"Safely Remove Hardware" almost never working ("This device is currently in use.")

Question

Hi,

I have the issue that the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature barely ever works. I had experienced this issue for quite a while, but I feel it has become even worse in the last couple of months.

This happens on different devices with different external drives, usually SSD drives connected to USB 3.0 ports. The drives are not encrypted and it does not make a difference either if they are NTFS or exFAT formatted. All devices are running a fully patched Windows 10 21H2.

Even when I close all applications or when I reboot and I try again right after login and before opening any application it will usually not work.

OpenedFilesView usually does not show any open handles and if it does, it's something like
$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLog.blf

Process Explorer Handle search cannot find anything either.

As a workaround I'm usually running Sync to flush cached data to the disk. But it will still not allow me to safely remove the drive and occassionally I'll get a message that there is a problem with this drive the next time I'll connect it again.

Any ideas how to fix this (except chaning the disk Removal policy to "Quick removal" - I'm not even sure if this isn't already configured) or how to proceed even further with troubleshooting?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Type troubleshooting in search box.

Select view all on the top left pane.

Click on Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter and follow the prompts to run the troubleshooter.

If the issue still persist, I would suggest you to reinstall the USB drivers and check if it helps.

Press Windows Key + X, and select Device Manager

Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section by clicking on the "+" sign.

Uninstall each of the devices under the USB Controller section by right-clicking on each one, and then clicking Uninstall.

Close the Device Manager and restart your computer. Windows will automatically re-install the USB controllers