It is now known: to prevent data stored on USB sticks and external hard drives from being damaged, before physically disconnecting this type of device from the computer, it is necessary to eject them from the system at the software level. This applies not only to Windows, but to macOS as well.
If you’ve recently switched to “bitten apple” computers and still don’t know how to eject USB from Mac , don’t worry. It is a very simple operation, even more so than on Windows, and which can be completed in various ways, in one, at most two clicks. The procedure, it is true, is slightly different than what needs to be done on a PC, but I can assure you that it is all very simple.
So? How about finally putting the chat aside and taking the real action? Yup? Great. So position yourself comfortably in front of your trusty Apple-branded computer and immediately start getting busy. I am sure that in the end you will be able to tell yourself very happy and satisfied with what you have learned and that you will also be ready to agree with me that it was actually child’s play. What do you say, we bet?
How to eject USB from Mac
Index
- Preliminary information
- How to remove USB from Mac
- Dal Finder
- From the desk
- From the Dock bar
- From Disk Utility
- From Terminal
- How to eject stuck USB from Mac
- Other solutions to eject USB from Mac
Preliminary information
As with Microsoft operating systems, even on macOS correctly ejecting USB sticks and hard drives connected to the computer is a fundamental operation. Contrary to what many may think, simply “pulling” the reference device from the Mac’s USB socket is not the right way to disconnect the drive.
In order to disconnect a USB device connected to the Mac “in a workmanlike manner”, it is necessary to put into practice a specific procedure, one of those indicated in this tutorial. Otherwise, the contents of the drive could be irreparably damaged and consequently unreadable.
This happens because the system is not given the time to finish copying the data on the device and consequently ends up with a series of corrupted data that is completely useless. Therefore, it is not simply a habit followed by the most scrupulous but rather a practice!
In any case, every time a USB drive is incorrectly disconnected from the Mac, in the upper right part of the desktop the appropriate warning appears Incorrect disk ejection indicating, in fact, what has occurred.
How to remove USB from Mac
As I told you at the beginning of the guide, there are several systems to remove USB from Mac . Below, therefore, you will find all those that are provided directly by macOS, which allow you to regularly eject USB devices and above all that do not allow the user to resort to the use of “third-party” tools.
Dal Finder
The first way to eject USB from Mac that I want to tell you about involves using the Finder . So, first of all, access the latter by clicking on its icon (the one with the two-colored smiley face ) on the Dock bar .
Once the Finder window appears on your desktop, locate the Locations section in the left sidebar and click on the Eject symbol located next to the name of the device you want to remove. Done! Now there is nothing left to do but unplug the USB dive from the Mac. Since it wasn’t complicated?
Alternatively, you can eject your USB devices connected to the Mac by selecting the iMac entry of [your name] that you can always find in the Devices section of the left bar of the Finder window, right-clicking with the mouse on the icon of the drive to eject and selecting then the Eject [Device Name] item from the menu that appears.
You can also eject USB drives connected to the Mac using a suitable keyboard shortcut. Just select the device you want to act on from the Finder sidebar and use the following shortcut: command + e .
If you do not see the USB drive icon in the Finder sidebar, to solve, click on the View menu and on the Show Sidebar item in it, then click on the Finder menu , on the Preferences item in it, select the Bar section side from the window that opens and check the External Disks option
From the desk
Another method you have from your to eject USB from Mac is to go and act from the desktop , calling up the appropriate item attached to the context menu. Then, locate the icon of the drive you want to eject on the desktop, right click on it with the mouse and choose, from the menu that appears, the item Eject “drive name” .
After completing the above steps, you can regularly eject the reference USB device connected to your Mac by simply pulling it out of its slot. Easier than that?
I point out that even in this case you can disconnect the USB device connected to your Mac via keyboard shortcut. Just select the relevant icon on the desktop and use the following shortcut: command + e .
If you can’t see the drive icon on your desktop, it’s most likely because you’ve turned it off. To work around, click on the Finder item attached to the menu bar and choose the Preferences item . In the window that appears, select the General tab and check the box next to External Disks in the section Show these items on the desktop .
From the Dock bar
If you are still wondering “how do I eject a USB stick from a Mac?” or any other USB drive, as an alternative to the methods already described you can act from the Dock bar . To be more precise, what you have to do is left click with the mouse on the icon of the drive you want to disconnect from the Mac on the desktop and, continuing to keep it clicked, drag it to the Eject icon that appears on the bar Dock instead of the Trash icon .
After that, you can disconnect the reference USB device currently connected to your Mac without any kind of problem. In short, as you can see for yourself it was very simple.
Even then, if you can’t see the USB icon on your desktop it’s obviously because you’ve disabled it in Finder settings. To fix this, you can follow the instructions on what to do that I provided you in the previous step .
From Disk Utility
You can also eject USB from Mac using Disk Utility , the “standard” application of macOS thanks to which it is possible to completely manage the external media connected to the computer. To use it for your purpose, first start the utility by clicking on its icon (the one with the hard disk and the stethoscope ) attached to the Other folder of the Launchpad .
Once the Disk Utility window appears on the desktop, locate the name of the USB device you want to eject from the left sidebar, in the External section , and click on the Eject symbol next to it. Et voila !
Also for what concerns Disk Utility, you can use the aforementioned keyboard shortcut to eject USB drives from Mac. To do this, just select the drive name from the left sidebar of Disk Utility and use the following shortcut: command + and .
If you can’t see the sidebar, you can enable it by clicking on the View button located at the top of the Disk Utility window and then on the Show Sidebar item from the menu that opens.
From Terminal
You can also eject USB from Mac using the command line, using the Terminal . On the surface, this may seem a little more complex than the other methods already described, but in reality it is not. To proceed in this way, first open the Terminal by clicking on its icon (the one with the black window with the line of code ) that you find in the Other folder of the Launchpad .
Once the Terminal window is displayed on the desktop, call up the list of connected units, in order to be able to understand exactly which device to act on. To do this, enter the following command and then hit the Enter key on your Mac keyboard diskutil list:.
Once you have identified the name of the unit to be ejected, issue this other command in the Terminal diskutil unmount /dev/diskxsx:. When typing the command, replace diskxsx with the value you find in correspondence with the reference unit in the IDENTIFIER column , always attached to the terminal window.
Once you have completed the above steps, the USB drive will be disconnected from the Mac and you can then extract it from its port. To confirm this, you will also see the message Volume [USB device name] on diskxsx unmounted in the Terminal window. In place of diskxsx you will find the exact identification of the ejected device.
How to eject stuck USB from Mac
If the files on the USB drive to be ejected are currently in use, macOS will prevent you from completing the operation by telling you which applications are occupying the files in question.
In this way, you can run for cover by closing the apps that hold the data “hostage” and repeating the expulsion procedure, which should be successful at that point.
In other cases, the drives are locked and can only be forcibly disconnected from the Mac . To do this, try and eject them normally as I have already explained to you and then click on the button for forced ejection that will appear after a few seconds (just the time that macOS realizes that the device is blocked).
Other solutions to eject USB from Mac
Another, perhaps even more convenient way to eject USB from Mac is to use unDock . It is a small free application (but possibly also available in a paid variant , at a cost of 1.99 euros, with additional features) that is positioned in the notification area of macOS and allows you to eject all USB drives connected to the computer “On the fly”, without having to complete any of the above steps.
It is not essential, but it makes life much easier for all those who often have to deal with USB sticks and external hard drives to connect and disconnect from their Mac.
If you are interested, access the relevant section of the Mac App Store , click on the Get and Install buttons and if necessary authorize the download and installation procedure using the Apple ID , Touch ID or Apple Watch password .
Once the installation is complete, start unDock by clicking on its icon (the one with the Eject symbol ) that has been added to the Launchpad and answer Yes or No , depending on whether you want the application to start automatically every time you log on to the system.
To use it, click on its icon in the macOS notification area and select, from the menu that buys, the item unDock Now! to eject the first USB drive connected to the computer.
The same operation can also be performed using a keyboard shortcut, without having to go through the notification area of macOS. Just use the following combination: control + option + command + space bar .
