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Macbook pro will not recognise external dvd drive

My 13" Macbook Pro with Retna Display will not recognise my LG external DVD burner.

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Mar 26, 2013 7:16 AM

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11 replies

Mar 26, 2013 9:21 AM in response to falbs13

Only the Macbookair and the Macmini recognize it.

In other macs where the superdrive has been taken out there is a command to tell the mac to recognize an external dvd as internal. It is not for the layman...

There are several articles to change system files with Terminal, but I have used one in two macs that worked perfectly and was the most simple solution.

1. COPY the following file to a backup place (for example to a backup folder on the desktop):

/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback

so now you have a safe backup of the file;

2. Then you open the original file with Textedit:

with the cursor still on the first line, in the Textedit menu File/Find/Find&Replace you simply replace every "internal" into "external" (without the quotes ofcourse); then with /File/Save As you save the file on your desktop (be sure not to overwrite the backup of the original) with the original name, you probably have to give your account password. You cannot save the file in its place because it is running.

3. Copy the changed file that you made in 2) and overwrite the original file, probably again your account password needs to be given.

4. Restart the mac, and connect the external dvd player.

ps: you still have now from both files a backup: the original and the changed one.

May 2, 2014 8:45 PM in response to falbs13

Hi LexSchellings,


I am running in to same problem as theothrkiwi replaced my DVD drive with HHD and made an external DVD drive which is not seen by my Mac Book Pro.I followed the same steps as you discribed but problem is when i save the modified file it is saved as text file and not the program file like "DVDPlayback" file that we are replacing. Can you elaborate a bit more.


Thak You


Moniz

May 2, 2014 9:04 PM in response to moniz

Hi Moniz, I too swapped out the internal superdrive for an additional internal HDD and connected a Blueray/DVD/CD burner but it wasn't recognised until I edited the file as above.


There's no additional trick to it that I can seebecauses TextEdit doesn't have a Save As option. Just make sure you are editing a copy and not the original file as it will not allow a direct edit while the file is in use.

May 11, 2014 10:48 PM in response to falbs13

Hi,


I am still strugling with the issue. I was able to change the DVD playback file but when i saved it it get saved as text file not as the system file format. So i can not replace just the TXT file with system file.


Any way since the external optical drive is recognized by my Mac mini, i copied the system file "DVD playback" from my mac mini and i replaced my Mac book pro system file with "DVDPlayback" with it. Now i can see the DVD content but DVD player does not get initiated to play the DVD. Instead i get the error message "There was an initialized error.....A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]". So i still can not watch the DVD.


I don't know from there on what to do.


moniz

May 18, 2014 10:16 AM in response to falbs13

I had the same problem and after calling LG without success, I spoke with a "Senior Tech" at Apple care who advised me to re-install OSX since there seemed to be a coruption. It worked and the LG drive, as well as the Samsung I had gotten....both work perfectly. Hope this helps.


BTW Not being a Techy person myself, the comments about finding and changing text seemed better suited to those who could accomplish this in less then 2 hours...LOL. In addition the Senior Tech I spoke with said that since the McBook Pro with Retina Display never had internal drives so would not have had the command in question.

Macbook pro will not recognise external dvd drive

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