#define private public - "Disk FOO wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it!" (25 Oct 2015)

topic end
<!--
   * Set TOPICTITLE = #define private public - "Disk FOO wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it!" (25 Oct 2015)
-->

<style type="text/css">
pre {background-color:#ffeecc;}
</style>

%STARTINCLUDE%
<a name="25"></a>

---+++ [[DefinePrivatePublic20151025MacEjectExternalDisk]["Disk FOO wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it!"]] (25 Oct 2015)

<summary>
I had seen that pesky message every now and then before, but today I finally got fed up with it, as I was pretty
sure that no application was running which had a legitimate business touching the external drive - at least
none of the applications I had started myself. So I set out on a quest to find the culprit.
</summary>

The weapon of choice in such a case is [[https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/lsof.8.html][lsof]]:

<pre>
  sudo lsof | grep /Volumes/FOO
</pre>

In my case, this produced a list of files opened by a process called =mds_store= which, apparently, is used
to produce the Spotlight search index:

<pre>
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6       3277  8832664 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexGroups
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6      32768  8832663 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexIds
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6       8192  8832666 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexTermIds
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6       8192  8832668 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexPositionTable
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6       8224  8832669 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexDirectory
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6       1024  8832670 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexCompactDirectory
mds_store 42059            root  txt       REG                1,6      65536  8832671 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/live.0.indexArrays
mds_store 42059            root    5r      DIR                1,6       2074  8832643 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842
mds_store 42059            root   11r      DIR                1,6       2074  8832643 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842
mds_store 42059            root   47u      REG                1,6         28  8832650 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/indexState
mds_store 42059            root   49u      REG                1,6     118784  8832674 
  /Volumes/FOO/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/A75D8EF4-8412-4A13-8775-A52C20F05842/.store.db
backupd   42148            root    4w      REG                1,6       1300  8832803
  /Volumes/FOO/Backups.backupdb/Claus/2015-10-25-175619.inProgress/.Backup.467484979.422497.log
</pre>

The fun part was that <i>I had explicitly configured Spotlight to ignore that particular external disk</i> - and yet,
it was still trying to index it!

Turns out that I am not alone with this.
[[http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060814124808745]["Disable Spotlight on a FAT32 external drive"]] 
provides the best summary I could find. Apparently, the type of file system on the external drive plays a role.
I was somewhat skeptical about this claim, but then, all my external drives had FAT32 file systems on them,
and so I followed the instructions in the article. I was still somewhat incredulous, as this seemed to be such a basic issue and the article is rather old.

But then, following the instructions indeed seemed to be successful, at least initially.
The magic ingredient in the sauce was to create a top-level file called =.metadata_never_index= on 
the affected drive:

<pre>
touch /Volumes/FOO/.metadata_never_index
</pre>

I was too impatient to wait for existing instances of =mds_store= to finish their work,
and did not care about the consistency of the Spotlight index on the external drive anyway.
So I killed the =mds_store= process right away, then unplugged the drive and plugged it in again.
From there, indeed I had no issues anymore with ejecting the external disk. Hmmm...
 
Other related articles and discussions:
   * http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/104842/the-volume-cant-be-ejected-because-its-currently-in-use
   * http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/29580/how-do-i-make-spotlight-stop-indexing-my-backup-drive/211616#211616
   * http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/142459/how-to-eject-my-external-drive-when-my-mac-refuses-because-of-spotlight

---

%STOPINCLUDE%

%COMMENT{type="below" nonotify="on"}%

---
to top
End of topic
Skip to action links | Back to top
You are here: Blog > DefinePrivatePublic20151025MacEjectExternalDisk

r1.2 - 24 Feb 2016 - 16:39 - ClausBrod to top
Blog