Q: Yosemite ejects external drives

I just bought the new iMac 5k - and apple, in it's wisdom, doesn't include a fire wire 800 connection - so I have a thunderbolt to firewire adaptor.

If I go away from the machine and it goes to sleep, then it ejects the drives so when I return it has little boxes top right saying, "drive not ejected properly etc."

Along with bunch of other things I detest about Yosemite, this is very annoying. Any bright ideas?

I think all we can do is try to send a bug report to Apple and if enough are received, maybe they'll come up with a decent fix via Yosemite update software rather than suggest we just turn off an important feature.  Yes, you can turn it on and off, but that's not a solution either.

Separate computer - same problem.  I think Apple changed something in the 10.10.1 update.  However...I think I found a solution.  I disabled everything spotlight (suggestions, all the checkboxes in preferences, everything) then I added every hard drive on my system to the privacy tab.  Now it's working again.  I never used Spotlight anyway, and now this kludge is causing massive problems.  Wish Apple would just flush it.

So with Spotlight disabled, how do you search your HDDs for specific files or folders? I use Spotlight all the time bc I have three NAS drives and one USB HDD plus my network has two iMacs, one mbp and a PC.  I'd just like to see it fixed. I did send a bug report to Apple.

This may be a hoax, but perhaps its for real.  I got a call tonight just as my wife was putting dinner on the table, so I didn't linger LOL.  But the caller ID said Apple, and when I picked up the phone the caller indeed identified himself as being part of the Apple OS X team and someone apparently noticed my bug report, and he got a ticket to call me and discuss this problem.  Because of the East Coast/West Coast time differences we agreed that he would email me and give me his contact information so I could call him at a time when we were both available.

I'll look for the email and see if it is legit.  I could pull some strings and perhaps check this out as I have somebody in the financial industry that has Apple as one of its regularly monitored tech companies and that person is at Apple several times a year.  Thats how I got my Apple T-Shirts, Mugs, Hat LOL.  I reverse googled the number and its supposedly Apple Support.  So I think its legit.

Stay tuned boys & girls... it looks like Apple _IS_ listening and paying attention.  Now if they'd only fix Apple Mail LOL.

Mike

I received a call as well - form some guy who knew about the issue, and seemed to come from Apple - the number popped up on my phone screen as Apple.

They will call back to day - so I will see what the scope it. Apple listening - maybe they are hiring people with the $18b profit they made.

I have the same problem since i updated to Yosemite.

My ext hdd was my previous "mother Apple" onboard hdd (5400rpm).

Now it's in a usb3 dock for TimeMachine and general file storage (2 partitions)

Turned off hdd spin energy saving & spotlight (any kind of search is actually off).

Os x 10.10.2 freshly updated unmount extHDD during work time and on awake.

Is Apple going to confirm it can't handle a Mac Os and use extHD?

(got the same problem on a customer Macbook pro (same as mine) and an iMac 21")...

thanks for all previous suggestion, tested all but none worked... =(

cheers,

JT

Likewise. I had no problems with my MacPro (late 2013) with Mavericks, and it was driving me to distraction on Yosemite - my Thunderbolt 2 drives, my USB 3 hub and occasionally my Thunderbolt monitors will disconnect on every sleep. The only remedy to prevent me from going 'awake-crazy' was to make sure everything stays on permanently and the MacPro doesn't sleep. Hardly a solution for these modern eco-aware times.

I have tried every apparent remedy posted (Spotlight privacy, reset PRAM/SMC, varying power settings, etc, etc) without success.

Looking forward to a solution from Apple via LighteningMike!

I've posted previously under:

Yosemite "[Thunderbolt 2] disk not ejected properly" after sleep

Same here, started just a few days ago, months after Yosemite installation

I'm getting a bunch of "disk not properly ejected" notification at wake-up.

So it seems the disk is put under heavy stress and data loss risk.

No success via SMC reset. Will try Spotlight limitation.

I've been using small app "Jettison" in the past to automatically eject drives before sleep and it worked although slowed down sleep procedure, maybe it's a temporary solution to get back to using it.

hello,

same problems here, i run a lacie tb2 raid and two usb 3 raids on my retina iMac and Yosemite, the problem did occur with the new iMac (thunderbolt 2..).

I used the same drives with my macmini (mid 2011 Yosemite  thunderbolt 1..) without any problems.

I couldn't find a solution till today, nothing worked for my system..

(sorry for my english .. since i'm not a native)

I too just got a 5k iMac with Yosemite, and am having problems with it randomly ejecting my USB-connected ioSafe 3TB drive I've designated for Time Machine. Never had this problem with internal drives in an older Mac Pro running Mavericks and now Yosemite, and my wife is not having problems with her identical drive on a new Mac Pro running Yosemite. The issue even corrupted my external drive to the point where Disk Utility could not repair it. Enabling Power Nap reduced the occurrences, but didn't solve it; trying the Spotlight workaround next.

As a side note, frustrated with ioSafe tech support who seems unaware of this issue, and who's suggested fixes included manually ejecting the drive before sleep and powering it back up/reconnecting it after sleep, or never sleeping the computer (just doing a display sleep). May be workarounds, but not solutions; they don't seem to recognize this is a bug (be it in Mac OS or in their drive).

Hello,

I'm having the same issue. I have a NexStar HX4R (2x 4TB WD Black drives) configured for raid 1 and connected via USB 3 to a Mac Pro (2014). I have disabled Spotlight for the drive and turned off Energy Saver but the drive still ejects randomly. I'm just starting a large project, digitizing 1/4 inch audio tapes for preservation, and I have not been able to get though a complete side without the disk ejecting issue! This is my first Mac and so far I'm not impressed.

An Apple dude called me and had me collect information about the failure to send back to them.  I uploaded the files with the failure data - so they are definitely working on this issue and watching this thread.  Hopefully that means a solution will be forthcoming soon.

Pjto - give it some time.  Macs are fantastic machines once you get to know them.

pictureboy, Thanks for the update, great news that Apple is aware and working on this issue!  

Turned off Spotlight on that drive and seemed to eliminate the problem; however I will test this more to see if it is consistant.