Safe to Remove Hardware notification missing

How do I restore the "Safe to Remove Hardware" notification?

Going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions, everything looks correct.

Looking at Taskbar settings > Other system tray icons > “Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media” is On. Does that enable the icon or the message?

While the message may not be needed anymore, it was just nice seeing that everything was OK.

Hey mate,

It depends on if the drive is considered "removable" or not, and if the removal policy is set to "Quick removal" or "Better performance".

• Quick removal: This policy manages storage operations in a manner that keeps the device ready to remove at any time. You can remove the device without using the Safely Remove Hardware process. However, to do this, Windows can't cache disk write operations. This can degrade system performance.
• Better performance: This policy manages storage operations in a manner that improves system performance. When this policy is in effect, Windows can cache write operations to the external device. However, you must use the Safely Remove Hardware process to remove the external drive. The Safely Remove Hardware process protects the integrity of data on the device by making sure that all cached operations finish.

I don't use that future for externally connected storage drives as its safe to disconnect drive as long as you have Quick removal policy which is deafult in Windows 11.

Also make sure it is enabled for viewing..
1. settings>personalization>taskbar>other system tray icons>find Windows Explorer and toggle it on..
2. It may also be hidden in the "up" arrow overflow area. If it is, drag it to the viewable area to see it all the time.

Does that enable the icon or the message?

Click to expand...

I can't tell from your post whether you think the taskbar icon should be present and that it's missing... so FWIW note that it's only shown when a removable drive is inserted.

As for the popup notification, as noted above...more briefly:

"Check Removal Policy: Windows switched default behaviour in later versions so that "Quick removal" doesn't always show a toast unless set to "Better performance" in Device Manager"