Recurring 'drive not ejected properly' and 'wasn't ejected because one or more programs are using it' errors on macOS Sequoia

derfnam503 wrote:

Thank you for replying.

unfortunately the Crucial SSD drive has to be on a dock due to the Macbook Pro's limited amount of ports, one port handles a thunderbolt SSD and the other one also a dock

are there any unpowered USB-C USB-A docks recommended by apple not causing this behavior?

I need to use 4 USB A devices (audio interface, midi controllers, authorization dongle for older software:-) and 4 USB C devices as well as a fast Thunderbolt 4 SSD for audio work

Unpowered docks for all those devices? You need a powered hub. No way all those devices will be able to function without being on external power, the Mac cannot keep them all going, that is why they are being ejected.

I wonder if these two Native Instrument 'open at login' items, which self installed with NI software I am occasionally using (screenshot below could be causing this 'disk cannot be ejected' message and should be removed. Hesitant about it because I don't know if removing those will cause some of the NI apps not to run correctly. I have now turned off all background items which also self install with some of the musical and other apps I am using.

I don't know about the Native Instrument software, but after you get a powered dock (OWC sells some good ones), you could disable or uninstall that software to see if it makes a difference. Another thing you can try is to boot into Safe Mode (which disables most if not all non-Apple extensions) and see if the external drives continue to be ejected, but without a powered hub I am almost certain the ejections will continue.

It is possible that there are two issues -- one causing the unwanted disk ejections and the other causing the "in use" error.

New Macs with nothing installed don't show these errors. Here are some possible causes:

• Using a dock or hub - some are known to cause these issues
• Anti-virus, security, or network monitor software tools, these sometimes insist of accessing drives
• Drive manufacturer software/firmware/tools -- do you have any of these, they conflict sometimes with MacOS, Disk Utility, etc.
• Cleaning software -- these cause all kinds of odd system behaviors

derfnam503 wrote:

Thank You.

I will try this,

You're welcome.

however I cannot eject that one particular drive because that error comes up: 'disk wasn't ejected because one or more programs are using it'

That was only a suggestion, if you insisted on using manual computer sleep.

On second thought, even if I could eject the disk, I then would need to shut the Macbook Pro's screen to access the wiggly dock behind it and unplug, then replug the drive so it mounts again every time I step away from the computer. The external SSD does not mount at screen wake up. I have to fully shut it down several times every day (starting it up just for a 10 minute task and shutting it down again so often, I worry that this harms the Macbook Pro long term.

Then the obvious solution, is to leave everything connected and the Mac running.

Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off.

Allow the display to turn off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

You can use the Terminal command line utility "lsof" to see which processes are using the volume and use the lowest number "PID" (aka Process ID) listed to kill it, then check if the other related processes are now gone....if not, repeat on the next highest PID.

Here is my other post where I provided more detailed instructions for this process:

Find & kill Processes Preventing External Drive from Unmount/Ejecting -- HWTech - Apple Community

Automatically computer sleep and external drive management has been an issue in the lastest macOS versions.

As a test:

Turn On "Prevent automatic sleeping when display is off" and Turn Off the other options.

Then leave the MacBook Pro On and only allow the display to turn Off during the day.

Then eject and disconnect external drives before manual computer sleep.

Or optionally, fully shut down for long periods of non-use.

Note: the Energy settings for your MacBook Pro may be slightly different than the desktop screenshot above.

I am getting this error too but with new iMacs. It's a Lacie USB C drive. When the iMac is woken from sleep, there are several disk not ejected properly notifications. It's happened both on M3 and M4 iMacs. It also seems like something with the Apple Silicon chips is the cause. I have alleviated the issue somewhat by adjusting my sleep settings so that the iMac does not go to sleep and just turns of the display after a while.

I previously had the drive connected to an Intel iMac with Sequoia running and did not have this issue at all. It's only when connected to a newer iMac with the Silicon chip.