My USB superdrive is not longer accepting disks after upgrade to El Capitan.

Might be a Finder preference or system cache issue due to the upgrade to El Capitan.

Disconnect the SuperDrive then to go Finder > Preferences then select the General tab.

Deselect External disks then reselect it.

Reconnect the SuperDrive. See if it will take a disc.

If not, a Safe Mode boot deletes system caches that may help after an OS X update or upgrade.

Disconnect the SuperDrive.

Top left corner of your screen click the Apple  > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds, then press the power button.

Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold down the Shift key. You should press the Shift key as soon as possible after you hear the startup tone, but not before.

Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and progress indicator.

Once you are in Safe Mode, go back to the Apple  menu. From the drop down menu click: Restart

Reconnect the SuperDrive and try a disc again.

About Safe Mode

..... I have the very same issue with my Superdrive on two different Mac Airs. It started a long while ago. Now I am actually running the latest MacOS Sierra version 10.12.3 on one of my Mac Air and MacOS Sierra version 10.12.4 Beta (16E144f) on the second Mac Air ...... and neither still cannot handle the Superdrive. In short, Apple has not managed to solve the problem. My solution will be a new drive from someone other than Apple. I currently use an old LG SuperMulti drive successfully, but it requires a transformer and is rather big, compared to the Apple Superdrive. So I will get myself a small USB powered drive in the next few days.

Howdy tbown,

It sounds like your CD/DVD drive isn't taking any discs at all. I would suggest that you use the troubleshooting in the following article to help you determine if this is an issue you can resolve:

Get help with the slot-loading SuperDrive on your Mac computer

Doesn't accept discs

1. Be sure to check your disc to make sure it is flat. You can check this by putting the disc upside-down on a flat surface. If the disc is bowed up on any side or in the center, do not use the disc because it might get stuck in the drive. Do not use discs that have anything attached to them or dangling from them (such as "sweeper" or cleaning discs).
2. If the drive struggles when you put in a disc or stops part-way, carefully look at the disc for labels that may be interfering. If there aren't any raised labels then try putting the disc in a few more times.
3. Try another disc to see if the issue is being caused by a specific disc.
4. Make sure you insert the disc far enough for the drive mechanism to activate. You need to insert discs nearly all the way before the drive will activate and pull them in. If you don't completely insert a disc, the drive will reverse and push the disc back out.
5. Allow the drive one or two seconds to accept the disc while it is fully inserted.
6. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC).
7. If the drive repeatedly does not accept discs, contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or make an appointment with an Apple Retail Store.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

If the drive repeatedly does not accept discs, contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or make an appointment with an Apple Retail Store.

Make sure to tell them it worked ok on Yosemite.

Same problem on two Macbook Pros. I was able to get the SuperDrive to work by connecting it via USB cable prior to boot. But if I booted the computer prior to connecting it, then it would not accept a disk. Called Apple for support, and they're escalating this to their engineers.

I'm having the exact same problem - have tried it with two different SuperDrives with the same result for each. Like Sillydg I can get the SuperDrive to work ok if I connect via USB prior to booting, but zilch if I connect into an already booted system. I'm running a 2015 13inch retina MBP with clean installed El Capitan.

Everything worked perfectly well with Yosemite.

Hello,

the problem is the lack of record "mbasd = 1" in the system. To solve this problem you need to open the "/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist." and edit "apple.Boot.plist" - Text Edit is sufficient.

The key "Kernel Flags" is empty. You must add between start and end string "mbasd = 1" and the problem is resolved.

Oh one more problem: to manipulate the system, you must be "root" user and is not the end, because in this version of OSX is active

the "System Integrity Protection" or SIP for short. This is actually a way for Apple to push again the limits of the safety of your machine, prohibiting all users (including God Root) touching some critics judged files.

So even root will not have the right to go to copy any document in the following folders:

/ System

/ bin

/ usr

/ sbin

The idea behind this, is obviously to protect the user against any possible threat, a risk that weighs increasingly heavy with the growing popularity of OS X. After the much-maligned "Gatekeeper" (which required developers to sign their applications), Apple demanded that the systems extensions are in turn signed (and thus validated). Now it is the entire system that was padlocked. By doing so, Apple protects against particular vulnerabilities already present in OS X, and sometimes allow to "mount" the privileges of a normal user, to become administrator of the machine.

Fortunately for developers and hackers, there are (still) a way to disable SIP. To do this, reboot into "Recovery" mode (Command-R at startup) and run a terminal.

Then type the following line:

csrutil disable

Reboot and everything will be as before: the root and the administrator will again play with the system files.

I imagine you know how to activate root account :-)

Thanks, but there is no apple.boot.plist in any Library directory. I've disabled SIP and activated the root account, but I can't find the file anywhere.

Found the com.apple.Boot.plist file and made the suggested addition, but it did not work.

I dont really understand enough about Root mode and dont feel comfortable going there, so i'll wait for the fix from Apple (especially as tbown and Sillydg couldnt make it work. Thanks anyway.

Hello, I came back once more with my explanation - it's working a 100% just follow the steps: (ill try to be more clear this time)

1 - disable SIP

(reboot your mac into "Recovery" mode (Command-R at startup) and run a terminal.

Then type the following line:

csrutil disable

Reboot

2 - activate root (if you don't know how look around on net)

3 -install Path Finder or another free hide/unhide utility like DesktopUtility (you should edit the hide file)

4 -go to : /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

and edit apple.Boot.plis with TextEdit

Insert mbasd=1 in the <string></string> value below the <key>Kernel Flags</key> (If and only if there is already something written between <string> and </string>, then use a space to separate the mbasd=1 from what’s already there. Otherwise, avoid any extra spaces!). The file will then look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>mbasd=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

1. Save (press Ctrl-X, answer yes to save by pressing Y, press enter to confirm the file name).
2. Restart your machine. That’s it!

I went through the whole process above and it still won't allow me to edit that plist. Having just got past the Outlook issue on this OS now I'm stuck with a superdrive that won't work.

Frustrating isn't the word ...