Eject a Stuck Disc Tray with drutil

Force an optical drive's tray open (or closed) from Terminal.

macOSdrutilTerminalcliLow risk

Run `drutil tray eject` to open the drive tray; `drutil tray close` pulls it back in.

01Command

Command

$ drutil tray eject

02What it does

When Finder says a disc is 'in use' or an app is holding the drive, drutil talks to the burner directly and overrides the polite refusal. It also lists details of attached burners with `drutil info` — useful to confirm an external drive is detected at all before troubleshooting cables.

03Risk

RiskLow risk

RequirementsA Mac with a built-in or external optical drive

!Warning: Ejecting while a burn or disc image write is in progress can ruin the disc — only use this when no write is running.

04Undo

Undo

$ drutil tray close

05Sources

drutil — interact with optical burners (macOS man page)
SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
Evidence: Documents the tray subcommand controlling the drive tray, including eject and close.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media

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