Why does my Flash Drive always blink?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Why does my Flash Drive always blink?

I may be paranoid, but it seems only lately that my flash drive is always blinking when I have it plugged into one of my ports of my four port Belkin that I have plugged into the rear port of my Mac. It's like it is constantly being accessed even when I close out the spread sheet (numbers) files that I was using and even when I close out the main list of directories on the drive. It still blinks. Then when I try to eject it, a message pops up that it won't eject because it is used by numbers. So in frustration and paranoia I just pull the flash drive out of the socket, since I suspect that something in my computer out of my control is reading it. I close out the files and directories by clicking on the red close dots in the upper left. Am I doing the closing wrong?

Thanks for any help even if it's condescending.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)

Posted on Jan 7, 2014 9:12 AM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,385 points

Jan 7, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Peohguy

Drag the drive to the trash and wait for the icon to disappear off the desktop and then remove the drive. This way it will stop all writting/reading and shut down correctly. I also have some flash drives that blink on and off for no apparent reason.

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Answer 2

TKE7-A33

Level 1

25 points

Jan 7, 2014 9:31 AM in response to Peohguy

Pressing the red button at the top left hand corner of the application window will not completely quit the application, therefore the application is still accessing your flash drive without you even using that application. If you go to the apple logo at the top left hand corner of the desktop and go to force quit, you will see applications that are currently running in the background on your mac. Now, if you have "numbers" opened, go to application folder in Finder, click on numbers and go to the top left corner of the Status bar at the top. You will see "Numbers" next to the Apple Logo, click on that and press quit. Utilize this method for all applications.

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Answer 3

Peohguy Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 8, 2014 7:40 AM in response to TKE7-A33

Thanks, this really answered my questions well. I do recall now in some of the apple tuotrials that I took that the red button really doesn't close the application. I will have to remember to close them the right way when I really want to close them down. Since I don't like to have my computer exposed to the internet when I am not actively involved with it I will have to especially remember to do close it down completely , with Command Q also.

Thanks for taking the time to help me.

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Answer 4

Peohguy Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 8, 2014 7:44 AM in response to tbirdvet

Thanks, I will try that it seems like an easy way to resolve the issue. not as far to move the mouse arrow as it would be to go to Force Quit in the Apple or Command Q in the application, like the other answer I got.

Thanks for taking the time to help me. I really like both answers I got.

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