Bug: MacOs Monterey Can Disable USB Devices

Mac users report problems after upgrading to the brand new macOS Monterey. USB hubs and adapters work poorly or not at all on them. The problem had already arisen in the beta phase.

Apparently, there is a serious bug in macOS Monterey, the Apple operating system for Mac computers released on October 25, 2021. As evidenced by a number of forum entries, the Apple developers have already known it since the beta versions, but it still made it into the current version 12.0.1.

Hubs and adapters will not work to varying degrees

The bug is that USB hubs and other adapters can only be operated to a limited extent or not at all on the Macs. These are all hubs or adapters that are connected to the USB-C port, but offer additional connections themselves.

In some cases, users reported that their hub’s USB 3.0 ports have stopped working since upgrading to Monterey, while HDMI, USB-C, and other hub ports continue to work as expected. In still other cases, HDMI and/or Power Delivery will not work. There are also reports of hubs that are no longer working.

Even hubs certified by Apple can be affected. All those affected reports that their hubs previously – i.e. under Big Sur – had worked perfectly.

A clear pattern is missing – apparently Monterey’s fault alone

It’s hard to see a clear pattern beyond the fact that Monterey is in action. At first, Macs with the new M1 chips seemed to be particularly affected. In the meantime, however, Intel Mac users are also reporting the same problems.

Affected people report that Apple support should have confirmed the problems to them. There it is assumed that they will be eliminated with an upcoming patch. However, Apple has not officially commented on the problem. So if you are dependent on the hub functionality, you should probably wait with the update to Monterey until Apple has released a patch.