After upgrading my Mac to macOS Sequoia, I encountered a frustrating issue with external drives that used to work flawlessly. Whether it’s an external hard drive or a thumb drive, the problem remains the same: the drives won’t eject properly on Mac because the system claims something is using them. I’ve tried everything–logging out, shutting down the Mac, and even powering down completely–but nothing resolves the issue except force ejecting the drives, which isn’t ideal.
I should say that, occasionally, restarting the Mac allows me to eject the drive within the first moments after the restart. This suggests that something in the boot process is interfering with the ability to safely eject drives.
Force ejecting a drive is not a good idea because it can lead to data corruption or loss. In this article, I will offer three fixes to help resolve the issue. When a drive is force ejected, any files still in use or being written to the drive might be incomplete or damaged. Additionally, the drive’s file system could become corrupted, making the drive unusable until it is repaired or reformatted. This makes it critical to find a proper solution to the issue.
No matter the type, all external USB drives fail to eject properly and require a force eject. This includes:
- USB-C drives
- USB-A drives
- All drives formatted as APFS
Here’s how to fix the problem if external Drives won’t Eject Properly After macOS Sequoia Update.
Fix #1: Quit the apps that are using the drive
You may not be able to eject a drive from your Mac if one or more apps are using it. In some cases, a warning message may identify the app that is using the drive. You can also press and hold the Command key and press Tab to see which apps are open and switch to a different app.
To fix, quit the apps that are using the drive, then try to eject it again.
To quit an app, choose App Name > Quit App in the menu bar. For example, choose Preview > Quit Preview (or press the keyboard shortcut Command-Q).
Keep in mind that if you click the Close button in the top-left corner of an app’s window, the window closes, but the app remains open (a small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock indicates that the app is still open).
If you can’t quit an app, close the documents that are on the drive you want to eject, then try to eject the drive again.
Fix #2: Exclude the Drive from Spotlight Search
Spotlight indexing can prevent a drive from being safely ejected. To exclude the drive from Spotlight search:
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Spotlight in the sidebar.
- Click Search Privacy in the lower right.
- Click the add button and add the external drive to the exclusion list.
- Try to eject the drive again.
Fix #3: Check for fsck Process in Activity Monitor
Sometimes, background processes like fsck
(File System Consistency Check) can prevent a drive from ejecting. To address this:
- Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder in Applications.
- Go to View > All Processes to ensure all running processes are visible.
- Sort the processes by Name for easier navigation.
- Look for a process named fsck. If it is running, it might be holding onto the drive.
- Select the fsck process and click the X (Stop) button in the toolbar to force quit it.
- Attempt to eject the drive again.