My Macbook Pro Retina's USB port on the right side not working at all

Are you using the USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt connection on the left side of your MB? Does your external HD need additional power supply?

I would also check which port OWC (resp. the manufacturer of the HD) is recommending.

I am having a similar weird problem. Any ideas on how to fix? I have a late 2013 rMBP 13". the LHS works fine but for some reason when i plug in a particular powered device in the RHS, the one with HDMI port, (wall powered usb 3.0 HDD dock) it doesnt work. not recognised in disk util or finder. I can see the dock plugged in through system report but hard drive not recognised.

any thoughts? I'm pretty annoyed tbh. i know its a small issue and its easy to say just dont use the RHS lol but I would really like at least some explanation. i see no reason for a (<1month old laptop to be acting like this.

USB2.0 and usb 3.0 portable drives work fine on both sides...

I'm having the same problem on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro 15" Retina.

All on the right hand side:

USB - fail

HDMI- fail

SM Card reader- fail

The mac also reports that 'there is no card reader fitted'

It's been intermittent for about 8 months - called Apple support just before the warranty ran out on it- reset the SMC. As they suggested - all was well for about 3 months.

Now the problems returned and they don't want to know.

This will be the 4th MacBook I've owned that's gone faulty after warranty expires.

I won't be buying another..

Yet another £2000 door stop.

Have you tried resetting the SMC again?

I'm on the same boat. Resetting SMC, getting Mac OS updates used to have random positive effects, not anymore... my right usb port won't work 98% of the time. Everything I throw at it has zero effects.

I have my eye on this part: http://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Retina-Mid-2012-Early-2013-R ight-I-O-Board/IF117-016 That will be my last resort saving this faulty device. Macbook Amateur would be a proper name for this thing

I already have a box with a macbook white corpse, I truly don't know what I was thinking when I got another one.

brokenstuff - let us know how it works out if you replace the right IO board. If it works I will do this too.

I ended up taking my MBPR in for repair. Apple replaced the motherboard. Works like a champ now. Had it back in 4 days. Pretty fast IMHO.

My laptop also went in for repair. Had the motherboard replaced and the IO board. New IO board was faulty (memory card slot didn't work) so was replaced again. All has been working great now for a couple of months.

Are you getting these repairs under warranty? My warranty ended one month ago. It's like then sent out a kill signal to my usb port after that.

hey rodskogj2, for now I'm using a USB hub on the left usb port.

Thanks, This worked for me. 15" MBP 2.7 i7 Retina, 10.9.3

HI Everyone, I saw that we have all the same problem here, I'm having this problem for about a week now,

I'm using MBP 15' 2012

2.3ghz

16gb ram

1tb, 2nd caddy 500gb

OSX mavericks 10.9.4

Problem:

I can plug any usb in my left usb slot without any problem either (3.0) or (2.0) usb stick/external hard drives. the main problem is my right usb slot didn't recognise any (2.0) usb sticks/external hard drives . only the (3.0) usb sticks/external hard drives works with no problem at all with the right usb port.

after upgrading to 10.9.4 i already having this problem, searching for the web for a solution and does not find a solution. Until i went to this page and real all your comments. I saw one of the users commented that the problem might be a shortage of power in the right usb port. Until I decided why not try plug in a usb port hub. and to my surprised it really work. i even plug 3 (2.0) usb stick and my mbp reads it perfectly i even connected also my logitech receiver and it works fine. Im just suggesting so maybe we can find a solution without spending or buying another I?O motherboard.

P.S

Please let me know if my suggestion solve our problem.

Cheers!

Peng Dacumos

i too am having this problem. i have a 2012 MBP 15" retina / 16gb / 768gb / i7. for me, i started noticing the problem after upgrading from OS X MAV -> OS X YOS.

at first, people were telling me my western digital 2tb USB3 drive was bad (i have 3 of them). but when i attach that same USB drive to the LEFT SIDE USB port, i'm able to perform work without issues. it also appears to be LARGE VOLUME related ... meaning, i have a dozen or so parallel VM's and when i back them up (manually copy them), the RIGHT SIDE USB drive fails (in that the copy renders an error message and the USB3 drive is un-mounted).

i can consistently replicate the issue/problem. the USB drive is fine. other devices, like a USB mouse (things that are low-capacity) work fine. hard to tell if this is OS related or HW (mac, not usb disk) related.

if this is a known issue, would apple cover this (technically out-of-warranty)?

tom/denver

Out of the blue my right USB port now works. Completely software related, after all these OS X updates.

Now my wifi is usually wobbly. It seems now Macs are going to be known for these things.

I have the same problem. My right USB port can't read my external HD but works on my left USB port, I was guessing it is broken so I tried a flash drive and a mouse on my right USB port and it works, I also tried inserting my external HD on my PC and my dad's laptop and it works fine. Sometimes my left USB port also can not read my external HD, I have to replug it a couple of times.

I tried the SMC and PRAM reset, Safe mode, Recovery mode update my laptop to OS X Yosemite to 10.10.3 but still can't read it on the right USB port.

I can't contact external HD company since my HD is working fine on my left USB port and other computers.

I have the same but worse. I often copy large files between external disks (working with film), and lately I have 3 separate disk broken down in two months!!! I thought this was some kind of extremely bad luck.. but now, reading this thread I think this is a bigger problem... I have figured out that ALL THREE broke down using the right port of a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) ... In all three cases I did copy large amounts of files TO the disks using usb 3.0 and the copy was interrupted in the middle.

The first disk I had to reformat to be able to use it again, (luckely I had back up) and the disk started to work again. All information lost.

The second disk all information was destroyed and unaccacable on other computers. (luckely I had back up). All information lost.

The third disk totally died. Cant even do a reformat on it. All information lost.