unplug ssd without ejecting

[BSM]

My question:

 

I am using a dock with my mac to connect all my stuff(external display, desk light with automatic on/off when my mac (dis)connects, ethernet, sd cards etc)

I don't have a nas yet, which would allow  backups to time machine over ethernet. until I get a proper nas, I still want time machine backups, and thus want to use an external ssd. 

Is it bad to unplug my mac from the dock(which has the ssd connected to it) without ejecting it first? its annoying to need to remember to eject it every time I want to unplug my mac form the dock. 

 

My hardware:

M1 macbook pro 2020, crucial x8-2TB and x9-1TB SSD, Lenovo Thinkpad universal dock

 

What I tried:

googling the question. I found multiple answers. some say no problem, others say, it will wreck the ssd, and again others say better not, but its ok. 

 

 

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, BSM said:

My question:

 

I am using a dock with my mac to connect all my stuff(external display, desk light with automatic on/off when my mac (dis)connects, ethernet, sd cards etc)

I don't have a nas yet, which would allow  backups to time machine over ethernet. until I get a proper nas, I still want time machine backups, and thus want to use an external ssd. 

Is it bad to unplug my mac from the dock(which has the ssd connected to it) without ejecting it first? its annoying to need to remember to eject it every time I want to unplug my mac form the dock. 

 

My hardware:

M1 macbook pro 2020, crucial x8-2TB and x9-1TB SSD, Lenovo Thinkpad universal dock

 

What I tried:

googling the question. I found multiple answers. some say no problem, others say, it will wreck the ssd, and again others say better not, but its ok. 

 

 

Nope.  No one "ejects" stuff.  We just remove it.

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

"Safely ejecting" storage devices just tells the OS "hey, this thing's going away momentarily. Finish writing to it right now."

 

You can unplug storage devices any time you want, but if there's data "in flight" that hasn't been written to non-volatile memory yet, it's going to be lost. That could be the document you just worked on, or the file allocation table. It's usually fine, but "safely ejecting" will eliminate that small risk.

 

You shouldn't have to physically unplug the SSD, just drag its icon to the Trash before you unplug the dock.

[BSM]

@Needfuldoersorry for being unclear, I was referring to unpluggin the dock, not the ssd. 

 

if its not bad, why does the OS then tell me i should eject it first?

Would it be a different story if it was a HDD? and if so, why?

[Needfuldoer]

23 minutes ago, BSM said:

@Needfuldoersorry for being unclear, I was referring to unpluggin the dock, not the ssd. 

I was assuming the SSD is plugged into the dock.

 

Same deal applies either way. Best practice is to safely remove / eject removable storage devices before you unplug them.

 

23 minutes ago, BSM said:

if its not bad, why does the OS then tell me i should eject it first?

Would it be a different story if it was a HDD? and if so, why?

It is bad, but not that bad. Even if it was just a placebo, if someone unplugged a removable drive and corrupted it, and their OS didn't tell them to safely eject it first, they could blame Apple or Microsoft for the data loss. It's a CYA for the OS developer: "don't blame us! We told you how to prevent this but you did it wrong anyway".

 

Safely ejecting an external hard drive is a little bit different, because that usually gives the drive a command to safely park the heads. That's less important on a powered 3.5" drive, because it can realize the data connection is gone and still park itself, but for a 2.5" bus-powered drive you're taking the chance that it parks the heads properly just out of inertia, which doesn't always happen. If your drive heads aren't parked and you throw your drive into a drawer or backpack, you're gonna have a bad time. 

[BSM]

@Needfuldoer you were right. I just assumed you were referring to unpluggin the ssd, as you wrote "you shouldn't have to physically  unplug the ssd" 
to reiterate, and prevent further misunderstanding: the ssd is plugged into the dock, and I want to keep it there, and the only thing i will unplug is the dock, which in turn "unplugs" from the mac, not the dock. 

 

Ur saying the 3.5" drives where powered, and thus would automatically "park" the heads if it disconnects. 
Although the SSD aren't mechanical, and dont have heads,  isnt there a way to achieve the same "safer" unplug for SSDs? for example in my case of the dock, the SSD will be powered even if the mac is disconnected, wouldn't it?

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, BSM said:

Although the SSD aren't mechanical, and dont have heads,  isnt there a way to achieve the same "safer" unplug for SSDs? for example in my case of the dock, the SSD will be powered even if the mac is disconnected, wouldn't it?

Just drag the SSD's icon to the Trash before unplugging the dock from your MacBook.

 

When you plug the dock back in, it should automatically mount the SSD again.

[leclod]

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

Nope.  No one "ejects" stuff.  We just remove it.

I do eject USB flash drives before removing them

[BSM]

7 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Just drag the SSD's icon tot he Trash before unplugging the dock from your MacBook.

 

When you plug the dock back in, it should automatically mount the SSD again.

will do, thanks for all the explanations!

[Dedayog]

18 minutes ago, leclod said:

I do eject USB flash drives before removing them

You do, for real?

 

I have never seen anyone eject one via Windows, even IT people when updating drivers or people taking work home.

 

I guess better safe than sorry.

[leclod]

10 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You do, for real?

We agree there's an icon dedicated to that in the taskbar ?

I thought if they bothered to create an icon I should bother using it.

But you're probably as legitimate as I.

Edited October 24, 2025 by leclod

[Kilrah]

29 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I have never seen anyone eject one via Windows,

Windows handles it pretty well, and a copy window/save operation from a program won't show finished until everything's written by default, you have to manually go change device settings for it to be a problem. Mac OS however isn't that strict from my experience, several mac users I know got corruption from failing to properly unmount.

 

Obviously on both you need to make sure you closed all documents on the drive, doing the eject has the advantage of warning you if it's not the case.

[OddOod]

2 hours ago, Dedayog said:

Nope.  No one "ejects" stuff.  We just remove it.

Most of the 3D printer gurus I know would disagree. 
Though Windows has gotten better about actually finishing transfers within a second of saying they're done rather than sometimes still writing to them for minutes. Mostly that's because we've been able to get better CPUs, but they have done SOME work on it

[kokosnh]

It is fine if you have it configured that way, if not and you are unlucky, it can lead to MBR/GPT corruption, and the removable device is now RAW at least on windows...  

It happen to me more than once, with SD cards, or pendrives.

 

 

[infradragon]

The answer entirely depends on if your OS buffers files being sent to your external drive. By default, Windows buffers files going to all drives except for ones with the "removable media" class. On Linux, almost everything filesystem-related has a generous memory buffer for performance, however different distros may configure that differently out of the box. I have no idea how MacOS handles filesystem buffers. 
If the OS uses a filesystem buffer, then it will queue up filesystem commands in a buffer in memory, and performs them at an ideal timing for filesystem performance. however, if there are still files in the queue waiting to be written, then if you unplug the drive without telling the OS to prepare for it, everything in the queue will be discarded and you can sometimes find partially written or corrupted files on the drive as a result. 
Ejecting a drive tells the operating system to effectively unmount the drive immediately so that no programs can add commands to the buffer, but it waits for the queue to empty before actually unmounting the device at a kernel level. This is why slow drives can take a long time to eject after moving lots of files to them, because there may be a lot of data still in the queue.
Since I don't know what MacOS's policy on filesystem buffering is, I would be safe and always eject the drive before removing it.

[Doobeedoo]

I only 'eject' when I copied data to external drive that I want to immediately unplug.

[Blue4130]

On 10/24/2025 at 9:41 PM, leclod said:

We agree there's an icon dedicated to that in the taskbar ?

I thought if they bothered to create an icon I should bother using it.

But you're probably as legitimate as I.

There is also an icon for co-pilot and cortana, how many people are using those?

[leclod]

9 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

There is also an icon for co-pilot and cortana, how many people are using those?

I haven't got those