Thunderbolt 3 not working

[mike-u]

Thanks so much for this guide, and I'm still willing to donate if you ever change your mind. I have Mojave 10.14.5 running perfectly on my 9550 now, but the only part that isn't working is Thunderbolt 3. I have a new Apple TB3-TB2 adapter that worked on a different Windows laptop, so I believe it's not broken. I'm ok with not being able to hot-plug it, so I always boot up with it attached, and I get a 'USB Controller' menu bar icon with an option to 'Power off card', so it does recognize it somewhat. But under System Report no Thunderbolt device is listed. From reading this forum post and looking at my config.plist it seems like the patch to enable Thunderbolt 3 is already enabled. I haven't made any changes to the steps you put in your guide so it's still a default install.

Specifically I'm trying to use it with another Apple Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter (which works with an older Macbook) to connect to a Firewire audio interface. So far it isn't being detected - no audio interface shows up under Sound preferences, no Firewire ports show up under System Report (they do when it's active).

I've also tried using the adapter with a Lacie Thunderbolt drive, and it doesn't power on or show up in Disk Utility, so I don't think it's an audio-specific issue.

In my BIOS I have Thunderbolt security disabled, and all the Thunderbolt boot/pre-boot options enabled.

Do you have any suggestions? Do you need any more information from me to diagnose any problems? I've attached an ioreg dump if that helps.

Thanks again much for the guide.

[NagaRhul]

Any answer to this? I also have a eGPU enclosure and Thunderbolt 3 simply doesn't work. No USB devices connected are recognized (but they certainly work in Clover of all places.)

[krim404]

USB works well, TB not. Many reports it's not working and i cannot fix it because i dont own any TB hardware to test it with. Completly dependent on the work of outsiders here.

It seems to be possible, but it requires many modifications and the people who got it to work didnt share their configuration... :-(

[lamhoangtung]

@wmchris Is this possible to make hot plugging with the USB Type C port work ?

[krim404]

thunderbolt most likely no. usb, hdmi and pd: yes.

[lamhoangtung]

Yeah. Hot plugging with HDMI and USB-A already works. But not USB-C for me. How about your @wmchris ?

[krim404]

usb c works, no thunderbolt.

[lamhoangtung]

What MacOS version are you using @wmchris ?. I'm at 11.1 and the USB C are not hot pluggable

[golimpio]

Sorry if I misunderstood the question, but I have an external SSD, and it has an USB-C to USB-C interface. I could attach and detach it from usb-c any time. Is it a particular device that's failing to work?

I've tested it on Big Sur up to 11.5.1.

I'm running Monterey beta 4 now, and it's not as good as Big Sur, after I eject the disk, next time I have to plug it 2 or 3 times before it gets recognised. But it's a beta version, so I don't expect it to be flawless right now.

[lamhoangtung]

Thanks for your reply @golimpio.

I also had an external SSD from Samsung and it also had an USB-C to USB-C interface as well as a type c dongle for wired ethernet. Both of them works but only for the first time of each boot. If i detach it from the USB-C port or leave the machine goes to sleep, the USB-C port will stop working until I reboot the machine. Thus making it not hot pluggable.

I'm using 11.1 at the moment. So upgrading to 11.5.1 like you might solve the problem. But I had a side question. Do I need to do a fresh install to go from 11.1 to 11.5.1, or can I do it with OTA? Will an update of everything in the EFI and OTA do the trick ?

[golimpio]

I'm wondering why this isn't working for you even on 11.1, but I guess it's worth to update EFI and macOS. My external SSD enclosure is a generic one from eBay, so there's nothing special about it.

Anyway, a normal upgrade via Software Update should work fine, I haven't experienced any issues doing it in the past versions of Big Sur, up to 11.5.1 (the only difference is that I've done the update for every single Big Sur version).

The last EFI I used for Big Sur was the one from this repository. There is a new OC and new kexts versions released this month, but I haven't tested it on Big Sur.

But since I lost some data in the past when an updated failed for some reason (it wasn't Big Sur), I always have a time machine backup updated, just in case :)

Since OpenCore, I've found the update process a lot more stable, recently, I've upgraded from Big Sur to Monterey (beta 4) the same way and everything worked just fine.

[lamhoangtung]

Thanks @golimpio

So commit 3d0aaea should be fine for Big Sur right ?

[golimpio]

So commit 3d0aaea should be fine for Big Sur right ?

Yes, it should be fine. Hope this fix your issue.

[krim404]

as i have it working directly with two different XPS15 9550 machines since version 10.14, i'm sure there is something else faulty. most likely a wrong usb injector kext, maybe a custom or faulty one.

i tested usb-c frequently with usb-c yubikeys, power adapters, usb hubs, the dell usb c accessories, network adapters and iphones - all work flawless.

[lamhoangtung]

I've just updated to 11.5.1 and the issue still persist. Are there any other information I can provide so you guys can point me to more clear direction to fix this @wmchris, @golimpio ? Thanks

[golimpio]

Unfortunately I'm out of ideas, driver/device id are the same here. Since you've used the kexts/config from this repository, your settings should be the same from what I had.