USB Getting *Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?* error with multiple devices, but only sometimes

I'm using Ubuntu 20.04, installed it an year ago and haven't had any problems until now.

Now, when I start the computer, everything works fine related to the USB ports, but after a bit of time one of the ports stops working, and after a bit more time, another one stops working (I have 3 in total, didn't try to see what happens with the 3rd one). If I restart the computer, they all work fine at first, and then the same thing happens.

I tried with multiple cables and devices (phone, mouse, headphones), and none work.

I ran dmesg | grep -i USB and some of the messages that I get are like this: [ 484.205997] usb usb1-port3: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?.

Any advice on what I can do, other than reinstalling the OS?

EDIT: I have win10 installed as well, this issue happens only on Ubuntu

EDIT 2: I have found out that this happens only if I connect my phone to the port. It doesn't happen if I just keep the mouse or anything else. Could this be a problem with my phone related settings or something? Since I use it in developer mode with Android Studio, and I vaguely remember fiddling around with adb since it didn't work at first.

1 Answer

I've got the same error after power failure in the electric grid. I have Ubuntu 18.04.3 (on INTEL NUC Barebone BOXNUC7PJYHN2 Pentium Silver J5005) and four USB external disks with USB hub with additional power supply. After power restore some disks didn't start. I just left two disks connected to USB hub and other connect to PC directly. I played some time to determine working disks combination.