It’s been a while since Apple has offered Macs with built-in optical drives that could make use of a CD or DVD. The last models were the 2012 Mac Pro and the mid-year 2012 non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro.
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Apple first removed the optical drive in the 2008 MacBook Air, but as of the end of 2013, when the Mac Pro was replaced with the newer model, all-optical drives were gone from the Mac lineup, at least as built-in options. That doesn’t mean there isn't a demand for optical drives or the CDs or DVDs that are used in them. That’s why external optical drives have been a popular peripheral for many Mac users.
Whether you have an older Mac that has a built-in optical drive or an external drive, you can eject a CD or DVD in several ways.
The 7 Most Common Ways to Eject a CD or DVD
The Mac, unlike most Windows PCs, doesn't have an external eject button on its CD/DVD drive. Instead, Apple made use of the ability of optical drives to respond to an open or close command sent over the drive's electrical interface. By using the open and close commands, the Mac offers several options for ejecting a CD or DVD.
I have a mid-2010 Mac mini, and a new CD became stuck in the optical drive after importing its tracks to iTunes. The Mac software was telling the drive to eject the disk, and I could hear it trying, but the disk would not come out of the drive slot. Nov 07, 2007 Mac OS X - Force Ejecting a CD This document provides information on force ejecting a CD from your Mac. In the event that a disk has become stuck in your Macintosh computer, there are several steps you can take to try to force it to eject.
- Some Apple keyboards have an eject key, usually located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. Press the Eject key to eject the CD or DVD from the drive.
- On any keyboard, including those originally designed for use with a Windows PC, press and hold the F12 key until the CD or DVD is ejected from the drive. This may take several seconds.
- Locate the desktop icon for the CD or DVD. Click and hold on the icon and drag it to the trash. You'll notice that the trash icon changes to an Eject symbol, as the CD or DVD icon is positioned over the trash.
- Perhaps one of the quickest ways to eject a CD or DVD is to right-click on its desktop icon and select Eject from the pop-up menu.
- Some applications, such as iTunes and Disk Utility, have an eject command in a menu or toolbar. Launch the application and use the eject command to eject the CD or DVD.
- Use the Eject menu applet located in the Mac's menu bar. If you don't see the Eject menu applet, you can create one using the instructions in Add a Menu Bar Item to Eject a CD or DVD.
- When all else fails, click and hold the mouse or trackpad button while restarting your Mac.
Ejection Tricks Specific to External Optical Drives
External optical drives typically respond to the seven methods of ejecting a CD or DVD on a Mac, but they also have a few tricks of their own.
- Most external optical drives have an eject button built into the front of the drive's case. Pressing the eject button causes the device tray to open or the optical media to be ejected if it's a slot-loading device.
- Some external optical drives appear to be missing an obvious eject button, but if you look closely, you'll see a small hole in the front of the case large enough to insert a straightened paperclip. Push the paperclip into the eject hole until you feel resistance, then push it a bit further to open the CD/DVD drawer on the optical drive.
The external eject button's function can be overridden if your Mac thinks the optical disc is in use. You can get around this problem by first quitting the app that is using the optical drive and then using the external eject button.
If the external optical drive still won’t eject the disc, try shutting down your Mac, and then using the drive's eject button. Once the disc is ejected, you can restart the Mac.
How To Eject Cd Tray
If All Else Fails
External optical drives are usually made from standard optical drives mounted in an external case. The drive can usually be removed from the case. Once removed, the drive tray may expose the eject hole that was covered up by the enclosure, and you can use the paperclip method.
Going to Extremes
When nothing seems to work, it may be time to break out a flat blade screwdriver. Tray-based optical drives can have their trays forced open with the aid of a prying device. Here's how:
Make sure the external optical drive is turned off and disconnected from your Mac.
Insert the flat blade screwdriver tip into the lip between the tray and the case of the drive.
Gently lever the tray open. You may feel some resistance and the sound of gears moving within the drive. Be sure and perform this step slowly. Brute force should not be required.
Once the tray is open, remove the optical media.
Close the tray when the task is complete.
Today I put a movie DVD into my Mac Mini, but the Finder doesn't show it => the Mac doesn't seem to know it is there.
How can I force an eject?
Note: Booting with all kinds of keys CMD, ALT, Apple or Mouse pressed didn't help either (found that on the net).
ONE MONTH LATER
Today I tried to install Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini.
I inserted the DVD, answered lot's of questions, then, when I expected it to copy files, it gave me the beach ball.
Two hours and a boot later, I noticed that once again the DVD was not recognized/detected in the drive and could not be ejected until I nudged it with my pen knife...
I guess I'll be upgrading some other way ... (the mini is by now solidly out of warranty)
Dave M3 Answers
There are a few methods depending on how 'stuck' it is:
Apple Mac Mini Manual
Method 1 :Use Disk Utility to eject The first and simplest method, if you only want to unmount a single volume on the disk, is to use Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities. In Disk Utility, simply select the volume you want to unmount and click Eject.
Method 2 :Hold Down the mouse button at startup In some cases holding down a connected mouse button at startup will cause a misbehaving optical drive to eject its media.
Method 3: Boot into Open Firmware and eject If you have a Mac that will not startup properly and has a stuck disc, try booting into Open Firmware by holding down Command, Option, O key and F key during startup. After booting into Open Firmware, type the command eject-cd.
Force Eject Cd Mac
Method 4:Using the Terminal. There are two commands that can be used in the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities) which can be used to force disk ejection:
Simply type in the above command and press return.
Last resort method (Danger, Will Robinson!):
Also knwon as, Ye olde screwdriver method.
- Turn the CPU upside down and lay itflat on a desk or table. Use aflat-edged knife or small pry bar togently and carefully lift the bottompanel off the unit.
- Use a small Phillips-headscrewdriver to remove the fourscrews at the corners of the large,flat, shiny metal panel directlybelow the bottom panel. Lift off thepanel to expose the CD drive andremove the CD carefully with yourfingers.
- Replace the metal panel and itsscrews, then snap the bottom coverback into place. Reattach all of thecables and boot up the computer.
If you still can't it out using the last method, then you a really, ahem, stuck. Call the fruit company.
;-)
GeneQGeneQMac Mini Manual Cd Eject Macbook
The usual advice is to try the f12 key. And you can find install a menu item to do this by double clicking on System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu.
ONE MONTH LATER
Today I tried to install Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini.
I inserted the DVD, answered lot's of questions, then, when I expected it to copy files, it gave me the beach ball.
Two hours and a boot later, I noticed that once again the DVD was not recognized/detected in the drive and could not be ejected until I nudged it with my pen knife...
I guess I'll be upgrading some other way ... (the mini is by now solidliy out of warranty)
lexulexu