Eject a stuck CD/DVD from your MacBook Pro
Is a DVD or CD stuck in your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Having a disk jammed in your Mac is really frustrating.
Eject a stuck CD/DVD from a MacBook Pro
If you have already tried holding down the Eject key on your keyboard to no avail, try these tips to ditch that pesky DVD from the drive:
* Launch the Terminal and type the following at the command line: drutil eject
* Reboot the MacBook / MacBook Pro and hold down the mouse/trackpad button as the Mac boots, the disk should pop out.
CD still stuck in the MacBook?
If you have a really stubborn stuck CD, you can also try the following. This tip was sent in by an ex-Apple genius:
* Shut down the Mac and boot the machine holding down the Trackpad button to initiate a ‘force eject’
* Turn the MacBook Pro on its side, CD/DVD drive pointing down, and shake, the CD should pop out
The CD is still stuck! Now what??
Did the above tips not work to eject the disk? If a DVD is completely stuck in the MacBook / MacBook Pro drive and it’s still spinning, you can also try this trick: get a small piece of thin cardboard (business card or a credit card works fine too) and insert it above the stuck DVD and press down slightly to stop the disk from spinning, now reboot the MacBook while holding down the trackpad button and you should hear the familiar eject sound, then disk should come right out. Be careful not to damage the disk or your drive though!
I have successfully gotten a jammed CD out of an MBP before by using a credit card and a plastic knife
I thought my MBP ate a CD last week. Turned out that since I had Windows running in VMWare, it had taken over the CD drive.
These suggestions make me cringe. Carboard? Creditcards? Butterknives?
I understand that if the CD is stuck you have to get it out somehow, but yikes! Next time, if possible, try this:
1. Attach an external DVD drive and place an OSX disk in the drive
2. Boot the computer off the external drive by holding the option key and selecting the OSX boot DVD
3. Once setup has loaded, go to the utilities menu and select terminal
4. Eject the stuck disk with the drutil eject command from above
If #4 fails try the eject key. Or, if that fails, eject from disk utility under the utilities menu.
It’s worked for me, even when all other software-based methods have failed (including those mentioned here). I think it’s because setup doesn’t automatically start looking for CDs in the drive, so it never gets stuck in the spin-up cycle. *shrug* my two cents.
[...] are numerous ways to eject a DVD from a Mac, but using a relatively unknown menubar item you can do this directly from the menubar [...]
thanks
I shook it and it worked! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! You saved me!!
Thank you so much. Worked like a charm.
t.w.
Thanks so much, my disc has been stuck a few days now. I tried the thin cardboard (a bookmark actually) and it worked, when nothing else did. I stopped the disc from spinning, did a force shut down. Held down the track pad as it was rebooting and it came out FINALLY. Thanks again and Bless the Lord Jesus Christ.
haha, it actually worked! the dvd was making this sickly spinning grindy noise. terminal command did not work. rebooting with the trackpad held down did not work. however, sticking a piece of card paper in and stopping the disc spinning + rebooting with trackpad down did work!
thanks people of the internet
You saved me forcing a teaser in there to force it out or using thin plastic with sticky tape on it – because your first suggestion worked.
Yay terminal worked! was getting worried there thanks!
Thanks for the tips.
Combination of terminal + credit card worked a charm.
Drive working again \o/
Thanks! The terminal solution worked like a charm and I had the benefit of making me feel like a real Geek.
Me too – thanks
Using the name card recommendation (last advice above) worked for me. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks so much, nothing else worked so used the knife and credit card worked like a charm THANK YOU!!!
thks the trick of the small piece of thin cardboard (business card or a credit card worked out
Thank you for advine on stuck DVD.
reboot w/ trackpad helped – THANK YOU!
Credit card + Trackpad/Reboot Worked Like Magic .. can’t thank you guys enough .. BTW u need to stick the credit card all the way in for it to work ..
Thank you SO much! Tip 2 totally worked!
[...] to be connected to the same eject mechanism of just dragging a disk to the Trash, so if you have a stuck disc it’s probably not going to be as effective as a forced [...]
Oh this little trick with the card worked like a dream. What a miracle. Thank you!
the terminal worked. thanks so much!
Thanks for the help holding the track pad works…
The last option while using the terminal worked for me after hours of trying and trying and trying everything I could find on the internet.
You SAVED me!!!!!
The business card was a great idea. Took a few tries with terminal, but finally worked. No more DVDs for this Mac.
Do not try to put credit cards and knives and anything else into the drive!!! I’ve done and damaged the optics, so now my drive doesn’t work at all!
SO SO SOOOOOO HAPPY. the disk was making my whole computer lag and i finally got it out. Thanks so much!
I inserted a mini disk by accident in the disk drive and it is stuck. All the options above did not work because the disk probably went on a side and it is stuck. Any ideas? Thank you for any help
Try tilting the machine to the side while attempting the above methods, you’ll probably have the best luck with a business card or something similar. But the SuperDrive isn’t a mini disc reader, so you may end up with a trip to Apple!
Thank you so much for this. The first suggestion worked like a dream. I shall be bookmarking this page in case it happens again.
I inserted the mini disc. Okay, freaking out here! IT’S NOT COMING OUT!!!!
WOW! I popped an old music cd in my Macbook Pro and it locked up in my drive. It would not come out for anything and also prevented my mbp from booting up after I restarted. The drive would just spin and spin. Nothing worked in terms of holding down different keys. After seeing your write I stuck a gift card in the drive on top of the disk and held down the track pad for like 30 seconds and whaa laah…the dam disk ejected!
Thanks!