MacBook Pro M4 with thunderbolt 5 and portable monitor

I just tried and this works.. funny.

Technically this also can be addressed using some external power back, but you right, main idea is to avoid using any extra connection to have second monitor working

yoavarden,

If you want a fix, start a new topic thread. There are 130 posts in here. If the posts in here do not answer your question, you are better off asking the community as a new thread. It is extremely hard to know who is responding to what in a long thread.

You want to know which make and model monitor works with Thunderbolt 5 on your make and model year of Mac with what model thunderbolt cable. When you get that answer great. Recycle the equipment that doesn't work, and get equipment that does. The manufacturer of your monitor does not know how to keep up with standards if they won't respond to making a new firmware update for your thunderbolt.

This can't be exclusive to the TB5 controller as the new M4 Macs have 1 TB4 port too. this should be something apple can address in software. It appears this display is getting power but the display signal is not getting triggered.

I recently upgraded my Mac as well and was having the same issue. I have no clue what happened or what I did but both now are working and functioning with a single USB-C and no need for the mini HDMI. I just unplugged them and used it to game through my PS5. When I was done, I connected the one that was not working, and it finally came on. I said what the heck and decided to plug in the second one, and it came on with no issue. I work in IT, so this checks out as a fix haha, if you work in IT you'll get that joke. I honestly changed nothing and downloaded nothing. I wish I could say I did so I could help you all out but I have no clue what changed to make this work, and above is exactly what I did.

Nice letter, but no one who works for Apple will see it here on the Apple User-to-User Support Communities.

Perhaps you could post it on the feedback pages, where Apple employees WILL read it, but generally do not respond:

Product Feedback - Apple

Spongman, Please read this tip:

USB/Thunderbolt & Energy Saver/Sleep/powe… - Apple Community

In all honesty the issues happening are cross platform, and due to poor coordination amongst manufacturers of firmware and software updates, and the overall design of USB-C/Thunderbolt. It is my hope one day, a more sturdy port design like IEEE 1394b replaces the smaller, thinner USB-C/Thunderbolt. As it is, the anchors for the cables are miniscule, and make it very easy for bent cables connectors and cable ends to make them unusable. Read the thread carefully and find a combination that works well for your needs.

Agreed. Just discovered this issue today when I tried connecting a Maxfree S2 Triple Monitor that was gifted to me. Unfortunately it was a hand-me-down and didn't include the HDMI-USBC cables, so I can't even confirm that it works through HDMI and a USB hub, as suggested here earlier.

I bet it would work on my old Intel Mac but I have no interest in testing that. This is maddening..

Have the same issue.

MacBook M1 Pro 2021 + Dell D6000 Universal Dock + 2x Dell 2K Monitors = All good every time I connected the USB-C to the M1!

MacBook M4 Pro 2024 + Dell D6000 Universal Dock + 2x Dell 2K Monitors = Connects 1/10 times immediately. Can try all the USB-C interfaces on the Mac, and sometimes we get lucky and it work on one of them.

It is so annoying that getting a newer MacBook doesn't support the same solution.

it's not a cable issue. people have taken their M4's and monitors into Apple stores and they haven't been able to get them working there with Apple-sanctioned test equipment.

Hello. I confirm that updating to Sequoia 15.7.1 also fix the problem, for those who do not want to install Tahoe 26 after the inevitable bugs of a new OS version are fixed.

if your display connects as a Thunderbolt device, it may not support obtaining power from the Mac.

if you display connects as a USB device, it may support being powered by the Mac's Bus power

I have lost track of what your fundamental question is through all of this.

¿could you lay out the case again, and what you are trying to determine?

Sorry for the confusion Grant, I seemed to have hijacked dragos's original post with my own different one.

I was just wondering why my M4 Pro Mac mini can't do what my M2 Pro Mac mini does, i.e. power the same 15 inch portable monitor on its own without requiring external power, I'm using the same cable on both. Could it be something to do with the Thunderbolt 5 port.

Thunderbolt-5 only shows as available on the 7 port models, which are the 14" and 16" models.

The 13" and 15" model only show Thunderbolt 4 on Apple's website.

Use a 20" ruler or tape measure and take it to the screen diagonally to figure out its actual measurement.