Cannot Eject Removable Media

[johnt53984649]

This is mostly just a curiosity rather than a complaint or an issue, but I'm just wondering.  Whenever I have Adobe Applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Audition opened, I've noticed that Windows will refuse to let me safely eject flash drives or SD cards that are plugged in, but as soon as these applications are closed, Windows will allow me to.  It doesn't matter what type of removable media I have inserted; this is always the case.  I'm not quite sure why this happens though; obviously these programs can access the removable media to save files to it if necessary, but that's through the a Windows dialog box. I'm not sure why Windows won't actually let me safely eject the removable media whenever Premiere is open.  Does anybody have an explanation?

I'm running:

Windows 10

Premiere Pro CC 2015.3

[excited_Genie16B8]

Premiere Pro might be holding open as an "accessible location".

[shooternz]

Are you transferring your media to a local hard drive before importing it to PPro ?

[johnt53984649]

Typically that's the scenario but occasionally there are other reasons as well.

[shooternz]

but occasionally there are other reasons as well.

??? explain plz

If the cards are being used as a source for the files...PPro will hold on to them  as "being in use"

Its bad practice and high risk to work from the source cards.

[johnt53984649]

No, I never import the footage directly from the card.  I always copy the footage into a folder on the local drive and import the media into Premiere from the folder.  So Premiere doesn't actually import any footage directly from the card / flash drive.

The reason that I may have a removable media in the computer could be for some completely unrelated reason, such as to view a document.  I'm typically forgetful and realize that I need to eject it at some point later in the day, perhaps when I have Premiere open.  Even though Premiere hasn't imported anything directly from it, Windows won't allow me to eject it safely until after I close Premiere.  The same holds true for several other Adobe products as well, such as Audition.

[shooternz · Accepted solution]

PPro Browser will have recognised the Card as a "potential source".  You will see it listed in the Media  Browser.

effectively ...Media Browser is "using" the Card just like explorer or Finder.

[R Neil Haugen]

Just as a bit of personal experience ... I've been a portrait photog for 38 years, went digital back in 2003. I don't even have a clue how many times we have uploaded images from Fuji S1, S2, S3, S5, Nikon D200, D300, D600, D3, and Panny GH3, and other cameras using either compact flash or SD cards. Many thousands, as both my wife and I are photographers. I also do video.

In all that time, we have never "ejected" a card from the Windows tray icon. Not once. Once the upload is complete, we just pull the card.

We have never had issues with cards nor with file writing of any kind. We've had only one compact flash card go bad that had been used a ton, but of all the cards we've had, even our old 128 and 256 megabyte cards are still usable. Sitting around in a drawer. Though of course, they're so slow and 'small' they're pretty much useless.

Most of my peers are like me. I know a few that read someplace that there could be issues. I've never encountered one, nor has my wife (who can attract problems on her pc for me to solve quite regularly ... ), nor any of the peers I've talked with. The guys that always "eject" their cards say they have heard of someone who had an issue, but as they always properly eject, they've never had one.

I don't even have a clue what the issue would supposedly be. Clearly, it is far more of a theoretical concern than a normal operating problem.

But of course, everyone's mileage always varies.

Neil

[shooternz]

Generally I agree with you and have found the same regarding popping the cards out with out ejecting them.

Thing is it a terrifying thing to do knowing you have a 165, 20,30,40+k  shoot sitting on one little card.

I teneded to be very formal with those.!

[R Neil Haugen]

When we're uploading the images from a wedding, you don't think that's a moment of ... concern? Which is why our uploading for that is to multiple locations ... with verification. After that, the card gets reformatted anyway ...

Neil

[johnt53984649]

I've already lost three cheap flash drives in my experience.  Windows won't even let me re-format them or anything; they're completely useless now.  Of course, they were indeed cheap and I can't guarantee that the fact that pulling them out with ejecting safely is what really caused them to go bad, but I'm just always careful now because I have some drives / cards I can't afford to lose.

[R Neil Haugen]

I've never formatted flash memory cards via Windows, but only via the cameras they're used in. We don't "delete" files on them, we always re-formatted.

And we learned the old hard-knocks way that cheap memory cards ... you pays your money, you takes your chances ... check the online reliability factor on any card first. Some modest price cards have very good user experience, some expensive cards don't. Reliability however does seem to favor the cards to the middle/upper end of the scale.

Neil