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Lurkums
User level: Level 4 (1,530 points)

Ejecting external Photos Library Drive is hard to impossibe

My Photos Library, my only Photo Library and only my Photos Library are on an external hard drive. I happen to be running Catalina, but it was the same under Mojave.


When I want eject it I quit photos, make a cup of tea, go for a walk, have a shower, and then find that it will not eject, will not eject, will not eject. This is every time.


Eventually I use Force Eject.


Intellectually I expect something in this process to tell the cuteums little background tasks to stop playing with the library because I want to eject it.


This is a mixture of asking for advice and having a bleat. Ok, bleat mode over. Is there anything I should be doing differently?



Posted on Dec 1, 2019 6:38 AM

3 replies

léonie
User level: Level 10 (205,585 points)

Dec 1, 2019 6:50 AM in response to Lurkums

The background processes in Photos are running as long as you are logged into your user account. So the system photo library is always in use and blocking the external volume. You could try to log off instead of force ejecting. After logging in again, you should be able to eject the volume. Or shut down the mac.



ddotyddot
User level: Level 1 (14 points)

Dec 4, 2019 6:25 PM in response to Lurkums

I agree 100% with Lurkums. The same thing happens to me with iTunes on an external drive and it's extremely frustrating and poorly designed. I've found I can eject the drive if I use Activity monitor to quit the following processes:


  • AMPLibraryAgent
  • AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent
  • AMPArtworkAgent


I can usually just close the library agent and it works. Sometimes I seem to have to close all three. I would imagine there's something similar for Photos.


This is new in Catalina and is poor design and very un-Apple-like. You shouldn't have to log out to eject a drive.

Lurkums Author
User level: Level 4 (1,530 points)

Dec 1, 2019 6:57 AM in response to léonie

Your solution, while correct, is alarming in the way the system is designed. It means hassle and aggravation. Ok, I'm in bleat mode again, and I will send this to Apple via Feedback.


The enormous cost of large SSD internal drives means I have had to go down this route. iCloud is not an alternative for massive Photos databases either, because of ongoing cost of subscription.


I suppose I should mark your post as 'solved'. Instead, if you don't mind, I will leave it open for others to offer thoughts.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/250905563