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Why is external Thunderbolt display not hot-pluggable on 2014 MacBook Pro (Retina) in Windows 10 with Bootcamp?

My colleague has two almost identical MacBook Pro (Retina) 13" laptops - one is mid 2014 (MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) - Technical Specifications) and one is early 2015 (MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) - Technical Specifications). He also has an external 27" Thunderbolt display.


We have installed Windows 10 via Bootcamp on both but hot-plugging only works on the 2015 model. A reboot is required to get the display to appear on the 2014 model.


I have read that hot-plugging is supported on 2014 or later MacBook models (Thunderbolt ports and displays: Frequently asked questions (FAQ) - Apple Support) but that page doesn't mention anything about Windows 10.


There is a USB device that reports "set address failed" in Device Manager on the 2014 machine which may be related.


Is there any definitive information on this?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 13, 2016 7:40 AM

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15 replies

Feb 4, 2016 5:04 AM in response to f1alan

Hot plugging in bootcamp/W10 only works with the mac-mini 2014, and with the iMac 5k.

Due to the firmware in this machines with is up-to-date for hot plugging thunderbolt peripherals.

I own the same macbook pro 11,1 from mid 2014 as you, and can confirm it just does not work, a restart is needed for detection.


Many people blame microsoft for this, because they don't offer thunderbolt drivers in Windows, but leave that up to hardware-makers like asus, msi,apple etc.

In this case it seams to be hardware (firmware) related to Apple, various (bootcamp) drivers won't solve it.


http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-hotplug-on-windows-10.1819920/

Feb 4, 2016 6:04 AM in response to Hoopertje

Thank you for that information. It is good to know that it is the same for you on the same hardware.


Actually I did get a reply to the bug report this week which pretty much says the same thing. It is a shame that their FAQ is not more explicit rather than just saying "Thunderbolt hot plug is supported under Windows 8 or 8.1 on all 2014 and later Mac computers.". It would also be good if AppleCare were aware of the limitations.


I hope that this forum thread will be helpful for others and save them some time.

Why is external Thunderbolt display not hot-pluggable on 2014 MacBook Pro (Retina) in Windows 10 with Bootcamp?

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