Does Daily Plugging and Unplugging Damage Mac Mini Ports?

[AGVOL]

I'm planning to buy a Mac Mini M4 and will need to bring it to the office every day. This means I'll be plugging and unplugging cables (monitor, power, peripherals, etc.) frequently. For those of you who have used a Mac Mini (like the M2 or earlier), have you experienced any wear or damage to the ports from regular use? Any tips to ensure the ports last longer?

 

[Lihp8270]

USB-C has a minimum rating of 10000 insertion and removal cycles.

Iirc, hdmi is similar.

 

[1madman1]

One of the USB-C ports on my 2019 Macbook is worn out. Same thing happened to my 2017.

Daily plugging and unplugging of a USB-C dock on our Dell Latitudes at my workplace seems to wear out the port in 2 or 3 years.

 

[AGVOL]

One of the USB-C ports on my 2019 Macbook is worn out. Same thing happened to my 2017.

Daily plugging and unplugging of a USB-C dock on our Dell Latitudes at my workplace seems to wear out the port in 2 or 3 years.

really, that's not a long term

 

[Fishrrman]

My thoughts to your concerns are... YES... daily "unplugging and re-plugging" WILL wear out the ports sooner than they would otherwise wear out.

If you've ever delved into the MacBook area here at macrumors, you might have seen posts by some users who complain that their HDMI port (on their MacBook Pros) has "gone loose" on them, quite early in fact.

I have a possible solution for you:
Get a used/new-old-stock Caldigit TS3Plus dock.
Can be found on ebay for under $100.

This is a thunderbolt 3 dock, NOT a tbolt4 or tbolt5 dock.
But... for connections that don't need tbolt4, it should work fine.

Make all your peripheral connections to the dock.
Use a single tbolt3 cable to connect to the Mini.

That's still "one connection" to be made/broken, but only one.
The rest should take care of themselves in the dock.

Hmmm... you'd need a second dock "for work"...
But, it is, what it is.

No Macs at work?

 

[rezwits]

Short answer: YES
Long answer: Well back in the old days of ADB, I had the same question how many times can I do this? Apple actually had a number like 3.000 plug-in and unplugs, no joke! So from back then in the 80s-90s I was always like "Don't be plugging in and unplugging like crazy" But honestly if anything you get at least 5,000 now days. But who knows maybe less! But they do have "those stats" somewhere...

 

[haralds]

On connections that are not Thunderbolt, you could use cheap, short dongles or extensions.

 

[Cave Man]

I’ve been using Macs since the ADB ports. FireWire 400/800, USB-A, USAB-C, Lightning. The only one that has ever worn out is a USB-C port on my 2017 MacBook Pro. USB-C is awful as far as I’m concerned.

 

[Kenny99]

I have been using this for my M1 and now for my M4. I have three 1T "Spinner" external drives for Music, Photos, and Files. As I don't access these on a regular bases (copy them to my M4 for access and work), the Switch allows me to turn them on and off as needed. Any wear on the ports are on the switch and not the M4. Also the USB connector now has a USB to USB-C adaptor to the M4. Hope someday someone will make a USB-C / Thunderbolt SWITCH.

Powered USB 3.1/3.2 Hub, VANOTOM 7-Port Charging USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 Hub, Superspeed USB Splitter up to 10Gbps with Power Adapter and Individual On/Off Switches for PC and Laptop.​

 

[BrianBaughn]

Regarding the USB-C ports…I'd use however many hubs would be necessary, leave them connected to the Mini and move the whole lot between locations. Hubs are cheaper to replace than the Mini.

There's a lot of content on the web regarding the newer Mini and portability but when you search you'll notice that it's either hard (or impossible) to find any official Apple information making those claims.

 

[Jim Lahey]

USB-C is a mechanical calamity and is not suitable for heavy use over extended timescales. Especially with inflexible Thunderbolt cables that stress the port when disturbed. Anyone is entitled to disagree but they'll soon change their tune when their first socket fails. You can buy 40Gbps female>male adapters to pop in and use as surrogate, replaceable sockets. Obviously that means you'll have unsightly appendages hanging out of your machine when not in use but it's better than breaking your computer.