Safe removal of USB devices doesn't work Win 10

Hi,

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

Some of the known causes could be associated applications, third party programs or services that are involved during the issue.

1) Is this issue specific to this party external USB HDD?

2) Did you check this with a different port?

In these scenarios, these are the steps we can try:

--Safe mode-to start Windows in a limited state where only essential programs are started:

Press and hold the shift key while clicking on Restart at the login Screen (Bottom right corner) > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart >> Choose Enable Safe mode.

--Clean boot---to eliminate interferences from third party services and applications:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135         

Note: Please refer section: How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot of the Kb article to boot the computer in normal startup after fixing the issue.  

--It’s good to check if the computer is clean by running a virus scan using Safety scanner:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx 

 Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss.

I believe you must have tried these steps; if yes, did these steps make a difference to the scenario?

If you haven’t tried, you may try them and check if the issue gets resolved.

Also, you can disable the Autoplay options and see if it works: Type "autoplay" on the Start screen and click on Autoplay settings. Move the slider to turn off the settings. Link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/import-photos-videos

Do let us know about the results.

It doesn't matter which port I have a USB device connected to.  If I have more than one device (USB memory or Hard drive) connected I can see all the devices when I click the "safe to remove" icon.  If I then click to "eject" one of the devices, I don't see the message "Safe to Remove" and the safe to remove icon will not respond in the Taskbar.  If I physically remove the device the STR icon will respond again and show the remaining devices and I can remove one at a time with this method, but I don't get any STR message on the screen.  I am using a USB 3 hub and have connected it to 2 different ports.  The current state requires me to physically remove each drive from the hub after doing a STR disconnect. 

One of the devices I  have is a Garmin GPS that has an internal memory and a sd card for storage.  Both the internal memory and sd card appear as separate removable disks ( G: and I: as example). If I use the STR icon in the taskbar, I see both drives and the option to Eject each.  If I then eject 1 the STR icon freezes and I can't eject the other.  I can't remove the device because 1 drive has not been stopped and the icon won't respond to eject it.  Both drives still appear in FE after ejecting one.  I also get double entries in FE of the drives.  This also happens with a USB thumb drive.  One is under "This PC" and the other one level of directory above or equal to This PC.  If I then go to File Explorer, right click and eject, File Explorer will then freeze and finally stop and go into a restart of File Explorer.  I took the GPS to our computer club and tried it on 3 different Win 10 machines and got the same response.  1 machine was a PC with Win 10, 1 machine was an Apple running boot camp and the 3rd was an Apple running VM ware virtual machine.  It was necessary to shut down the machine for what we considered safe removal.   

My system is Windows 8.1 64 bit and on a Dell Insprion with 16 GB RAM which I upgraded to Win 10.

Thank You

Larry

I got an email asking if the problem was solved and it hasn't been solved.  The problem is with Windows 10 as I have tested the problem on four different machines and have the same problem on all of them.  I was hoping Microsoft would provide an update that would fix the problem.  However, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Thank You

Larry

I´m experiencing a similar problem (not exactly the same) in Windows 10 (quite disturbing experience compare to Windows 7 and Windows 8 O.S.):

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/safely-remove-hardware-and-eject-media-icon/48093673-66a4-41e7-a1c6-8ce74d3c69f4?tm=1440700866723

I have this problem ever since migrating to Windows 10.. In my case I have never seen any safe to remove message. At first I assumed it would be ok to unplug the USB drive (kingston 64gb micro duo USB 3.0), but kept getting warnings whenever I plugged the USB drive back in saying there were errors. This even though it's setup for quick removal rather than better performance. The resultant scan always said no errors found, then one day the drive failed completely telling me it was readonly. After much effort trying to fix this, had to come to conclusion that this problem had completely ruined the USB drive and having recovered the data from it onto another USB drive (this time a Sandisk 64gb), I am experiencing exactly the same problem all over. Now I have to shut down the PC every time I want to remove the USB drive which is really time consuming and annoying. Please can you provide a fix for this serious problem. I have an ASUS Note 8 TabletPC with Windows 10 pro and am wishing I had never migrated off Windows  8.1! I shall not be migrating any of my other devices until I know this has been fixed.

Thank you in advance, Hugh

I have this problem ever since migrating to Windows 10.. In my case I have never seen any safe to remove message. At first I assumed it would be ok to unplug the USB drive (kingston 64gb micro duo USB 3.0), but kept getting warnings whenever I plugged the USB drive back in saying there were errors. This even though it's setup for quick removal rather than better performance. The resultant scan always said no errors found, then one day the drive failed completely telling me it was readonly. After much effort trying to fix this, had to come to conclusion that this problem had completely ruined the USB drive and having recovered the data from it onto another USB drive (this time a Sandisk 64gb), I am experiencing exactly the same problem all over. Now I have to shut down the PC every time I want to remove the USB drive which is really time consuming and annoying. Please can you provide a fix for this serious problem. I have an ASUS Note 8 TabletPC with Windows 10 pro and am wishing I had never migrated off Windows  8.1! I shall not be migrating any of my other devices until I know this has been fixed.

Thank you in advance, Hugh

In my case, now this issue seems to work better in my system. And I think I solved this when I PERMANENTLY turned off Windows Defender (Microsoft´s antivirus) (take into account that Windows Defender is permanently monitoring the activity of the external drives and this can cause a malfunction when trying to unplug the pendrive).

To Turn Off Windows Defender (PERMANENTLY)

Look for gpedit.msc (type directly after opening the start menu) and run it as admin (secondary button). Then, enter system passsword and press Enter.

Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Endpoint Protection.

In the right pane of Endpoint Protection in Local Group Policy Editor, double click/tap on the Turn off Endpoint Protection policy to edit it.

In the new window that will be opened, select (dot) Enabled, Apply and then click/tap on OK.

When finished, close the Local Group Policy Editor and Restart the computer.

Deactivating "Windows search" service for that device/pendrive (or any other external unit) is also highly recommended.

And, of course, remember to install another antivirus by your own (remember you have just permanently removed the by default protection of Windows Defender).

I think this can help you with the problem of the USB remove message. At least you can try this procedure in order to see if it works.

Hope it helps.

Regards.

Thanks Drastoklop for the swift response. Sadly it does not work for me. I already had Windows Defender disabled permanently. Also this pen drive is not ticked in the Indexed locations pane of Indexing options under Control Panel. So, still waiting hopefully for a proper fix.

Regards, Hugh

Hi HughMxxx,

Not at all.

I´m sorry that you already knew these features/tricks and my information hasn´t been "useful" for fixing the problem.

Anyway, look at this (the thread I opened; post #3) too:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/safely-remove-hardware-and-eject-media-icon/48093673-66a4-41e7-a1c6-8ce74d3c69f4?msgId=66f166ca-cd4c-4700-8e00-b7a8c7b4b103

Regards.

PS: In fact, I think this problem is / was a bug of Windows 10 [by itself... and not related to the status (good or bad condition) of our O.S.].

W10 Has a different looking icon now for ejecting the USB. If you click the small arrow next to the address bar at the bottom of the screen, you will see a clear box with a small check on it. This is the new icon for Safely remove/eject.

Click it and you will see. Now simply drag that icon down the area next to the address bar. Done.

W10 Has a different looking icon now for ejecting the USB. If you click the small arrow next to the address bar at the bottom of the screen, you will see a clear box with a small check on it. This is the new icon for Safely remove/eject.

Click it and you will see. Now simply drag that icon down the area next to the address bar. Done.

Hello Mike. I know that full well. The problem is that when I use that icon to try and ensure safe removal, Windows 10 does not respond with any message telling me it is now safe to remove the USB device. There is clearly some fault somewhere for which there has been as yet no solution. Therefore I will have to continue shutting down Windows 10 to protect the USB device from being corrupted as its predecessor was. It is such a serious problem that I cannot risk upgrading any of my other devices to Windows 10 until this has been fixed. I just hope someone in Microsoft is monitoring this forum and will decide to investigate further.