Drive won't read any dvd-ejects it automatically after spinning some time

The same solution worked for me in about 30 seconds.

The optical drive on my old MacBook Pro 3.1 was just spitting out disks without reading them.

A few blasts of compressed air into the drive slot and now it's working again.

Prior to trying that, I had called Apple Support and was on the phone with them for about 40 minutes, but the support guy never even suggested that it could be just a dirty laser.

He said to remove the battery and other things I totally could not understand how they could relate to the optical drive.

Eventually he said it's just old hardware and must be taken in for a repair.

Glad I then turned to the internet and found the compressed air solution.

Sometimes self help is the best.

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this! I was about to take my computer to an Apple repair store or buy the SuperDrive for $80 online when I read your post. I ran the repair and my drive is up and running! Thanks for taking the time to write your post - you saved me money!

Y'all this really can help those of you who recently updated to OSX.

1. Open Disk Utilites

2. Click on your Hard drive partition "Macintosh (or what ever you renamed yours too)"

3. Click on the *Repoir Disk Permissions* button

I can't believe how many issues Apple has with these drives and they are mute about it. I bought my MacBook Pro in 2006, and to date I have been through 5 batteries, and a dozen sessions in a store or online to fix various problems. Now, about 8 months ago, I started having problems with the drive not reading, fumbling with, and ejecting every single disk i put in, except for a few store-bought DVD movies. I did read in one of the 3,500 comments about this problem (the few comments I found, I'm sure there's more...) that if you follow a simple PRAM reset, it will fix the problem. For me, I tried and it didn't fix it, though I could get one or two more of my manufactured DVD's to work than before the reset.

I decided to fiddle with the prescribed solution. The recipe for PRAM reset as prescribed by Apple Care is:

1.) Turn off your compooter.

2.) Press Option, Command and R simultaneously. Hold until the process requires release of all keys.

3.) Press the power button to turn on your compooter, and immediately press and hold the P button. Now, you have 4 keys pressed...

4.) Wait for the chime to sound twice, then release the 4 keys.

5.) Wait for reboot, and insert your DVD. It should work.

In theory (Apple Care's fix-all infinite source of hypothetical knowledge) this will fix the entire problem, lickety split. Hmm.

When it doesn't work as prescribed, on the numerous attempts over the last 7 or 8 months, I decided to try something else earlier tonight. I held those 4 keys down until it chimed 5 times, then let go. The very next DVD I put in worked like the day I bought it. The next time I put another DVD in, it didn't work again. I repeated my new method AGAIN. It has worked seamlessly, without problem ever since. Every single DVD that i put in, whether burned or manufactured, CD or DVD, ROM, RAM, Rheem RUM... doesn't matter. It works.

Questiion is, Why does it work when nothing else worked?

The compressed air thing only works when the problem begins. Later on you'll have to start doing all sorts of other things that will work, each one progressively a little more involved. Replacing the drive will be the last thing you will do, then you'll have a few years of trouble free operation before you have to start all over again, first with compressed air, then the disk utilities trick. the the PRAM RESET, then other tricks listed here until you have to replace it AGAIN.

At least it's not like the battery which I've had to replace 5 times, out of pocket cuz Apple won't replace it and won't respond to my questions about the reimbursement they are supposed to be doing when your battery goes out in a month or two or six. It's automatic replacement on the battery. But, at least you can get them for $26 now online.

Same problem here on a 2011 13" MBP. I tried nearly everything listed on this forum, including the microfiber/card trick. What eventually ended up working was lightly spraying eyeglass cleaning solution on the DVD, and then very gently wiping it with my finger to evenly coat the DVD before I inserted it. Sounds dangerous, but I tried a few different discs afterward and everything's working great now. Go figure.

I tried so many things - repair permissions, couldn't use start up disk as it would not stay in long enough, tried restarting and holding track pad to do an emergency eject in case old disc was in the drive....and on and on it goes...then about to give up...i tried resetting SMC...and to my shock and surprise IT WORKED!!!! So if you have not tried that already give it a shot. Best of luck!!!!

FIXED SPINNING DISC/EJECT: Go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility Select drive/Verify Disk Permissions/Repair Disk Permissions. Reboot Computer: Clean Optical Reader: (I sprayed optical lens cleaner on a disk, ran it and then put in a clean disk, which worked) I did note that nearly a million people viewed this post with over 1100 replies! Good luck Steve C

In my case, drive worked fine for 3 years, then stopped reading disks.

Credit card wrapped in microfiber had no effect for me.

Spraying with compressed air worked like a charm - reads all disks now!

Spraying canned air into the DVD/CD slot worked for me!

. . . uh . . . until it didn't. 😕

I've been having the same issue as most of you. My Cd drive spins and acts like its reading but spits out the disc (don't matter what kind) after a few sec's. So I decided to venture and just look to see if I had or, something was rested when i did an software update. BAM!!! fixed it. Go to your system preferences, select CD & DVDS. They'll be like 6 questions on how you want your mac to open these cd/dvds. Make sure that you don't have anything set to ignore. BOOM! changed all the ones that were set to ignore and now it works. Good luck, hopefully this helps a bunch of you. Sorry if you guys have already found a fix and posted it. I didn't want to read the last 10 years on this thread to find out if anyone else did.

I couldn't find Repoir Disk Permissions* button.

Thank you for posting this. This worked on my Mac. I hadn't used the drive in about a year and I think I may have used it a total of a dozen times. With all of the updates to settings it appears that was the problem. Thank you for posting this.

I don't have Repoir Disk Permission i have just First Aid

The latest OS X doesn't have repair permissions.

And btw: I have the drive issue, too, with both my iMac and my MacBook Pro.

Somewhen I read a solution about deleting a kind of database file to reset the drive, but I can't find it anymore 😟