This is specifially for a 1TB my passport external hard drive 3.0 USB. (may work for others). (I think it’s ES, or EX, I’m not sure.)
If you get an error message saying to quit something before unmounring the drive (when you’re not the one trying to unmount it), there’s a simple fix I discovered. (this error appears while transfering files, or running something from the drive. if successful, the drive will unmount on it’s own manuelly.)
If you have the WD app installed, use the uninstaller made for it. (the app should have been on the drive from the start).
You will no longer get this error, but the drive will constantly spin. If you can’t get it from the drive or website, try using an app cleaner/uninstaller. If that doesn’t work, reinstall the OS (if you really want to). You can’t simply delete it, there are settings that must be changed by the WD uninstaller.
I’ve requested help on this before, and was sent a 2.0 USB, which didn’t solve the issue. I’ve had multiple windows come up from leaving the drive to transfer over night. As a note, I discovered this after needing to re-install my OS. To confirm, I noticed that I hadn’t installed the WD app (which the drive was working fine without it.). Once I installed it, the error happened again. Uninstalled the app, the error stays gone. Just to mention, I have a 500G “my book” that will stay mounted when the disk stops spinning. (I’d assume it’s because it uses an adapter).
One interesting Issue I’d like to point out: The drive appears faster on windows than Mac. (no excuses, please).
I was having this exact problem with my external Passport drive… would spontaneously unmount after 2-3 minutes of being plugged in. Made it imporssible for me to backup with Time Machine or do anything else with it. In fact I even lost some software after a hardware crash because I couldn’t backup with my device. I tried uninstalling the WD software and now it WORKS LIKE A CHARM!
I wonder if this is a solution for my problem. 6TB Thunderbolt keeps ejecting ONLY when i copy files from another 6TB Thunderbolt. I worked if I first copy files to Mac then copy back to the second 6TB drive.
It never copies from one 6TB to another 6TB keeps ejecting after 10-15 minutes. I do have the WD app installed so I will unistall it and give it a try again.
THIS IS NOT THE WANT TO DEAL AFTER PAYING $650 FOR A HARD DRIVE WESTERN DIGITAL!
I have a Western Digital USB3 external hard drive (attached to new MBP Retina) that seems to randomly “eject” itself when I’m trying to back it up via time machine. When this happens, I can’t even shut my machine down properly.
The backup process will run for sometimes 30 minutes or more. But, it’s as if, at some point, the drive just can’t be found. I get the message “this drive was ejected improperly”. When this happens: my machine won’t shut down, disk utility won’t run. I have to press and hold the power button to force a shut down. Any ideas what’s going on here? A MBP Retina issue? A USB3 issue? A western digital issue (although this drive has been functioning fine on old MBP)?
@heyro : I dont think that is a MBP Retina issue… because I have an aluminium MBP combined with 1TB WD passport usb 3.0 just like yours… and Im having same problem in here!
It’s symptomps are :
HD ejected unproperly after few minutes
afterwards my Finder wont work, spinning rainbow appears, cannot force quit the Finder
Cannot shut down my MBP, always stuck at a grey screen (hard shut down by holding the power button needed)
gonna try the solution above, finger crossed it will work…
it was a fool to trust all of my important data to a WD Passport… might need another ext HD as asecond backup!
