Save the workflow and name it something appropriate (e.g., 'Eject External Disc').

Add the 'Run Shell Script' action to the workflow, replacing the default 'cat' command with the full command to eject the external drive (above).

At the top of the service, set the 'Service Receives' option to 'no input' in 'any application.'.

Open Automator, and create a new 'Service' workflow.

To eject an external optical drive in OS X, just enter the following command in the Terminal:ĭrutil eject -drive external You can use Apple's 'Automator' tool to create a system service out of the Terminal command (click for larger view).Įntering this command in the Terminal will work, but doing so every time would be a bit cumbersome, so you can set this up as a service that you can then bind to a custom keyboard shortcut for quick access. If you have an external drive attached to your Mac, then the Eject key will not work however, there are options for managing external drives using the keyboard. The first two options will work for any drive in the system, be it internal or external however, even though Apple includes an Eject key on its systems, the key will only work for internal drives (if you have two optical drives, holding the Option key when pressing Eject will eject the secondary drive). This is an evolution to the Command-Y option in the classic Mac OS for 'Put Away' that could be used for ejecting among other options in the classic Mac OS. If you select the optical disc in the OS X Finder and press Command-E, the disc will eject. It is how floppy disks were ejected when they were prevalently used, and migrated up to being used for optical discs as well. When mounted, the disc is locked by the system so to eject it you will have to do one of three things:ĭragging a removable disc to the trash has been in the Mac OS since early on. In fact, even though some of Apple's OEM drives contain the standard eject button, it is hidden by the system's chassis. When an optical disc is mounted in OS X, it cannot be ejected by pressing the button on the optical drive, as is the case with Windows PCs.

How to eject disc from apple dvd player