wired keyboard not recognised by mac mini pro M4 (in hub or dock)

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wired keyboard not recognised by mac mini pro M4 (in hub or dock)

I have got a 10 port powered usb A type hub plus a docking station connected to my mac mini pro m4, my non apple wired keyboard (mac type editors keys backlit)is plugged into the hub and had no issues since i bought mac mini and hub back in may this year 2025, but suddenly in the last 4 days each time i bootup i cannot login in because the keyboard is not recognised, the first time it happened i tried different sockets in hub, no joy, i tried it in the dock and it worked for one login, but the next time i booted up none of the sockets in the hub or the dock seem to work, only after a couple of restarts of mac mini am i able to use the keyboard, this issue happens every time i boot up my mac mini pro m4, i now have to restart it at least two or three times before the keyboard is recognised!

i have seen other post about similar issues but i see no solutions, any suggestions please.

Posted on Sep 15, 2025 01:13 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,362 points

Sep 15, 2025 01:29 PM in response to george4tape

What you’re describing sounds less like the keyboard itself failing and more like a USB handshake or power negotiation problem between the hub/dock and your Mac mini during startup. Because you mentioned it worked flawlessly for months and only started recently, I’d lean toward either a macOS update changing USB behavior, or the hub/dock not initializing fast enough before macOS is expecting input at the login screen.

Here are a few items I’d suggest trying to see if any of them can help:

Plug your keyboard directly into the Mac mini’s USB-C port (via a USB-A to USB-C adapter if needed). If it works consistently at boot, then you’ve confirmed the hub/dock handshake is the issue.
Many powered hubs can be reset by unplugging them completely (power + USB cable) for a few minutes. If yours has firmware (check manufacturer’s site), update it.
Try resetting the Mac SMC/NVRAM: On Apple Silicon, this is done by shutting down fully, unplugging power for \~15 seconds, then plugging back in.
Ok, this is a bit of an odd one, but try going to System Settings > Users & Groups > Login Options and see if Display login window as is set to Name and password (rather than List of users). Oddly, this sometimes reduces early USB device checks.

If you want to keep your current hub setup, consider plugging the keyboard into the dock’s dedicated upstream port (if it has one). Or, dedicate one Mac mini port just for the keyboard to guarantee recognition at boot, then use the hub/dock for everything else.

If the direct connection test works reliably, then the hub/dock is definitely the bottleneck. In that case, your best long-term fix may be to bypass it for the keyboard, since macOS expects input devices to be immediately ready at the firmware/boot stage—something hubs aren’t always quick enough to provide.

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