How To Fix ‘Umount Target Is Busy’ Error in Linux [2024]

How To Fix ‘Umount Target Is Busy’ Error in Linux

Encountering the “Unmount target is busy” message in Linux can be frustrating as this message indicates that the device you’re trying to access is still in use by another process or program. You don’t need to be worry as it’s not a serious issue and can be easily resolved.

How To Fix ‘Umount Target Is Busy’ Error in Linux [2024]

There are multiple ways to fix the “Unmount Target Is Busy’ error in Linux. Before going to the solution let’s have a look into the reason for this error.

Why Does ‘Umount Target Is Busy’ error Occur?

The error simply tells you that the targeted device that you are trying to use like a hard drive, USB drive, or network share is already being used by another process. This means files might be open, data might be transferring, or the device is mounted elsewhere.

How Can We Fix It?

There are several ways to address this “Unmount Target Is Busy” error, depending on your situation and comfort level. You can fix this by:

• killing the process itself
• performing the force unmount of the targeted device.
• doing the lazy unmount of the targeted drive or devices.

1.  Lazy Unmount (recommended)

This method politely waits for any ongoing processes to finish using the device before un-mounting. It’s the safest option and maintains the data integrity.

Open a terminal and navigate to your home directory at first by running following command:

sudo umount -l /path/to/device (replace /path/to/device with the actual device path).

2.  Identifying and Stopping Processes (advanced)

In this method, you can identify the process using the device and terminate it to force unmounting. This method carries a risk of data loss if processes haven’t saved their work.

• Use lsof /path/to/device to see a list of processes accessing the device. Identify the process  that is creating issues.
• For each troublesome process, figure out the job that it is doing at the moment  and potential data loss before making a move.
• If confident, use sudo kill -9 [PID] to terminate the process, replacing [PID] with the actual process ID from the lsof command.
• Now, you can try unmounting again with sudo umount /path/to/device.

3. Force Unmount (for network file systems only)

This method is applicable for network file systems only. In this method data loss is highly likely. Only network file systems designed for forceful unmounting should be considered, and even then, only after exhausting all other options. Remember, this is a risky option and should be avoided if possible. Run the following command:

sudo umount -f /Path/to/target

Some of the tips that might be handy for you:

• Always double-check the target path before running any unmount commands.
• Consider restarting your system, which might automatically unmount any busy devices.
• Refer to the official documentation for your specific Linux distribution for detailed instructions and troubleshooting steps.