This situation occurs if you happen to have an open file (such as a
> viewer looking at an image or directory on the thumb drive or camera
> memory card). Closing out open files or files being viewed before
> requesting safe removal should do the trick.
>
Must be a viewer program that isn't cleaning up after itself when it closes then.?? Because I get this error message when only the desktop is showing (no programs running). I never thought about attempting to eject with an active viewer is open. But like you say, you would EXPECT to get the message in that case.