Do I need to eject this USB hub thingy?
June 8, 2021 11:22 AM   Subscribe

I have recently started using a USB hub thingy (this) so I can attach a wired mouse & external keyboard to my MacBook Air when I'm using it on a stand. Do I need to eject it when I'm done using it? The reason I'm asking is twofold: I don't know if I need to; but also I don't see it appear on my desktop like, say, an external drive would, so I don't know how to eject it. Talk to me like I'm your ancient granny, please.
posted by BlahLaLa to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I will let other and wiser heads confirm, but I suspect you don't actually need to eject it when you're done using it, unless you need to stick something else in the plug. I have something similar permanently plugged into my work computer at all times and there have been no ill effects.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:25 AM on June 8, 2021


Best answer: No; ejecting is generally tied to the fact that USB drives are storage devices, with caching/delayed write/various things. For a mouse and a keyboard, they're appearing as devices on your PC, and shouldn't suffer from being unplugged.

If you plug a USB drive into your hub, for example, it should show up as an attached drive in the way that you're used to.
posted by sagc at 11:26 AM on June 8, 2021 [5 favorites]


Best answer: No need to eject this hub - it's like an extension cord or power strip into which you can plug a lot of things. That it doesn't show up on your desktop is fine and normal. It's basically a 'dumb' device which doesn't do anything.

Now, if you plugged a storage device into the hub (a camera, thumb drive, that sort of thing), it *should* show up like any other attached storage, and you'd want to eject those as usual.
posted by jquinby at 11:26 AM on June 8, 2021 [4 favorites]


I leave mine plugged in most of the time and sometimes just unplug it - AFAIK you don't need to eject it but you would want to eject a storage device that you've attached to it.

On preview: Nthing on all the people who remembered to press "post answer" instead of "preview."
posted by sm1tten at 11:28 AM on June 8, 2021 [3 favorites]


There isn't even a command to "eject" a keyboard or mouse - you can plug and unplug to your heart's content
posted by O9scar at 11:43 AM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


"Ejecting" USB is only needed for storage devices, as storage is often cached by the OS and "ejecting" is basically the OS flushing the cache (write it all).
posted by kschang at 11:58 AM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


Any hard drives plugged into the hub would need to be ejected but the hub does not. Ejecting a hard drive forces any data to be written and closes the file system so has to not corrupt the data.
posted by tman99 at 12:19 PM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks! I'm only using it for mouse + keyboard so I will plug & unplug at my whim!
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:39 PM on June 8, 2021


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