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How to unmount drives automatically when closing a Mac’s lid

A little Mac app can help attached drives when you put your laptop to sleep.
Mac 911
By Glenn Fleishman , Senior Contributor,

Andre LaRiviere asks:

Is there a way to avoid having the drives “unmount” when I (forgetfully) close the top? It’s a small thing, but it’d be very happy to avoid force ejecting and remounting.

It’s such a reasonable and common bit of behavior, it’s surprising Apple hasn’t built in some version of this. Fortunately, the ecosystem has provided: Jettison, a $5 app from St. Clair Software, prevents your Mac from sleeping until it’s unmounted drives. You can then disconnect them as soon as you see the laptop enter sleep mode. It can also remount drives automatically when waking from sleep if they weren’t removed.

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Glenn Fleishman’s most recent books include Take Control of Zoom, Second Edition, Take Control of Your M-Series Mac, and Take Control of Securing Your Mac. In his spare time, he makes Tiny Type Museums. He’s a senior contributor to Macworld, where he writes Mac 911.