APFS encryption issues

[verdi1901]

I have been attempting (several times) to erase and encrypt a new external SSD in APFS Encrypted format to use as a TM backup.
Disk Utility keeps failing to dismount the disk because it says it's in use by 'mds_stores' which is related to Spotlight.
Has anyone encountered this issue and/or has a workround?
Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[ferrarr]

I have had that happen a few times. What I do is unmount the drive before trying to erase it.

To do that:

Make sure you have enabled View > Show all connections/devices.
Then select the container/partition/drive like this;

and select unmount.
Now you should be able to erase the drive.

 

[verdi1901]

I have had that happen a few times. What I do is unmount the drive before trying to erase it.

To do that:

Make sure you have enabled View > Show all connections/devices.
Then select the container/partition/drive like this;
View attachment 36497
and select unmount.
Now you should be able to erase the drive.

Thanks, it got further this time, but failed in the next phase:
"Mounting disk
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Unmounting Volumes
The volume “SSD 4TB” on disk2s2 couldn’t be unmounted because it is in use by process 328 (mds_stores)
Couldn’t unmount disk. : (-69888)"

 

[ferrarr]

I've not seen that before.

Maybe try Safe mode boot and try to format from there.

Do you have a different PC (Mac, Win, or other) you can use to format the drive? If it works on another PC, then it may work on the Mac, after it has been formatted?

 

[pm-r]

The volume “SSD 4TB” on disk2s2 couldn’t be unmounted because it is in use by process 328 (mds_stores)
Couldn’t unmount disk. : (-69888)"

There are lots of suggestions to fix that problem it seems among the hits you can find here:

Google Search

- Patrick
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