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USB 2.0 accessories suffering from connectivity issues in 2020 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

Apple's 2020 MacBook Air

Some owners of the 2020 models of Apple's MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro are said to be having problems with some USB 2.0 accessories connected through USB hubs.

An unknown number of users are reporting issues with connecting USB 2.0 devices via a hub to the 2020 models of the MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Reportedly, devices randomly disconnect, and the only element in common is that the connection has been through a hub.

"At random times during the day (2-3 times a day) my Logitech G602 mouse and external Apple Keyboard will stop responding completely and only a reboot will restore functionality," user "Retens" said on Apple's support forums. Disconnecting/reconnecting the USB Hub does not resolve the issue."

The issue was first spotted by MacRumors, which reports similar cases of disconnections, and freezing. Reportedly, the issue occurs across multiple different hubs, and with many different types of USB 2.0-based accessories.

As well as disconnecting and reconnecting the USB hub, users have rebooted, used Disk Utility, and even different user logins. One user on Reddit reports having found a workaround by changing to a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock which uses terminating proxies. Essentially, terminating proxies take the USB 2.0 accessory that is locally connected to the dock, and presents the peripherals to the host Mac as being USB 3.0 devices.

Following the story discovery on Wednesday evening, AppleInsider has conducted further testing. We couldn't reliably recreate the disconnect or freeze with a single USB 2.0 accessory connected to an Amazon Basics HU3770V1 or TP-Link UH-720 hub, but could get it to lock up with two devices on occasion.

We also tried a variety of Thunderbolt 3 docks and eGPU enclosures with USB-A ports. Nearly every dock we tried uses terminating proxies for USB, side-stepping the problem. Devices using terminating proxies will identify positively as USB 3.0 devices in System Profiler, despite only listed being capable of USB 2.0 speeds.

While users have reported contacting Apple Support about the issue, Apple has yet to comment publicly.