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When I try to eject my Android phone from my Windows 8 laptop (using the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon in the task bar) I get a "Problem Ejecting USB Composite Device" pop-up with the message:

Windows can't stop your 'Android ADB Interface' device because a program is still using it. Close any programs that might be using the device, and then try again later.

I have a number of background and Windows processes running, but no apps, so any idea what could be causing this? One of the background processes is "abd (32 bit)", so should I just end that task? Or would it be better to just unplug the device and not worry about ejecting it first?

Bhargav Rao
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Mark Cramer
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    While the given answer addresses this specific case, a more general approach to solving these types of issues can be found here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/24460473/1290264 – bcorso Jul 15 '14 at 23:01

2 Answers2

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Android uses ADB to communicate with physical devices and emulators. To properly disconnect your phone first stop the ADB server and then eject your device.

CD C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
adb kill-server

Then eject your device.

More info here.

Andrew Halloran
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    Actually there's no need to stop adb - windows just doesn't know that. – Chris Stratton Jun 02 '13 at 01:00
  • Thanks, Andrew. Since posting this I've just been pulling the USB cable without using the "safely remove..." icon. So far it seems to be working just fine, so I hope that continues to be the case. – Mark Cramer Jun 06 '13 at 00:16
  • I was able to do this successfully in powershell in '19 with: `cd ~\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools` . `./adb kill-server` I unplugged my device and ran `./adb start-server` to prep for my next coding session. – Steve Oct 17 '19 at 03:17
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As Andrew Halloran stated, device can be safely removed if you first end Android Debug Bridge adb. That can be done using the Task Manager enter image description here

Then click "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media"

user2814778
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