Is it possible to turn off a specific USB port so it doesn't accept any device?

Question

I have a lot of ports on my computer. I would like to turn off one of them, so when I connect my phone to that port, it only charges. I do want my phone to work with my computer in some occasions though, so I hope other ports are not affected.

I would just like to know how possible this is.

Hardware solution: Buy a male to female USB plug and cut/isolate/remove the center lines. — 0x2b3bfa0, Mar 18 '16 at 10:45
You can purchase USB cables that provide charge only. The data leads aren't wired. — WinEunuuchs2Unix, Oct 19 '19 at 20:52

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 06 '17 at 02:16

6

First, run lsusb.

The output should be like:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2232:1020  
Bus 002 Device 009: ID 0bc2:a013 Seagate RSS LLC 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a5c:219c Broadcom Corp.

In the output, find the device number of the port to be disabled. For example, the Seagate drive in the example has Device 009 - that is its device number. Then the id will be usb[device number] - such as usb9

Then, disable USB wake-up (do this only once):

Be sure to replace X in usbX with the device number.

echo disabled | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/usbX/power/wakeup

Then turn it off:

echo suspend | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/usbX/power/level

Undo this:

echo enabled | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/usbX/power/wakeup
echo on | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/usbX/power/level

edited Oct 06 '17 at 02:16

Stack Em Up

5

answered Mar 26 '16 at 16:29

2

Attempted the above commands and returned... tee: /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb11/power/wakeup: No such file or directory disabled – Seek Truth Jan 03 '18 at 04:05
found very helpful information in this thread USB Port Power – Seek Truth Jan 03 '18 at 05:31
4

I get tee: /sys/bus/usb/devices/usbX/power/level: Invalid argument when echo suspend, while echo on no such error. – 林果皞 May 13 '19 at 20:08
@林果皞 Did you replace the X in usbX? – Jun 12 '19 at 11:47
@UniversallyUniqueID Yes, I replace the real id with 'X' before write the previous comment, or else my error message would be No such file or directory instead. My distro is Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS. – 林果皞 Jun 12 '19 at 17:26
correct answer here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1057384/disable-usb-port – msangel Feb 04 '20 at 20:26
2

Looks like the write error: Invalid argument is because the suspend option is no longer supported, since kernel 2.6.32. See https://superuser.com/a/371254. – arjan Jun 03 '22 at 14:13

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Here is a plug & play (literally) option:

It's a good idea if you want to avoid pop-up messages and file browsers every time you plug your phone in for charging only.

This is also more fool-proof than the software approach because software that turns off the port for data can be reversed by software that turns it back on. Or it might be reinitialized during suspend/resume or some other process you didn't foresee.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '22 at 14:32

I cut a piece of tape to fit the inner two data pins, and pushed it into place with a toothpick.

This is on my phone charging base so I shouldn't have to redo this tape job.

No more annoying popups, which were getting ridiculous. The last time I plugged in my phone I got 9 different popup windows, all of which had different error messages.

Is it possible to turn off a specific USB port so it doesn't accept any device?

3 Answers3

Undo this:

Linked

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