Can't eject USB drive

Hi,
This is driving me crazy. Every time I used a USB drive, I am told that it can't be ejected because a program is using it. Sometimes it says the finder is using it (it shouldn't be: if the finder is using it it is only listing it as a drive). Relaunching the finder using "force quit" doesn't help: it just changes the message to "one or more programs may be using it". Shutting down every single program - none of which are using it anyway - doesn't help. I eventually get a force eject option, which I use, though that comes with a warning that force eject may damage files.
Any help appreciated. Running Yosemite on a late 2010 Air (though I get the same problem on my 2011 Macbook pro).
Thx.

I've been seeing the same problem (and reported it as a bug) with a number of applications (though not the Finder). When a file is in use it is flagged by the system Yosemite seems to either not change the file's flag to not in use or the system isn't getting that the flag has changed. So far exiting the program has solved it for me in every instance - though it is a pain. I think for now it is something we'll just have to live with until Apple tracks it down.

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How to eject USB drive?

I have a USB drive that doesn't want to eject. It get the error that it is in use and can't be ejected. Yet, nothing is using it.
I'm trying to eject through Finder. Any ideas how to resolve this?

Worked just fine. Thanks.
Funny how Apple tech support can never solve anything. After an hour, they'll finally say, force quit everything, restart then restore to factory defaults. That's the common workflow. Get out the big hammer.

Can't Eject Firewire drives

I've been using a collection of 500GB firewire G-Drives for pro-audio & time machine backups.
Up until now, they work great with my old 2006 MBP (OS 10.4) , and my late 2008 MBP (OS 10.5.6)
I just got a new 2009 MBP with Leopard 10.5.6 and whenever I mount the drives, I cannot eject them.
Its a mystery. No applications are open. Spotlight is not running. Everytime I try to eject a drive I get a message saying its in use.
My only remedy is to shut down the computer, and turn them off.
Any ideas?

Means corrupted system files. You should reinstall OS X. You may try this:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

CD doesn't appear on desktop, can't eject from drive

Hi All,
I just got my new iMac today, love it! But when I inserted a CD into the drive, it won't appear on the desktop, and I can't eject it. I've tried these things:
-Restarting
-Restarting after pulling the power plug for 20 seconds
-Restart while holding down the mouse button
-Restart while pressing down the command-option-F-O keys
-Opening Disk Utility and selecting File > Eject (it's dimmed)
These are suggestions I found from other Discussion posts. Do you have any other suggestions? The last suggestion I read was to take it to the Apple store, I hope I don't have to do that.
From the number of posts I've seen on this problem, it seems to be common!
Thanks,
Lizzy

Restaart your Mac while holding down the trackpad or an the button on an external mouse

Can't eject FW drives - says app is open, yet none are open

This is mildly disturbing: After only 6 months of use, I just got a "Can't eject drives" and something about data being "used" or an app being open, yet *no* applications are open - everything was quit / closed before I chose to eject the drives. Just like I've done for 10 years on Macs.
The warning prompt showed an option to "force eject" which I did not do, nor did I chose "try again". I stopped trying to eject. Then, even *more* disturbing, I clicked on one of the drives and it showed "0 items" on the drive.
I restarted and now the drives appear normal.
Just prior to this happening, I had an additional self-powered Glyph drive at the end of the daisy-chain. Disturbingly #3: while this drive was connected, I received a warning prompt that said "drive wasn't ejected properly" and it disappeared from my desktop. I had done nothing to cause this, it simply happenend. I'm guessing this issue is due to the self-powered factor - I probably should have had this closer in-line to the Mac FW800 bus.
Would this daisy-chain scenario cause the non-eject problem?
Here is my setup:
FW800 out to older Glyph drive via FW400 connection, then daisy-chained to two *brand new* Glyph drives via FW800 connections. ALL drives were formatted properly when I purchased them.
OS 10.8.5
I remember this happening on 10.7, 10.6, 10.5 etc... Hasn't Apple figured this out?
Is there a Disk Utility I should run to make sure all my drives are ok?

I don't think that's the case because the drive successfully ejects upon closure of the QT player. I'm not sure if it is the way they wrote file handling in general in Mountain Lion, or if it is a QT Player 7 issue, but it is definately annoying.
It seems that the Volume becomes locked when a file is opened. When that file is closed, the Volume remains locked until the application that opened the file is closed. This seems to work different than it used to.

How can I access USB drive on AirPort Extreme with iPad

Good day. I recently purchased an AirPort Extreme, and am very pleased. I thought I would take advantage of the ability to store files and videos of my children on my USB drive on the router. Installation was flawless, however, i cannot access the USB drive with my IPad. I have seen several postings about this, am i correct in reading that this is not possible without a 3rd party app? If that is the case, could someone point me in the right direction?

Have you tried this? (And is the Airport new enough that you can call Apple?)
*Manually mounting Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volumes*
*From the Finder's Go menu choose Connect to Server.*
*Enter the AirPort Extreme Base Station's LAN IP address (by default 10.0.1.1).*
*Enter the username and password required to access the AirPort Disk(s).*
*Select the desired AirPort Disk(s) from the available Volumes.*
*Manually mounting FAT16/FAT32 volumes*
*From the Finder's Go menu choose Connect to Server.*
*Enter the AirPort Extreme Base Station's LAN IP address preceded by smb:// (for example, smb://10.0.1.1 )*
*Enter the username and password required to access the AirPort Disk(s). Leave the Workgroup field empty unless you have assigned one in AirPort Utility.*
*Select the desired AirPort Disk from the available CIFS (Common Internet File System) volumes*

My macbook pro can't detect USB drives

my macbook pro can't seem to detect ANY usb drive. I have already selected to "show external disk/drive" on finder's preferences but it doesn't work. anyone with this problem and has a solution?? THANKS!

Open Disk Utility and see if the USB drives show in there. If they don't then it is a USB port or bus problem. If they do show in disk utility are they formatted in either Mac extended or a Windows format?

Can an encrypted USB drive be used with the Airport Extreme?

I would like to keep an encrypted USB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme (A1354) so that I can use it for a hand archive of documents I might need to reference on the road or conveniently within my home, mainly because it would be handier than having to plug and unplug a USB device into whatever computer I'm using, and would allow my wife to do the same with her computer. I know most internet providers provide a service like this, but I figured why not just do this with my Airport Extreme?
I've read posts from people who have taken encrypted USB volumes generated from their MacBook Pro, and plug that USB device into the Airport Extreme. The Airport recognized the device exists, but it is you can't actually use it as an encrypted volume. This seems like a flaw on the part of Apple if you can't do this, as this device is a much more expensive solution that what most wireless routers provide.
Has anybody figured this one out?

Doubtful it's going to work.
Does it see the same disk if it's formatted just Journaled (ie, not encrypted)?
The tehnical article isn't entirely clear . . . it just says Mac OS Extended: AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule: USB storage device supported formats and protocols
It was last modified June 14, 2011, a couple of weeks before Lion was released with the ability to encrypt drives.
Note that ExFAT is supported on Macs effective with 10.6.5, but not Airport Extremes; there's no reason to think encryption is any different.

Time machine-- can't eject backup drive

Hi, everyone.
I have a backup drive attached to time machine. I need to use the firewire port my external drive is plugged into (there is only one) to upload from my video camera. But I it won't let me eject the drive, even though I have gone into Time Machine preferences and turned off the backup. Whenever I try to eject the drive I get en error message that it is in use. What can I do aside from yanking out the cable?
Thanks!

Launch Activity Monitor and see if anything is running that might be using the disk. Spotlight would be my first guess. Spotlight processes start with "md". If that is the case just wait for Spotlight to finish. Don't ever yank a cable without ejecting first. If you get desperate, try shutting down the computer and then disconnect the Time Machine drive.

Can I attach USB drive to Airport Express USB port

I would like to attach a USB drive to my Apple airport Express USB port so that I can back up my data on my MBP and have my music stored on it for playing back over Apple TV.
Is there any issues to doing this? As an example, how would I see the drive?
thanks in advance.
Adam

Well, you can certainly attach a USB drive to the port on the AirPort Express.....but nothing will happen if you do this....since the USB port on the Express will only support a compatible printer and Keyspan remote control.
You will need an AirPort Extreme if you want to attach a shared hard drive to the USB port.

Can't find usb driver for M

I sucessfully aut-update yet my computer can't find the usb driver. I have win 200 pro. What do I do? It was working fine before.

Hi:
This one should work for you...while the driver says for 64 bit, it also has the 32 bit driver files.
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5449369&swItemId=ob_132256_1&swEnvOid=405...

Yes you can use a USB drive to transfer photos to the iPad, this is how...

To transfer photos from a USB thumb drive to the iPad you need to:
1. Plug the USB device into a Mac.
2. Open the Disk Utility app.
3. Pick the USB device in the left hand window.
4. Click on the Erase tab
5. Pick MS-DOS (FAT) and hit Erase.
6. After the formatting is done. Click on the USB device to open it up.
7. Make a new folder a name it DCIM (that an eye i)
8. Drag your photos to that folder.
9. Connect the USB kit to the iPad and plug the USB device into it...done.
Now you can on the fly transfer photos to the iPad using a USB thumb drive. No syncing to iTunes. For Windows computers use FAT-16
I've written up on how to play Flip videos on the iPad without converting the video. Yes it can be done. I will post this later today. (I'm getting old and tend to leave out nouns, adjectives and verbs when writing. I hope you understand the above.)

I made a mistake. The one USB drive that did not work was a 4GB not 2 GB. It is formated in FAT 32. The FAT 32 format is not the issue since II have successfully connected both FAT 16 and FAT 32 formated USB drives. I think it is just too big (too many chips inside) and draws too much power.
Doing a Google search it appears that the maximum drive size with FAT 16 is 2GB (one place hinted it was 4 GB). Since many SD cards are bigger that 4 GB today they can't be FAT 16 and thus FAT 32 has to be acceptable with the CCK and the iPad..
David M Brewer wrote:
I did this with a two year old 4 gig USB thumb drive. Did you format the drive on a Mac using the DOS format? If your on windows you need to use fat-16. If you use fat 32 or the wrong Mac format you will get an error that this device draws to much power.
I know somebody else that made this work. If you can't get it to work then it's the drive or you didn't format the drive right. You know this is a work around and work around don't always work. I posted this for the people who come into these forums looking for a fix.

Ejecting USB drives - very slow

Since updating to Yosemite, my brand new iMacs (work machines) are all noticeably much slower ejecting USB flash drives. Really slow. These are new, top spec iMacs with clean installs and pretty empty harddrives.
Anyone else noticing this?

I was using my girlfriends USB 128MB stick last night, with no red light showing (well, not that I noticed), then when i dragged it to the ejector/recycle bin, the red light came on constantly (I presumed to tell me that it was ready to remove). I waited 5 seconds to see if it would go out but didn't.

Ejecting USB drives

A friend of mine has recently bought a macbook pro to upgrade his old Dell laptop. He is a keen photographer but daren't use CF cards with the macbook pro because when he ejects the cards the light stays ON on the reader. With his windows machine the light goes off when the card has been successfully ejected. He has been told that removing the card with power connected has a 1 in 50 chance of destroying the card.
I have never had a problem ejecting cards from the Mac but this doesn't reassure him. I was wondering if anyone know why the light doesn't go off when ejecting cards on the mac (I have noticed this with USB drives too). Does the light actually mean anything as far as turning the power off or is it just an indication from the software that the drive is ready to unplug?
He has measured the current in the USB cable when the windows machine ejects the drive and is convinced that power is being reduced to a minimum level somehow, I suspect this is just due to the fact that the LED is no longer on, but I would like to be able to give a definitive answer to this.

I was using my girlfriends USB 128MB stick last night, with no red light showing (well, not that I noticed), then when i dragged it to the ejector/recycle bin, the red light came on constantly (I presumed to tell me that it was ready to remove). I waited 5 seconds to see if it would go out but didn't.

Can bridge include USB drives in its search

I have connected several USB drives to my computer. I would like Bridge to cataloge them in addition to my regular drice

Yes that should work. Do you have problems accessing the drives?

Can't eject USB drive

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