Ejecta is a macOS menu bar app that shows exactly which process is blocking your external drive from ejecting, then lets you quit it and eject with one click. It requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

What is a good What's Keeping Me alternative for modern macOS?

Ejecta is the modern replacement for What's Keeping Me. It identifies blocking processes and lets you eject drives with one click, and works on macOS Sonoma and Sequoia where What's Keeping Me does not.

Ejecta - Eject External Drives on macOS

You've seen this before

macOS tells you something is using your drive, but never tells you what. So you close every app. Restart Finder. Wait. Pray. Eventually unplug the drive anyway and hope for the best.

There's a better way.

How it works

1

Click the Menu Bar Icon

See all your mounted external drives at a glance with status indicators.

2

Spot the Blocker

Red indicator? Expand to see exactly which process is using your drive.

3

Quit and Eject

Click to quit the process. The drive turns green. Eject safely.

Features

Everything you need to safely eject your drives.

Lives in Your Menu Bar

No dock icon, no main window. Ejecta stays out of your way until you need it.

Visual Status Indicators

Green means safe to eject. Red means something's using it. No guessing required.

Reveals Blocking Processes

See exactly which app or system process is holding onto your drive: Spotlight, QuickLook, Finder, or anything else.

One-Click Quit

Click the process name to quit it gracefully. No Terminal commands, no Activity Monitor hunting.

Force Quit Fallback

Stubborn process won't quit? Force quit it with a single click. Your data stays safe.

Privacy First

Ejecta uses Full Disk Access only to read which processes have files open. No data leaves your Mac.

Built for Mac users who work with external storage

Video Editors

Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Premiere all keep external drives locked long after you're done editing. Ejecta shows you which process to quit so you can safely unplug.

Photographers

Photos, Lightroom, and Capture One are notorious for holding SD cards and external drives hostage. Ejecta gets you out faster.

Developers

Time Machine, Spotlight indexing, and Xcode simulators all block drives without telling you. Ejecta names the culprit immediately.

Power Users

If you plug in drives regularly and rely on macOS to get out of your way, Ejecta replaces the guesswork with one clear answer.

Simple pricing

One-time purchase. No subscriptions. Ever.

$7.99

one-time purchase

Lifetime license
Free updates
Email support
Works on Apple Silicon & Intel

Buy Now

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Full Disk Access permission required.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I eject my external drive on Mac? ⌄

macOS blocks drive ejection when any process — an app, a background service like Spotlight, or a sync client like Dropbox — has an open file handle on the drive. The frustrating part is macOS doesn't tell you which process. Ejecta does.

What is Ejecta and how does it work? ⌄

Ejecta is a macOS menu bar app. When your drive won't eject, click the Ejecta icon to see exactly which process is blocking it — then quit that process and eject with one click.

Does Ejecta work on macOS Sequoia and Sonoma? ⌄

Yes. Ejecta requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later and is fully compatible with macOS 15 Sequoia.

Is Ejecta safe? Will quitting a process cause data loss? ⌄

Ejecta lets you choose whether to quit or force-quit a process. For most blocking processes (Spotlight, cloud sync clients, QuickLook), quitting is safe. For processes actively writing to the drive, Ejecta shows a warning.

What happened to What's Keeping Me? ⌄

What's Keeping Me was a popular utility for this problem, but it hasn't been updated for modern macOS and doesn't work reliably on Sonoma or Sequoia. Ejecta was built as its modern replacement.

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Stop fighting with your Mac

Eject your drives safely, every time.

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Finally eject your external drives