Okay, so I ran into this super annoying problem the other day. I’ve been loving my Stream Deck for controlling, well, everything, but I recently got a new docking station for my Mac setup. And guess what? They didn’t want to play nice together. The Stream Deck just wouldn’t work when plugged into the dock. Total bummer.
I started by doing what anyone would do: I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Nope. Nothing. Still dead. Then I thought, “Maybe it’s the port?” So, I tried every single USB port on the docking station. Still nothing. The Stream Deck was totally unresponsive – no lights, no display, nothing at all.
My next thought was, “Okay, maybe it’s the cable?” I swapped out the USB cable for another one I had lying around. No dice. At this point, I was starting to get a little frustrated.
Troubleshooting Deep Dive
Then I started to search on internet, and then try them one by one.
- Direct Connection Test: I unplugged the Stream Deck from the docking station and plugged it directly into my Mac. Boom! It sprang to life. Okay, so the Stream Deck itself was fine, and the cable was probably okay too (since it worked directly connected). This narrowed it down to the docking station or some weird interaction between the dock and the Mac.
- Docking Station Firmware: I checked the manufacturer’s website for my docking station to see if there were any firmware updates. There weren’t any, it seemed like update automatically. Bummer, that would have been an easy fix.
- Different USB port:Check the Stream Deck with other USB port on the docking station, I tried all of them, USB-A and USB-C. No luck.
- Restart everything: I restarted my Mac, the docking station (by unplugging its power), and the Stream Deck (again, by unplugging it). Still nothing.
- Try another Mac Device:Tried to use another older Mac device, same issues, seems not related to my new Mac.
Finally, I tried something really basic: I connected a different USB device (my external hard drive) to the same port on the docking station that I was trying to use for the Stream Deck. The hard drive worked perfectly! Okay, so the port itself wasn’t the problem. What the heck?
The Solution (Sort Of)
In the end, I still use direct connection to my Mac, and leave it there. And the docking station works well with other device, I am not sure why, but I decide to leave it as is.
It’s not the most elegant solution, but at least my Stream Deck is back in action. I can still use all the other ports on my docking station, so it’s not a total disaster. Just a bit of a head-scratcher. If anyone has any brilliant ideas why this might be happening, let me know!