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

Disk not ejected properly:

This can be caused by a shortcoming of your external Bus Powered drive, and not of your Macintosh computer.

When you Mount any ejectable drive, the Directory from the drive is copied into RAM, and the directory on the drive is marked status = checked out (like a library book that has been borrowed from the lending library). The RAM copy is considered the Master copy, and changes that you make while working are made in the RAM copy of the Directory.

When you Eject/UnMount a drive, the RAM copy of the Directory replaces the copy on the drive, and the status of the directory on the drive is marked status = checked IN and Good.

Some external drives get all their power form the USB Bus. Bus-powered external drives should gracefully transition into standby and accept reduced USB power supplied when your Mac sleeps.

Some drives do this perfectly. Other drives do not transition gracefully and do not run only on standby power. Instead of stand-by, these drives disconnect. The problem is, the Directory from the drive has been checked out, and the Master copy in RAM has no way to get back to the disconnected drive.

Some Time later, when your Mac wakes up again, the drive reports 'I just woke up and am ready to connect'. Your Mac is confused because the drive will not CONTINUE from where it left off, so the Mac says "drive disconnected". The copy of the Directory on the Drive is Stale/checked out (not the Master copy). You get the messages "drive not ejected properly" the same as if you had pulled the cables out while running. The correct state of the Directory can not be determined instantly, but requires Disk Utility 'Repair Disk' procedure.

Summary: this is likely a deficit of the DRIVE, not the Mac. If any one of:

• the drive had external power -OR-

• the drive transitioned gracefully to standby -OR-

• the Mac did not sleep, THEN...

...this would likely not occur.

I am using a Satechi mini hub with an ssd drive in it for my Time Machine backups... I only started having this problem AFTER I upgraded to Sonoma... It' VERY annoying for this error message to keep popping up...

I had this problem once right after upgrading to Sonoma..

I restarted my M2 Mac mini and immediately right-clicked on my Time Machine disk on my desktop and quickly ejected it...

I then restarted my Mac mini again and the problem went away...

I upgraded to macOS Ventura on my MacBook Air today.

The "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notifications started immediately. They appear every few minutes.

I have swapped my external drives.

I have switched USB-C ports.

I have changed cables.

I have adjusted System Settings to "Never" put hard disks to sleep.

I have reset the NVRAM and the SMC.

I still get dozens of "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notifications per hour.

While running Big Sur and Catalina over the last three years, this problem did not occur even once!

There is something wrong with Ventura.

Right. I am now convinced that the problem is a software issue with macOS 13 Ventura. Since downloading Amphetamine from the App Store, and selecting "Enable Drive Alive" from the Quick Settings, there have been no more "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notifications. Fix this please, Apple.

I have the same problem as well and just tried the screen saver option I saw above. It drives me crazy. The thing is, some days it will happen a few times, and other days it will be dozens. Also, when I shut down my mac it fires up again on its own!?!?!

iMac 2019 got brand new external SSD (internal is dying, failing SMART) and brand new external enclosure (was having issues, Seagate sent a new drive under warranty, was still having issues, so got a new external enclosure USB3.2 with an eye for when I get the M3 Mac Studio). both are USB-C with brand new USB-C cables.

so this is the first time that I am using the USB-C ports on this Mac. till now, never had an issue with external drives (had two Time Machine external drives, and three other external disks)

both the SSD Thunderbolt/USB4 and the external enclosure give random Disk Not Ejected Properly (but not continuous as described here)

so I am wondering if there is something with the USB-C ports on the iMac?

It's definitely software. I'm having the same issue. I took my Macmini M2 to the Apple store and recreated the issue in front of the technician, who then tried to run diagnostics and was not able to connect with the Macmini.

He then escalated the matter to Apple's "next level" support. All they did was reinstall the operating system, then run diagnostics. No hardware issues were found. The entire endeavor was a waste of my time. Not to mention the endless hours I spent restoring my system from a Time Machine Backup. Also, neither my magic mouse nor my Logitech mouse was able to connect so I had to run through the set-up using only my keyboard. I called AppleCare to have them provide a workaround. After spending several hours restoring everything, my Macmini is still doing the same thing with the external hard drive plugged directly into the left USB-A port in the back of the Macmini: DISK NOT EJECTED PROPERLY

This is so annoying as it only started happening over the last 2 weeks. This machine has been in use since Oct 2023. I wonder if there is an issue with power delivery to the USB port. I hope Apple addresses this issue soon.

I have Sonoma 14.3.1, I’m not a techie person like you guys! Really thought I was going a little crazy! Have changed cables, have done everything this Grandma knows to do and still getting “DISK NOT EJECTED PROPERLY” Now after listening to you guys I know I’m not going mad! Started about 2 months ago after my last update! Now I know it’s an Apple issue! Thanks for all of your insights!

Here’s what stopped this pesky notification on my MacBook (os 13.5):

open Finder. >Application. >Utilities.

>Activity Monitor.

in search box “notification center”

double click Notification Center

click Quit

To terminate the process entirely, click Force Quit.

We ordered a brand new Thunderbolt cable and still having the issues. Amphetamine worked for about a week and then the message started again. It tends to be a couple of times a day now. It's happening on a brand new M3 MacBook Pro now, but has been an ongoing issue for several versions of OSX.

We've been using an older G-Technology enclosure (Thunderbolt). Should we switch to a brand new Terramaster (Thunderbolt 3)? The drives are Seagate.

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'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.