How I removed a CD stuck in my MacBook Pro
My problem was that the CD (likely the case for DVD disks as well) was physically stuck because of a clear plastic label placed over the playlist side of the CD. I didn’t notice it when I inserted it, which increased the thickness of the CD beyond the tolerance of some aspect of the MacBook’s eject mechanism. I fiddled around with it for quite a while, trying all the various solutions on the Internets, but none worked.
The slot has a felt dust remover that makes it hard to see what’s happening inside. Finally I noticed a metal spring that acts as a kind of door in the middle of the slot. The spring moves up and down when you select eject, which allows the disk to pass.
I suppressed the spring from the top toward the bottom using the very tip of a fine-bladed knife and hit the eject button. A very thin-tipped flat screwdriver would probably work as well, but the business card trick did not hold it down. The drive tried to eject the disk repeatedly and finally I saw the tip of the disk emerge.
Over the last year, many other people have shared additional approaches on this thread, so read further if my method doesn’t work for you.
If this happens to you, be patient, keep trying, and you’ll get it out without wrecking the drive or spending a lot of money to have someone else remove it.
February 26th, 2007
Thanks for posting this, I was able to remove a stuck DVD with this technique. Perhaps a description of how I did it can help others. I used a small flat screwdriver, but I could never see anything past the dust barrier so I had to feel for it. At the very center of the dust barrier you will see where the four quadrants of the felt material meet, forming a little + shaped hole. You may have to probe the felt to reveal it. That is your target. Carefully insert a small flat screwdriver or fine blade, angling slightly upwards. When you meet resistance, angle the tip of the screwdriver down - you should be able to feel it pushing the spring (or maybe it is the disc itself) down. Hold it in this position and hit the eject button. In my case the disc popped out at the very first try.
If I were Apple I might cut back on smarmy hipster TV spots until they get this particular annoyance ironed out :).
February 26th, 2007
This worked like a Charm! The spring is about center of the drive. I used a very flat metal clay shaping tool and on my very first try the cd popped out. Although I was not fast enough to grab it. I had someone grab the cd while I held the spring down. Thanks for this info!
February 27th, 2007
Amazing. Do you two know each other? The odds of you both posting at almost exactly the same time must be astronomical.
March 15th, 2007
Another HINT !!! I had post here some time ago, but My DVD stuck again, I FIND NEW WAY TO REMOVE DVD. Method above work for me one time, but now i try another one. See steps:
1) Remove your battery
2)Hold down botton to try force eject
3) Place any card to hold and after three times, dvd try eject, but if not dvd pull out
4) When dvd try read 3 times, will try force eject, take off energy power cord at eject and BEFORE DVD is loaded again. You need take off energy at a moment dvd try eject, to set dvd free to drag with any hard paper, card ou battery pack. I did it and remove jusk shake macbook pro up and down.
Can u underestand my hint ?
Good luck
April 27th, 2007
Arthur’s solution worked for me - many thanks.
May 31st, 2007
Thank you very much, your suggestion of the vdery thin bladed knife worked perfectly.
Again many thanks,
David
July 16th, 2007
@ Evan & Kevin: It worked! Thanks so much. I’ve been tilting and positioning my MBP in different directions and at different angles hoping the darn CD would just get ejected. But your suggestion worked on the first try! I just used the tip of my Braun battery-powered toothbrush (without the actual brush attachment).
September 22nd, 2007
I stupidly inserted a 2.5″ cd into my macbook pro drive.. I learned too late that that’s a no-no..
So I found this thread and tried taping a super sticky postit note (sticky side out) to a plastic target gift card.. Inserted the card, wiggled it a bit and pulled it out.. w/ the dumb cd on it !! first go.. Thanks to the previous writers.. !!
and to 3M for yet another use for postits.. Everything works fine and no trips to the mac store.. ..
signed.. “Too soon olt.. too late schmart” !!
October 20th, 2007
I had a cd stuck in my MacBook Pro DVD/CD drive. Rather than using I knife, I used a a credit card to hold down the spring while I hit the eject button. Using a credit card or something like that would be less likely to damage your cd or the drive, and you probably wont have to fiddle as much because the card is wider and thinner.
November 5th, 2007
my firmware update stalled and now my macbookpro won’t boot up
i tried a Tiger installation disk, nothing
i found the FirmwareRestorationCD1.4.dmg, burned the CD
but now i can’t eject the Tiger CD because the firmware is ‘dead’ and there’s no manual eject button
November 26th, 2007
I can answer my own question because I just got it to work! I used like a very thin, flat knife, I think it is a putty knife. Once the spring is pushed down, the CD just glided out on top of the knife.
December 16th, 2007
Thanks Much,
We were worried that we had wrecked our new macbook. We got it out with the knife trick on the first try….Thanks!!!!
December 24th, 2007
WOW and THANK YOU!!!!
I thought i’d have to send my computer off to be fixed. However, the thin blade trick worked like a charm! I can’t say thank you enough to the person that was creative and brave enough to try this in the first place.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!
December 26th, 2007
I have a DVD stuck in the drive and I am getting the White Screen of Death with a flashing question mark… Yosamity-Sam said it best… I think I can fix the question mark problem if I can insert the OS CD but I need to get the other DVD out first, any suggestions??? Tried holding mouse, holding F12, knife, tweezers…
December 29th, 2007
A million thanks to ‘mac’ Sept 22nd who made me feel so much better about my madness putting a 2.5 inch CD in the MacBook (it was Christmas Day), then helped me get it out. (I attached a large Post-it - half to a book of stamps and the other half stuck itself on to the CD inside the drive and it came out first time! Saved me hours of hassle and cost. I am jumping up and down with joy and my family think I’m mental.
December 30th, 2007
I tried the knife technique but no dice, frustrated and confused I wondered what to do, my girlfriend wandered in at this point and calmly asked if I’d tried holding the mac upside down and pressing eject. Nope I hadn’t, but I tried it and hey presto out popped Batman Begins. A very simple solution so well worth trying first. Hope it helps some of you too.
January 12th, 2008
Arthur, your trick worked perfectly! Thank you, a million times, thank you! Mt MB is brand new and I shuddered thinking about being without it for any length of time…also considering the disk was not exactly rated G…
January 13th, 2008
Take a piece of scotch tape (double sided is easier), and apply tape to business card with sticky side out. Stick the business card above the cd and try to move the card down so it attaches to the cd. Try to Eject and pull the card out at the same time. Worked for me on second try, after trying all the other tricks for an hour.
January 16th, 2008
I got a CD stuck in my Mac. It had an adhesive label on top. I tried to use a screwdriver, business card, credit card, laminated insurance card. It just didn’t seem to work.
I used Arthur’s method of pulling the power when the CD is trying to eject. I pulled the plug, shook my Mac, and the CD fell right out. Great tip! Thanks so much. I was freaking out!
January 24th, 2008
Not only is my CD stuck, the Mac does not acknowledge its presence, so pushing the eject button does nothing because it does not think there is a disk there. Any ideas for this twist?
January 25th, 2008
I suggest you depress the little spring as suggested and hold your mac up so gravity can allow the CD to fall out. Seriously. Shake it up and down. This has worked for some people.
January 31st, 2008
before sticking any implements inside your macbook try powering down and restarting. works every time for me. still doesn’t explain why one of the best laptops on the market can’t handle a paper labeled cd or dvd
February 25th, 2008
My cousin had the same problem, I tried the spring pushing and holding it upside, nothing, The macbook didnt recognize that there was a CD in it so hitting eject did nothing. I held it upside down, powered up, pushed the spring and hit eject all at once and on the 3 try, it ejected. It spit out the cd DURING boot up.
April 5th, 2008
So i was on my brother mac and i put a brand new disc in to burn some editing work id done onto i tried to do it like normal but the disc got stuck in while trying to do so now he mac doest even acknowledge that its in there so when i press eject it doesnt do anything and so the disk utility doesnt work either
sometimes when i press eject it does make a noise like its trying to eject it
please please help lol my brother is going to kill me!
whoops
April 14th, 2008
I put double stick tape on a credit card, and inserted it onto the drive placing it on top of the CD. I did a restart and held down the eject button and the mouse button. Just before the sign-in window popped up, I could hear the CD eject mechinism working and I was able to pull out the CD using the double sided taped credit card.
I tried another CD and it got stuck too, so the drive is obviously bad.
April 21st, 2008
I know this sounds maybe a little too obvious, but, hold down the eject button and use a vaccuum with no head on it ( just the tube) to suck it out, worked for me with a regular disc and the 2.5 inch
April 21st, 2008
Lots of good ideas here. Keep them coming.
April 22nd, 2008
Arthur from Mar. 15:
If I knew you in person I would buy you a drink! After hours of pulling my hair out, this worked.
After pulling the plug at the right moment I was able to work/shake out the DVD that was stuck.
Thanks!
April 26th, 2008
The internet is right. Shake it harder!!!!!!
April 26th, 2008
nice one. worked a treat!..
April 29th, 2008
I used the backside of an Exacto blade - it worked after 3 tries! - Thank you so much for this great tip!!!
May 9th, 2008
I had already tried tipping it every which way, sticking a card in, and all sorts, with no luck.
Tried first with a card on the spring, but that didn’t work at all. It wasn’t nearly strong enough to hold down the spring-mounted barrier (which is not just a spring as I was expecting from the descriptions). Tried with a knife, but couldn’t get that to work. Tried using the knife to hold the space open wider - scratched up the opening and still no luck. Finally tried a few more times with the knife on the barrier and it worked! I may not have had it quite right the first few times. Thank you for the suggestion.
The disc I had stuck in did not have a label - just a plain DVD-R. Now I’m afraid to put any more in.
Kalen
May 30th, 2008
Arthur, THANK YOU! You’re the man!
In a nutshell people, this is the problem - if your stuck CD is caused by a software issue, you can use the “hold down the button on restart” method to get your disc out. But that doesn’t work if the problem is PHYSICAL, such as a thick or bent label.
Arthur’s hint - which just helped us get out a disc the computer has been trying to eject for 2 hours - is to
(1) remove your battery so the computer has no other power
(2) wait until the computer TRIES to eject it
(3) yank the power cord before the disc can be taken back in because it failed to eject
(4) shake the computer with the disc released but not out yet
It worked for me too Arthur, thank you thank you thank you.
July 9th, 2008
Whoever suggested putting tape on a Target gift card to get out a 2.5″ disc from my macbook is a genius — worked great and my disc drive works fine!
July 12th, 2008
Hi
Had the problem of a disc stick in the drive, got it out after using the credit card trick, but now my mac is doing this EVERY TIME. Is my cd drive broken or is there a way of fixing it?
Thanks!
July 24th, 2008
Thanks a million, saved my day.
I tried the credit card ting. But what helped me was the info about the spring. Thanks again.
August 13th, 2008
I tried a all the methods above and didn’t have any luck.
My girlfriend had a CD with a self adhesive label stuck in her Macbook. The CD wasn’t initializing on the hard disk but sounded like it was always trying to eject. After I slid a business card over the CD I was able to shift it a bit and the CD reengaged and the OS read the disc in the drive. I hit eject and had a pair of needle nosed pliers to grab the disc as it was only ejected 1/16 of an inch from the player. Along with the disc came a piece of paper from the label which I believe was jamming up the drive.
August 14th, 2008
I second the chorus of ‘bravos’: I had a (new) DVD-R stuck in my Macbook Pro. I cut the power during the eject, then used a credit card with tape to fish out the DVD.
I would *never* have figured that out without surfing to this page … !
August 29th, 2008
Go shaking. All of these failed.. I held my mac upside down, shook it while holding down the eject button. Success. Why the fuck I should have to do that for an AU$2600 machine is beyond me, but alas.
September 1st, 2008
Wow I really had my doubts about fixing my little problem myself when i accidentally put in a too small cd in the drive and freaked out when it didnt work. good thing i found this site because I only had my macbook not even 2 days and my husband already thinks im an idiot for spending all this money on a mac and then when he thought i ruined it was like he was right…
SO THANK YOU to everyone who posted the advice of a gift card and a piece of tape sticky side out!!! I owe you my sanity. IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM!
September 19th, 2008
thankyou so much!
i really hate it when this happens…anyway…i tried it a couple of times… can u guys give me a little bit more description on what to “feel” for…and thanks alot for the help! :]
October 3rd, 2008
Thanks all for the help. I just used the edge of a credit card to push against the spring in the middle of the CD/DVD slot and on the first try of hitting eject the CD popped out.
November 2nd, 2008
Arthur- you are awesome. I just got a 2.5 inch disk stuck in there- my son’s new video game disk- not knowing it wouldn’t work. I about had an attach when I was the Mac Website wanted 49.00 for a consult about it. I tried the post it attached with tape to a gift card, and out it slid, with the sticky note! You are awesome!
November 11th, 2008
I know this was posted so long ago but i would just like to thank you profusely for helping me get the stuck dvd out of my mac book. I used a dime to hold down the spring and it worked like a charm. THANK YOU!
November 30th, 2008
I used a Metrocard (thinner than a credit card, NY transit thing). Worked great. I’m sure a credit card would have worked too. Came out the first time, stick it in about an inch till you feel the thing click and push eject. Thanks for the great advice.
December 10th, 2008
I’ve had this problem since my PowerBook G4 in 2001, continuing to my current MacBook Pro. I really wish Apple would fix this problem. Because of it, I try to use an external drive most of the time, saving the internal drive for when I am on the go away from my desk.
The best fix is the business card approach. Push it into the middle of the slot when the CD is not spinning, angling the back edge of the card toward the top. You want to position the business card above the CD. When you know it is above the CD, hit the eject button.
CDs (with or without labels) tend to catch on the top edge of the slot. The business card acts as a kind of guide preventing this. I haven’t tried a playing card, but I but this would be even better.
December 10th, 2008
Push the business card about half way into the slot right in the middle of the slot.
January 2nd, 2009
None of these methods worked for me… here is what I did.
1. Got tweezers and credit card
2. Put credit card on top of spring
3. Hit eject
4. Pull out credit card before it peeks out
5. grab the cd with tweezers and yank it out
It works. Try it.
January 3rd, 2009
Thanks a million for the tips guys! I managed to get the cd out from the drive!
Really really appreciate it!
January 19th, 2009
Tried the credit card and the thin blade with no luck. Almost gave up until I tried holding down the eject button while shaking my Mac - the DVD popped out at the first attempt!! Thanks!!!
January 25th, 2009
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I would not have been so persistent and gotten out the CD if I had not known that all you were able to solve the puzzle!
February 3rd, 2009
finally the damn dvd was ejected! thanx to the credit card - stick tape thing. THANK YOU GUYS
March 4th, 2009
Got my M1330 in problem when the cd got stuck inside.
Reason:- The cd inserted was the sammaler kind (the one you have slot for in the desktops). However, becus laptops doesn’t have those kind of slots the drive couldn’t decide whether it was ejected or not.
Solution:-
Do this all at same time
Table your card (business, credit etc) and push it over your cd inside the drive. Reboot the laptop and before windows boots up, just push the eject 2-3 times and take the tapped card out od the slot pressing downwards.
Worked magically for me.
best wishes,
nitish anand
March 28th, 2009
Well, our daughter had a cd that was required for her class stuck in her macbook. Thank you all for your suggestions. We used the thin screw driver approach - but needed to turn it slightly to open the little slot. You saved the day!
April 5th, 2009
Thanks Arthur, you are a star! The card and drag worked, after a night of tearing my hair out!!! My macbook is 2 weeks old!!!!
April 5th, 2009
I made the same stupid mistake that mac did
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help
worked like a charm the first time i tried it
never gonna underestimate the use of post-its again
April 5th, 2009
thank you all very much…I had a DVD with a crappy label on the top of it stuck….I tried many things with no success, but finally used a knife to push down the spring, and stuck my credit card in there to keep it held down….and shut down, took the battery out to reset anything, then put the battery back in, powered up and held the eject button and i heard the disc spin up and then quickly spit it out……hopefully that helps anyone who tried everything with no luck until then….
April 6th, 2009
Thanks a lot , Arthur!!!
After trying ALL alternative options, my film-DVD just wouldn’t eject. Although I heard the MBP trying to eject the darn thing. Cutting the power on the exact right moment saved my day| So thank you very very much!!!
Regards from The Netherlands.
April 11th, 2009
Okay - here was my problem and solution! My G4 ibook had a dvd stuck and the computer wasn’t recognizing my combo drive. I tried all the things to reset permissions, etc. Also pushing eject and many things that were commented on here - but here is what finally worked.
I stuck a card (playing card would probably work great - I actually used a Spongebob trading card) into the drive on top of the dvd. You may have to work it to get it on top in the middle area. I restarted my computer and held it tilted to the right as it booted and just played with the card a bit. Pushing on the dvd at the same time - the card and dvd popped right out - before the gray screen was even done booting! Yea!!
Most importantly - BE PATIENT! Any one of these ideas may work for you - or you may just have to play around until you find one for yourself.
The ibook still doesn’t recognize my dvd player - but at least I don’t owe Netflix any money!
April 12th, 2009
Thanks a lot! Had the same problem where disc had some plastic on the top and jammed the drive. Holding the computer where the drive faced the ground and shaking it while pressing the eject key worked. FYI, im on a macbook pro early 2006 model.
April 14th, 2009
Hi,
I have tried everything here but no joy still. Any other suggestion? Am on the Macbook 2.2 core 2 duo
April 14th, 2009
Please help me i have a macbook and what happened was my disc was stuck i then put(forced) another disc in and now i have two discs stuck in my macbook please help
April 14th, 2009
Oh thank God! You are all legends for helping me here. Within literally hours of getting my MacBook and I put a 2.5″ CD in there without knowing they were incompatible. Tried the trick of sticking a post it half to a thin piece of card and inserted the sticky side down into the CD drive and it pulled out my CD nicely. Never have found anything that can read 2.5″ CDs so not sure why I tried really! Never could find that spring though.
May 3rd, 2009
I used a knife and spring idea and it worked great. but i also needed a second hand on grabbing it.
thank you all SO much!!
May 9th, 2009
sticky stuff on a card worked awesome to pull out a disc that is too small! thankyou!!! god u dont know how relieved i am! lol =)
May 11th, 2009
ok why isn’t anything working for me? I’ve tried it all! does someone up there hate me?!
May 11th, 2009
Well thanks for this thread..I had stupidly put a smaller cd in the drive of my macbook…I studied all post suggestions….What worked for me was a new business card, that still had a little sticky residue..
That and some static of a few attempts, it came out, quite easy..
Sticky residue card and static was my solution..Hope this is helpful..
Thanks to all posts..
May 20th, 2009
Hi,
I got my student ID crammed in my CD player with a CD inside.
I took the ID out but my CD is jammed in there really well. And it sounds like my Mac is trying to eject the CD and i am trying everything. But I don’t know which spring people seem to be talking about. If you could help me out that would be great.
May 28th, 2009
its not really a “spring” per say, I had the same troubles with a CD stuck inside and it was not coming out. The spring people are referring to is more like a little arm, starting from about 1.5 inches from the right side of the drive and extends to the middle of the drive. I tried holding it down with a flat blade but the CD still wouldn’t come out, the method that worked for me was taking out the battery, and pulling the power cord right when the computer tried ejecting the disk, i felt around for the disk with a knife after pulling the power and could feel that the disk was right up against the felt dust flap thingie, I then proceeded to shake the living crap out of it and the head popped out enough for me to grab it and pull it out, i was amazed that i did not damage the disk with all the poking around I did haha, thanks for the help everyone
June 1st, 2009
WORKS LIKE A CHARM!
Its not really a spring tho more like a tiny hinge in the middle i used tweezers and press it upwards whilst ejecting!
June 15th, 2009
Followed Mac from September22 2007 advice for the macbook pro;
tape on a card worked on the stupid little camera 80mm disk, initially pushed it in further (eeek) but 2nd attempt and also hit eject button and pulled. Happy now.
June 17th, 2009
i tried all the solutions but none of these works. so heres what i do i restart the computer holding down the Option key. When the startup disk selection screen appears, i let go of the option key and press the keyboard’s eject button. it works! hopefully that helps
cheers (: