USB Drives Ejecting Themselves randomly

I am having a very odd, and potentially "dangerous" (as it may lead to corrupt backups) problem with the USB ports on my brand new late 2011 Macbook Pro 13". The problem is that any usb drive (incl. Powered External HDDs, USB sticks, memory card readers etc.) eject themselves randomly while connected to any of the two available USB ports. I have read through several discussions about this issue but have not been able to find any explanation or solution to this. The thing which bothers me most is that when I wiggle the usb plug in the port on the laptop, the drives eject SOMETIMES, and sometimes they just eject without me doing anything, and sometimes they don't eject at all; so I don't know if it is a hardware fault, or something which I can fix myself!
I brought the machine back to the store and plugged two USB sticks in and wiggled them about, and they stayed mounted, so that was a waste of time. Then I thaught, maybe it has something to do with power management, so I tried this with the MagSafe connected and disconnected. It seems that the ejecting happens when the MagSafe IS connected to the power, and more often with my POWERED External HDDs. It makes no difference which ports I use. I reset the System Management Controller (SMC) and the problem SEEMS to have stopped, but I only tested shortly after doing this.
My question is, should I be worried that I have faulty USB ports on my Macbook (since wiggling the connection seems to have affected it), or is it really something to do with the SMC and my hardware is all OK?
Thanks in advance for your help!

So, my MacBook Pro has now undergone a logic board swap, and when I got it back from repair everything seemend perfectly fine. The external drives which kept getting ejected are not ejecting any more, no matter how much I wiggle the plug in the USB socket. Then yesterday I tried a small USB stick, and bam - it's getting ejected again when touched slightly. I tried 2 different sticks and the same thing is happening. Then I tried the HDDs again - no problems. Then tried the USB sticks again - no problems. This is really driving me crazy, I cannot understand why it happens so intermittently and then works prefectly like nothing ever happened. Also, it can't be a software issue since physically moving the USB plug affects it. Now I am not sure if I should take it back for another repair and keep fighting, or just learn to live with it. I am wondering if it is simply a design fault with the MacBook Pro, or something to do with the way the USB ports are built. Any ideas on what I should do?

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MBP 2010 - USB drives ejecting by themselves?

On my new 2.4 i5, USB hard drives are ejecting randomly by themselves and then giving me an error saying they were removed incorrectly?

Are these bus powered or self powered (ie with their own power supply) drives, djanthonyw? If they are "bus powered" are you using a "yoke" cable to two USB ports or just a single USB power feed (which is likely to fail to provide enough power in any high power demand situation, with the sort of consequence you mention)?
Any particular brand? (Some USB drive enclosures bridge sets/ drives don't seem to behave very well if the computer goes to sleep, for example)
Sticking to good FW drives can give some serious benefits beyond much faster speed in such circumstances.
Cheers
Rod

USB Drives Ejecting Everything.

I have had my 15" Macbook pro since 2010.
I have never had any issues until a few months ago - I do a lot of photo editing, and it seems WHATEVER I put into my USB drive, after a few minutes the computer randomly tries to eject it. Also- sometimes it won't even read my CFmemory cards (which I use a card reader plugged into my USB) anymore. And when it does- I have to move the files quick enough before the computer ejects them. Help? Is there anything Apple can do in store about this?
-RJ

So, my MacBook Pro has now undergone a logic board swap, and when I got it back from repair everything seemend perfectly fine. The external drives which kept getting ejected are not ejecting any more, no matter how much I wiggle the plug in the USB socket. Then yesterday I tried a small USB stick, and bam - it's getting ejected again when touched slightly. I tried 2 different sticks and the same thing is happening. Then I tried the HDDs again - no problems. Then tried the USB sticks again - no problems. This is really driving me crazy, I cannot understand why it happens so intermittently and then works prefectly like nothing ever happened. Also, it can't be a software issue since physically moving the USB plug affects it. Now I am not sure if I should take it back for another repair and keep fighting, or just learn to live with it. I am wondering if it is simply a design fault with the MacBook Pro, or something to do with the way the USB ports are built. Any ideas on what I should do?

External USB 3.0 Drives eject at random times

I have 5 external drives connected to my computer which is a Late 2013 iMac 27". I have all but two drives plugged directly into the iMac and two are in a Plugable 7 Port USB 3.0 hub with the latest software. The two connected to the hub randomly eject either one or sometimes both. I have keep them spinning running and pinging each of those two drives every 25 seconds, it does seem to help as ejecting has slowed a bit. I think it is the hubs going to sleep. Is there a hidden way to keep the hub awake, I remember there was in Windows?

I suggest you contact the hub manufacturer that made yours (since you have apparently identified your problem area) to see if they have any guidance.
In answer to your question, I do not know of any way to control the hub from your computer.
Incidentally, are you sure the hub goes to sleep? That would be unusual, I think, to have a dumb device go to sleep.
Barry

Hard drives eject themselves or can't be seen at all

I am having bad computer karma lately. My WD 500GB passport drive quit working last Friday. I was able to get it to boot back up for a while and checked to see if there were files that hadn't been backed up. (I keep multiple copies of everything, so all was fine.) In the meantime, I bought another new WB 2TB drive (my book essential). It was working fine til yesterday, and now cannot be seen by my computer at all. I finally got it to appear today in the System Profiler (sporadically), but even Disk Utility and Disk Warrior couldn't 'see' it. I plugged it into an iMac and it wouldn't boot at all. The light wouldn't even come on on the front of the drive. However, plugged thru my powered USB hub and plugged directly to my MacBook, it was seen in Profiler, but nothing else. WD firmware update couldn't see the drive either. Now, in the process, I thought I would try the passport drive again, and it works (sort of). As long as I don't touch it, it's fine. The instant it moves even a little bit, it ejects itself and the lights go off on the drive. Then it turns back on in a few seconds, or if I jiggle the USB, it comes back on. Is there a known issue with power or USB connections in these drives? WD just told me they would be happy to replace them, but I am not sure I want more of these. (I had another passport that died 2 years ago!) I noticed some posts on other forums that other users felt the issue was with Snow Leopard. I am not sure, but this did come up suddenly in the past 2 software updates.
Thoughts?

I have had nothing but bad experiences with WD drives and Macs, to make my life simpler I just don't use them. Search this forum and you'll find others like me.

Leopard ejects DVDs Region 0 from USB drive that is region specific

This is against region specification standards. Region 0 is universal region that by spec is supposed to be played in any player in the world.
I think it is a bug because Leopard cannot handle external/USB DVD players properly. The issue is new and Tiger does not have it.
After opening case for another DVD movie related issue I am planning to open now whole bunch of them. The choices by Apple engineers are strange and might not follow paper written standards unfortunatelly.
Sincerely,
Maciej Samsel

I have more precise results of recent tests:
1. USB drive ejects poor (errors by media company producing region 0 DVDs?) region 0 DVD. USB drive is unlocked RPC-2 (still changes of region available). Other DVD region 0 is mounted. It is not systems fault. It is behavior of this particular DVD drive. Same drive tested under Tiger and Leopard.
2. Same movie and/or region 1 and region 2 movie mounts in another USB drive that is region free (RPC-1), but menu icons blink and clock vanishes. Icons are not accessible so when DVD (only DVD, because music CDs or data DVDs/CDs do not cause that) is mounted on your desktop forget ability to disable/enable wireles network, Blootooth, VPN, use spotlight or go to another account.

External Drives sometimes eject themselves

I've had an issue with some of my external hard drives where they will randomly eject themselves but then just as quickly remount itself. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the USB hub, but I've plugged it in directly to the computer and it will still randomly do this. I've noticed this with 3 or my 4 drives. It did this is 10.5 and still doing it in 10.6. Any other ideas?

I'm having this problem on a Mac Pro running 10.5.8.
Here's an excerpt of my syslog:
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM mds[35] (/Volumes/TOM'S DRIVE/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/55A8E770-6A1C-44DD-B127-95FB46EB6177)(Err or) IndexCI in indexCommitShadow:fturncate err: 22
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM mds[35] (/Volumes/TOM'S DRIVE/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/55A8E770-6A1C-44DD-B127-95FB46EB6177)(Err or) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoSync:sync err: 22
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel jnl: disk5s1: writejournalheader: 0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 13] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 9220920] [LBlkNum 89824] [FSLogMsgID 338152298] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel error writing the journal header!
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel disk5s1: media is not present.
9/24/09 4:40:20 PM kernel jnl: disk5s1: close: journal 0x8183c18, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:30 PM kernel USBF: 1090.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:30 PM kernel USBF: 1090.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:36 PM kernel USBF: 1096.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:36 PM kernel USBF: 1096.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:42 PM kernel USBF: 1102.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:42 PM kernel USBF: 1102.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:48 PM kernel USBF: 1108.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:48 PM kernel USBF: 1108.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:54 PM kernel USBF: 1114.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:54 PM kernel USBF: 1114.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:00 PM kernel USBF: 1120.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:00 PM kernel USBF: 1120.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM kernel USBF: 1126.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] ERROR: mDNSPlatformWriteTCP - send Broken pipe
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] tcpConnectionCallback: error writing
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] tcpConnectionCallback: error writing
9/24/09 4:41:12 PM kernel USBF: 1132.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:12 PM kernel USBF: 1132.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:18 PM kernel USBF: 1138.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:18 PM kernel USBF: 1138.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:24 PM kernel USBF: 1144.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:24 PM kernel USBF: 1144.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:30 PM kernel USBF: 1150.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
The USB device is a Cruiser Micro 16gb thumb drive.
Thanks for any help.

"Drive not properly ejected"--How do I keep a USB drive mounted constantly?

I have a 2-month-old iMac, and have had a USB external SATA-enclosure 2.5" 500gb drive attached the whole time. About a week ago, it started randomly giving the "Drive not properly ejected" message and usually it remounts after a few seconds. Sometimes it doesn't and I have to unplug it and plug it back in.
I thought the drive was at fault, so I switched it with a similar drive that was connected to my AirPort Extreme base station. The problem stayed with the Mac. Also I imagined that (somehow) the iMac wasn't supplying enough power, so I bought a powered USB hub. The result is the same.
I don't understand how it can work for two months and then suddenly get this problem. The only change along the line is that about a week ago I did a software update ("About this Mac" says it is 10.6.7). The latest update DOES coincide with the appearance of this problem.
How do I resolve this?
(Notes: There at least one other thread here where people seem to think that this is a Time Machine problem. I think this is because many people connect large external drives for the purpose of backup. I upgraded to iMac from Mac Mini. I installed Snow Leopard right after I bought the iMac and then tried to restore from my Time Machine backup. Something went wrong, so I mirrored my Mac Mini drive onto a 500gb SATA 2.5", put it in a FireWire enclosure and boot from that. I use the iMac's internal 1T drive for Time Machine. That may sound like "lazy man solution", but it could have a great advantage someday where I could plug that FireWire drive into my Mac Mini and not have any downtime should iMac need to be repaired. The random disconnecting of the USB drive doesn't coincide with any Time Machine events. TM is working fine.)

Kappy,
Thank you for your help with this problem!
Your hypothesis for the drive/enclosure being a problem is good thinking, however:
-The problem never existed for the first two months I had the iMac.
-I can switch similar drives with iMac and AirPort Extreme, and the problem stays with the iMac.
-It has nothing to do with Time Machine as I am using a FireWire drive to boot, and the iMac internal 1TB for Time Machine.
-A friend suggested a cable problem, but I have tried many combinations and it wouldn't explain why suddenly after 2 months three sets of USB cables can fail at the same time (at least one, I used for 3 years with Mac Mini.)
I now have a 111gb drive connected to my AirPort Extreme and it has been copying files to my FireWire drive slowly but surely for two hours now. The same drive disconnected after 13 minutes on the iMac. All indications are pointing to OSX 10.6.7. The perfect test (for anyone with convenient resources) would be to install Snow Leopard from disc on a clean Mac and not upgrade it, plug in a USB drive and see if it can last a day or two. Then, upgrade to 10.6.7 and see what happens. I hope someone can try this.
(Is this a ploy to try to sell more FireWire equipment? I hope not.)

USB drives keep unmounting by themselves

This keeps happening over and over...
my USB drives are unmounting by themselves.
with no prompt or eject.
I've tried to re-set the PRAM. with no luck.
is this a on-going problem?
what can I do?

There are several reasons this might be happening so you'll need to provide us with more information.
1) are the drives connected directly to the computer or to a hub? If to a hub, try removing the hub and see if a drive or two connected directly to the computer will stay mounted.
2) who is the manufacturer of the drive(s)?
3) has this been an ongoing problem from day one or did it just recently start after a long period of stability? If the latter, did you make any changes about the same time the trouble began?

USB and FireWire Ports randomly eject devices

Please, this is driving me totally batty. We're talking verge of insanity here. At first I thought it was a bad firewire hard drive. Then I replaced the hard drive, meanwhile losing a few hundred photos, just to find that the problem was the port. Jeez, I figured, I guess I will just get a bigger drive that will plug into the USB, even though I already have too many USB devices. Not only did i get one, but I got a second to back up the one, so that I wouldnt lose stuff again. And guess what? BOTH of the drives ejected randomly, while I was using them, the ejections occurring more and more frequently as time went on. So I cleared the PRAM. Problem solved...for a few days. Then it started again, and has gotten worse and worse. I've had to recreate my iPhoto library TWICE this week because the drive ejected while I was using iPhoto. That nearly 10k photos...it take a few hours to complete, so as you can imagine, its pretty annoying to have to do more than, oh, ONCE, EVER!! So, if anyone can tell me why all three of my ports that I could possibly plug an external drive into do this, please. I'd appreciate it. Especially if you could help before I was committed...

Perhaps I am not being descriptive enough of the problem? When I have any drive plugged in to either USB port, it randomly ejects, and the OS gives me the device removal scold message "Device Removal! You must eject drives before disconnecting, else you risk data damage or loss!" I'm not sure what happens if I plug in non-drive type devices, since I generally dont have them plugged in for long. If I plug a drive into the firewire, it just looks like it suffered a click-death. "Click click click click click click"
The problem is resolved temporarily by clearing the PRAM. Then it starts over again, becoming more frequent as time goes on.

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.

Seagate USB drives appear on desktop but can't be read or ejected.

I have two different Seagate 1TB USB drives, both formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utilities that work fine on my early 2013 MacBook Pro running Mavericks but cause various issues on my late 2013 Mac Pro (also running Mavericks). The drives will show up when connected to the Mac Pro, but when I try to view the contents of the drives, nothing appears and I cannot eject them. Sometimes, I end up with a spinning beach ball in the Finder. I have run the hardware test on my Mac Pro and no issues were detected. I have also Verified and Repaired the disks using Disk Utilities on my Macbook Pro and no issues were detected for those operations.
I'm figuring this must be some sort of driver issue, but I don't understand why the drives operate fine when connected to my Macbook Pro running Mavericks but not the Mac Pro running Mavericks. I didn't install any drivers on the Macbook Pro to get them to work, they just work.

>> also Verified and Repaired the disks using Disk Utilities on MacBook Pro
... and why would they need to be repaired on the nMP:?
It sounds like there is an issue with the port you use and assume you used the same cable.
Q: Does the case have its own power brick adapter or one of those cheaper and smaller bus powered?
Seagate does have a Thunderbolt docking station which is very nice and convenient, and of course will cost more than a USB3
Generally I recommend avoiding vendor's cases.
Seems like we need more information about the drives and case and interface etc.

Random crashes when using USB drive with Creatie Suite

I have a 24" Intel IMAC and when using a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB and Creative Suite I eperience random crashes in CS. When I remove th drive it works fine, any known issues when using Rosetta apps and USB drives?
thanks

So a guy goes into his doctors office and tells his doctor "Ya gotta
help me doc...it hurts when I run my head into the door like
this...OW!". Then the doctor says:
"DON'T DO THAT ANY MORE!!!"
(I promise to keep my day job...oops what job...and not go into
comedy..)
Why don't you convert all the old 16 bit code into 32 bit code and
create one application where the various parts all know about each
other? I don't think that there's any way to coordinate an old 16 bit
LV and a new 32 bit LV application so that they don't step on each
other driverwise like they appear to be doing. I don't think that the
two LabVIEW's even know that the other exists!
Alternatively, get a second computer to run the 16 bit code on and
make the two apps communicate with
each other using TCP/IP or serial.
Doug De Clue
[email protected]
cincidude wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I am using 2 versions of Labview at the same time, one is version 4
> which has a camera and a weigh-in-motion scale attached to it. The
> second is either Labview version 4, 16-bit or Labview 3.0.1, 16-bit,
> i'm not sure. The sixteen bit has a data acquisition system attached
> to it. Its an optim electronics system and the 16-bit Labview drivers
> for the optim were provided by Optim electronics and so I am stuck
> with using the same system. When I use both these systems in tandem,
> the system crashes frequently, but both systems run fine
> independently. It usually just freezes up or says "Illegal operation
> performed. Contact program vendor". Its a windows error with a red
> cross.

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.

USB external drive eject

I have a doubt: when I move my external USB drive to trash (for unmount it), it is unmounted, but still run again and light don't stop (hard drive motor run again)
I think that for this reason I have lost my data on HD used for backup with Time Machine
Thank's

To eject your drive safely, put it in the trash, and make sure it disappear from the desktop, and there is no activity on it, then you can unplug it.
It is possible that the drive is still running because it still have power.
Anyways, if you unplug it badly, the system will tell you. If you get no warning, then it is ok.

USB Drives Ejecting Themselves randomly

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