Thunderbolt Dock Looses Connectivity When Mac Mini Goes To Sleep

Question

Thunderbolt Dock Looses Connectivity When Mac Mini Goes To Sleep

I'm currently using a OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock with a Mac mini (2018) running OSX 10.15.4 to connect all the additional hardware I use for video/music production.

My problem is that when my mac mini goes to sleep, when waking, the dock looses all connectivity. Even when unplugging and reconnecting the dock, it does not reconnect. The only solution is to do a hard reboot by holding my Mac Mini's power button. Only when doing a full restart does it reconnect.

I've tried to toggle on and off various power saving options but nothing seems to fix this problem.

Has anybody had any experience with this?

Thanks!

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 18, 2024 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

woodmeister50

Level 7

21,417 points

Jan 19, 2024 5:52 AM in response to njskate4death

Your issue is macOS compatibility.

The OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock system requirements from the spec:

Mac OS Compatibility

macOS 11.x Big Sur
macOS 12.x Monterey
macOS 13.x Ventura
macOS 14.x Sonoma

You need a Thunderbolt 3 dock if you want to use Catalina.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

95,414 points

Jan 18, 2024 5:20 PM in response to njskate4death

Which of the OWC Docks do you have...?

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-docks?

If you don't mind me asking, why are you only running 10.15 Catalina on the 2018 Mac mini...?

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

macOS Monterey is still getting the latest security updates, if you are not fond of upgrading to Ventura and Sonoma.

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Answer 3

hcsitas

Level 6

13,970 points

Jan 18, 2024 9:24 PM in response to njskate4death

Sleep is unnecessary and should be disabled. Shut for long absences/idle overnights (i.e. do not manual-sleep), and for regular operation, use the settings exactly as shown below, should fix:

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Answer 4

Jan 18, 2024 7:52 PM in response to den.thed

Hi den.thed,

thanks for the reply.

I’m using the OWC 11-Port Thunderbolt Dock. Are you aware of any work arounds?

Also, the main reason I stayed on Catalina is because of the software/plug-ins I use for music production. In the past, whenever I update to a new OS, I always had some form of compatibility issues with certain software. Excluding this thunderbolt dock issue, everything works just fine now so I don’t want to rock the boat until necessary.

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Answer 5

Jan 19, 2024 5:57 AM in response to woodmeister50

Wow. The fact that I didn’t think to verify that is really depressing lol. Thank you so much !

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Answer 6

Jan 19, 2024 5:57 AM in response to hcsitas

Thank you so much for the reply! I will most certainly try this.

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Thunderbolt Dock Looses Connectivity When Mac Mini Goes To Sleep

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