DeepSeaGoddess
Level 1 (7 points)

Q: Unable to Eject Time Machine Backups Disk

Hi All,

 

Ever since I've installed OS X Mountain Lion, I cannot eject my time machine backups disk.  I connect through usb and EVERY time I try to eject it I get a popup box with the following in it:

 

The disk "Time Machine Backups" wasn't ejeted because one or more programs may be using it.

 

What the heck?  It isn't backing up currently or anything else.   This worked fine until I upgraded to mountain lion.

 

Thanks for any info!

Posted on Aug 7, 2012 3:49 PM

by DeepSeaGoddess,Apple recommended
DeepSeaGoddess DeepSeaGoddess
Level 1 (7 points)
A:

Problem solved!  It was actually spotlight service using the time machine backup.  I searched the internet and found some info on this.   I 'forced quit' the process in activity monitor (called 'mds') and it worked....now I was successfully able to eject the time machine backup drive.  Now, it must take days for this to index the drive but, I want to be able to eject my time machine drive whenever it is done backing up so that I can take my macbook to different rooms without having to carry the drive!

Posted on Aug 13, 2012 6:30 PM

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Q: Unable to Eject Time Machine Backups Disk

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  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Aug 7, 2012 3:57 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 8 (39,178 points)
    Aug 7, 2012 3:57 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    Programs like TextEdit and Pages do autosave now.  I suspect (not sure) they use the Time Machine backup disk as part of this process.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 7, 2012 4:03 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 10 (207,936 points)
    Applications
    Aug 7, 2012 4:03 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    I've seen this too. You should be given the option to force-eject. Don't do this if a backup is in progress, of course.

  • by DeepSeaGoddess,Apple recommended

    DeepSeaGoddess DeepSeaGoddess Aug 13, 2012 6:30 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Aug 13, 2012 6:30 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    Problem solved!  It was actually spotlight service using the time machine backup.  I searched the internet and found some info on this.   I 'forced quit' the process in activity monitor (called 'mds') and it worked....now I was successfully able to eject the time machine backup drive.  Now, it must take days for this to index the drive but, I want to be able to eject my time machine drive whenever it is done backing up so that I can take my macbook to different rooms without having to carry the drive!

  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Aug 13, 2012 9:49 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 8 (39,178 points)
    Aug 13, 2012 9:49 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    Thanks for posting your solution!  Very informative and interesting.  Nice tracking down too.

  • by coolio022,

    coolio022 coolio022 Oct 8, 2012 5:01 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2012 5:01 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    Thanks so much i was just about to ask the same question, i just got a back up drive for my macbook pro and i needed to know if i could eject the drive. Thanks!

  • by hutchenstein,

    hutchenstein hutchenstein Jun 24, 2015 4:49 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 24, 2015 4:49 PM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    I'm sure there are a number of circumstances that can cause this. However, I noticed that if I'm running VMware Fusion when I try to eject my Time Machine drive, I get this error. When I quit VMware, I can usually eject the drive (without force ejecting).

  • by konigbeatty,

    konigbeatty konigbeatty Jan 4, 2016 10:22 PM in response to hutchenstein
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 4, 2016 10:22 PM in response to hutchenstein

    I'm also using VMware ("...Horizon Client", by now) but quitting it didn't help.

     

    Quitting mds in "Activity Monitor" did help though, thanks for that tip!

     

    On OS X "El Capitan" (10.11.2) by now. Problem only recently started showing up. Was worried that the drive started failing but that might not be the case.

  • by Jean in idaho,

    Jean in idaho Jean in idaho Feb 1, 2016 8:21 AM in response to konigbeatty
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 1, 2016 8:21 AM in response to konigbeatty

    The same problem (backup drive would not eject) was also solved for me when I quit "mds" in "Activity Monitor".  But does this mean that spotlight is no longer working for my hard drive?  Should I turn "mds" back on?  If so, how do I do that?

  • by wjm2222,

    wjm2222 wjm2222 Mar 20, 2016 10:18 AM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2016 10:18 AM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    I used 'fuser' to identify the process that has a file open in the file system, and got nothing. So I used the 'force eject'. Perhaps the kernel has a bug in its reference-count logic.

  • by wjm2222,

    wjm2222 wjm2222 Mar 20, 2016 10:22 AM in response to DeepSeaGoddess
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2016 10:22 AM in response to DeepSeaGoddess

    Try using 'fuser /Volumes/<file system name>' from a 'Terminal' window to identify the process ID (PID) number. Once you have a set of PIDs, use 'ps -fp <PID>' to get the process name(s).

  • by jwinters78,

    jwinters78 jwinters78 Apr 6, 2016 11:19 AM in response to wjm2222
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 6, 2016 11:19 AM in response to wjm2222

    Of you can use 'sudo lsof /Volumes/<file system name>' (and enter your password when prompted). This will give you the command that is using the drive, the pid, user, file description, and the name of what is being used on that filesystem (among other things).

     

    Essentially, lsof does in one command what you'd need to do with several (in addition to making not of the pids in question).