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laura_soares
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Cannot eject external WD Elements disks on iMac M3

Hey there! I constantly have the issue "The disk X wasn't ejected because finder is using it." (sometimes "because one or more programs may be using it"). I don't seem to have anything from the disk open. I have tried quitting finder, force quitting finder (through the force quit window or the activity monitor), eject it through disk utility, log out of the user and log back in (without reopening windows). It also fails running first aid on the disk because it can't unmount it.

It doesn't do this all the time, but almost always and I can't figure out why.

I'm on iMac, M3, Golden Gate 27.0.1. This happens for two WD Elements disks that I have, but it doesn't seem to happen for the Transcend disk...

I'm out of ideas, thank you for any help.

Posted on Nov 4, 2026 1:19 AM

4 replies

den.thed
User level: Level 10 (99,154 points)

Nov 4, 2026 9:31 AM in response to laura_soares

What type of files are you transferring to the Mac..?

Photos, Music, PDF's Word Doc's


How are you transferring these files and to what location in the Mac...?

Copy & Paste or Drag & Drop to where on the Mac


At this point, it seems like some other software installed on your Mac is opening and using the files on the external drive instead of opening and using the files that were transferred to the Mac. So in addition to Finder and Preview, I would look at MS Word for Mac and/or other third-party software that you are using as the culprit.

den.thed
User level: Level 10 (99,154 points)

Nov 4, 2026 7:51 AM in response to laura_soares

How are those WD drives formatted...?

You can check using Disk Utility


What are you using those WD external drives for...?

Time Machine or for general file storage


Are you using WD's software to manage those external drives...?

Using WD software is not necessary or recommended

laura_soares Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Nov 4, 2026 8:20 AM in response to den.thed

They are formatted as ExFAT and I use them for general file storage (I often need to use them to transfer data from windows computers to mac). I do not use WD software.

The Transcend hard drive, which does not seem to have this issue, is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Limnos
User level: Level 10 (462,771 points)

Nov 4, 2026 8:54 AM in response to laura_soares

If you don't have to use ExFAT then I wouldn't. I have a thumb drive that exhibited the same issue that you had. It was formatted FAT but because it was a free item given to me by a store I don't know about its quality. All I know is that it was horribly slow (took 15 hours to copy 16 GB to it). I don't know if that was the drive quality or something to do with FAT but it also wouldn't eject. In the end I figured it wasn't worth the time for that particular drive and since it was free I just erased it.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256388587