I use a Mac mini M4 with an external SSD and mechanical hard drive connected through separate enclosures and a USB hub. Do I risk damaging or corrupting either drive if I restart or shut down normally from the Apple menu without manually ejecting them first? Does macOS safely unmount external drives automatically during shutdown, or do I need to eject them individually? If manual ejection is recommended, is there a way to eject all connected drives at once or automate it during shutdown and restart?
2 Answers
Normally, you do not need to eject external drives before restarting or shutting down through macOS. The system handles unmounting them as part of the normal shutdown process, and this behavior is enabled by default—there is nothing you need to configure.
The important distinction is whether the Mac is still running. Eject a drive before unplugging it, disconnecting its enclosure, or turning off its power while macOS is active. If you simply shut down or restart normally and leave the drives connected, macOS takes care of closing access and unmounting them. There is generally no need to eject each drive manually or create an automation for shutdown.
So the automatic handling is already built in? I was wondering whether there was a setting I had to turn on.