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iPhabio Author

Level 1

11 points

Disk not ejected properly

Hi I'm having this issue since I upgraded to Mavericks where almost every time I put my computers to sleep I get the "Disk not ejected propoerly" message and every disk but the system one is not mounted and cannot be found by Disk Utility.

I have a Mac Mini late 2009 and a Macbook Pro 15 mid 2009 and I'm having this issue in both machines. Never had any issues before in any of my machines, not in Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.

On my Mini I have two external USB drives and on my MBP I have a SSD, where the system is installed, and a HD (I replaced my optical drive with a bay to install the extra disk).

I researched the issue and found a couple of threads where people sugested to buy a 3rd party app that would unmount the disks at sleep and remount them at wake, but I think this shouldn't be a issue, since it never happened with any version of OSX I had used before.

Is anybody else having this issue as well? Is there any word from Apple on this subject? Can I hope for a fix?

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 9:55 AM

Top-ranking reply

Robster50

Level 1

40 points

Posted on Jan 25, 2014 12:05 AM

Hi All

I am not sure if the fix I am about to relay will work for everyone here BUT it has certainly worked for me!

I have a new MBPr which I migrated from my old MBPr and immeadiatly started to get the problems described in this forum.

I have investigaed most of the solutions suggested here and elsewhere without any success, I did install Jettison but while this masked the problem it actually stopped most of my backups working!

So I called Apple support and pushed it very hard until I had a Teir 2 person on the line and she was incredibly helpful, supportive and instisted she woudl ge the problem fixed and she delivered.

She pinned the problem down to the migration from the older machine/prefs corruption.

I will try and record here exactly what we did.

Instructions

1. Pull out your ethernet cable and disable WiFi and any other network connectivity you have.

2. Open Finder, go to your computer and then select you Macintosh HD (or whatever you have renamed it).

3. Go to Macintosh HD - Library - Preferences

4. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and you ewill see a folder called SystemConfiguration

5. Pull this folder onto the desktop.

6. Go to System Preferences - Sharing and change the name of your computer, even just a litlle bit.

7. Reboot

8. Re-enable Wifi and Ethernet

9. If you have installed Jettison, remove it and remove it from your start up items.

You shoudl be good to go.

My machine was constantly ejecting my USB drive, even if left for onnly 10-15 minutes, since doing this I have not had one single ejection and I am into 48 plus hours of run time.

If you like what Jettison does but don't want to eject the disks everytime your computer sleeps and it will!, then try UnDock from the Mac App store.

Very similar functionality BUT it is a manual process.

In my case if I am going to be going out I will simply use the key combo I hae seletced Ctrl-Alt-Command plus U and all my external devices undock.

I really hope this helps one or more you you guys.

Robin

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493 replies

Nov 9, 2013 10:02 AM in response to iPhabio

In my case suddenly my external drive got ejected and message appears `Disk not ejected properly'. But only few times, and no problem while sleeping or at wakeup.
Use NoSleep extension https://code.google.com/p/macosx-nosleep-extension/downloads/detail?name=NoSleep -1.3.3.dmg

It will avoid ur macbook from sleep while u close the lid. Its very helpful and extremely simple to use. I know this is not the solution of the problem but In case it may help u a little bit. I am using this from a long time, never had any issues with it, small and free.

RogerOut

Level 1

93 points

Nov 9, 2013 10:06 AM in response to iPhabio

This problem originally appeared with 10.8.5. Apple released a patch shortly thereafter and it resolved the issue for my eSata drives connected via a Thunderbolt hub, but my USB 3 drives still are affected. No major data loss for me but folder aliases on the desktop would lose its icon, which obviously shouldn't happen.

The workaround in 10.8.5 is to disallow the machine to sleep.

Use feedback and let Apple know.

Nov 12, 2013 6:36 AM in response to RogerOut

I'm having the same issue with a USB 3.0 single drive enclosure. Mavericks keeps ejecting the drives and then I see the "disk not ejected properly" message. This is critical since these are my backup drives. It happens when my iMac goes to sleep or restarts.

iPhabio Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 14, 2013 9:42 AM in response to iPhabio

I just got a voice mail from a Apple representative about this issue.

Unfortunately the connection was a little bad and the call kept interrupting, so I couldn't make out the email address he asked me to contact him...

If you are reading this, please do contact me via email. As of this morning, before I left for work, the problem still persisted.

Thanks

14erMan

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2013 8:06 AM in response to iPhabio

iPhabio, did you ever get an answer on this?

Ever since I upgraded to Mavericks on my early 2009 MacPro, upon wake up I get warnings that my usb3 "disk did not eject properly". I have tried everything suggested in this thread. I have contacted Seagate and have performed their firmware updates, but the problem persists.

With so many forums asking this same question, how is it that no one can get an official answer from Apple??

Apple-do, Where are you???

Dec 14, 2013 6:07 AM in response to UncleC26

No combination of energy saver options worked. I tried them all, using a non-critical drive. I then tried connecting the drive via USB rather than thunderbolt/fire-wire-800, which was worse. The drive kept connecting, then disconnecting, once per minute, with the dreaded "disk not ejected properly." Don't know if the issue is with the port on my drive or the system.

I did buy jettison for $2 on the app store, which seems to work! The only exception is when putting my iMac to sleep via the power button. I did have to change some of the defaults to prevent auto disconnect of network shares on sleep.

If a $2 app, helps this much, it would seem that Apple should be able to implement a quick fix.

Bitmatt

Level 1

0 points

Dec 14, 2013 12:16 PM in response to mkaiser996

Thanks tons for the follow-up. I too have tried all the power-saver options, most just made the problem worse, even ejecting my Drobo during backups. I'll have to try Jettison- maybe I can hook my drives back up again!

Dec 14, 2013 2:54 PM in response to iPhabio

MAYBE A SOLUTION !

Unfortunately, I feel like an innocent who just caught Alzheimer. I had the problem and I solved it, but, believe it or not, I don't remember ho. I have a Seagate Expansion Drive that failed to mount at startup (unproperly ejected and so on) and I changed things in POWER NAP SETTINGS, then the problem disappeared.

ENERGY SAVER CONTROL PANEL:

My settings now are (originally in french so I may not translate properly)

1) Suspend disk activity when screen is off (checked)

2) DON'T suspend disk activity as soon as possible (unchecked)

3) Reactivate when accessing the network (Checked)

4) Automatically restart after a power failure (Unchecked)

5) DON'T Activate PowerNap (Unchecked)

SOLVED THE PROBLEM

Mikehkg

Level 1

0 points

Jan 5, 2014 5:46 AM in response to iPhabio

I do have this problem with Mavericks. I lost a 2 TB harddisk which canot be repaired anymore two weeks ago; it still mounted, at least.

Same problem appeared yesterday with another external disk, this time it can't be mounted with any repair software but accessed with Data Rescue only. However the disk is beeing ejected even during the recovery process (and whilst i am working on the machine). What a terrible hassle because i have to keep comparing the files already copied! ***??

Jan 22, 2014 7:19 AM in response to iPhabio

I am having the same problem with a Seagate USB drive and a WD eSATA drive. The Seagate was plugged into USB 2.0, but just installed a USB 3.0 PCI card and am now using that. It ejects on either USB speed. The eSATA ejected itself (just added it yesterday) and it isn't even showing up in Disk Utility right now. I think this has only happened in Mavericks. It is very frustrating because I am not in the habit of having to remember to eject a drive before my Mac goes to sleep and I don't want to. My Mac Pro is an early 2009.

14erMan

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2014 9:10 AM in response to iPhabio

After having Jettison for several weeks now, I can't say it is really an end-all solution. I frequently see pop-ups that tell me Jettison is "working" but I am still getting "disk not ejected properly" errors. The integrity of my disks remains in tact - so far so good, but it's still irritating.

Jan 26, 2014 5:38 PM in response to Robster50

Many thanks Robin,

This appears to have solved almost all of my issues (late 2013 iMac). I indeed did migrate from an old to new machine via a time-machine backup prior to updating to Mavericks.

So far:

1. I can now actually use an external USB drive without it constantly disconnecting and reconnecting.

2. I've put my iMac to sleep many times, via energy saver timout and sleep command and have not yet received the dreaded "disk not ejected properly" for my chain of FireWire 800 drives. This is HUGE. I haven't let my machine sleep in months to avoid corrupting many TB of data.

The only remaining difficulty is with one bus powered FireWire 800 / USB2, SSD drive (OWC 480GB SSD in Rosewill RX82-MP-SUF82 enclosure). This drive, whether connected by FW800 or USB does not eject properly and I get "disk not ejected properly" after sleep.

Jan 30, 2014 4:22 AM in response to iPhabio

Hi All

An update that may help some of you!

Having got my machine working perfectly with my USB drive attached directly to my MBP I tried connecting it to my Powered USB 3 hub and first sleep the drive ejected!!!!!

I still have an ongoing case open with Apple and have informed them of the issue returning when drive is plugged iinto a hub.

One minor check I am doing right now is I have the drive plugged into my Thunderbolt display.

It will be interesting to see if it ejects from here too.

But just to confirm, plugged directly into my MBP I have had zero ejections in 4 days of hard use!!!!

Robin

Jan 30, 2014 7:06 AM in response to Robster50

Robin, Thanks for whatever information you can provide for this problem.

I have had 2 external drives ejecting on Sleep. One is USB which is plugged into a PCI USB 3.0 card--although it was formerly plugged into a USB 2.0 slot on the front of my MacPro--which also ejected. The PCI card also has 2 eSATA ports. I plugged another external drive into eSATA and it also ejects on Sleep. The only other external drive I have plugged in now is my Time Machine backup which is using FireWire 800 directly into the back of my Mac. It does not eject.

I have a media player that can be seen over my network as a shared drive (it has a USB flash drive plugged into it) and it does not give me the "disc ejected improperly" message after sleep, but it does disconnect and give me a disconnect message.

Linda

Jan 30, 2014 8:28 AM in response to Linda Cameron

Hi Linda

Apart from when I have a device connected to a USB hub, my system now seems to be fine.

No more unexpected ejects at all and it seems when plugged into the USB of my Thunderbolt display, it does not eject here either!

Assuming you followed all the instructions, I really do not know what to suggest to you.

Do you have Apple warranty on your machine?

It does sound very suspicoiusly liek the proble I was having though.

So maybe it is a Mavericks thing.

Sorry I cannot be of more help.

Robin

Disk not ejected properly