Disk Not Ejected Properly -- AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AND AGAIN...

I've been experiencing this problem recently, on my Macbook Pro 16" (Intel) running MacOS Monterey. This hasn't been a problem for me. The disk I have is fairly new, too, it's an 18TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro drive. I checked the physical connections. The only change is the recent update to the MacOS 12.7.3, but I can't say that's the issue. But it's been happening with some frequency and it interfering with my TM backups. I do not use a screen saver, I simply have a "hot corner" that blanks the screen on demand.

My 2012 MacBook Pro suddenly decided that (upon plugging my backup drive in) that it hadn't been ejected properly. The icon for the Time Macine Hdd would appear, then disappear with the message that the drive hadn't been ejected properly... and around in circles thing went until I just unplugged the drive and went to see if Google had any information.

I found a link that had some ideas listed, and apparently SOMETHING worked because I can now plug the drive in, do a Time Machine back up, eject it and go on with my life.

This involved opening up the Terminal and typing in some commands, getting rid of some local Time Machine files, and then plugging in the drive and removing a file from there (I believe its extension was *.inprogress).

Anyway, for me, this worked. I have no idea if this is related to the issue that the newer machines are experiencing or not. It was items 6 and 7 in this list that worked for me. Here's the link:

https://macpaw.com/how-to/time-machine-backup-failed

I would say swapping a cable was removing but one of the causes of this annoyance. In my case this happens frequently after a Time Machine backup to our NAS, i.e it’s not a hardware issue. It’s likely an internal timing, mishandled event, or something like that. There’s more than condition in which the system is exposed to the flaw.

I've encountered this recently on three different Mac Minis (OSX 13.6.5) using three different drives (8T SSD) connected with three different cables to (USBC-to-SATA). I've tried all the things: re-install the system, reset SMC, reset NVRAM, etc. Maddening! However, yesterday it occurred to me that I'd never noticed it happening when the WiFi was turned off. So I tried an experiment by letting the computer run overnight with the WiFi off and returned to the shop in the morning to find no "Disk Not Ejected Properly..." messages. The moment I turned on the WiFi they started appearing again, in rapid succession. When I turned off the WiFi they stopped.

When I opened System Settings>Network>Wi-Fi, I saw that the error messages coincided exactly with a spinning gear appearing next to "Other Networks" — every single time. If I forget the known network, it seems the issue is even worse. WiFi off, the behavior stops. Thoughts?

It is incredible to me that this problem has persisted as long as it has without a fix from Apple. This is one of several serious problems I've noticed with the MacOS. It is pretty evident that Apple does not have its "A" team working on the Mac, since the Mac represents a tiny fraction of their revenues. iOS, on the other hand, seems quite solid.

I do my computing with FreeBSD and Linux. But my wife needs to use an easily replaced system (I'm her IT department and am 81 years old, so may not be available to set up a new system for her) that can do encryption, so the choices are the Mac and Windows. Much as I dislike Windows, it was clearly the better choice, because in our experience, Windows exhibits far fewer problems. We've given up on the Mac.

I just started getting these cascading Disk not ejected properly messages. I have upgraded to Sonoma 14.5 and it is if anything worse. This is the same 4TB LaCie drive that has been sitting in the same place with the same cable since 2022 when I bought my Mac Studio. The drive seems to work fine between all the error messages. Running First Aid in Disk Utility on the drive shows no errors.

Yes, this has happened with my hard drive. Maybe the cord’s components are fried. It happens sometimes. I remember my Mac kept doing this with my iPod from 2005. Also do you have the latest Mac OS?

Mac OS bug for sure. Anyone know how to prevent the Mac from going to sleep? The settings are very limited in the control panel. I have 10 of these on screen right now.

A couple of days ago, I swapped out the USB-C cable that I was using for my iPad charging cable. Since doing that, I have not had any disconnect messages.

i replaced the thunderbolt cord and adapter, thunderbolt to usb c/new thunderbolt connection, and it fixed the issue!!

Replacing connectors or changing ports may work, but when I switched ports the problem returned in a couple of weeks. So far turning off sleep options seems to work better.

Strongly agree. Every time I wake up my Mac Pro 2023 I have many disk eject statements. I've only noticed it after the last update. What gives?

LR

I solved this issue by simply swapping my USB-C cable to another one. Issue solved.

This post saved my sanity. Thanks so much!