Today’s Question: In previous versions of Lightroom Classic, I enabled a setting to automatically eject the memory card following import. In recent versions, I have not been able to find the configuration setting. Is it still available somewhere?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If the “Eject after import” checkbox is not shown at all in the Import dialog in Lightroom Classic, it is an indication that the card you’re importing from is being treated as a hard drive rather than a media card. This would be the case with some of the newer cards such as CFexpress and XQD.
More Detail: The “Files” versus “Devices” categories in the Import dialog can be a little confusing, especially since most memory cards will appear under both “Devices” and “Files”. There are some issues in the background that led to this, and in general you’ll get better performance by making sure you select the source under Files rather than Devices.
For removable media devices that support being automatically ejected, you’ll see a “Eject after import” to the right of the Devices heading on the left panel in the Import dialog. Even if you select the media card as a source under the Files section (as is recommended) if you have the “Eject after import” checkbox turned on the media card will still be ejected via the operating system. That means the card can be removed from the card reader without having to go through the process of ejecting through the operating system.
However, some of the newer types of memory cards are designed in such a way that they are treated as an external hard drive by the computer, rather than a removable media device (even though external hard drives can and should also be “ejected” through the operating system). For these cards the “Eject after import” checkbox won’t be displayed and therefore you’ll need to eject the card manually using the “Eject” feature on Macintosh or the “Safely Remove” feature on Windows.
