Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
This continues to be a problem on all of my apple machines. Has anyone found a way around it yet? A software update that addresses it?
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
I see that you posted this quite a long time ago, but it just saved me - from 2013 to today in 2017!
My external drive (a G-drive) got disconnected accidentally, and I could not get my Macbook Air to see it. Tried all sorts of things recommended in tech sites, and yet mostly came across threads where folks had given up - just sucking it up sadly and counting their data as gone.
The key insight you gave me: I was assuming something was corrupted on the drive, and was sort of trying to figure out how to break in to get the data back, but the issue was that the USB port on the laptop needed to be "reset" (so to speak). I had tested my USB ports earlier with a simple thumb drive, and they were found just fine, so I assumed it was data corruption of some sort on the external drive. With thumb drives, I just always yank them out (I'm probably not the only one). It's never mattered over years and years of not following directions. But I used the old reliable thumb drive to hit "eject", and then the port worked again with my G-Drive. I was just trying one last thing before surrendering and buying a new drive and hoping I could live without the backups I'd done previously.
While this thread is old, I wanted to add a comment so that people can see that this advice is still good.
I have been having this problem for a while, I don't believe it is sudden faulty cables, etc. it seems like a software update that has a bug. I have to unplug my time machine now, and my music sequencing software is constantly shutting off because of this. It appears to me to be updates too fast and regular that are not tested thoroughly and anyone having problems with "older" equipment being coerced into buying new products. I tried the "Keep drives spinning" script, but it wasn't 100% successful, I'm afraid. possibly investing in brand new usb hubs is the answer or new external drives, but this lack of backwards compatibility seems arrogant. So, sorry - no fix, just another person with the problem after a recommended update.
Uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" in Energy Saver in settings. That fixed it for me.
Thank you. Sensible suggestion but did that already. Investing in a new usb hub although time machine is connected to one of the rear connectors. Possible that it may help.
This worked for me. Thanks Graham it was driving me crazy. My connection to the back of my Mac was loose.
Hi,
As listed in an October 2014 post in this thread there can be issues sometimes in both USB and Firewall device counts.
i.e. the computer can think there is something still connected when there is not.
Depending on which files might have been in use any File Directory might be effected.
A bit like when you put some files in the Trash but the system says they are "In Use" until the time you restart the computer and they are "let go" so to speak.
Mostly it depends if the disk or drive is actually in use at the time or whether it is idle with no data transfer going on.
It is very difficult to say precisely as each incident is different in terms of what is going on between computer and device.
9:00 pm Wednesday; June 29, 2016
Thank you, Ralph! That helps make it clearer.
My concern would be possible corruption or data loss on the Mac itself. I'm not really concerned with the "drive", which in this case is an iPod that I think is going bad, since I regularly get warnings that it's been disconnected when it hasn't. If it wouldn't affect the computer itself or other files on the computer, I would just continue using the iPod until it dies.
So (e.g., when you say the file directory might be affected), in this case do you think it's OK to use the iPod, or might I put other files on my Mac at risk by continuing to do so?
Thanks again!
The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off.
