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Mac Mini won't connect to Thunderbolt 4 SSD

Hey everyone! 🙋‍♂️

Sorry if this is not the place to ask this, I would appreciate if you coul then reccomend aplace where to send this to, but I recently picked up a base M4 Mac Mini and paired it with a Qwizzlab Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosure to expand my storage. I’ve got everything hooked up, but I’m running into an issue with the SSD connection.

When I use the USB4 cable in the two front ports, the SSD shows up in Finder without any issues (though it’s obviously limited to slower speeds since those ports don’t support 40Gbps USB 4). However, when I connect the SSD to one of the three back ports, it doesn’t show up at all in Finder, Disk Utility, or even when I check with terminal commands.

The weird thing is, the SSD has an LED indicator that shows it’s connected, and the light seems to indicate USB 4 speeds, so it should be working fine. But no luck getting it to show up on my Mac.

I’ve already tried resetting Finder preferences, checking Disk Utility, and even troubleshooting with terminal commands to no avail. Has anyone else experienced this kind of issue, or is there something I’m missing here? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated! 🙏

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 21, 2024 8:10 AM

Reply
12 replies

Nov 27, 2024 2:35 AM in response to xaviertrmata

I have the same issue with my new Mac Mini M4 and my HP Thunderbolt Dock.

External drive (for example an HP P800) are not accepted. A message appears to "use a TB port on the Mac Mini".


Strange, as all these devices are Thunderbolt certified.

Unfortunately, that happens with my external USB3.2 disks as well.


But when I connect my MacBook Pro M1Max to the same hub and connect the same drives, whether TB or USB3.x all external drives are instantly recognized (and the HP P800 has the same drive speed as my internal Mac Mini ssd).


So, I guess it is an Mac Mini issue.

Mac Mini Pro and M1Max do not have this issue.


I think I will send my Mac Mini back, as I assume that the integrated Thunderbolt controler is junk.

Mac Mini won't connect to Thunderbolt 4 SSD

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