Can't eject card reader

[evennewerbie]

I took some photos today and tried to load them onto photos in Mac via a card reader. (this is Mac Retina so it attaches through an adaptor.).

I get the message that I had failed to eject properly (I'm usually careful about this and I didn't think so but maybe) and I should do so. I try to do this but the trouble is normally it appears in the finder's Devices window and your click a =^ sign to eject, but most of the time this is not there. It appears now and then for not enough time to get my cursor to it and then vanishes. When I do manage to catch it nothing seems to happen. After a long time the sign stays there a bit longer, long enough to catch, so I have now clicked eject many times and nothing happens. Except sometimes it tells me It cannot eject because Photos is active, I should quit photos. It seems that just attaching the device calls up Photos. Sometimes in two places In Photos the =^ eject sign appears, again intermittent. Clicking on them has no effect. Often in Finder I get 4 icons, one of which is the name given to my device (= NO NAME). But unlike the other icons it is faint, which I think it is meant to say it's not really there. At any rate I am not able to drag it. (I've tried to read up and one suggestion was to drag it into trash.)

When I unplug the device to avoid further damage I switch the computer off first. I don't know if a new card reader would do the trick but that is firstly annoying as I've only had it a few months and it replaced one that lasted for years, the only problem was the plug got bent, and secondly it's Sunday so there are no shops open today.

I put the card back into the camera and the photos do not appear to be damaged.

Any suggestions?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

As a test try this and tell us if it works,

1. Open Image Capture
2. Plug your Camera directly into a USB port

Does the camera show in image capture under devices?

 

[evennewerbie]

Thank you.

You have overestimated me! This is the first time I have heard of 'Image capture'. It is not in my 'MacBook for dummies' nor my 'Beginners guide to Mac'. I can find out about it on the web if necessary and saw some stuff.

But I take your point that card readers are nothing necessary for photography. I have just been using them instead of connecting a camera directly because it is just somehow nattier. (How I hate the flimsy flaps and fiddly fitting of plugs in my camera!) Also because the readers are less easy to lose or get mixed up. In fact when I wrote originally I was not confident of locating the connection for my camera but this morning I have found it. (I suspect I'm not the only one with lots of devices that I can't locate the connections for, and connections I can't locate the devices for.)

So yes I found the connection and just connected the camera to the Mac, downloaded selected photos perfectly.. And then just unplugged! None of this nonsense about ejecting! And the photos are still in the camera as temporary backup.

Does this mean my card reader is bust? After all it would be useful e.g. If a friend wants to copy my photos. And I don't like the feeling of loss of control.

Looking for relevant stuff on the net it looks that there are many complaints about ejection problems with Macs, though this was mainly with reading other storage devices, particularly hard disks.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

This is the first time I have heard of 'Image capture'. It is not in my 'MacBook for dummies' nor my 'Beginners guide to Mac

It is in your Applications folder. as screen shot 1

Does this mean my card reader is bust?

Have had a few card readers go us on me so possible.

Looking for relevant stuff on the net it looks that there are many complaints about ejection problems

Usually this is because of a failing media device or the media is still in use by an application, but remember you always have the option to force quit from the Apple menu as screen shot 2.

Its a learning curve.

 

[evennewerbie]

I found there is nothing wrong with the card reader or the card. I've tried both in another computer and they work perfectly and so does the eject

So the problem must be with the state the Mac is presently in.

When I attach the card reader with another card it hasn't seen before it still gives me the message of failed to eject properly. Photos loads itself, it's recognises that the card is there because in the import option with the name 'no name' comes up but fails to respond to clicking, also in the eject option, and now the coloured rotating disk comes up. For quite a long time.

Any suggestions?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

When I attach the card reader with another card it hasn't seen before it still gives me the message of failed to eject properly

Before you eject the card open the apple menu and click force quit this will show you any applications that are still open quit all Except Finder and now try and un mount the card via right click .

What is the result

 

[evennewerbie]

As long as the card reader is attached, it calls up Photos. If I quit Photos normally, or else force quit, in both cases it soon calls back Photos. Whether Photos is open or not I very soon get the message about not ejected properly.

The trouble with all the methods explained online and I think yours is that they assume you can click on the eject =^ button for the attached device which it calls NO NAME. This is a very difficult because most of the time either in Finder or Photos it is not there! It is only appears intermittently and for a fraction of a second. When I have left it attached for a fairly longer time the pictures that I recognise that are on the card flash up how anything between a fraction or a few seconds. I have by now been able to both the right and left click is the ejector button during the brief Interval it is visible (both in Photos and Finder). But nothing is changing and I still monotonously get the not ejected properly signal.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

If I quit Photos normally, or else force quit, in both cases it soon calls back Photos.

So I suspect photos is the app that is causing the issue, and to stop photos doing this you need to un tick the box next to Open Photos for this device.



1) Put the card with images in to Mac.

2) Let photos open.

3) Now look at the bar where your import options are, is it at the top on the right?

4) If so the option I am referring to is on the top left of the same bar.

5) You can now quit the Photos app as the changes are applied instantly.

Please remember that you will have to do this for any other device you connect and do not want photos to auto open.

I don’t use Photo but Aperture and am not at home now so just took an image of the net.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Am just home and double checked for anyone running Sierra, things are very different as you have to deactivate photo through Image Capture as my screen shot.

Hope this helps

 

[evennewerbie]

My system is Yoshemite. (Sierra is maybe the system I have had pop-ups a couple of times inviting to upgrade to, but I'm not doing that till a convenient moment).

It looks to me like Photos is maybe complicating, but not causing the issue. I probably ticked the box you mention unawares once, because I remember I used to most often import photos finding them in the Finder menu with card reader attached and dragging and dropping the desired photos into Photos and then opening it.

The only difference that unticking that box has made is that the Finder view of NO NAME is now slightly more stable. It is still intermittent, but now they're more often and for a few seconds more, enabling me to tick the eject button. But it makes no difference and I still get constantly the Not Ejected Properly response.

I also tried to do the only other thing I can do with it, and that is instead of ejecting try to open. This is enabled me to see that the list of photos still there on the card, and I could see that the photos themselves are still there, opening one or two. Mostly though this all closes before I can do anything with it, but a minute or two ago I dragged one of them into Photos. It told me that it not be imported because it cannot open Photos, but then it did open Photos. As before, intermittently I get the NO NAME in the Photos sidebar, still clicking eject or not does not inject, when I still get the Disk Not Ejected Properly all the time which if I close soon pops up again. Not particularly inclined to buy new reader as you could spend a lot of time and money on such trials, particularly given the indication that it works okay with another computer so the problem looks to be in the Mac.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I take that the card reader does not appear on your desktop, if so go to finder and make sure both the external disks and CD/DVDs and iPods boxes are checked as in my screen shot.

 

[evennewerbie]

Been there. Boxes found already ticked exactly as in your screenshot. Disk Not Ejected Properly still shows.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I am at a loss, as the CR works fine in other machine and camera connects fine and ejects ok.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Just a thought, is the 'not ejected properly' message displayed after you remove the card reader OR does is show while the card reader is still attached?

Also what happens if you click on the card readers icon on your desktop, hold the mouse cursor down as the icon is highlighted & drag the icon down onto the Trash ... as you drag the icon over the Trash, the Trash icon should change to an eject icon. Does the card reader eject & do you still get the 'not ejected properly' message?

 

[evennewerbie]

It shows only when the card reader is attached, and has a card in it.

Trying to remove it by drag-and-drop into trash is quite difficult because the icon appears only intermittently. But I have done it in the past days, and tried again today. I am able to drag, but not drop. Essentially nothing happens when I take finger off the mouse. I still get the Not Ejected Properly Signal. And when I look inside the trash folder, I see nothing corresponding to these last days. Also, right clicking on the icon a little menu comes up with the eject option. but if I go down to that option, there is nothing else I can do - I try to left click but it's not possible when I release the menu vanishes, and Not Ejected Properly Comes up again.

I got a prompt to date to force quit which I did. After that the message did not come up any more. I removed the device. When I reattached it, I again got the same old Not Ejected Properly. The force quitting routine had warned me that it might damage the card contents. But when I once again checked the card in another computer all the photos seem still to be there.

I really don't want to start attaching anything my hard disk to something that is playing up in this manner putting contents at risk.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

It's normal not to find anything in the Trash because when you drag a mounted disc over it the Trash becomes an eject function not a container.

Okay so even when you eject the card reader by dragging over the Trash you still see the 'not ejected properly' message ...

The 'might damage the card contents' relates to ejecting a disc while it is being used as in files are being copied from it to your internal drive ... if you are finished with the card reader & you make sure the card reader isn't still being used by an application then there is nothing to worry about.

Is it just this particular card that mucks up? Do you have other cards that you can successfully eject using the same card reader? If so then I recommend not to use this particular card anymore.

The card reader is likely working properly & not at fault so I would eject this card once & for all, after you have copied it's contents then repair your computers permissions using Disk Utility.

 

[evennewerbie]

It is not only this card. It was happening with another card. I switched to the one I am now using because it has not so important photos. It gave me the. Not Ejected Properly even though it had never seen the card before. Both cards work OK and are ejected properly on another computer. (That has other problems - don't ask me why I don't just use that!). When I attached the camera with the first card, it was read OK.

Btw Windows gives you a definite signal when you have ejected properly, please remind me whether Mac does that so I can interpret what its silence means.

This morning I saw some changes. I force quit all applications except Finder as per #6 above. Then I attached the loaded card reader. After a time along with the usual DNEP I got popup 'The alias NO NAME can't be opened beciae the original item can't be found.' Options: delete alias; Fix alias: OK. No idea what this means and which to click.

Also twice came up : The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Options: initialise; ignore; eject. Since I have been trying to eject I clicked that. And now same thing back again. What to do?

For the first time in Finder left bar NO NAME appears stably. But it is not possible to click it., and it does not contain eject =^ symbol. Sometimes a second NO NAME appears below it, this with the =^. I click that and it goes away for a time. DNEP is there +/- always.

It looks like I could do something but I don't know which options to choose. I can leave computer like this for a few hours hoping someone can advise.

 

[evennewerbie]

Okay I have the solution now.

Before that and after this forum I had been onto Apple and we spent an hour with online screen sharing trying everything, the technician consulted senior engineer and they couldn't solve it. All they could recommend was to try a new card reader, and if not take it into an Apple shop. I got a new card reader. That didn't work either. So I took it to my nearest big Apple shop, three and a half hours between getting there and back,waiting and consultation and was still lucky. Not complaining but you see why I didn't do it before.

I seemed to have eliminated scientifically the suspects, the card, the connection, every cause except the computer.

The answer - Simples - the battery is not up to the job. It was up to it before but after a year it must have run down. In ordinary use it lasts me for several hours still, maybe not the ten vaunted by Apple any more. That explains why it worked directly with the camera - it has its own battery. The thing is that the Mac has only one entry port, every other computer I have used had several, so for anything external I used it without mains supply relying on the battery though mostly when it was 100% charged.

So in the shop I bought a 'multiport adapter' and when mains and card reader are attached at the same time it goes okay.

I remember before I bought this new mac retina it I read it up. From my reading I knew you had to get an adaptor to be able to do anything external, which they didn't tell me about in the shop. Plus the mouse and its charging cable. And now this other adapter will be more or less indispensable. There are quite a lot of bits and pieces. Plus in a shop I have seen a branching adapter, so that in the end of the lack of ports should not be such a limitation.(They didn't like the look of the Apple one, Report so close together and didn't look like I could really use them all at the same time for anything is slightly bulky, instead I have seen the branching one in another shop). I don't remember seeing in the reviews I read beforehand this solution to the lack of ports, which was mentioned like it was a disadvantage. You wouldn't need to carry them around for everything, and as for as compression and portability is concerned the basic computer is brilliant achievement.

Maybe these comments will show me up as the permanent newbie I am, but I think there are a lot of us around.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I thought card readers ran off USB power ... my card reader is USB & it takes 4 different card sizes.

I had no idea you had a battery operated card reader.

 

[evennewerbie]

I must have been unclear. The card reader has no battery, and that's exactly why it doesn't work when the computer is not supplying enough power. Previously it did work.

Seems now like elementary newbie difficulty, but none of the experts including Apple have guessed it. Maybe they can't imagine being that much a dummy.