On my 2012 Mac Pro 3.06 gig Desktop with 2 Western Digital external drives, the next morning I almost always get the message Drive not properly ejected, and the drive, or drives are missing from the desktop. I have the latest firmware in the drives. all my drives check out fine with Diskwarrior 5.0, and disk Utility. This never happens to my 4 internal drives. What could be the problem? I'm running the latest version of Yosemite.
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Drive Not Ejected Properly??
- Thread starter tony3d
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I'm guessing (you didn't say) these are probably USB 3.0 drives?
This is a known issue with that's been around for quite a while. You can install a cheap App called Jettison that will give some relief, but not fully eliminate the problem. The ultimate solution is to eject and disconnect the drive.
For short sleep periods (for example during the work day), Jettison works great, for overnight, eject and physically disconnect.
This is a known issue with that's been around for quite a while. You can install a cheap App called Jettison that will give some relief, but not fully eliminate the problem. The ultimate solution is to eject and disconnect the drive.
For short sleep periods (for example during the work day), Jettison works great, for overnight, eject and physically disconnect.
I wasn't aware that this also happened on USB 2 native MP ports. It has been overcome by at least one user who put the drive inside a specific enclosure that had better compatibility with the MP/OS X. I can't remember the brand name off hand, but contact the MR member named flowrider for more information. He's very well acquainted with the issue and possible solutions.
Lou, if you're listening... Care to chime in please?
Lou, if you're listening... Care to chime in please?
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^^^^Yes, I believe it's a hardware problem with the electronics of the external drive enclosure. I had the issue with a Fantom external HDD and have the issue with a BackUp SSHD in an Orico enclosure I use with my Macbook Air.
I solved it on the Mac Pro by using a Hornettek Viper enclosure and a Seagate HDD. The dismounting has never happened with the Viper enclosure.
Another issue the Fantom had, was that it couldn't make up it's mind what it was. Sometimes it would mount as a USB 2.0 device and other times a USB 3.0 Device. MicroNet (Fantom's parent) could not solve the problem.
The Viper always mounts as a USB 3.0 device and stays mounted!
Lou
I solved it on the Mac Pro by using a Hornettek Viper enclosure and a Seagate HDD. The dismounting has never happened with the Viper enclosure.
Another issue the Fantom had, was that it couldn't make up it's mind what it was. Sometimes it would mount as a USB 2.0 device and other times a USB 3.0 Device. MicroNet (Fantom's parent) could not solve the problem.
The Viper always mounts as a USB 3.0 device and stays mounted!
Lou
I have a similar problem but with a standard Seagate 2 TB external drive. It is a USB 3 drive. I've been using this external drive ever since i bought the iMac 27" 5K last year. The messages started about the time I upgraded to ElCapital 10.11.3. There is no time stamp on the message, but they occur about once an hour while the iMac is sleeping. Makes me think it has something to do with Time Machine, but that doesn't run while the iMac is asleep. The Seagate has it's own power supply, so isn't starving for power when the computer sleeps. The drive is still attached when the iMac wakes and time machine will run if directed to. The Seagate passes Disk Utility with no errors. Is this an OSX problem? This is a scary messages, but maybe the problem really isn't serious?? Just hate to lose my backup disk.
My external disk isn't in a disk enclosure. It is a commercial external disk sold by Seagate. Are you saying it is a hardware problem with the disk drive itself? I have used this disk on my iMac since last summer when I bought the iMac. Why would it start to give this error message now? Are suggesting I open the Seagate, remove the drive and mount it in a Hornettec Viper enclosure?
^^^^Your external disk is in a disk enclosure, you just bought it as a combined unit. You can do whatever you like. I' was just posting my observations based on personal experience and what I have observed from other posts in this and other threads regarding the problem.
Lou
Lou
Thanks Lou, appreciate your suggestion. I see that some have had success with this. Seems to be a knotty problem that has affected lots of other over the past few years. Still makes me wonder if it isn't a problem in the OS X.
If I manually eject the drive when I'm leaving the computer for a while and then re-connect it would probably work, but is going around the problem. This shouldn't be necessary.
I also posted on the Apple Support website and only had one reply. I didn't see others posting with this problem. I find it interesting the MacRumors has so many posts on this.
The one reply I had suggested that "Some drive controllers do not play well with OS X. When the Mac goes to sleep, the controller mis-interprets that and puts the drive to sleep and the OS thinks it has been disconnected." This is along the same line as your experience. I assume he is referring to the driver on the external drive and not to the USB driver in OS X. I guess when OS X wakes up and the external drive has gone to sleep, OS X thinks it was not ejected properly and reconnects to the drive. So, is this serous? OS X can communicate with the drive as Time Machine will do a back-up on the drive. My concern is the potential for data loss on the external drive. Maybe that isn't a problem?
If I manually eject the drive when I'm leaving the computer for a while and then re-connect it would probably work, but is going around the problem. This shouldn't be necessary.
I also posted on the Apple Support website and only had one reply. I didn't see others posting with this problem. I find it interesting the MacRumors has so many posts on this.
The one reply I had suggested that "Some drive controllers do not play well with OS X. When the Mac goes to sleep, the controller mis-interprets that and puts the drive to sleep and the OS thinks it has been disconnected." This is along the same line as your experience. I assume he is referring to the driver on the external drive and not to the USB driver in OS X. I guess when OS X wakes up and the external drive has gone to sleep, OS X thinks it was not ejected properly and reconnects to the drive. So, is this serous? OS X can communicate with the drive as Time Machine will do a back-up on the drive. My concern is the potential for data loss on the external drive. Maybe that isn't a problem?
This sleep/eject notice didn't used to be a problem for either native or add-on PCIe USB ports. It was a known bug introduced in some new version of OS X that affected both native and add-on ports. A couple of updates later, and Apple had fixed the problem, but only for native ports.
I've heard it explained that this just an annoying notice--there is no loss of data. Sonnet even has a driver that "fixes" the problem, but the support tech told me that literally the only thing the driver does is block the warning notice. It's not changing the file system behavior because that is already correct and safe.
I haven't heard of this happening on native ports, except for that brief period between updates mentioned above. Are you running a much older version of OS X?
I've heard it explained that this just an annoying notice--there is no loss of data. Sonnet even has a driver that "fixes" the problem, but the support tech told me that literally the only thing the driver does is block the warning notice. It's not changing the file system behavior because that is already correct and safe.
I haven't heard of this happening on native ports, except for that brief period between updates mentioned above. Are you running a much older version of OS X?
I am running the latest version of El Capital, 10.11.3. I only started to see these messages after this last update to El Capitan. I have seen no data loss and when the iMac wakes up, Time Machine jumps in and does the next scheduled update. So, I really can't see that it is hurting anything, but the messages are annoying. I don't like to ignore message that warn me that my external disk was not ejected properly. Nothing has changed in the driver on the external disk, so OS X must have changed. I've tried this on both a native port and on USB extender, with a power supply. Doesn't seem to matter.
I've also had trouble syncing my Fitbit Charge to the iMac. The iMac has a sync dongle plugged into a USB port and the Fitbit software running in El Capitan can't find the dongle. Sometimes after many tries it sees it. Never had this problem before the latest update to El Capital. The Fitbit website notes that there have been some problems since the last update to the Apple OS X and that "Apple is working on the problem". I suspect there is a bug (or several) in the USB driver that was introduced with the last update. But, the posts here go way back before this latest update, so maybe there has been a problem in the USB driver going back a few years?
I find it interesting that the Apple Support Site is pretty silent on this issue.
***
OK, after writing the above (iMac was asleep all night) I went to Time Machine and saw that it had not run since last night. Then I noticed that the Seagate external disk was not connected. I unplugged the USB cable and then plugged it back in. It didn't mount. So, I moved it to a different USB port on the iMac and then it connected and now Time Machine sees it and is doing a backup.
This is a most frustrating problem!
I've also had trouble syncing my Fitbit Charge to the iMac. The iMac has a sync dongle plugged into a USB port and the Fitbit software running in El Capitan can't find the dongle. Sometimes after many tries it sees it. Never had this problem before the latest update to El Capital. The Fitbit website notes that there have been some problems since the last update to the Apple OS X and that "Apple is working on the problem". I suspect there is a bug (or several) in the USB driver that was introduced with the last update. But, the posts here go way back before this latest update, so maybe there has been a problem in the USB driver going back a few years?
I find it interesting that the Apple Support Site is pretty silent on this issue.
***
OK, after writing the above (iMac was asleep all night) I went to Time Machine and saw that it had not run since last night. Then I noticed that the Seagate external disk was not connected. I unplugged the USB cable and then plugged it back in. It didn't mount. So, I moved it to a different USB port on the iMac and then it connected and now Time Machine sees it and is doing a backup.
This is a most frustrating problem!
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There are many complaints about USB problems over in the El Capitan forum. Many other problems too. I'm staying on Mavericks and Yosemite.
Wish I had not updated to El Capitan. Hope they have another update coming that will fix more of the bugs. It's not like Apple to release buggy software and to be so slow in fixing it.
After installing the latest version of the cheap little app called jettison some time back, I've never seen the notification again on Yosemite or El Capitan. I have 4 USB 3.0 drives connected at all times, and never see this message anymore.