Undocking from an Apple Thunderbolt Display

Posted by: on Sep 23, 2011 | 6 Comments

Apple finally has a “dock” for its notebook computers. That dock is the Thunderbolt display. The Thunderbolt display has its own power cable for charging your Apple notebook, as well as a Thunderbolt cable to serve as the single connection for display, ethernet, sound, USB, and Firewire connectivity. This means you can connect your Firewire, USB, and Thunderbolt drives into the back of the display and have them all “dock” when you plug in the single Thunderbolt cable.

Unfortunately, unplugging the monitor may not be so easy if you have several external drives. By using Applescript, you can basically create an “undock” application that you can simply open when you want to unplug the display. I’ve also provided the app for you: Undock.app

  1. Open “AppleScript Editor.app” found in the Applications -> Utilities folder
  2. Paste the following code into “Untitled” applescript window: 
    tell the application "Finder"
	eject (every disk whose ejectable is true)
end tell
  3. Go to File -> Save. Name the file “Undock” and choose “Application” as the file format. You can now run this from Spotlight or create a shortcut in your dock if you prefer; just as with any other application. Your external drives will be ejected after running this script.