Successful operation notifications should be “non-blocking” but there is the possibility that this was intended as a mandated visual receipt of the operation concluding. Feel that if it is intentional there should be a checkbox somewhere allowing for notifications blocking to be turned off for notifications when no “bad” errors are returned/reported.
Ubuntu Version:
26.04 LTS
Desktop Environment:
Ubuntu Desktop
Problem Description:
Upon copying files to external storage disconnecting the destination device is blocked by the notification system. Only after opening the notification center and the file transfer notification is clicked, opening the file manager and closing it again, can the destination device be disconnected.
Relevant System Information:
64Bit Intel Architecture based system.
Screenshots or Error Messages:
No error messages have been logged.
What I’ve Tried:
Report the issue previously stated in this post. Have no intention to modify system behavior or security protocols to bypass the issue outlined in this report.
Ubuntu Discourse’s “Support and Help” area is the place where volunteer users answer help questions from other users.
The volunteers here are not the software developers. While we can help you identify which package to report the bug against, we generally won’t file a bug report for you.
Could you please describe the exact workflow of what you’re experiencing when the notification blocking conclusion of a file transfer? I have never come across this, so it would be helpful if we could replicate what you are experiencing. I obviously cannot replicate it if I don’t know exactly what you are doing and what is happening.
As stated, there were no logs or error reports thus I had not and still don’t consider the issue a bug as much as it seems to be an implementation or design issue with me.
The case where I recognized what I have reported above:
I transferred files to a usb connected thumb drive.
After the file transfer completed closed all instances of the file manager.
Reopened the file manager and attempted to unmount the usb thumb drive.
Was unable to unmount the device because I had not acknowledged the notification that the file transfer had completed.
After opening the notification center and clicking the notification the file manager was opened at which time I closed all file manager instances again.
Reopening the file manager was now able to successfully unmount the usb thumb drive.
The notification was blocking.
I understand that there may be some importance to what had occurred keeping users informed with transactional receipts and appreciate the presence of such functionality. If this is not the actual intent or proper behavior of the notification system regarding file transfer and device management then I guess I would have to proceed to filing a bug report. However, if this account is not a bug then it would be a waste of my and the mods governing bug reports time.
At any rate: thnx to everyone whom took the time to respond up to this point and those who may in the future.
BTW: the title change/modification is very well done.
How do you know that this was the case? (Sorry to press the issue; it’s important for us to understand what’s going on.) Did you get an error message? If so, what was the specific error message? If you didn’t get an error message, how did you know that you couldn’t unmount the device — what were the “symptoms”?
Here’s a test to try to eliminate coincidence. After step 2, and before step 3, open a terminal and enter this command:
sync
This will appear to hang until all data has been fully written and committed to the USB. Only after sync has completed, continue with step 3 (without acknowledging the notification).
@TheRaven, you can disable notifications for “Files” (Nautilus) in the Desktop Settings (Settings>Notifications>Files). Perhaps that will stop them from blocking the device removal; no message, no blockage. I also think that this might be by design, just a bit overboard, perhaps — success messages are most unnecessary (Silence is Golden); be loud about errors but leave me alone when everything is fine:
That’s correct. But, there is no visual indicator (unless you have Disks open) that pending operations are still being written. That’s why I wanted the OP to try using sync, because it makes it explicit. My thought was that it wasn’t the notification, but merely a coincidence that the delay allowed the synchronisation to complete. The problem is that the OP hasn’t explained how they knew that it was the notification and not something else, nor what the error message was when trying to unmount.
I was not a sync issue it was the notification that all files were transferred that had blocked me.
Once I clicked the notification in the notifications window accessed by clicking the clock Nautilus opened at which time I closed it reopened it again and was able to then unmount the drive. Athe time of unmounting the drive the system proceeded to close all the file streams and cleanup temporary device file systems pertaining to the drive. Everything worked as it should have; it was just the fact that the notification system hooked Nautilus and held up my progress and there was no real indication outside of a green icon overlay on the Nautilus icon and a notification entry I had failed to click in order to unmount my thumb drive.
