There was an initialization error A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]

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There was an initialization error A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]

I have an iMac (27-inch late 2013) 3.5 GHx Intel Core i7 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G9016).

I keep getting the above error each time I try and run DVD Player. I can insert a DVD and it will mount on the desktop. I can drag it to VLC and it will play, I can select the DVD and eject it, no problem, but every time I launch DVD player (version 5.8 the latest I can find) it says a valid drive is not attached. I have an External USB Apple SuperDrive that shows up in Hardware

Firmware Revision: RR06

Interconnect: USB

Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)

Profile Path: None

Cache: 768 KB

Reads DVD: Yes

CD-Write: -R, -RW

DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW

Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Media:

Type: DVD-ROM

Blank: No

Erasable: No

Overwritable: No

Appendable: No

I've restarted about a dozen times, no change.

Safe mode won't work because from what I've read DVD driver doesn't load.

I've reset PRAM/NVRAM and that hasn't helped.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Vic

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Nov 26, 2019 3:20 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Nov 26, 2019 5:44 PM in response to Vic Glassley

5.8 is the right version.

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Nov 27, 2019 9:34 AM in response to Vic Glassley

Open Activity Monitor, does it show up there?

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Answer 3

Vic Glassley Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 26, 2019 10:27 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the reply. I did as you suggested and created a new Admin account, logged out and into the new account. Inserted a DVD, it mounted on the desktop and got the same error. Looked at System preferences / CDs & DVDs and it was set to open DVD Player when a video DVD was inserted. I then opened DVD Player 5.8 (in case the system was trying to open an older version) and still got the same error. So, I would say system wide...

One other strange thing is that I also use a program called Mac DVDRipper Pro to backup my movies and move them to iTunes and when I open it I get a dialog box that says "DVDPlayer running. For Best results, quit DVDPlayer and reinsert the DVD.". I then check the Force Quit window and no DVD Player is running.

Any suggestions as to what to try next???

Thanks,

Vic

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Answer 4

Vic Glassley Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 27, 2019 10:33 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks again. Using the new Admin account I looked at Activity monitor and saw nothing that looked like it was associated with DVD player. I tried to open DVD player with activity monitor running and got the message about no valid drive, but DVD player DID show up in activity monitor. When I clicked on the OK button in the Error Dialog box DVD Player went away in Activity monitor. So I would say that unless I try to run DVD Player it DOES NOT show up in Activity Monitor.

Thanks,

Vic

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Nov 27, 2019 5:32 PM in response to Vic Glassley

OH, somehow I missed that it's an external DVD Player, at one time there a a tweak to get DVD Player to work with an external Optical Drive, but do you have another Mac with a built-in DVD player?

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/529370/External+DVD+player+issue

Oh, I think this is the old tweak...

http://hardturm.ch/luz/2016/07/how-to-make-the-macbook-air-superdrive-work-with-any-mac-el-capitan-onwards/

https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/how-to-get-an-external-dvd-drive-to-work-with-a-mac-laptop/

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There was an initialization error A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]

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