Can't eject USB drive after Sequoia upgrade

f8lee50 wrote:

Well it also happens when CCC is not involved at all - as in when I simply drag aa folder from my external SSD to the external HDD backup - FInder only.

Perhaps so sadly

But in the context of OP wrote >> " More information. I had to upgrade Carbon Copy Cloner to V7 to ensure compatibility with Sequoia "

What has been provided is Spot On

There is something included in CCC 7.0.4 Build 8082 that Locks the drive even if CCC is not active and in us.

I can say from personal experience

Reformatting the drive solved my issue on a M4 Machine with Sequoia 15.1.1

Where the drive was assigned for usage with CCC 7.0.4 or a secondary drive used for Time Machine Backups

There appears to something in Spotlight that is the root cause of this issue

@f8lee50 If you are using the Sandisk Extreme Pro 4TB model, it's not an Apple problem. This model has a known issue that causes the drive to become unreadable, the issue was covered in several major tech publications like Ars Technica and Toms Hardware and resulted in multiple class action lawsuits being filed last year.

Sandisk has issued a firmware update which they claim fixes the problem, but there was a report from a data recovery firm detailing that the problem is likely hardware related and not fixable with firmware.

Have you tried it in Safe Mode?

Same here, both drives formatted APFS, new computer, I did a completely fresh install without transferring over from old computer. Yesterday after noticing my Samsung Extreme 1TB & 2TB SSDs were not indexing, I forced a Spotlight indexing. At the end of the workday, the 1TB ejected properly for first time. Not sure what was done different other then Spotlight indexing which is opposite scenario to others. However that was once and I'd like to check again to make sure this is repeatable.

Yesterday I reported this eject issue to Apple Feedback as well.

Well, not necessarily - I too have CCC v7 and am still having the issue with the SSDs I connect via the USB port on the desktop dock I use with my M3 MacBook Pro. But I also back up an external SSD to a rotating hard drive Toshiba (4TB) by simply dragging and dropping from the external SSD to the Toshiba disk, and it too will not eject without doing a force eject. So it's not CCC as such. And this only started happening after I was put into 15.1.1 Sequoia. So methinks Apple screwed the pooch here.

Just to add to this, but please be aware I'm not sure yet: I use Backblaze (online backup solution). Since people here are mentioning CCC, Backblaze may be preventing drives from ejecting. In early versions, I could manage to quit the app. Nowadays it would not, so I can't ensure it is the responsible.

Another thing to consider: mds_stores keep popping in Activity Monitor with 90% cpu. People say that it is an indexer, so it might be indexing external disks, and therefore locking the drives.

Anyways, any of that was happening before. And since I am a video producer, I deal with external drives everyday, this is very annoying. In order to prevent from any disk corruption, I never Force-Eject anything. I always have to reboot macOS in order to eject a drive. Go figure...

So, restricting the Spotlight didn't help since the system behaved weird and somehow ignored my restriction of index the external HDD. One peculiar thing I found that the system stuck to any .ts, .m2ts file once it's revealed on the HDD in Finder. I renamed it to say .mp4 and restarted the system: the bug is gone.

Also, check out this Terminal output for finding a process related to the HDD:

Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

I just bought my new Mac Mini M4 and upgraded to latest Sequoia 15.1.1. I have two Samsung Extreme SSDs:

• the Samsung Extreme 1TB SSD won't eject due to "being in use" and I have to go to the extent of shutting down the computer to eject it
• the other Samsung Extreme 2TB SSD will eject without issues

Both are plugged into the Thunderbolt ports at the back but I also had the same issue when they were plugged into the USB-C ports at the front.

I hope Apple addresses this issue as it seems to be popping up for several people.

Ok...

Also, I used the app Feedback Assistant (which comes with your macOS), in order to send bugs to Apple in a more professional manner. A lot of data is collected close to the bug/crash time, so this might help them iron these things out.

Today I reformatted an older WD My Passport to AFPS and backed up files. When trying to eject, it gave me the typical response (being used by something). When trying to index it via Spotlight, I ended up getting the error "Privacy List Error - This item couldn't be added or removed because of an unknown error". Only way I will be able to eject it safely is shutting my Mac down and disconnecting.

Mac Mini M4

OS 15.1.1

Referring to my most recent post - I have figured out the new issue - the USB-C cable gets loose for some reason and causes a momentary disconnection. This seems like poor design, I have the SSD drives attached to the back and any accidental jiggling of the cords can cause disconnect. Anyone else?

It al boils down to the quality of the UBC-C cables you use, my friend. USB-C connections are solid as a rock if the cable is of high quality and properly inserted tightly into the USB-C port at both ends.

I CONFIRM THIS! I experience the same bug every time I connect my external 2+ TB HDDs to my Mac mini M2 Pro even after clean install. The only workaround is to log out, log in, and then sign in, and unmount the drive.