**** thumb drive refuses to eject

Whenever I eject a thumb drive or external hard drive, I get an error "The drive is in use. Try quitting some applications and try again."
Believe me, I've tried this every possible way. Quitting applications NEVER makes a difference. I'll strip down to bare Finder, and still the message will always persist. I'm guessing a cold shutdown would work, but that's just not reasonable. I should be able to eject a drive.
I have suspected a virus checker is camping the drive, but the checker will tell me when it has finished scanning the drive, and even after that, it still won't eject. I've also tried going into Activity Monitor and killing daemons that appear related to virus or backup, and that sometimes works.
I need "reliable". This is a Mac and that is my expectation. I can forgive Apple a bad third-party app/daemon, but I can't forgive Apple's refusing to positively identify the app or daemon responsible. How do I tell myself?
Alternately, what's the downside if I just rip the **** thing out and click off the warning message?

If you do a Force Quit keyboard command (Option + Command + Esc) does it show any apps open? Are there any (recently opened) apps on the Thumb Drive?
If you have the problem where you can’t empty the trash or eject a disk because something is preventing you? Usually the reason is because some application has a file open, and thus you can’t get rid of the disk or trash the file. Then use What’s Keeping Me! What’s Keeping Me will identify the application that is preventing you from accomplishing your task. You can then use What's Keeping Me to quit, relaunch, or kill the problem application so you can get on with your business.
http://www.hamsoftengineering.com/products/wkm/wkm.html
 Cheers, Tom

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CD Drive refuses to eject...

Hello,
My slot loader refuses to eject...when I eject a CD you can hear the drive trying to eject but it cannot - and then after the cd does not mount again. I have to either push a paper clip thru the whole a couple of times for it to come out(sometimes it doesn't work) or I have to try to stick another CD into the drive to take the original one out.
It was horrible, its been happening for a long time - I just reformatted my HD today and Mac os x installer rquired other cd's to be inserted - when the installer tried to eject, the cd wouldn't - thank god i have an external cd/cd-rw drive!
Please help.
Sean

Hello,
Sounds to me like your drive is out of alignment with the slot on your computer.
It probably needs a slight adjustment in it's positioning inside the computer to properly line-up with the slot that the disk comes out of.
I would try opening the computer, and re-seating the CD-ROM drive so that it lines-up better.
If that doesn't work, then try placing a plastic shim under it, and fix the shim in-place with some vinyl or electrical tape. Don't use anything metal that could short something if it later fell-out. Stick with shim material that is not electrically conductive.
This should fix your problem. The trick will just be getting the drive to sit properly and line-up with the slot you have on the front of the computer.
If you don't feel up to doing this, you could take it to a service center. But, since your machine is out of warranty (being an older G3 iMac), you'll have to pay for the service.
If you want to do it yourself, here are some guides that will show you how to dismantle your computer and get into the area where the CD-ROM drive is located:
http://www.nelsonbc.ca/mactechsupprt_html/imac_hard_drive_replace/imac_replace_harddrive.html
http://www.fastmac.com/downloaddata/imacslcpuinstall.pdf
While those articles are not specifically targeted at the CD-ROM drive, they will help you dismantle the computer and show you clearly how to get to that area. Just don't go further into the process than you need to (stop at adjusting the CD-ROM drive).
I hope this helps.

Eject thumb drive or sd card

When I eject the sd card or thumb drive it does not eject. Rather I recieve a message stating that Finder is using the device and I have to exit Finder. So, I exit finder and then come back to eject and I get the same message. If I select another set of files in Finder and then go down and eject the drive, same message. Finnally I just remove the drive and I get a message saying that I should eject the drive before removing it. Seems like a Catch 22 scenario. Any one know what I am doing wrong.
Thanks

Maybe this one http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27871/whatsopen can help you finding what is preventing the eject.
Stefan

Have to force eject thumb drive

Ever since I purchased this iMac Retina I have been unable to normally eject a thumb drive that I use to copy work files to my home computer. I do this transfer on daily basis and this issue is becoming tiresome.
A previous 2011 iMac did not have this issue.
I did transfer all files from the 2011 iMac, via a time machine backup, to the iMac Retina during setup. Don't know if this is the issue.
I get the error that something is in use, but there are no programs being run that are related to the files being transferred. It is simply a drag and drop and eject process.
I have logged out and also rebooted which does release the drive, but I really don't want to have to go through this five times a week
Any ideas/help appreciated.
Thank you!!!

Hi a brody,
Thanks for responding. I went through my process again this evening and had the activity monitor open while doing so. I hopefully was looking in the right place per your suggestion. I did not see the specific file you mentioned. I did watch the activity as I inserted, copied files and attempted ejecting. I did not see any change in the list. Had I found the file you mentioned I would not have known what to do about it. Were you suggesting that it would have been a simple exercise and there would be nothing to do to solve my issue?

Automatic eject of USB thumb drive in Leopard

Recently I've noticed that if I have a thumb drive in a USB port on my Mac Book Pro, after a while if I am not actively using a file, I get the red error screen that says the device has been improperly ejected, even though it is still plugged in and I have not attempted to eject it. Any suggestions?

Did the computer come with Leopard or did you upgrade it? If it came with it, I would say it is pretty likely that it is just an issue with the USB port. My iBook does that sometimes if I slightly nudge a USB device while it is plugged in. I don't know if it always did it.
A more definitive example would be my work PC. I connected an external DVD-RW drive to the back USB port and it kept doing the same thing. I thought it was an issue with permissions to use the device, but when I moved it to the USB port on the front of the computer, it worked fine.
You might be able to get Apple to fix it for you under warranty.

Incorrect USB thumb drive ejection

I accidently disconnected thumb drive from my Mac mini before it finished ejecting and now it will no longer read it. Any suggestions on how to fix or is this a loss?

I didn't think it was possible but I "destroyed" a flash drive by doing that exact same thing.
Fortunately, it was only a 2Gb.
Unfortunately, it wasn't mine.
Fortunately, it was my daughter's and I replaced it with a 4Gb that was on sale for $2.99.
If you have access to a PC, here's a tool that might (no guarantee) help.
USBDeep_Format Tool.zip
If the PC will recognize it, use that to deep format it, and it should work again.

Disk Utility - Won't Repair Flash/Thumb Drive

So my Mac froze for some reason, while my Kingston thumb/flash drive was in. I tried to eject it, but I could only force eject (which it said may cause issues). After that, whenever I put the thumb drive in, it said something like the drive won't work and I had to copy the files to my desktop. When I go into disk utility and click repair disk, it says this: "Disk Utility stopped repairing “UNTITLED 1”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
I can't erase the thumbdrive, because it says I need a source, which I don't know what that means.
Can anybody help? The files are useless now as I have transferred them to a CD, so I'm fine with erasing the whole thing. And yes, I know I can get a new on at any store for cheap, but I'd like to know if this can be repaired. Thanks.

You haven't mentioned how the thumb drive was formatted to begin with; is it GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended (Journalled), or is it FAT 32 with MBR partition map?
If it's the latter, DU can't repair it, but should be able to format it. However, the forced ejection may have damaged the file system to prevent that.
If it's FAT32, re-format it on a PC and try again on the Mac.
If it's Mac formatted, you could try erasing and reformatting on another Mac (or as Hackintosh says, from the DVD), but if that doesn't work, try the PC route; reformat to FAT32 on a PC (if the PC will recognise it - thay don't always), then go back to the Mac, repartition and format.
If that fails, it's recycling fodder.

Copy from thumb drive to external hard drive fails - "file is in use"

I have photos on a thumb drive formatted MS-DOS FAT16 from a windows machine, all are .jpg files and I'm trying to copy them to one of two partitions on an external LaCie hard drive, formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The other partition is used only for Time Machine.
With absolutely nothing else running except The Finder, when I try to directly copy them by dragging a folder of them from the thumb drive window onto the external drive window, it starts up a copy, then returns the error "Cannot complete the copy because the file "<<imagename>>.jpg" is in use. <<imagename>> is always the first item in the folder being copied.
Sharing & Permissions for the folders and all images inside are "Read & Write" privileges for (Me) (unknown) and everyone.
I can successfully drag a folder of images from the thumbdrive to my MacBook Pro (10.5.8) desktop and they copy fine. When I then try to drag the folder from the desktop to the external drive, I get the same "in use" error message.
I've used Disk Utility to repair disk permissions and repair disk on my MacBook Pro, repair disk on the thumb drive and repair disk on the external hard drive. All are fine - same error occurs.
I've ejected, turned off and disconnected all external drives and thumb drives, restarted my MBP and re-connected the drive and turned it on, and then inserted the thumb drive - same error occurs.
Help please! Am I missing something basic here? Any troubleshooting wizards out there with some other thoughts or ideas?
Thanks!

This article describes moving your music to another drive, it may be of some help: iTunes for Windows - Moving your iTunes Music Folder

HT201737 how do you close a thumb drive that does not show in finder?

How do you close a thumb drive that does not show in finder?

What do you mean by "Close?"
Eject??
If so, you could use Go to Computer to find it if it is not in the Sidebar or on the Desktop. Ctrl-click or Right-click on the drive and choose Eject <diskname>
Or, you could set it to show in the SideBar in the Finder Preferences, SideBar tab. Then, it would have an eject icon next to it in the Sidebar.

Boot Camp crashes after the windows software support download is finished and before the software is installed on the thumb drive

I have previously installed Boot Camp on this Computer (MBP mid 2012, 15" 2.6 GHZ). I recently replaced the hard drive and was reestablishing bootcamp again. While Boot Camp is writing to the USB thunb drive it crashes and rebootrs. The crash does not generate and message other than a note that there has been an error and the computer is restarting. I have tried several different thumb drives all with the same result. It makes me think that the new hard drive (a Seagate Momentus XT 750GB 7200 rpm unit) does not work with Boot Camp. Does anyone have any thoughts or solutions?

Hi,
I solved the problem myself. This might help others.
Recap:
The Windows XP Pro CD was always ejected by Boot Camp and it wouldn't mount at all when inserted in the CD slot. The CD was however readable on a Windows Machine.
It was not easy to detect but the Windows CD was physically deformed. It wasn't flat. It was a little convex (the outer edge was higher than its center). My iMac wasn't able to read it at all but a PC was able until I decided to test it with a full install on the PC. About half way during the installation, it stopped and an error message was displayed by Windows Setup "Disc Read Error - Disc might be damaged".
I ejected the CD and discovered the deformation. So I carefully placed the outer edge of the CD over a ring and put some weight on its center to try to undo the deformation. I've waited 2 days then retested the CD and it worked at the first attempt. My iMac was happy and so was I. I made a security copy of the CD while it's still readable in case I have to re-install later.
I find Microsoft cheap of putting their Installation CD in a paper sleeve. If the CD have been stored in a CD case this would not have happened.
End of the story.

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

Yes, that is a Catch 22. If you have another Mac you can connect your Mac to it in the Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire, and use Disk Utility on the second Mac to try to run the Hardware Test from there. Not sure if it's possible to a connected Mac though.
You can try this several times in the Terminal app and then see if a disk can be fully inserted:
Enter the following command followed by the Enter or Return key:
drutil eject
Do it several times and then try another disk. (A long shot).

Why won't my secure thumb drive (FAT32) work with os lion?

Why won't my secure thumb drive (FAT32) work with os lion? I have used it ok with older mac operating systems. When the thumb drive is inserted in the usb port, an error message appears stating that the disk was not ejected properly. It shows as readonly in Finder. When I try to eject it, the spinning wheel appears and I have to relaunch finder.

Hi princessmonsta,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. This article has some information on things to check if your sound is not working as expected that may help:
OS X Mavericks: Adjust your computer’s sound output
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13908
Cheers,
- Ari

External HD refuses to eject ~ no obvious apps/processes preventing it??

One of my external hard drives simply refuses to eject/un-mount, and I've done everything I can think of to terminate any processes and/or applications that may be using the drive and preventing it from being ejected properly, but I haven't had any success...
Is there some Mac-Jedi way of going about isolating what might be preventing this drive from ejecting properly? I've scoured the activity monitor but can't figure out what might be preventing the drive from ejecting??
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

m021478 wrote:
One of my external hard drives simply refuses to eject/un-mount, and I've done everything I can think of to terminate any processes and/or applications that may be using the drive and preventing it from being ejected properly, but I haven't had any success...
Is there some Mac-Jedi way of going about isolating what might be preventing this drive from ejecting properly?
yes, there is! Let me just get might light saber
enter the following with command in terminal
sudo lsof /Volumes/"drive name"
instead of the "drive name" in the above put the name of the external. KEEP the quotes. You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal.
The command will output any processes accessing the drive.
I've scoured the activity monitor but can't figure out what might be preventing the drive from ejecting??
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Ghost Files on Thumb Drives??

So whenever I delete a file off my thumb drive while using my mac, for some reason, it shows up as having been deleted, but I don't regain memory space. When I bring my thumb drive to a PC, it shows all these files as still being on the thumb drive.
1. What is Apple's reasoning in doing this? Does it serve some higher purpose?
2. Does anyone know of some freeware or something that will allow me to completely remove a file from the thumb drive without having to bring it to a PC?
Much obliged,
Kristopher

When you put a file from a flash drive in the trash, it is not deleted... simply moved to the trash on that volume. In order to actually delete it, you must empty the trash, and you must do it while the flash drive is still mounted. If you have ejected it, its trash obviously can't be emptied.
If you are emptying the trash with the flash drive connected and finding that the files are still not being deleted, then there's something wrong, as that is not normal behavior.

Use of thumb drive screws up iPhoto

What has trying to use a thumb drive done to my iPhoto files? A couple years ago, I transferred many photos to a thumb drive as an iPhoto file. I believe there was a trick to getting the iPhoto software over to the thumb drive, but I've no recollection how I did it. Anyway, there was no problem with iPhoto on the thumb drive or on my MacBook-- both showed the pix they should have. The other day, I tried to move a few more photos to the thumb drive, but they didn't fall into iPhoto. I guess that would require some extra software. The annoyance is that when I eject the thumb drive and summon iPhoto, I don't see what should be on my computer but still see the iPhoto display from the thumb drive -- apparently it's been retained on my hard drive or in memory. I've tried restarting the computer, after which the best I can get is an iPhoto screen with no photos at all in it. There are three or four photo libraries on the hard drive, but none containing all my current pix. I have found some of those photos on the hard drive by using Spotlight to list items with .jpg suffixes. But they seem to be scattered, and I doubt that all the old pix are there.
This all involves a MacBook running OS 10.4.11, iPhoto 6.0.5, and a Geeksquad 4-GB thumb drive.

Thanks for your prompt response to my posting. In response to your questions and comments:
1. The thumb drive's format appears to be "MS-DOS File System (FAT32)"
2. "fall into" refers to the fact that the pix recently transferred to the thumb drive didn't go directly into the "iPhoto Library" folder already on the drive and listing material put on the drive a year or so ago but are listed as individual jpeg files. I've dragged these individual pix into the iPhoto Library. But I hesitate to boot from the thumb drive because of the mess it led to the other day.
3. When I enter /volumes in the Finder/Go/Go to Folder wndow, The volumes directory that appears lists aliases for my computer's hard drive and the thumb drive, which is plugged in at the moment. Entering volumes in Spotlight produces only documents that mention the word "volumes."

**** thumb drive refuses to eject

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