please_eject

A tiny macOS tool that frees a stuck external drive so it can eject — without the "one or more programs may be using it" nag and the scary force-eject.

It finds every program holding the volume open, lets you stop them (all at once or one at a time), then rechecks and offers to eject when the drive is clear.

Install

Requires macOS and Go.

go build -o please_eject .
# optional: put it on your PATH
mv please_eject /usr/local/bin/

Usage

Pass the volume name (as it appears in Finder / under /Volumes):

please_eject "My Passport for Mac"

You'll get an interactive list of the programs using the drive.

Keys

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move up/down the list (also j / k)
space	Mark / unmark a program for stopping
x / enter	Stop the marked programs (or the highlighted one)
a	Stop all your programs at once (asks to confirm)
s	Tell Spotlight to stop indexing the drive (sudo)
r	Rescan
e / enter	Eject (shown once the drive is clear)
q / esc	Quit

How it stops programs

It asks each program to close nicely first (SIGTERM), waits a few seconds, and only force-quits (SIGKILL) if something is stuck. After every action it rescans, so the list always reflects reality.

System processes (Spotlight, Quick Look, Time Machine, Finder, etc.) are marked with a warning and left out of "stop all" — stop those deliberately with x if they're the last holdouts.

Common holdouts

• A media player / app that lives on the drive — it can't let go until it fully quits; please_eject handles the force-quit for you.

• Quick Look — appears if you previewed a file with spacebar in Finder. Harmless to stop; it respawns.

• Spotlight (mds / mdworker) — if indexing is the blocker, press s. It runs sudo mdutil -i off on the drive (you'll enter your password), which tells Spotlight to release it. Re-enable later with:

  sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/My Passport for Mac"

  If the drive isn't Spotlight-indexed, s just says so instead of prompting.

Rebuilding after changes

Whenever you edit the source, rebuild the binary:

go build -o please_eject .        # rebuild

If you installed it on your PATH, copy the fresh build over:

go build -o please_eject . && mv please_eject /usr/local/bin/

Before committing changes, keep it clean and green:

go test ./...        # run the tests
go vet ./...         # static checks
gofmt -l .           # lists unformatted files (empty = good); `gofmt -w .` fixes

Notes

• macOS only (uses diskutil, lsof, ps, mdutil).
• If the volume name isn't found, the tool lists your mounted volumes so you can copy the exact name.