Home > Questions

What to do Time Machine external disk won't eject?

I try to eject the external hard disk that has my Time Machine backups on it but it continually says that it cannot be ejected because it's in use. I think it's Spotlight that's accessing it, but I cannot stop it, or add the disk to the areas for Spotlight to ignore. I have to shut the computer down to eject the disk safely. Very annoying!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Anna Yuan

Anna Yuan

Answered on Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Just as you said, the reason why your external hard drive with the Time Machine backups can't be safely ejected may be because the external hard drive is currently in use by Spotlight. Therefore, to fix this problem, the very first thing you should do is to quit or force-quit the Spotlight app on your Mac.

To close running apps on your Mac, you can use Activity Monitor help you. Launch Activity Monitor and type in 'Spotlight', then all the Spotlight running processes will appear. Select each process one by one and click the X button in the top left corner of the window to quit or force quit the Spotlight.

If the problem still exists, and you don't want to fix "The external disk can't be ejected on Mac" by shutting down your Mac computer every time, you can eject the disk with an automatic ejection tool - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac.

Even though iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is mainly designed for mounting Windows NTFS file system drives on Mac, it can also be used to fix the 'external drive won't eject on Mac' issue.

  1. Free download and launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac.
  2. Wait for it to detect your Time Machine disk with the ejecting issue.
  3. Click the iBoysoft NTFS for Mac icon in the menu bar, select the drive from the drop-down list, and choose Eject.

People Also Ask

Read More Questions

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

cant open the application not supported on this type of mac

Can't Open the Application Not Supported on This Type of Mac

This post provides solutions to the error message - You can't open the application because it is not supported on this type of Mac. Apply these solutions to fix the issue on macOS Sonoma and earlier.

News Tips

Unidades NTFS não sendo montadas ou funcionando no macOS Sequoia

Unidades NTFS não estão montando/funcionando no macOS Sequoia? Corrigido!

Corrija unidades NTFS que não estão montando ou funcionando no macOS Sequoia devido ao NTFS for Mac não montar e outros problemas que impedem o NTFS de funcionar no último macOS 15 Sequoia.

Commande F ne fonctionne pas

Command F Not Working, Pourquoi & Comment Résoudre ce Problème?

Cet article propose des solutions pour résoudre le problème de Command F qui ne fonctionne pas sur votre Mac et vous aide à analyser les raisons.