

On a Mac, there is no option to disable write caching for removable media, so you always need to eject. That’s because Windows keeps write caching disabled by default, so you’re far less likely to lose data as long as a transfer operation isn’t currently in progress.

If you’re coming to a Mac from a Windows machine, you might be used to being able to quickly remove a drive without ejecting (or “Safely removing,” as Windows calls it). macOS automatically finishes up read and write operations as part of the shutdown or reboot process. The answer is no, you do not need to eject before powering down or rebooting. The practice of ejecting removable drives has led some to wonder whether you need to eject a disk before you restart your Mac. RELATED: When Should You Properly "Eject" Your Thumb Drive? Do I Need to Eject a Disk Before I Restart My Mac? Ejecting sends the signal to the drive to power down gracefully. Even flash drives need power to complete write operations successfully, and you might unplug one too soon. For example, suddenly cutting power to a spinning hard disk could potentially damage the drive. For some smaller devices that receive their power from the USB or Thunderbolt socket itself, this can be a big deal.

This was a much bigger deal back in the days when USB throughput speeds were slow (and Macs were slower as well), but even now, you could still potentially wreck your data if you unplug too soon after you think a copy process is complete.Īnd finally, ejecting allows your Mac to safely remove power from the device when all data transfer operations are complete.

Ejecting allows the cached write process to finalize before you unplug, ensuring that no data will be lost. The second major reason for ejecting is that sometimes, your Mac speeds up the apparent write process to a removable drive by temporarily keeping a copy of the data being copied in memory. When you eject your drive, you are alerting macOS that you are about to unplug a drive, and this gives macOS and any applications you’re using a chance to complete all read and write operations before you unplug.
