There is a loose metal tab which is preventing any thunderbolt device from connecting properly.
This appears to be an assembly issue as all I've done is use external hard drives or tethered cameras. I'm being quoted £600 to replace the logic board which is outrageous.
Is there a a cheaper fix?
Это хороший вопрос?
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What happened is a cable was inserted which for some reason snagged the connectors contact (which is what you are seeing). So basically the connector is broken ;-
Now the fun part replacing the connector! As it turns out the connectors are fastened onto the main logic board. Here you can see them:
Here is the back side of the board
It’s a lot of work to get these off and you can’t buy them as they are a custom part. Which is why you end up needing to replace the complete logic board.
I would go to a Apple Store and have them do it as you should be able to ask for the bench fee (flat rate) plus parts costs which should be the cheapest you can go.
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Thank you for being so thorough. Is it something I can pull out with tweezers? Or push back in?
Also whats a bench fee?
What happens when you bend a paperclip too many times?
These contacts are more likely to snap if you try and even if you are so lucky the contact won't have the needed springiness to mate up with the cable end reliably.
@danj "Flat Rate Repair" $357 for new board installed
I realize this is an old post, but if you still have this laptop and still haven’t found a fix (or someone else has this issue):
From your photo, it appears that the bent metal tab isn’t one of the contacts from the connector. It appears to be part of the surrounding frame for the port that got bent down towards the connectors contacts. (It may be the ground contact that needs to touch the outside of the thunderbolt cable’s connector.) It appears to be short circuiting with the contacts in the center of the connector. I would try bending it up and trying to get it flush with the upper inside surface of the opening.
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I also realise that this is an old comment to your post,
just like to say thank you as you've solved my problems
both my ports were not working, so i thought.
it was the bent metal tab as you described above preventing them to from connecting correctly,
good man yourself
thank yo thank you thank you
I know this is an old post/comment but this also saved me. carefully bending up the metal tabs and using a paper shim to get the connector inserted without rebending the metal tab indeed got my thunderbolt connector working again. properly fixing the connector so I can just plug/unplug may be impossible. probably have to take the whole logic board out and take a look at the backside.
Check this video on youtube it will be helpful to tighten your port https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_ruqSrk.
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Hi. Thanks but the pin has dropped down completely.
@amily - Sorry this is a very different connector! The person in the vid is adding a bit of tension on the grounding clip which is a very beefy spring so you could give it a bit of a bend. The Thunderbolt contact here is not the same, and besides its not a looseness issue it's a mangled contact issue.
@danj Yes the connector is different but it can be replaced as shown in video
The video shows someone bending the grounding clips up. He is not replacing.
The MacBook Pro's have the connectors either soldered directly to the logic board or in some models some of the connectors are soldered to a daughter board.
Even still I don't even try to salvage from junkers any of the ports as its just too hard to pull out without damaging them or the logic board.
I have a 2015 MBP with thunderbolt 2 ports. Yes I know it is EOL but it is the last one with the keyboard I love.
Had it into Apple in December 2023 for an old battery recall. They had to do it twice in one week because the first replacement had a bad keyboard in the topcase assembly. Then I had to go in a third time in January 2024 because they didn't calibrate the keyboard correctly (or forgot) in new topcase (function keys didn't work correctly).
Anyway I almost always run the laptop in docked mode (thunderbolt dock) at my desk and work from home.
Recently I had to travel a bit and so was plugging and unplugging the thunderbolt a bit more. First one port stopped working (noticed connector felt loose around same time) and then the second port failed within a few days after I switched to using it.
When I inspected the connectors, I didn't realize those metal tabs were in the wrong spot, but Nunio's comment is spot on. Why did both connectors fail in a short period of time after all these years? Looks like apple boned me again.
Apparently when they gutted the laptop to replace the top case, they didn't properly install the logic board, or the new topcase mounts are a little off. You can see in the attached image that the headphone jack is "too low" and not properly aligned. It is the same inside the thunderbolt ports. That top metal flange hangs down inside the connector opening in the top case. and that is why the cable snagged and destroyed these connectors after all these years.
Update July 2024. Was back in the US in the last weeks so took the laptop back to the apple store that had botched the original repair (no apple store in Portugal plus US keyboard topcase). Managed to get a tech to look at it. Pointed out the bent thunderbolt tensioner/ESD springs and the visible alignment issue with the side connectors which is the root cause of the pins getting bent.
He opened the case and showed me a photo. Apparently the guy who had done the second topcase replacement installed the thunderbolt shielding (metal sponge-like thing) on the wrong side which prevented the main logic board (MLB) from seating properly. "Your laptop should have never been given back to you in this state." he said. They offered me double trade in value or to try and fix it. Of course despite being old it is good hardware with a brandnew battery. so worth a lot more to me than tradein value even if I end up running linux on it when security updates stop (so much electronic waste Apple!).
They did manage to order a replacement logic board despite it being 2024 and this laptop is 2015 (there was some doubt whether the part order would come through) and replaced it at Apple's cost (since they botched the recall repair).
I had to fly home, so my daughter picked up the laptop for me yesterday (with new mainboard supposedly). Visibly misaligned again (fortunately she was aware of the original issue and what to check). Can't believe it. They made a big deal about "we don't usually do these out of warranty repairs". but she pointed out it was a safety recall and the only reason we were there was because their tech botched the repair. So they re-did the assembly and were more careful about the alignment the second time (another hour wait). looks much better now. Of course entirely possible the new logic board is a lemon whereas the last one has been rock solid. So frustrating to have Apple destroy my hardware. Definitely lowers my trust in their repair techs.
Bottom line. it seems on these 2015 laptops (at least) it is VERY easy to screw up main board alignment (even the apple techs did it multiple times). If the mainboard isn't perfectly seated/aligned with the top case, the connectors (including the thunderbolt) may not properly align. Then there is a very high risk that plugging in cables will snag these shielding/tensioning springs in the "cage" around the connectors.
These springs are very "springy" (spring steel?). so once bent, very low chance you will get them to stay back where they are supposed to be.
If this happens to me again, I will probably look into just "Breaking" the metal tab off (so it isn't shorting out the connector) which will cause me to lose some shielding and also means the connector will easily fall out of the jack. but hopefully at least the port works. The senior apple tech that initiated the MLB replacement wouldn't say whether breaking the tab off is a viable (although not ideal) alternative or not. I approached him with: you guys broke this and I just want to check if this part of the connector is strictly necessary before I break it off to fix it.
Image (at the apple store, they handed it back mis-aligned again after MLB replacement)
They did take it in the back and re-do the MLB seating/alignment after this photo and it looks much better now (no photo sorry).
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