check but suspect the same result.

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Answer 12

AlecJay Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2023 5:50 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant, and to clarify, as I understand it those preferences only apply to internal drives (external is another "button" which is not "off" by default)?

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Answer 13

AlecJay Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2023 5:55 PM in response to AlecJay

And, the same thumb drives shows as mounted when a back port is used without changing settings.

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Answer 14

Sep 9, 2023 3:18 PM in response to AlecJay

How was it decided that this was a hardware problem?

Fixed by replacing something? Did they tell you what was replaced?

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Front USBC (Not Thunderbolt 4) ports on a MAC Studio (M2 Max Chip) issue.

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