USB C / Thunderbolt 3 port issues after Ventura upgrade

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USB C / Thunderbolt 3 port issues after Ventura upgrade

I just recently upgraded my MacBook Pro 16" to Ventura. Immediately I noticed that the USB C ports seemed to be behaving strangely (I have a T3 hub connected to one of the ports and an external monitor connected to another port via USB-C). I had to reconnect the T3 hub to one of the other ports on the MacBook for it to be recognised. In the process of checking further into this issue I then realised at a later point that the T3 hub was no longer providing power to the MacBook (normally this hub is connected whenever I use the MacBook at my desk and provides the power) - but when I then connected an external 90W apple power supply, regardless of what USB-C port I attached the power cable to, the power was not being supplied to the laptop. Eventually, with battery at 4% I had to power down the MacBook. With the USB-C ports not working, and no way to get the MacBook to recognise a power supply, I am stuck. Any advice, and has anyone else seen this sort of problem?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 30, 2022 11:33 AM

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PDS-01 Author

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Oct 30, 2022 12:47 PM in response to PDS-01

Update to the above, if helpful for others. Contacted Apple support and they walked me through combination of a) resetting the power management - Reset the SMC of your Mac – Apple Support (UK)) which didn't appear to make any difference, then tried b) restart in recovery mode. In the 2 steps above, I kept the 96W power adaptor connected to the MacBook. When I restarted in recovery mode, the power adaptor started working, and you would see that the battery icon now displayed the "charging" symbol. I was then advised to shut down again and restart in safe mode (via Safe Boot) - again, starting in safe mode the charger was operating as expected and I checked that the charger was being accepted in each of the 4 USB-C/T3 ports on the machine, so I was then advised to shut down one more time and restart normally. At this point, after the final reboot, everything seems to be back to "normal". The external power adaptor is charging the battery, and when I connected the different peripherals (eg T3 hub with connected external drives, speakers etc) or the external monitor via USB-C) all is working as expected. So thanks go to the Apple Support who walked me through a few different options, and what seemed to work for me was the restart into Recovery mode which then seems to have removed or over-written whatever software glitch with the Ventura install had caused the USB-C/T3 ports to malfunction...

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USB C / Thunderbolt 3 port issues after Ventura upgrade

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