Why am I getting a disk not ejected properly message?

OK... Let's do it!

To everyone on this list... let's make our collective voice heard. Please call Applecare this week and ask them what is Apple doing about the 4 year old "Improper disk ejection" message issue?

I personally believe this is the right direction.

Unless I'm mistaken, the problem can be somewhat crystallised to:

When awaking from sleep, certain Macs display an error dialogue box with the warning: 'disk not ejected properly'.

This suggests the cable has been pulled, or that the external drive has been in some way interrupted during transmission. However, this is not the case for many users, and the problem seems to have been in existence for approximately 4 years.

However, as ltu points out, that needs to be succicntly written by a technical person who then has a raft of data to back it up through user contribution.

And then that needs to be relayed to somebody with a personal profile who can publish for all to see (well, at least Apple).

Perhaps an open call to such a person?

Anyone else's Thunderbolt cable attachment to their computer seem loose or a bit jiggley or is it a tight connection?

Mine has cut out three times while not touching anything but once right after I noticed the jiggley connection. In all four cases the screen cuts out completely then my open windows resize smaller, the eject drive notces come up and my USB connections go dead which means no keyboard until I restart something.

I called Apple support where they had me reset my SMC and PRAM to no avail. I got a case number and am now trying to figure out when I am going to lug my 27" display to a Genius. Ugh.

Sorry to say but:--- In my case the error occurs when the display goes to sleep ( set in energy saving).

The display initially dims then the drives eject (and show the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" message) then the monitor goes dark. On re-awakening the drives remount. Hopefully a video of this will be here http://youtu.be/HmtiQUTIYQw showing the process on my Imac.

Just to add to the discussion I now have 3 drives attached -

One is a 3TB USB 3.0 drive and is partitioned as "Back Up", "Movies", "Itunes" and "Iphoto". The drive is set up thus:- Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table and the partitions are Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

The next is a Lacie 2TB Thunderbolt drive with Two 1TB drives in. These have the the same set up Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table - Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but set up as Apple Striped Raid Set ? (came like this and I haven't changed it yet).

The third (FATTY) is a 320GB USB 2.0 Bus powered drive with the same set up Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table but the one partition is MS-DOS (FAT32).

Fatty does not display the "Disk Not Ejected Properly". Is this, possibly, relevant (USB 2.0, BUS powered and FAT32)?

Sorry about the large text!!

Great video of the issue! I highly recommend you contact Apple tech support and ask them to help diagnose and fix this issue. I called them yesterday, as we discussed earlier. I was immediately transferred to a senior tech guy. He had me download and run their "data capture" utility and send him the resulting file. He forwarded the data file to the Apple engineers to see if they can shed some light on why it happens.

I've gone through this routine before on this issue and got no result. We'll see this time. I encourage all of you on this forum to also contact Apple tech support and ask for help. If we flood them with requests for the SAME issue, maybe we'll get some serious attention.

Unfortunately despite having Applecare until 2016 this doesn't cover telephone or chat contact!! If I want this I have to pay £35.00 per incident.

£35.00 just to ring them !!!!

I cant really justify that and an 80 mile round trip to a genius bar with my 27" Imac and a selection of hard drives followed by a long walk through a shopping centre doesn't appeal much either!

I will try to find a way around the telephone contact.

Yet another update which, perhaps, might help?

I have now tried:

One USB 3.0 Hard drive

One Thunderbolt Hard drive

One USB 2.0 Hard drive

All the above are mains powered.

Two USB 3.0 Hard drives

One USB 2.0 Hard drive

These three are BUS powered

One USB 3.0 flash drive

One USB 2.0 flash drive

Only the mains powered drives show the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" message.

Is this relevant?

After 4 years of upgrades and updates, I think "hoping" the next update will finally fix the issue is not a great strategy here. I suggest the best way to encourage Apple to move more aggressively on this issue is to communicate your / our concerns about this.

If you don't have an active Applecare contract and don't live near an Apple store, you can always communicate via Apple's Product Feedback page on their website: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Unfortunately despite having Applecare until 2016 this doesn't cover telephone or chat contact!! If I want this I have to pay £35.00 per incident.

You paid separately for the extended Applecare plan?

If so, you've received some incorrect information - as far as I know, technical support calls are covered by Applecare. Here is the link to the UK plan:

http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/appmacuk.html

If you're covered only by the regular warranty, then the following would apply:

http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/mac-english-uk.html

Bruce Mcisaac wrote:

Unfortunately despite having Applecare until 2016 this doesn't cover telephone or chat contact!! If I want this I have to pay £35.00 per incident.

£35.00 just to ring them !!!!

I cant really justify that and an 80 mile round trip to a genius bar with my 27" Imac and a selection of hard drives followed by a long walk through a shopping centre doesn't appeal much either!

I will try to find a way around the telephone contact.

In addition to telephone support as stated by babowa above, AppleCare also includes Onsite service for desktop computers if within 50 miles radius of a 'service provider'. A 27" iMac is a desktop computer. See 6.1(ii) of the AppleCare agreement.

Thanks San Lewy & babowa

I was basing my price etc on the information provided on the support site after signing in with my Imac serial number. It confirmed the expiry date (2016) but said the telephone support had expired. I'll investigate further.

Thanks again.

I have filled out the feedback form (limited by the number of characters allowed).

Since you're based in the UK (I assume by your reference to english pounds), the terms are quite a bit different since Apple also has to follow European Consumer Law which automatically gives you 2 years of warranty. I'm not as well versed in those as I would be with the US terms - for instance, in the US warranty, it specifically states that you have 90 days of telephone service included in the regular warranty (and a full 3 years if you buy Applecare), but I scanned the UK version and there is scant mention of any telephone service.

In your case, read the applicable version (regular warranty or Applecare) - remember that you are only covered by the regular warranty if you did not separately purchase the Applecare Plan.

Thanks again babowa. Yes I'm in the UK. The Imac was purchased via the education programme and had 3 years Applecare included. I will look into this. Thanks again.

You're welcome - good luck and post back with further questions.