One of three thunderbolt ports not detecting external ssd intermittently

I have an external ssd that connects fine to all usb ports except one on my brand new Mac Mini M4 Pro. The thunderbolt port closest to the power port only detects the drive randomly… when it is working, this port works without issue.

However, If I safely eject the drive or put the computer to sleep while connected to the usb port in question the drive disconnects. When I try to reconnect the drive, it’s undetected by disk utility and finder. What’s strange is it shows up under system connected thunderbolt usb.

I currently have a monitor connected to this usb port without issue yet.

Should I be concerned that one of the thunderbolt ports only detects the external drive very intermittently? I would think that all the ports should be able to detect drives and devices without hiccups.