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Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
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In the meantime, I would suggest contacting the vendor your dock/hub and asking for a statement about their compatibility with MacOS Monterey, explaining the problem you are having with their product.
 
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Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,993
1,724
I’m done. Enjoy listening to no one.
I think the OP is genuinely stuck and probably doesn't understand the difference between passive adapters and active devices with software drivers such as hubs and docks. Some cables (e.g. Thunderbolt) have active electronics in the cable, so it may not be obvious what these adapters are doing.
 

killawat

macrumors 68000
Sep 11, 2014
1,961
3,609
I can't backup my data because I can't connect external hard drives, so cloud is the only option, I guess.
Do you have an external drive you can format and install a bootable copy of MacOS on? Obviously don't use a dock for this.

Assuming that the hardware is OK you should be able to see the drive when you reboot into recovery mode.

If recovery mode doesn't show any drives and its starting to look more and more like a hardware issue then I would treat it as an emergency and prioritize getting a networked NAS device such as a QNAP or Synology. Put it on your network and then backup to a disk image. Then let Apple replace the hardware.
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,993
1,724
@iHorseHead Can you provide a list of all devices involved in your configuration:

The USB hub or dock model numbers (with a photo or link to the vendor / manufacturer)

A list of all devices that you are trying to connect to the Mac via the dock/hub.

A description of cables and connection configuration, e.g. "1TB Samsung model xxx HDD connected via micro-USB to USB-A cable (USB 3.1gen1) to USB-A port of dock. Dock connected to USB-C port of MacBook Air."

The more precise the information, the better the answers the forum can provide.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,204
7,355
Perth, Western Australia
macOS 12 is still new.

If it doesn't work for what you do, roll back to 11. Same as in Windows land - if you upgrade to a new version of Windows, stuff breaks occasionally.

I've got a huge amount of Windows software that simply won't work on modern PCs.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
How?
Do I need to use Disk utility again and make an bootable installation media / use USB stick? Is there a simpler way or that hasn't changed?
Ok this is likely to be late. But don’t even think about easy downgrade on apple silicon Mac without some hassle. I’m feeling graceful that apple still say downgrading system is ok even though every single apple store staff tells user downgrading is not possible. Or maybe apple doesn’t say that. Idk.
 
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Lioness~

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2017
3,408
4,247
Keep Time-machine copies to roll back to if new OS doesn’t work as it should.
Or save some time to not upgrade immediately. I almost never upgrade before .1 version.
Have 2 Macs, so you can go on and have ice in brain/stomach with everything when those things happen that can get you irritated. When at peace, you get less mess, and solve things easier.
Love your Mac, it needs your love, good practice because you don’t get love back.
But it will help your mental evolution ?
 

ZebedeeG

macrumors regular
Apr 26, 2021
215
309
Why would they do that when they could just go back to BigSur where everything worked.
To be fair if you own an Apple silicon Mac it's not anything like as easy to just "go back" to a previous OS as it used to be.

I've just partitioned my SSD and done a clean install of Monterey on the new partition, and it does seem to be an improvement and less buggy. So far at least as it's less than 24 hours... ?

To go back to Big Sur would have involved making a bootable USB, which I could do, but it's just about at the limit of my ability and I really don't want to brick my iMac when it's less than 6 months old so I chickened out even though I'd have liked to. (Recovery mode only gave me the option of reinstalling Monterey.)

I don't regret buying my M1 iMac - I LOVE it! ?

But I do seriously wish I had waited before upgrading from Big Sur to Monterey.

I'm not a computer professional. I'm very much a consumer, and I just want my Mac to work properly 99% of the time and not have to worry about memory leaks, crashes, or simple features just plain not working! (Even on my clean install Do Not Disturb doesn't work - but hey... It's irritating but minor, I just have to remember to turn the volume down. But it did blooming work on Big Sur!)

Now I have a partitioned disk I'll use the other half to try out the next version of macOS and make sure it works properly before I make that my main partition, so I don't fall into the same trap again.

But I really shouldn't have to think like this - whatever happened to "It just works!" ?
(I remember Snow Leopard and for me it honestly did just work faultlessly every day.)

These days it seems that macOS is only stable after several updates, and not all of us either want to, or are up to, testing beta software.
 
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ZebedeeG

macrumors regular
Apr 26, 2021
215
309
Keep Time-machine copies to roll back to if new OS doesn’t work as it should.

Tried that!

It would seem that Apple silicon won't let you do it. I selected my last backup on Big Sur and when I told it to restore, it said I have to reinstall Monterey then use Migration Assistant to recover my data...

They do seem to have made it as difficult as possible to go back - which would be just fine if everything worked!
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,993
1,724
macOS 12 is still new.

If it doesn't work for what you do, roll back to 11. Same as in Windows land - if you upgrade to a new version of Windows, stuff breaks occasionally.

I've got a huge amount of Windows software that simply won't work on modern PCs.

My experience with the last few iterations of MacOS is that it often takes 2-3 minor release upgrades for the latest version to "stabilize". Apple seem to introduce a few things that don't work too well in the "dot-zero" release, or at least have done for recent OSX versions.

The only time I would adopt a new version of MacOS is buying a brand new machine that co-incides with the typical October release timeframe for MacOS.

Whenever I can, I wait for 3 "dot-releases" of a new version of MacOS or about 4-6 months after release; this is generally enough time to fix the unintended negative side-effects of a new release.
 

Lioness~

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2017
3,408
4,247
Tried that!

It would seem that Apple silicon won't let you do it. I selected my last backup on Big Sur and when I told it to restore, it said I have to reinstall Monterey then use Migration Assistant to recover my data...

They do seem to have made it as difficult as possible to go back - which would be just fine if everything worked!
Sorry for your problems. **** happens with Macs too ;)
Sometimes you have to delete and reinstall, and then restore from TM, or from CCC. I keep both backups.
 
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ZebedeeG

macrumors regular
Apr 26, 2021
215
309
Sorry for your problems. **** happens with Macs too ;)
Sometimes you have to delete and reinstall, and then restore from TM.

Yeah - that's fair enough. But it is annoying when something was working rather well and it's not easy to just go back to that. (Really I just can't get back to Big Sur with TM.)

I'm left with the feeling that I've somehow made a terrible mistake and messed up my new computer!

Apple have a generous return policy for their hardware - it'd be nice if they were as generous with their software... ?

Monterey 12.6 will no doubt be great!
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
8,142
7,120
...unless you use DisplayLink as the OP is doing.

I've used a DisplayLink dock with a couple of computer and the quality is pretty good (even for things like video editing). However, I did find it quite finnicky with reliability - sometimes monitors wouldn't wake-up, or rescale, or reposition windows (swapping desktops). In short, it's not fool-proof and is not the best solution if you have other options. Unfortunately, the 2020 M1 MBA and MBP don't have any other options for multiple displays.
The point here is that is not officially supported by Apple. Apple only specs the computer for one external display. Anything else is hacks or workarounds. Both of which are unsupported.
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,993
1,724
The point here is that is not officially supported by Apple. Apple only specs the computer for one external display. Anything else is hacks or workarounds. Both of which are unsupported.
I'm not sure I'd call DisplayLink as a "hack" - it is used in many office settings to provide multiple displays for laptop users. I understand that it is not officially supported by Apple, but DisplayLink themselves do provide MacOS drivers, so it has at least some vendor support. It's not ideal though, and I stopped using it with my M1 Mini and MBP16 because I had the option of running 2 displays directly from the machine or via a Thunderbolt dock.
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
8,142
7,120
The question was whether you can plug your devices into the Mac directly, not using any hubs or docks, but using passive adapters (USB-A to USB-C) if necessary.

If the disk can't connect to the your Mac's USB-C/TB3 ports directly then either the Mac is faulty or your exteranl devices are.

OP - you need to describe exactly what you are doing - which devices, which cables, which adapters/docks/hubs (model numbers). Or just send photos of the set up so we can see what you are doing.

You need to set a baseline that does not involve the hubs/docks to check that your computer and peripherals are working. Then we can start to isolate the problems with the dock/hub.
Agreed. You need to take variables out of the equation. DONT USE ANY DOCK OR HUB!!! Can you use ANYTHING with the built in ports?
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
8,142
7,120
I'm not sure I'd call DisplayLink as a "hack" - it is used in many office settings to provide multiple displays for laptop users. I understand that it is not officially supported by Apple, but DisplayLink themselves do provide MacOS drivers, so it has at least some vendor support. It's not ideal though, and I stopped using it with my M1 Mini and MBP16 because I had the option of running 2 displays directly from the machine or via a Thunderbolt dock.
But again it’s not officially supported by Apple. So it might not work. Yes it’s a hack to bypass hardware limitations that force displays to use CPU. Maybe it’s not fully bug proof for arm chips? Still doesn’t make it Apple’s fault since they don’t advertise or list X more displays can be used with DisplayLink. Their specs state one external display. Using more than one is outside the spec which is not supported. Doing unsupported things results in just this type of issue.
 
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jaymack89

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2021
2
0
Hey!
The last year I got myself a MacBook Air M1 and I was really impressed with it. After upgrading to macOS 12 I started facing so many issues that I'm almost going insane here.
I am so tired of nothing working. I connect my docking station to my MacBook (even downloaded the drivers) and everything appeared to work.
After the reboot all of my USB devices stopped working. Everything works just fine on my Windows PCs.

Also, everything worked perfectly in Big Sur. I even downloaded DisplayLink manager for macOS 12 specifically.

I am really disappointed in Apple, really. I have never faced such issues before. Even with Lion that people just hated and called it buggy I never had SUCH issues.
i just got the 2020 macbook air last week cuz battery died on my 2014 and it would not run with only AC power adapetr, i don't know why, but i have no issues with my Monterey. I also updated my moms macbook pro which hadn't been updated since 2018 and hers is running with no issues either. Maybe you got some kind of virus or something else. It seems like your a busy body with your usb's, etc. and whatever the F@ck else you're doing on there. Maybe that's contributing to your issues. But i personally hate computers b/c one little thing goes wrong and nothing works.
 

mword

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2021
2
1
Hey!
The last year I got myself a MacBook Air M1 and I was really impressed with it. After upgrading to macOS 12 I started facing so many issues that I'm almost going insane here.
I am so tired of nothing working. I connect my docking station to my MacBook (even downloaded the drivers) and everything appeared to work.
After the reboot all of my USB devices stopped working. Everything works just fine on my Windows PCs.

Also, everything worked perfectly in Big Sur. I even downloaded DisplayLink manager for macOS 12 specifically.

I am really disappointed in Apple, really. I have never faced such issues before. Even with Lion that people just hated and called it buggy I never had SUCH issues.
 
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darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
18,366
10,128
Atlanta, GA
Agreed. You need to take variables out of the equation. DONT USE ANY DOCK OR HUB!!! Can you use ANYTHING with the built in ports?
Things which have been confirmed to work is the starting point I would suggest.

For the people who are having issues, what happens when you you go 'computer > display > hub' instead of 'computer > hub > display'?
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,993
1,724
I bought a Mac Mini and I was having problems with it too. I completely erased Apple and installed Windows and it works great. I had to install some drivers for Bluetooth and Wifi.
How is this at all relevant to the OP's question about an Apple Silcon M1 MBA? He has no option to install Windows...

His options are to (1) roll back to Big Sur, or (2) Wait for a driver fix from the device vendors or hope a MacOS upgrade fixes it, or (3) Buy a supported USB/Thunderbolt Dock (4) Buy a different computer to use his dock with (Intel Mac, or Windows PC)
 
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RONAL RAGUN

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2021
1
0
I just made an account to post in this thread. For some reason this brain-damaging thread showed up as an "opinion" article in my Google News feed and I just wanted to implore OP to either sell his machine and get a different one, or get a new hub.

Six pages of complete nonsense back and forth...
 

turbineseaplane

macrumors P6
Mar 19, 2008
17,399
40,187
I think the OP is genuinely stuck and probably doesn't understand the difference between passive adapters and active devices with software drivers such as hubs and docks. Some cables (e.g. Thunderbolt) have active electronics in the cable, so it may not be obvious what these adapters are doing.

Also -- in the OPs defense, this whole situation sucks.
Basically no normal users understand any of these differences (nor should they have to).

It's incredible how things keep getting better on the technology front, but the accessibility front is just abhorrent. All these different fragmented standards and capabilities for ports and cables -- some that even look identical (which makes it WAY worse).

The USB-C port was supposed to be so great, but it's a total failure when a port looks identical across very different feature sets and capabilities.
 
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