{"id":205748,"date":"2022-10-25T11:45:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T09:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=205748"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:22:27","slug":"windows-11-usb-drive-eject-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/windows-11-usb-drive-eject-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 11 has been taking some users&#8217; USB Drives hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Windows 11 has received mixed reviews from users who have upgraded from Windows 10. There now seems to be another issue to add to the catalog of strange problems that have been afflicting the latest flagship operating system from Microsoft. Reports have been coming in that <strong>some Windows 11 devices have been preventing users from ejecting their USB devices from their machines safely<\/strong>. Let\u2019s take a look at what is going on.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Windows 11\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-logo-xl,f_auto\/p\/3a83edc2-8bcb-4baa-8fbe-3ddcf458c1a4\/1709716978\/windows-11-win11icon.png\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Windows 11<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/windows-11.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download Now<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/windows-11.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reporters at TechRadar have flagged a rather strange issue that is affecting the Windows 11 Task Manager on some devices. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/news\/new-windows-11-problem-holds-your-usb-drives-hostage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the reports<\/a>, some users have been unable to safely eject USB drives from their devices, leaving them with the only option to remove them in an \u2018unsafe\u2019 manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0The reason why it is always recommended to remove USB flash drives safely is that <strong>if you remove the drive while it is still in use there is a chance you can corrupt the data it holds.<\/strong> It could even \u2018brick\u2019 the USB drive and make it unusable. When you hit the Eject button, <strong>Windows ends all active processes on the drive are over before giving you the OK to remove it<\/strong>. At least, that is what it is supposed to do, but it has proven impossible for some Windows 11 users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Some users have been reporting that whenever they hit Eject, it fails to terminate all active processes<\/strong> and simply returns a message saying, \u201cWindows can&#8217;t stop your device because a program is still using it. Close any programs that might be using the device, and then try again later.\u201d They report that this message comes back even if the device is definitely not in use, which means that <strong>Windows 11 isn\u2019t properly reading the portable driv<\/strong>e. Potentially, this could be a real problem for users if they have important information stored on their devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No doubt Microsoft is working to alleviate this problem but, in the meantime, if it as affecting your version of Windows 11, we recommend taking extra care when using portable USB drives on your machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other <a href=\"https:\/\/windows-11.en.softonic.com\/news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Windows 11 news<\/a>, it is now easier than ever to <a href=\"https:\/\/windows-11.en.softonic.com\/articles\/windows-11-android-13-treatment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">run Android apps on your Windows 11 device<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Windows 11 has received mixed reviews from users who have upgraded from Windows 10. There now seems to be another issue to add to the catalog of strange problems that have been afflicting the latest flagship operating system from Microsoft. Reports have been coming in that some Windows 11 devices have been preventing users from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/windows-11-usb-drive-eject-bug\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Windows 11 has been taking some users&#8217; USB Drives hostage&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":205756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[3149],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-205748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwindows-11"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322995,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205748\/revisions\/322995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205748"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=205748"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=205748"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=205748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}