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Can't eject USB drive after Sequoia upgrade

I've got a USB bus in the USB port on my Mini. I plug in an external drive for BUs. I also plug in a thumb drive for BUs. It all used to work. I upgraded to Sequoia a few days ago. Now the drives won't eject because something is using them. Tried logging out, powering down, etc. Nothing works except force eject. Has Apple got a bug?

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 23, 2024 12:17 PM

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9 replies

Nov 24, 2024 7:14 AM in response to DesertRatR

It's not just you! I'm running Sequoia 15.1.1 on a MacBook Air M3 15" and ALL external USB drives fail to eject and therefore require Force Eject:

  • USB-C drives
  • USB-A drives plugged in using Apple's $25 USB-A to USB-C adapter dongle
  • All drives formatted APFS



FSCK is not running. I've killed the Spotlight indexer but that hasn't helped.


Sometimes restarting the Mac will allow me to eject the drive in the first moments after restarting, so clearly something is kicking in early in the boot process which is preventing the drive from being ejected safely.


This is a new Mac purchased within the last few weeks and set up from scratch - that is, I didn't restore from a backup of any sort.


Every autumn brings a new version of MacOS and every autumn weird bugs such as this crop up. Clearly Apple's attention is focused elsewhere. It worries me that such basic things are being broken every year. After 40 years of MacOS, you'd think such basic features/functions would be protected from being broken by ongoing OS development: Apple excels in so many ways, yet the fact they can't protect their own OS from this sort of bugginess is more than a little worrying.


I've used the FeedBack Assistant to submit a bug report. Perhaps you can too. It won't be fixed if we keep it quiet: the squeaky hinge gets the oil! You can find official bug reporting details here.


All the best!

Peter


Nov 23, 2024 5:26 PM in response to DesertRatR

Two other things that can keep it from ejecting are Spotlight & Time Machine.


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info. Give it Full Disk Access.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Give etrecheck Full Disk Access before running.


Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community


Nov 23, 2024 2:37 PM in response to BDAqua

fsck not running


This is new Mini, few months old.


More information. I had to upgrade Carbon Copy Cloner to V7 to ensure compatibility with Sequoia. After upgrade I did my usual BU and the HD ejected properly. So must be something with the new CCC fixed the drive.


The thumb drive still does not eject properly. Wondering if formatting the thumbdrive with the new OS will fix it?




Can't eject USB drive after Sequoia upgrade

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