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Disk Not Ejected Properly" error after EL Capitan goes to sleep

Sailormannn

Sailormannn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 17, 2012
221
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Anyone else getting this with a USB external drive. Ive tried removing the drive from Spotlight and restarting both Mac and drive. I'll get at least one error message overnight sometimes as many as 5.

Problem started after upgrading to El Capitan from Yosemite.
 
Yeah, I'm getting the same issue. Sometimes one of my externals, sometimes all three. I had it before too. Genuinely can't remember whether it was Mavericks or Yosemite but it went away at some point after a .x update.
 
Have you tried rearranging your USB cables and hubs so they're away from power cords and thunderbolt stuff; nor too close to your Bluetooth transceivers? Apparently the signals can and do interfere w each other. I had USB drive dropouts similar to those described above until I moved my hub away from my Mac, and made neat with all the cables. No trouble since.
 
This is a El Capitan problem. Even if you plug the external drive directly into the USB port of the iMac the issue persist at random intervals. This persistent issue was not a problem previous to El Capitan.
 
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Sailormannn said:
Anyone else getting this with a USB external drive. Ive tried removing the drive from Spotlight and restarting both Mac and drive. I'll get at least one error message overnight sometimes as many as 5.

Problem started after upgrading to El Capitan from Yosemite.
Click to expand...

Upgraded to 10.11.1 last night and had a drive eject error advice this am so not sure if this was fixed. Any other reports?
 
GrumpyTrucker said:
Yeah, I'm getting the same issue. Sometimes one of my externals, sometimes all three. I had it before too. Genuinely can't remember whether it was Mavericks or Yosemite but it went away at some point after a .x update.
Click to expand...

It's been a intermittent problem for me since the Mountain Lion days. It supposed to have been fixed with 10.8.5 but even up until 10.11 still. Have reported for years and never have been fixed.
 
I'm on a mid 2012 MacBook Air & saw happen this the other day when at a meeting (unplugged) on 10.11 on my Transcend where I have iTunes & Photos data
http://www.transcend-info.com/Apple/jetdrivelite/

The only times I've had the error come up (since 10.8 ++) is when the system has gone to deep-sleep with the lid closed, i.e. over 3 hours sleep.

Ages ago, probably when I had sleep issues on a late 10.8 release I un-ticked the 'put hard disks to sleep when possible' in Energy Saver and didn't have problems after that. I note that when I check today on Battery (but not on Power Adaptor) that the 'put hard disks to sleep when possible' is ticked.

I am also running Caffeine http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
so I guess its possible that Caffeine isn't keeping everything from sleeping on 10.11 ?

Would be interested in whether you have the 'put hdd to sleep...' enabled or not
 
I saw this for the first time today, with a USB drive plugged directly into my Mac.

Skipped 10.7-10.10, so AFAIK, it's an El Cap problem for me ;)
 
There are over 400 comments on a thread here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5496841?start=420&tstart=50

Some thought it started on 10.9 but 1 guy claimed to have had it off and on with a PowerPC model...
there are different people with different 'solutions' on different hardware.
For some, tweaking sleep setting are enough.
Others have had issues with hardware, USB cables and the like, some swear its a USB thing yet others have had it on Firewire, Thunderbolt et al.
Still others have had issues with desktops powered via APC power-saving units where the very low 'keep alive' current on the Mac wan't enough to keep the power-saver active.
Some with PRAM & Power resets.
Some have had success with clean reinstalls.
Related to a 'clean install' is a rebuild of the system configuration file, see Robster50 https://discussions.apple.com/message/24628255#24628255

For what its worth, there are very few claims of data corruption...
 
kagharaht said:
This is a El Capitan problem. Even if you plug the external drive directly into the USB port of the iMac the issue persist at random intervals. This persistent issue was not a problem previous to El Capitan.
Click to expand...

Yes, I never have this kind of issue before.
 
Yup. Experiencing the same problem here. Started with the El Capitan update. Never happened before. Occurring on a 1TB external connected into a hub.
 
Did not have the issue until I plugged the drive into an USB 3.0 port, problem never showed itself when plugged into an USB 2.0 port. Running El Cap 10.11.1
 
I now have more information to back up my theory that's it's not the OS, but some type of electrical issue. This Posted in another thread by a WD user:

flowrider said:
See these two threads:


Post #5 Here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ejecting-hard-drives.1930046/#post-22109701


And this thread from another WD user:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-mounted-constantly.1931122/#post-22126699


And a little more from me. The more I delve into this, the more I'm sure it's an electrical issue. The Orico enclosure I speak about in the first thread, finally killed my Seagate SSHD drive, due, IMO, to the constant disk ejection and remounting issue. I threw them both away and replaced them with a Seagate Expansion HDD. It's a good bit slower than my Dead Seagate Hybrid was, but I've had my MBA on all day (using El Cap 10.11.1) and the Seagate USB HDD has not ejected itself. The second thread was also posted by a WD user.
Click to expand...

I posted this yesterday, and my MBA has still not lost it's connection to my new Seagate external HDD.

So I have personally seen this problem with an Orico enclosure and a MicroNet Phantom HDD. I have not seen it with my current Seagate external HDD and a Seagate HDD mounted in a Hornetek Viper enclosure. I have heard of this issue with WD and LaCie devices. And yes, all are USB 3.0 related, doesn't seem to happen with UCB 2.0 devices.

Lou
 
Last edited:
same problem here. though, El Capitan says 'disk not ejected properly' even though the external drive is still there and Finder can still go into it.
 
^^^^It would be helpful, ay least to me, if you folks having the problems, and posting, would share the brand of external HDD or enclosure you are having issues with. It certainly would make solving the problem a whole lot easier, and might be helpful to folks contemplating the purchase of an external USB device.

I firmly DO NOT believe it to be an OS issue!

Lou
 
I have dropouts with all my external drives after upgrading to 10.11: Seagate Expansion, WD, LaCie, SansDisk Extreme SSD, OWC. El Capitan is no respecter of drive make, size or national origin. After going to 10.11.1 the dropouts reduced considerably but still happen a few times weekly rather than daily.
 
flowrider said:
^^^^It would be helpful, ay least to me, if you folks having the problems, and posting, would share the brand of external HDD or enclosure you are having issues with. It certainly would make solving the problem a whole lot easier, and might be helpful to folks contemplating the purchase of an external USB device.

I firmly DO NOT believe it to be an OS issue!

Lou
Click to expand...
Western Digital Passport. Model # WD3200ME-01
 
For what it's worth, this issue has gotten much worse with the latest couple of 10.11.2 betas. Not sure what is going on there.
 
Mine is a WD My Book 2TB. No problems when plugged into USB 2.0 port. Problem is only when plugged into USB 3.0 port. I wonder if it is an USB 3.0 driver issue? Running 10.11.1 have the issue, running 10.10.5 no issue.
 
I have this problem with my MBA and Seagate 250-GB external drive connected via USB port. I awaken each day to find the error message; I then disconnect from the USB and unplug the power, then reinsert the power and reconnect to USB. I've NEVER had this issue prior to El Capitan. While I understand how some can posit that the issue lies somewhere other than the OS, my experience is that it is indeed an OS-related issue.

A.
 
zamboknee said:
Western Digital Passport. Model # WD3200ME-01
Click to expand...
I upgraded from this older Western Digital drive to a HGST Touro 1TB, USB 3.0 portable drive and this issue STILL persists. It's GOT to be an OS X problem. I've had zero problems like this on Yosemite and on my work's PC (same drive, running Windows 7)
 
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