Chosen Solution
When I connect my iPhone 11 to my 2012 MacBook Pro using the USB lightening cable, nothing happens - the phone does not charge, nothing changes on the MacBook not even momentarily. I have tried another cable and USB port but it’s always the same. I have tested both cables with wall charger and all is well. I have also tried connecting to an iMac and again as soon as I connect the phone charges and a message pops up on the iMac. So I am guessing it’s an issue with my MacBook. I have put a USB stick in both ports and this works OK, I have also connected my 2TB portable hard drive to both ports on the MacBook and again it works fine. I have reset SMC & PRAM but it has not done anything. It worked OK a few weeks ago when I got the phone! Any ideas?
Ok so for anybody else with the same issue (USB3 devices work, USB2 don’t or are intermittent). Connecting a powered USB3 hub to either USB port then allows me to connect USB2 devices (iPhone) to the hub and for them to charge and sync as normal. This indicates a likely power issue - have obtained a copy of the schematic for the Macbook and looked at the USB ports I can see that the power to the USB sockets for USB2 is controlled by U4600 which is a TPS2561DR. This seems like the most feasible cause. Also various Google searches back this up as it seems a part that is often replaced. I am fortunate that I work for a company that produce electronic equipment (I write software) so they have all of the necessary facilities to remove and replace the chip (which is only £1.90!) - so that’s my long term plan - but will do that once I clear current work load!
Lets get some deeper info here. As an example here’s my 2012 system, with a external SSD plugged in
Open the About This Mac > System Report and check your USB ports with your 2 TB external drive, then open the app a second time now with your iPhone plugged in post a snapshot of both here so we can see Adding images to an existing question
