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Mac keeps ejecting discs? Don’t replace it quite yet

Mac keeps ejecting discs? Don't replace it quite yet

You insert a CD or DVD into your Mac’s SuperDrive and it spits it right back out at you. You might think you’re in for an expensive optical drive replacement, but there is one last resort that could fix it.

A few weeks ago, one of my family members came to me with a MacBook problem. He thought his SuperDrive was on it’s way out because it kept ejecting discs after he inserted them. It turned out that he didn’t need a new optical drive at all. If you’re experiencing a similar issue, let’s take a closer look and determine what might need to be done.

When you insert a CD or DVD, put your ear to the optical drive and listen closely. Can you hear it try to spin up and read the disc? Does it take 10 to 30 seconds of attempting to read the disc before it gets ejected? If so, that’s a good sign. It means at least part of the drive is working correctly.

The first step to potentially fixing your Mac’s SuperDrive is checking the disc you’re trying to play for scratches or dust. Try to put a few different discs in there and see what happens. If all of them get automatically ejected, there’s one more thing you can try.

Get your hands on a CD/DVD drive cleaning kit. These are sold in stores like Staples and Best Buy, usually for a price of $10-$20. It’s nothing elaborate – just a disc with microscopic brushes that clean the laser inside your SuperDrive. It’s fairly common for particles to get in there and disrupt the laser. Insert the cleaning disc in your Mac and it will start spinning before likely getting ejected on the first attempt. Put it in a few more times to repeat this process and then try a regular CD or DVD. If all goes well, hopefully your SuperDrive should be back to normal!

15 Comments Have Been Posted (Leave Your Response)

hi i had the same problem and for me resetting my PRAM and NVRAM worked, no disk cleaner needed : )

Vivienne….can you explain what “resetting my PRAM and NVRAM” means and how one who is not technically savvy would go about doing it?

THANKS, YOU SAFE ME $150.00 DOLLARS…
GREAT SOLUTION!!!

I bought a CD cleaner, but my Mac won’t keep that CD in either so I can’t get it cleaned.

same thing happend with me after updating my 10.5.8 to 6.8

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Although it kept spitting out the CD with little brushes but I did take one of the cleaning clothes it came with, sprayed it with the dvd/cd player cleaner and shoved it in there with a points card and swiped it back and forth and then it worked like a charm… I wouldn’t have thought about just cleaning the darn thing lol thanks for the info though!!

I have all of these problems, however when I put a blank disc in it will read it and allow me to attempt to burn. Is this still the same issue?

My mac ox s 10.6.8 is experiencing simular malfunctions, it won’t read the disc and it just spits it out. wtf. wondering if there is separate disc burner/DVD player that I can hook to my mac. it spit the disc out in 3 seconds.

I found an easy solution.
Go to System Preferences/Sharing/
Uncheck CD/DVD Sharing

Popped in a disc and it’s reading it perfectly.

After reading something about repairing disc permissions, that gave me a hint that maybe because of CD sharing, another computer on the network is locking the CD drive.

I have a cleaning disc and the player will play the audio files on the cleaning disc, but any other disc (cd or dvd) will be ejected aft 30 seconds! so it seems to be working? Any suggestions welcome.

Hi everyone. I’ve experienced same problem also. Disk spitting out. Brand new disks. 4gb space. Message quickly comes up saying to burn to disk, disk needs to have at least 1.5 gb to burn. Getting very frustrated

It’s a dirty reader, all right. I read this article and went into my workshop. Took the air blow gun, held the macbook upside down and the dust was blowing out of every port located on the right hand side. After a reboot, my DVD’s are playing smoothly again!!!

Imac ejects dvd immediately.doesn’t seem to run up. This happened when I installed hi sierra

I had the same problem and after resetting my NVRAM the cd/dvd worked again. iMac 24″ early 2009