Can't Eject Hard Drive Without Restarting

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Level 1

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Can't Eject Hard Drive Without Restarting

For some reason my Macbook has a problem with my hard drive. Whenever I insert it, I am given a message saying an app may be using the drive and it fails to eject. The only solution I've found that works is restarting the computer and immediately ejecting the drive.

I'd really like to be able to use my drive without having to restart every time I need to eject it. I've tried quitting all apps, relaunching finder, and logging out. What could be causing this issue?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Feb 17, 2025 10:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Zurarczurx

Level 4

3,777 points

Feb 17, 2025 10:33 AM in response to dayneb12

It's probably Spotlight indexing it. You can add the drive to Spotlight's exclusion list if you're OK with Spotlilight not indexing the drive. If you've got AV the same applies.

Or get an app called "What's Keeping Me" which will show you what processes are using the drive. You can use Terminal to do this - Google it - but it's a bit of a pain and I gave up with it long ago and got the app.

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Answer 2

Feb 17, 2025 10:19 AM in response to dayneb12

There are several types of applications that can cause this by making use of the drive in the backgroud:

Backup software
Cloud syncing
Anti-virus
Automation tools
Any other application that may have a resource open on that drive in the background
etc.

If you can figure out what application is using the drive, then it's possible that you can close the application or exclude its access to the drive to allow ejecting it.

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Can't Eject Hard Drive Without Restarting

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