MacBook Pro M4 with thunderbolt 5 and portable monitor

If you are looking for a separate monitor that does work, please start a new topic thread.

As a frequent contributer to this community, I have observed:

• This thread is primarily about those monitors that are affected by this bug.
• That would logically mean finding one that works in this thread would actually have less odds of success than outside the thread.

And based on your response saying you want one that is sold in Amazon UK, what would really help is the Make and model number of the said monitor. That way you could search Amazon, as well as other resellers in the UK.

I've added a new thread here for the purpose of finding a portable monitor that is compatible with Thunderbolt 5 macs. Though I also see oliverfromoslo's point, that suggesting suitable monitors in this thread would also help solve the problem.

Are you experiencing any issues when your MacBook goes to sleep mode? Every time my MacBook goes to sleep mode I need to unplug and plug again the USB HUB otherwise the monitors doesn't have signal

Outside of this specific scenario the HUB fixed the issue, good workaround. Thank you

I am a day trader. Upon one of my biggest trading days with the 13” M1 MacBook Pro. I decided to go to Best Buy and make an investment I bought a 14” M4Pro MacBook Pro (14 core CPU, 20 core GPU, 24GB RAM & 1TB SSD ) for my desktop since it has a fan I can do more one connected to the portable monitor in my room and I also got a 13” M3 MacBook Air ( 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD ) as my travel computer since normally when I travel I only use one 2 two websites some times that and 1 app. Tell my why my MacBook Pro just won’t power the monitor it registers for a little second then it disconnects after 9 seconds having the monitor plugged in through the type-c connector. More crazy after spending $2500 on a laptop my $1111 MacBook Air powers it just fine the only problem is that it thermal throttles and it starts to get really hot with the things I do in my office that why I thought the MacBook Pro would be a good fit in my office since I have a black theme going on in my office. But yeah brother I hear you I am really disappointed with the new MacBook Pro

Hmm. Well since you mentioned you connected the portable display using the a video/data USB-C cable on the dock's labeled USB-C DP alt port, did you use the built-in USB-C cable on the dock has to go to your Mini?

Maybe try another cable if possible? The dock has DP Alt so that should work without fail I feel like so long it's connected properly.

If this doesn't work, sorry it didn't. I've tried other portable monitors and cables, and it's worked every time. At least Amazon has a generous return policy!

I connected the Mac mini to the hub using the supplied cable - it's the only way I could connect it.

When I connected the monitor to the hub using the alt DP port, I initially saw this...

Then this...

It was only when I then connected the monitor to the hub with HDMI that it worked!

Bit of a mystery!

Trouble is, this is no better that using the TB5 and HDMI port directly on the Mac mini!

If ports are suppose to be reversed compatible and the implementation of it on a MacBook is not why is it anther manufacturers problem to solve it ? Why is not apples responsibility with all there huge team of tech guys and spending a lot of money to solve issues and up till now they only came up with it is “ your problem not mine go buy a new monitor “ At least the vendor (espresso display) try to solve a

pronlem that they did not create as we see in this posts a lot of other vendors tell their customers good luck same as Apple

up_mambo wrote:

So, what can we infer from these data points?

The Macbook Air has 2 USB4 ports that support : (Charging, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt3)

•

The M4 Macbook Pro has 3 Thunderbolt 5 (USB-c) ports that support (Charging, DisplayPort and Thunderbolt5)

In those specifications, "charging" means charging the Mac.

Charge your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro - Apple Support

"Your Mac has USB-C ports, and may also have a MagSafe 3 port. If your Mac has both ports, either can be used to charge your battery."

I sent a followup to Plugable asking them whether the portable monitor supports power and video through one USB-C cable, or whether a second USB-C cable must be used to independently provide power to the display.

Thanks for the update. You mentioned that the UPerfect 16" does work.

There are 4-5 UPerfect 16" portable displays for sale on Amazon -- all at different price points.

Can you identify which model you bought by providing the model number?

Thanks.

Dear Apple, as loyal users we need an official solution or at least an answer from the support and engineers team, we're getting tired of asking for simple fixes like this one.

From a user perspective who mostly uses Macbooks as an option for portable computers with as many cables as possible, we're not requesting something crazy, we're just asking for you to make something work as it used to work since the first M1 chips.

It's so disappointing to see a portable monitor working in an M1 MBP but not in the latest version of your hardware. I know I speak on behalf of many global users, especially on M4 PRO and M4 MAX chips.

Please, treat this issue, and this request with all the respect your users deserve.

I just came on to see if there were any updates on this? It's been a few months, surely there has to be a software fix for this. I already paid for a monitor and $2400 on an M4 Macbook Pro, I don't want to buy more stuff!

tbh it's increbily easy to follow up on long threads, and it's been done like this literally since Internet was just a "local network" between universities. It's just how this specific Apple forum work, by ordering the messages apparently at random, based on "rank". So whenever it goes past one page, it's a mess, and users keep replying to months old, outdated messages like they've been written yesterday.

Setting the replies ordering by "oldest" returns back to the usual organization that worked for the whole world since last century, and most messages will make sense

This is very highly dissapointing from Apple. As someone who has spent about 75-100k on apple devices over 10 years it's astounding to me that a company can make such great devices and forget to check anything for compatibility. Certainly they thought hey let's check portable monitors.

Anyways I have an Apildella tri monitor with 2 15 inch monitors or maybe 14. Worked great with my M1 macbook pro. Wont work with the Macbook Pro M4. Kind of comical since my M1 screen stopped workign so I guess if I thr0w them all together in a blender it should be perfect.

Anyways are there any dual (so you have 3 monitor) 14 inch or 15 inch screens that work with one cable to M4 Macbook Pros? Seems easier to buy one than figure this out. TY

Same issue -- went from an M1 MacBook Pro to M4 and now the monitor won't detect a signal from the M4 MBP. I've seen lots of work-arounds including powering the monitor, then connecting to the MBP but that's ridiculous. It should just work with a single (correct) USB-C connection.