Am trying to see if anyone has issues with connecting Thunderbolt 3/USB-C based Mac notebooks to their Thunderbolt Displays. I used to have a Thunderbolt 2-based MacBook Pro (Mid-2015 I think, last version on it was Mojave), and I was able to use it with my display with no issues.
I've since gotten the 13" 2020 MacBook Pro refresh (the last Intel one before M1). I am currently on Big Sur 11.3 and am using an Apple Thunderbolt adapter to connect. I've been having two issues with connectivity. The first thing is that my Mac will not stay connected in clamshell mode for more than a minute. The second issue: It stays connected when leaving the lid open, but not consistently -- it can be connected anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. And sometimes it will seem to connect and disconnect over and over until I unplug the adapter from my Mac, let it sit for a minute, and try again. It really varies and has made what is going wrong hard for me to diagnose. When I can't use my Mac for more than a few minutes (even with the lid open), I end up reseating all the cables coming from the display in case it's something that's come loose.
I first suspected this was software-related since clamshell mode doesn't work, even though it worked with my last Mac. But what makes me wonder whether this is hardware-related is that the other day, I accidentally nudged my power strip with my foot, and I guess I bumped the display's power cable because the display started sporadically disconnecting again. The power cable looks fine cosmetically, it's not kinked or twisted or anything like that.
Has anyone else had similar issues to this? Am I missing something about Big Sur and clamshell mode compatibility? It seems to me like maybe this is a combination hardware (the power cable) and software (Big Sur) problem, but I'm really not sure.
I've since gotten the 13" 2020 MacBook Pro refresh (the last Intel one before M1). I am currently on Big Sur 11.3 and am using an Apple Thunderbolt adapter to connect. I've been having two issues with connectivity. The first thing is that my Mac will not stay connected in clamshell mode for more than a minute. The second issue: It stays connected when leaving the lid open, but not consistently -- it can be connected anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. And sometimes it will seem to connect and disconnect over and over until I unplug the adapter from my Mac, let it sit for a minute, and try again. It really varies and has made what is going wrong hard for me to diagnose. When I can't use my Mac for more than a few minutes (even with the lid open), I end up reseating all the cables coming from the display in case it's something that's come loose.
I first suspected this was software-related since clamshell mode doesn't work, even though it worked with my last Mac. But what makes me wonder whether this is hardware-related is that the other day, I accidentally nudged my power strip with my foot, and I guess I bumped the display's power cable because the display started sporadically disconnecting again. The power cable looks fine cosmetically, it's not kinked or twisted or anything like that.
Has anyone else had similar issues to this? Am I missing something about Big Sur and clamshell mode compatibility? It seems to me like maybe this is a combination hardware (the power cable) and software (Big Sur) problem, but I'm really not sure.