Usbutil For - Mac
$ usbutil monitor ** (usbutil:1234): DEBUG: 15:32:01.045: Device added at 0x14130000 (vid:0x0781 pid:0x5583) ** (usbutil:1234): DEBUG: 15:32:05.123: Device removed at 0x14130000 Press Ctrl+C to stop monitoring. This produces a massive, highly technical dump of the USB host controller state, including endpoint descriptors, transfer speeds, and I/O Kit registry entries. It is primarily used by Apple engineers or kernel debuggers. 4. Reset a USB Port ( usbutil reset-port ) When a device becomes unresponsive (e.g., a USB audio interface stops streaming or a flash drive fails to mount), you can reset the specific port without restarting your Mac.
First, identify the location ID (the hex value under Location ID in System Information). Then run: usbutil for mac
system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -E "Product ID:|Vendor ID:|Speed:" This is safer, more readable, and fully supported across all macOS versions. usbutil is a surgical tool for the USB stack on macOS—not a general-purpose utility. It shines in debugging scenarios: a drive that won't mount, a device that vanished after sleep, or a hub that needs port-level reset. For developers and advanced administrators, mastering usbutil opens a window into the low-level USB architecture that graphical tools cannot provide. For everyone else, admire it from a distance, and stick with system_profiler . $ usbutil monitor ** (usbutil:1234): DEBUG: 15:32:01
usbutil -h If you simply want to see which USB devices are connected, run: Then run: system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -E "Product
sudo usbutil reset-port 0x14130000 Note: This requires sudo and must be used carefully; resetting the wrong port can disrupt keyboard/mouse input. On laptops, you can query or toggle power to individual USB ports (e.g., to conserve battery or force a hard reset). Example:
usbutil power status usbutil power off 0x14130000 For everyday tasks—ejecting drives, viewing basic USB device lists, or checking transfer speeds— usbutil is overkill and potentially dangerous. Use diskutil list , system_profiler SPUSBDataType , or the Disk Utility app instead.