MacOS – /Volumes/external_drive folder not being removed

hard drivemacosmount

I have a 2TB external HDD, formatted using exFAT. It seems that, even after I eject the disk, the mount point remains in /Volumes. Thus, every time I plug the drive in, a new mount point gets created in /Volumes using a numerical incrementer:

  • /Volumes/external_drive/
  • /Volumes/external_drive 1/
  • /Volumes/external_drive 2/
  • etc.

This is a pain, as I have my torrents written to that disk. If I have to interrupt a torrent download and unplug the drive, when I plug the drive back in, the download folder ends up in a different place which causes problems for e.g., uTorrent. This can be avoided if I remember to go in and manually delete the orphaned mount point directory, but filesystem cleanup seems to be something that the OS handles. Is there a way to avoid this?

Note for clarity: I am ejecting the disk (e.g., right-click on the desktop icon and select "Eject external_drive"). I am NOT just yanking out the USB cable.

Best Answer

It's most likely that some program (probably uTorrent) is configured to access /Volumes/external_drive/. When the disk is ejected, that folder is deleted, but the program is re-creating it (because that's its configured location to store files), thus triggering the problem.

The only solution I know of is to make sure the program (again, probably uTorrent) never runs when the disk is not mounted. Quit the program (and if it has any background processes, shut them down), then eject the disk. And don't restart the program until after you've remounted the disk.

Related Question