2018 13 inch MBP USB Ports

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TLDR; skip to last paragraph?

I have a 2018 13 inch MacBook Pro where all four of the USB C ports seem to have all failed at once.

It started acting up a few months ago, not charging. I thought it was a bad cable, since I could unplug the cable from the power brick and plug it back in, and it would charge again for a while. When I noticed it had gotten down to about 30% battery, I replaced the cable with one that works on other Macs. and it didn't make a difference.

To be safe, I decided to do a final backup to an external drive, and it didn't show the drive being plugged in. Of course, the longer I tried things, the battery percentage kept going down. Finally, I manually copied files I had changed since last backup, over Wi-Fi to another Mac in case I couldn't solve the problem.

I tried SMC reset, PRAM reset, etc, to no avail. Finally, I just reset the Mac to factory defaults (i.e. the Welcome screen would come up upon reboot) when it had reached around 10% power, but still no joy. Now it's a stylish, but otherwise useless paperweight sitting on my desk. Argghh, I replaced the screen less than a year ago for almost $300, maybe a bad investment.

Long story short, I'm wondering if there is some common piece of hardware, other than the logic board itself, that links all four ports? If I have to replace the whole logic board, I'd be better off just keeping it for the screen and whatever other spare parts, and buying a used one that works.

Thanks in advance.

Gary the Gringo Geek
Mindo, Ecuador
 
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Hi Gary,

This can be a firmware issue. I had the same thing happen on my MacBook Pro. I brought mine into the Apple Store and they fixed it by reviving my Mac using Apple Configurator.

I have done this afterwards on a friends MacBook pro that had a similar issue where some USB ports wouldn't charge.

You will need another Mac to do this with. Here is the the link on how to do a revive. Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac
 
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Thanks MacsBug. Unrelated to your solution, but I've become even more confused. After the Mac had been powered off for quite a few days and presumed dead, I tried firing it up this morning and was greeted by the "Hello" screen along with a message that it was running on reserve power. I tried plugging in again, but on a different port, and it started charging. Maybe it was just a dirty USB port after all. I will try cleaning the ports with a toothpick or something, maybe some lint or whatnot got in some of the ports and is keeping the plug from fully seating.

Now the touch bar has started flashing (very annoying). So I disabled it as much as I could with software settings and just put a piece of black electrical tape over it.
 
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Glad to hear that your Mac started charging again. For cleaning USB-C ports, I'd recommend using compressed air if possible. A toothpick might work too, but be careful not to damage the contacts inside. As for your touch bar flashing, it could be a software or hardware issue. I'd recommend trying to reset the SMC once more after the Mac has charged up a bit, as this sometimes solves touch bar issues.
 

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