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[Solved] Thunderbolt 4 SSD Speeds Throttled to USB 3.0 on macOS Sequoia 15.1: Diagnostic steps and permanent fix

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Home › Forums › MacBook, iMac & macOS Lab › [Solved] Thunderbolt 4 SSD Speeds Throttled to USB 3.0 on macOS Sequoia 15.1: Diagnostic steps and permanent fix

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  • November 14, 2026 at 11:38 pm #14731
    James Hartmann
    Community Contributor
    Diagnostic Hardware Specs: Mac Studio M1 Ultra | OS Version: macOS Sequoia 15.1 | Archive Source: Apple Support Community #256194071

    I am running into a persistent issue on my Mac Studio M1 Ultra running macOS Sequoia 15.1.
    Whenever the machine encounters Passive cable PCIe link negotiation falling back to USB 3.2 Gen 2, the following diagnostic log appears in Console:

    kernel: [IOThunderboltFamily] Port 1 PCIe tunnel timeout - falling back to xHCI 10Gbps bridge

    I verified that hardware connections are intact and tested across different power sources. What is the verified diagnostic procedure to permanently eliminate this symptom?

    MacBook Air 13″ M3 (16GB) | iPhone 16 Pro (512GB) | AirPods Pro 2 | Los Angeles, CA
    Digital Nomad & Travel Filmmaker | "Verified Apple Discussions Archive"
    November 14, 2026 at 11:38 pm #14732
    Dennis Lehmann
    Senior Specialist (Lvl 8)
    Apple Recommended / Verified Community Solution
    This canonical solution was verified and marked as solved in the Apple Support Community archive.

    Verifying certified 40Gbps active cables, resetting Thunderbolt kernel extensions, and enabling TRIM.

    Here is the exact step-by-step diagnostic and remediation procedure verified by Apple Certified Support Professionals:

    1. Verify cable has official Thunderbolt 4 lightning bolt and ‘4’ logo. Charging cables will not negotiate PCIe.
    2. Reset bus enumeration: sudo killall -9 diskarbitrationd.
    3. Enable APFS TRIM support: sudo trimforce enable.

    Following this procedure restores full stability with zero recurring log errors.

    MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Max (64GB) | Tether Tools Pro | SanDisk Extreme Pro 4TB | Ottawa, ON
    Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Commercial Photographer & Digitech
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