MacBook Pro will not read DVD-R

After an hour of fruitless fixes, I found this post. Per Mayavi's post "i just inserted a credit card wrapped with a cloth and moved it forward and reverse and pressed it slightly down while moving particularly on the left side (lens location)and cleaned the lens of the super drive" Now the cleaning CD can finally work. These drives are very tempermental, and seem to need cleaning and maintenance all the time. Tks for all the posts.

I went to the Mac Genius Bar yesterday with this problem. They said - 'put a new drive in' I said i'd think about it. I have cleaned with the credit card and spectacle cloth, I am glad I didn't go back as it is now burning as I type this...Unreal, thanks so much for the tip

I was having the same problem. but I got a cleaner disc and it didn't do the trick. I tried the compress air...still no luck. So here's the really weird thing. if I create a guest account on my computer it mounts the DVD-R just found...just not under my regular account. sometimes randomly DVD-R's would mount but maybe 1 out ever 15-20...under my guest account it works 100% no matter what brand. *sigh* not even sure how to approach fixing it but at least I can burn DVD's even if I have to log out to do it.

Here is an insight, discovered by accident. It so happens that I own two MacBook Air machines. Machine 1 was upgraded to Lion via the Apple Store's $29.00 online download. Machine 2 was upgraded to Lion via the $69.00 thumb drive.

Machine 2 (thumdrive upgraded) has all the symptoms others have described. It will not failthfully recognize and load from the Superdrive.

Machine 1 has no such problems and works as before.

Go figure. Proceed accordingly.

Here's the real problem. DVD-R. My drive reads and burns DVD+R but not -R.

Maybe Apple doesn't want to support DVD-R like how they dont support Bluray. I'm sure the drive hardware supports -R but the software probably doesn't.

I got my optical drive replaced. That fixed it for me. I tried using a credit card wrapped in a cloth at first, but that didn't fit it. When some people recommended dabbing some alcohol on the cloth, I was weary of putting that in my computer, so I finally decided to take advantage of Apple Care and take it in.

I have been having problems with my MacBook Pro - some of the same issues - burn a DVD on my Mac Pro and the laptop shows it as a blank DVD. CDs seem to work okay. The laptop has had problems from the beginning - bad battery very hot and wouldn't hold a charge - constant keyboard problems sticking keys or repeating sounds and drive (HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N) problems - wouldn't read any DVDs or CDs. Was happy I had Apple Care because during the time it was effective the laptop had so many repairs and replacements. I kept telling them that the problem seemed to be partially or maybe totally because the top of the case did not seem to fit properly - it seemed a bit wobbly - perhaps because of the overheating battery? The case problem was ignored for three years. The drive was replaced in 2011 about a month before it was out of Apple Care and seemed to be working fine. Then toward the end of the year things started to get wonky again and thanks to the fact that I had all of the documentation for previous repairs and wrote a letter outlining the issues before taking the machine to the Apple Store they agreed to replace the top case, keyboard and drive in December 2011. Now the laptop is acting up again - the keyboard problems are intermittent - usually indicating a problem by the caps lock light coming on all by itself - often a complete freeze up will result. There have been problems off and on with the sticking keys (kind of creepy to have a machine typing by itself and not able to stop it.) Yesterday noticed the drive was not reading. I tried some of the suggestions in this thread and using a cleaning disc seems to have solved the problem for now, although I also removed the machine from the cooling pad and tried the tapping thing as well. It will now read a DVD that it would not read just minutes before. Can't believe these drive problems have been going so many years and nothing has been done to remedy the situation. For that matter I am really unhappy about the number of problems my laptop has had. All of my Apple desktops have been pretty darn reliable but the laptop so unreliable.

😕I could not get macbook pro to read my dvd/cd's after replacing harddrive. I took someones suggestion and added another user and it read it perfecly. And when I logged back in it reads all of the dvd/cd's ?????? Who knows why? Not me but I am happy.

After you have done an exhaustive trouble shooting of the hardware and the result is fine, it might be that the head of the optical drive is dirty (dusty) as simple remedy is to get a clean piece of soft anti static cloth, wrap it around a credit card or any card about the same thickness as a credit card and insert it carefully and gently about an inch deep into the left side of the super drive. This will clear the dust. and will get the drive running.

A non intrusive approach is to get a pressurised air can and spray it into the drive to clear the dust.

Worked for me.

Hope this solves your problem.

Keep me posted.

Dennz wrote:

After you have done an exhaustive trouble shooting of the hardware and the result is fine, it might be that the head of the optical drive is dirty (dusty) as simple remedy is to get a clean piece of soft anti static cloth, wrap it around a credit card or any card about the same thickness as a credit card and insert it carefully and gently about an inch deep into the left side of the super drive. This will clear the dust. and will get the drive running.

A non intrusive approach is to get a pressurised air can and spray it into the drive to clear the dust.

Worked for me.

Hope this solves your problem.

Keep me posted.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!🙂🙂

I used my specs cleaning cloth to do the same! Worked like a charm!

Im going to add my name to the list of using a simple microfiber cleaning cloth on my driver's license that got my superdrive back. If it doesn't work for you try using a NJ driver's license, or some other state that is used to cleaning up after itself.

I have been having the same problem! My friend and wanted to wathc a movie on my 2009 MacBook and it took in the disc but didnt recognize there was a disk. We called a friend that is good with computers and he did some speedy research and told us all these solutions. We tried them all and nothing worked. After nothing worked, we assumed we must have put the disc in upside down. She then left and after she left, I tried one of the methods again and nothing happened. Then I tried restarting the computer, and when it had restarted and i had logged back in and my desktop came back up, i was going to try another method when it recognized there was a disk. I then ejected it. But i was curious to see if it would recognize it a second time so i reinserted it and the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED! it didnt recognize a disc and it is currently still stuck in the drive. I am giving it time between my many attempts. Also, one thing that may help some people is going to the magnifying glass at the top right hand corner and searching "terminal" then clicking on the application. Then type in "/usr/bin/drutil eject" and it may force the disk to eject. If not that then click the magnifying glass again and search "disk utility" and see if it is recognizing a disc.

I tried cleaning and such, and other methods that repeated here over and over, but didnt work. what ridiculous was, when I tried to close all the programs to shutdown the mac for inserting a cloth coated credit card to disk slot, exactly after I closed the toast, the disk is ejected all of sudden. so I realize something, that I inserted the disk back, and yah it worked! so, it was because the Toast that was staying still had an error or something (I dont know why).

What do you do when you're out of canned air? Use a bendy drinking straw. I turned my MacBook upside down so the direction of the air would be pointed down toward the lens, pinched the long end of the straw flat and inserted it into the drive. With a tight seal on the drinking end of the straw, I blew some quick compressed shots of my own air into the drive. It took a few tries to get it to work, but each time, I heard the drive get quieter and quieter as it tried to read the DVD. Third time was the charm. 😁