Does MacOS Sequoia automatically unmount external storage when you shutdown your Mac Mini M1?

Question

Level 1

33 points

Does MacOS Sequoia automatically unmount external storage when you shutdown your Mac Mini M1?

Hi guys,

I use an Inland 256GB SSD USB, and I forgot to unmount it when I shutdown my M1 Mac Mini after editing some videos. I don’t think anything was writing onto the SSD when I shutdown it cause I didn’t have finder open anymore and was done. Is my external SSD probably going to be ok? Does MacOS latest Sequoia version (I am not upgrading to Tahoe) unmount storage devices on shutdown?

Mac mini, macOS 15.7

Posted on Dec 6, 2025 4:38 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

32,249 points

Dec 6, 2025 5:29 PM in response to icyforreal

Any time you shut down your Mac properly with a shut down command, then yes, the Mac will gracefully unmount any connected external drives. There's nothing to worry about there. All versions of macOS do this properly.

A proper shut down is Apple menu  > Shut Down...

Pressing and holding the power button until the Mac shuts down is NOT a proper shutdown.

Neither is turning off the power strip while the Mac is running.

Reply

Answer 2

icyforreal Author

Level 1

33 points

Dec 7, 2025 9:01 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

thank you for the info !

Reply