Mac refuses to force eject drive due to the data protection mechanism. The drive is being occupied by a processing program.
Some apps or drivers are using the drive in the background. The external hard drive or files inside the drive is currently in use. So what caused this error? Here are the possible reasons that the Mac computer refuses to eject the drive: "The disk wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it."
When you receive this message or a similar warning on a Mac computer while trying to eject an external hard drive, it means that you didn't or failed to eject the drive successfully: Error: Can't Eject External Hard Drive Mac - Causes & What-To-Do We'll discuss the reason that caused this error in the next part.
However, some Mac users reported that they can't eject external hard drives on Mac even following the above three device ejection operations.
Follow this page, you'll find the causes of this error and how to successfully eject your disk on Mac with 5 practical methods.Īpplies to: eject or force to eject the external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, etc., on macOS and Mac OS X without losing any data. It could be multiple reasons that caused an external hard drive won't eject error. It doesn't matter when your external hard drive is not ejecting on Mac computers. Double-click "Terminal" to launch the app. On Apple Menu, click "Go" > "Utilities" Step 2. Go to the Apple menu, and click "Shut Down" Step 2. Then click "Log In", sign in with your own. Click the Apple menu icon and click "Log Out" Step 2. Search Activity Monitor in the spotlight. Press the Command + Space key to open Spotlight Step 2. Stop Running Apps and Eject External Hard drive
Launch EaseUS NTFS for Mac on Mac computer, click "I already have a license" to activate. To do so, highlight the disk (on your desktop, in a Finder window, or in the Finder sidebar) and press Command+E. In the menu that pops up, select “Eject.” Method 5: Press Command+EĪnd finally, you can also eject a disk using only your keyboard. Just select the removable drive’s icon in Finder or on the desktop, and right-click it with your mouse or trackpad. Power users love the right-click menu, and it’s no surprise that you can use that menu to eject disks. Method 4: Right-click the Drive’s Desktop Icon
Then click the tiny eject icon next to the drive’s name in the list. Just open any Finder window and expand the “Locations” section in the sidebar. It’s also easy to eject a removable disk from the Finder sidebar.
To do so, select the removable disk you’d like to eject on your desktop or in Finder, then select File > Eject from the menu. You can also eject a removable disk using a choice in the menu bar at the top of the screen. When Finder Preferences opens, select the “General” tab, then place check marks beside the items you’d like to see on your desktop. Bring Finder to the foreground, then select Finder > Preferences in the menu bar (or press Command+Comma on your keyboard). Tip: If you don’t see a removable disk on your desktop, you can enable that feature easily. Once you release your pointer button, the drive will eject. While dragging, the Trash icon will change into an eject symbol. To eject, just click and drag the drive’s icon to your Trash can. To do so, the drive must be visible on your desktop. One of the oldest ways to eject a removable drive on a Mac is to drag it to the Trash. Once you officially eject the drive, no data will be lost when you physically unplug the removable drive from your Mac. When you click “Eject” on a removable disk, the temporary write process finalizes, writing 100% of the data to the actual device.