you might ask around with the Ocideck people. ...

2026-08-31T04:20:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…afv4
_________________________

you might ask around with the Ocideck people.

https://pawprint.vigilis.online/LibreKAT/Ocideck

Het water is zo warm dat in 1 nacht tijd de hele vaart vol met ...

2026-08-14T06:03:27Z

Het water is zo warm dat in 1 nacht tijd de hele vaart vol met algen is geraakt.

AvL selfie #CancerSurvivor ...

2026-08-11T13:55:52Z

AvL selfie

#CancerSurvivor

please enlighten, as the on-line MacOS man pages are not provided ...

2026-08-06T10:34:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…rhfk
_________________________

please enlighten, as the on-line MacOS man pages are not provided by Apple any more (the mess described at https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/239484/does-apple-provide-a-web-site-with-content-of-man-pages-for-the-command-line-c is so regretable)

hello 2022 memory of lsof solving the eject puzzle (: ...

2026-08-06T09:27:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…4fp7
_________________________

hello 2022 memory of lsof solving the eject puzzle (:

https://wiert.me/2022/03/31/figuring-out-which-processes-are-preventing-to-eject-unmount-my-macos-backup-usb-drive/

quoting
note18pn…ztay

##

Figuring out which processes are preventing to eject/unmount my MacOS Time Machine backup USB drive

One day, a MacOS Time Machine backup USB drive could not me ejected/unmount.

These links helped me figure out what was wrong via [[Wayback](https://web.archive.org/web/20210809091340if_/https://www.google.com/search?q=find+which+macos+program+prevents+unmount )] [find which macos program prevents unmount – Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=find+which+macos+program+prevents+unmount ):
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210507094641/https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/104842/the-volume-cant-be-ejected-because-its-currently-in-use/104850#104850" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/104842/the-volume-cant-be-ejected-because-its-currently-in-use/104850#104850" rel="noopener">macos – The volume can’t be ejected because it’s currently in use – Ask Different (Thanks [https://web.archive.org/web/20210506124529/https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/55028/cousincocaine" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/55028/cousincocaine">CousinCocaine, [https://web.archive.org/web/20170130083635/http://apple.stackexchange.com/users/6541/paul-gilfedder" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/6541/paul-gilfedder" rel="noopener">Paul Gilfedder and [https://web.archive.org/web/20161224162318/http://apple.stackexchange.com/users/7828/alan-w-smith" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/7828/alan-w-smith" rel="noopener">Alan W. Smith)
Q:
“The volume can’t be ejected because it’s currently in use.“
“The disk “Diskname” wasn’t ejected because one or more programs may be using it.“.
“umount(/Volumes/Diskname): Resource busy -- try 'diskutil unmount'“
…
My question: How do I know what program is using my drive so I can properly quit that program and eject my drive?
" alt="The volume can't be ejected because it's currently in use."> " alt="The disk "Camel" wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it."> " alt="The disk "Mammtoh" wasn't ejected because one or more programs..."> " alt="xkcd">
A:
lsof is indeed your best bet. The fastest and easiest way would be this :-
sudo lsof /Volumes/myDrive
It can take a couple minutes to run, but once it’s complete, it gives you a list of open files on the disk. The output will look something like this:
COMMAND    PID  USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF  NODE NAME
mds         89  root   19r   DIR   52,3      432     2 /Volumes/Photos
mds         89  root   23r   DIR   52,3      432     2 /Volumes/Photos
Finder     681 alans   14r   DIR   52,3      432     2 /Volumes/Photos
QuickLook 2158 alans    9r   REG   52,3  1141591 78651 /Volumes/Photos/_tmp_iphone_10_backup/APC_1546.JPG  
In this case, it’s the QuickLook application that has a file open. Closing the application directly is the best way to fix the issue. However, that’s not always possible. For example, QuickLook doesn’t show up as an application you can get to in the Dock.
If you can’t close the application manually, you can use the kill command to terminate it from the command line. To do that, use the PID from the second column as the ID to kill. From the above example, it would be:
kill 2158
Note that sometimes that doesn’t work and a more aggressive form of kill must be used. Here’s a series of escalating aggressiveness (using the example PID of 2158):
kill 2158
sudo kill 2158
sudo kill -INT 2158
sudo kill -KILL 2158
You should be able to eject the disk once the process/application has been killed.
One final note, lsof can take a minute or two. It can also hang, but you should give it at least a few minutes before you decide that’s what happened.
Also, sometimes the base command sudo lsof /Volumes/myDrive won’t find anything. If that happens, try adding the +D argument (i.e. sudo lsof +D /Volumes/myDrive). That will do a top down scan of the disk. It’ll take longer, but it should pick up anything that’s causing the disk to be un-ejectable.
(Hat tip to https://web.archive.org/web/20210507094641/http://www.alecjacobson.com/weblog/?p=649" rel="noreferrer">Alec Jacobson’s post for extra details.)
C:
sudo lsof /Volumes/drive is much faster than sudo lsof | grep /Volumes/drive
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210506193111/http://www.alecjacobson.com/weblog/?p=649" rel="noopener">Wayback] http://www.alecjacobson.com/weblog/?p=649" rel="noopener">Find out which application is using external hard drive in order to eject it « Alec’s Web Log
sudo lsof +D "/Volumes/[name of drive]"
…
You can always run the lsof command again to see if the process really died.
kill [PID of process]
sudo kill [PID of process]
sudo kill -INT [PID of process]
sudo kill -KILL [PID of process]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210809093032/https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/29580/how-do-i-make-spotlight-stop-indexing-my-backup-drive/211616#211616" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/29580/how-do-i-make-spotlight-stop-indexing-my-backup-drive/211616#211616" rel="noopener">time machine – How do I make Spotlight stop indexing my Backup drive? – Ask Different (thanks [https://web.archive.org/web/20201024035147/https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/39706/hectorpal" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/39706/hectorpal" rel="noopener">hectorpal!)
…
I finally found you cannot disable Spotlight to index Backups.backupdb.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210809093032/https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21902" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21902" rel="nofollow">Apple Support. OS X El Capitan: Spotlight preferences
If you add a Time Machine backup disk to the privacy list, you will continue to see messages that Spotlight is indexing your backup disk. This indexing is necessary for Time Machine to function properly and can’t be disabled. Spotlight does exclude from searches any items you store on your backup disk that are not part of a Time Machine backup.
…
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210809092640/https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/mac-help/mchlp1285/mac" rel="noopener">Wayback] https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/mac-help/mchlp1285/mac" rel="noopener">If you can’t eject a disk from Mac – Apple Support
If you can’t eject an external disk or storage device
On your Mac, choose Apple menu " alt="" width="16" height="20"> > Log Out, then log in again. Try to eject the disk again.
If you still can’t eject the disk, choose Apple menu " alt="" width="16" height="20"> > Shut Down. Disconnect the disk from your computer, then start up your computer again.

This figured out which processes were involved:# sudo su -# lsof +D /Volumes/Samsumg860Evo4TB

The main processes keeping file handles in use on the SSD device where [mds and ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(software)#macOS )mds_stores (similar as in [[Wayback](https://web.archive.org/web/20210809091438/https://mycyberuniverse.com/macos/how-fix-volume-cant-be-ejected-because-currently-use.html )] [How to fix: The volume can’t be ejected because it’s currently in use](https://mycyberuniverse.com/macos/how-fix-volume-cant-be-ejected-because-currently-use.html )). [Killing spotlight](https://wiert.me/2013/11/29/mac-restarting-the-mac-os-x-dock-finder-spaces-or-menubar-stefan-ernst/ ) did not help, and logoff failed as well: I had to shutdown the whole machine to be able to detach the USB drive.

So it was [Spotlight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(software) ) galore all over again, which is odd, as this is a USB3 SSD for which the Time Machine backup had tried to update for more than 12 hours, so Spotlight – if indexing at all – should have been long done.

> Spotlight galore:
https://wiert.me/2021/03/15/macos-mds_stores-high-cpu-usage/" rel="noopener">MacOS “mds_stores” high CPU usage
https://wiert.me/2018/10/05/macos-os-x-mac-os-x-excessive-sysmond-or-mds-cpu-usage-via-ask-different-and-osxdaily/" rel="noopener">macOS / OS X / Mac OS X: excessive sysmond or mds CPU usage – via Ask Different and osXdaily
https://wiert.me/2021/04/19/spotlight-taking-200-cpu/" rel="noopener">Spotlight taking 200% CPU

The final solution was to perform a shutdown of the machine. It had not been for over 3 months, so apparently that caused some confusion for the combination of Spotlight and Time Machine.

–jeroen###

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2.5 decades of Dutch government in a nutshell.

2026-08-05T20:20:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…69uc
_________________________

2.5 decades of Dutch government in a nutshell.

Dan ben je een IKZ-school waar kinderen heel veel buiten zijn en ...

2026-07-29T09:11:43Z

Dan ben je een IKZ-school waar kinderen heel veel buiten zijn en dan laat je de boom waar je speelterrein de meeste schaduw van krijgt vellen.

Omdat die kinderen immuun zijn tegen zomerse hitte en UV-straling of zo.

En de gemeente Lisse vindt dit goed?

#klimaatverandering

the drawback of not being a native English speaker. We only have ...

2026-06-27T19:56:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…s0u5
_________________________

the drawback of not being a native English speaker. We only have one word that covers both English insulation and isolation.

a big problem is that the poor won't be able to afford air ...

2026-06-27T07:42:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…4r4w
_________________________

a big problem is that the poor won't be able to afford air conditioning. Heck, not even isolation, a prerequisite for effective air conditioning.

gebruikt het voor hun vodcasts.

2026-06-01T21:01:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…6p70
_________________________

gebruikt het voor hun vodcasts.

terecht dat @npub18k9…30hx woest is.

2025-11-22T17:16:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…cj40
_________________________

terecht dat Barbara Kathmann (npub18k9…30hx) woest is.

Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time ...

2025-09-15T17:00:29Z

Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders. – Finding back the source

A lot of people publish unattributed copies of the cartoon "Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.", so I tried finding it back. I found out that the Google Image Search has deteriorated to the point where it could not find the 2012 original. Luckily [Wayback…

http://wiert.me/2025/09/15/yes-the-planet-got-destroyed-but-for-a-beautiful-moment-in-time-we-created-a-lot-of-value-for-shareholders-finding-back-the-source/

Dank Bert!

2024-12-15T17:55:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…9tc8
_________________________

Dank Bert!

What if covert organisations succeed poisoning LLM platforms with ...

2024-10-08T16:32:04Z

What if covert organisations succeed poisoning LLM platforms with malicious code?

Wat is een goede tool voor transcriptie van Nederlandse tekst ...

2024-09-16T10:43:09Z

Wat is een goede tool voor transcriptie van Nederlandse tekst voor hobbymatig gebruik?

Nostr notes by Jeroen Wiert Pluimers