mac mini and usb hub

A self-power hub, should supply enough power to run multiple external drives and other low power USB devices.

A bus powered hub, may only be able to supply enough power for 1 external drive and other low power USB devices.

Another option, is to get a couple of USB-C to USB-A adapters and connect your external drives to those and use the hub for your camera and other low power USB devices.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207816

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TCCADPU3/?

https://www.target.com/p/philips-usb-c-to-3-0-usb-a-female-adapter/-/A-79804275

Actually it’s 4 USB ports, the Thunderbolt ports provide full USB functionality with any USB device using suitable adapter like this one https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1M2AM/A/usb-c-to-usb-adapter.

Start here: see if the problem disappears without the hub in the picture. If it does, ask yourself if you need one at all (i.e. have more than 4 USB devices that are in use all the time). If yes, I’d move non-Apple stuff and non-hard disks to the hub.

Poorly shielded high speed USB-C, USB 3 cables and devices can cause both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues.

see > https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201542

This is especially true with the Mac Mini’s because of it’s compact design.

First step is to rearrange your setup so that all high speed cables and devices are not in between the Mac Mini and Bluetooth device.

Next step, is to eliminate one high speed cable and device at a time until you find the one that is causing the interference.

Apologies for jumping on to this thread but I have exactly the same issues. I have a Mac Mini M1 with the following:

– LG 27 inch monitor plugged into 1 x USB C port

– 2 x 4TB desktop hard drives (powered) plugged into both USB 3 ports

– 1 x bus powered USB hub plugged into the spare USB C port, this is connected to: 1 x 8TB (powered) external hard drive, 1 x 1TB portable (non-powered) hard drive for Time Machine, 1 x webcam and occasionally used for SD cards

I regularly have slight keyboard or mouse lags and recently have woken the computer from sleep to error messages saying a couple of the hard drives have been disconnected.

I've been trying to figure out if it's the Bluetooth issue lots of Mini owners have discussed, the fact that I have a hub which doesn't have its own power supply or possibly something else causing the lags and the only other thing I can think of is the fact that I use BackBlaze to also back up everything as a failsafe. This is sometimes still backing up when I wake the computer up to work on it. Or maybe even time Machine?

I'm guessing I should start with the hub and get a decent powered one first? I've seen lots of powered hubs displaying the amount of power eg "9-in-1 USB with 100W hub", is that for a laptop and do I just need a regular powered hub?

Sorry for jumping in again... thanks.

Do you really need a hub? How many ports in total does your M1 have including Thunderbolt? How many devices needing USB? Details on the mouse too please.

Is your hub powered? Hubs can act differently between brands. especially with the New Macs. I have a 4 port USB StarTech hub (self powered) and works great with my Mac Mini M1.

Any hub hat will have external drives connected to them must be powered,

FWIW, I have a 6 port self powered Sabrent hub that is working without issue (even have a Time Machine drive connected to it).

No reason not to have a powered hub with any desktop (causes fewer connection issues.)