I’m sure I’m not the only one having a terrible time with the USB type C power/ digital in the back of the unit. It keeps making imperfect contact with wear, to the point that it’s quickly becoming an expensive door stop.
Opening the unit reveals that it is a surface mount part, which I neither have the heat gun nor the exact replacement type C connector as a replacement.
Any ideas? Will never buy another Focusrite product again!
Sorry to hear about that, but thanks for the warning, wil leave the usb c side connected and (dis) connect at the other side from now on…
Have you tried changing the cable? USB C is supposed to be designed so the cable wears, not the jack.
I had a similar issue recently and used a screwdriver to press the holding (ground) metal in the jack a little smaller (unplug power first!).
It’s not elegant, but it works, if it is only the jack, not the connection to the board…
I’ve tried several cables. All have the same problem.
Can’t wait to try this tomorrow morning.
I also have a ferrite core on the USB-c cable, not so much for reducing electromagnetic interference, but more as a weight to pull the USB-C cable down and therefore let the plug make better contact due to the tension.
It’s all improvised, but it works ok for me.
In cases where I’ve had this happen I’ve also hot glued the USB plug into the device. Not lovely but pretty effective (for a while at least).
Another quality product from the folks at Focusrite!
Say, in addition has anyone had PC Windows 10 driver problems? If I don’t periodically disconnect the USB to the audio interface (from the PC side!), everything goes through a Darth Vader filter.
Yep! I had forgotten about that since I only use the Focusrite to track voiceovers these days, but when I used it as primary output, it would constantly do that. Ugh.
The Scarlett 2i2/Solo/etc gets recommended a lot but good to remember it is basically entry level gear. Still, should be better than these issues you folks are having. Disappointing.
Did it work?
Here’s where things get weird. I had the screwdriver in hand, and discovered the connector problem disappeared, just before I disconnected the USB C cable. Almost as if it knew it was about to get a thrashing.
I feel confident your technique will come into good use in the very near future, though.
Yeah, the new Focusrite Scarlett has some kind of AI chip and became sentient with the last driver update.
Be careful if it tells you “Play with me if you wanna live!” 
I was thinking failure during my 1 minute audition for my dream band. Or the driver going into Darth Vader mode in the middle of an arena concert.
There is an easy way to find out if my “trick” works. Just press the USB-c plug slightly down while playing an audio file. Do you hear scratching? Does it improve?
Yes? My trick will work!
Well, I certainly do hear scratching! But hey, let’s not get overly technical. After all, this is a high quality audio interface, when nothing but the very best will do.
Strange, but a friend uses a cheap plastic unknown POS interface that just works, despite him throwing it into his gig bag after each use. I must admit the metal case on Focusrite products gives a false sense of security about the quality inside.
I would go more easy on Focusrite. Don’t have that issue with my Motu M4 on the Motu side, but do have it at my very very very expensive Asus Notebook, both for USB-c and USB-a.
The reason is that I never pull the plug from the Motu, but very often from the Notebook, as I keep changing external USB devices.
In time it just wears out - sometimes quicker, sometimes later.
All USB standards suck when it comes to connectors … except the old USB 3.0 type B, which was as stury as could be!
I have abused the living crap out of USB-C on two different MacBooks and had zero issues whatsoever. We’re talking letting a heavy ethernet adapter just hang over the edge of a table from the USB-C port for hours, torquing it the whole time. No issues at all.
I have this issue independent of brand, be it my old MacBook Pro, several Dell XPS 13 or 15, and now on my two Asus notebooks. Sometimes more and sometimes less severe.
On my current high end Asus it is more severe, unfortunately. On the side I use most…
But I traveled quite a lot - at least twice per week. On every location I need to connect/disconnect hubs, hard disk, webcams, STB’s, TVs, video grabbers, various IoT device - you name it - all the time.
Never have this issue on my stationary workstations or servers though…
