MakeMKV can't read any discs after trying bad BD

[Tango]

I was trying to rip The Good Place - a BD set of the entire series.

I put in the first BD and my computer/drive could not read it. It kept spinning and when it finally stopped, I could not click the drive icon in MakeMKV to have it analyze the BD. The BD didn't even show up in the OS (macOS). I ejected the BD manually - since it didn't register as a disc at all, I just hit the EJECT button on the drive. I put in the 2nd and it did almost the same, but never stopped spinning.

I tried later, before working on another TV show on DVD. The DVDs were good and, without going into detail, I started wondering if I had done something wrong, so I put the 1st BD from The Good Place in again. Same problem. I ejected it and put the DVD in. It showed up on my desktop, but MakeMKV never saw it - the DVD just kept spinning.

I ejected the DVD, quit MakeMKV, then restarted the program and put the DVD back in. It read it without problem.

The bottom line is if I try reading the BDs from The Good Place, after that, MakeMKV cannot read anything else without quitting and restarting.

This is the first time I've run into BDs that are completely unreadable by my drive - as in not even recognized by the OS. (I'll be testing them in a BD player tomorrow - my back is bothering me and I don't want to go downstairs unless I have to!) Is it common to find BDs that the OS won't even see or that MakeMKV can't read at all? I'm hoping that even with protection, a BD should at least be readable at some level, so I have grounds to return this set for a replacement.

[demon]

If you have an old version of MakeMKV, and the AACS MKB on the discs is newer than what the MakeMKV version supports, your drive will update and lock you out of reading any discs. That's part of how AACS authentication works. Seems like you'd have to have a pretty old MakeMKV version though, for that to be the case. What version are you using? Otherwise, it seems like the only other possibility would be some failure in the drive itself, but not knowing what make/model of drive you are using, that's about as much as I can guess.

[Tango]

Interesting.

I just updated last week (or the week before) and have version 1.16.4.

The lockout was only for MakeMKV. The OS still saw the other DVDs or BDs I put in and when I restarted MakeMKV, it had no issue at all.

I've suspected I need another drive anyway. This is not the highest quality drive.

Is it common for a BD to not even be recognized by the OS?

[dcoke22]

Have you tried power cycling the drive? An optical drive does have a tiny computer in it running the firmware. I occasionally have had my drive get into a weird state where it doesn't seem to work. Mine is in an external enclosure, so if I remove power from it, wait a few seconds, and power it up again, then it seems to work better. I have, in effect, rebooted the computer inside my optical drive.

[Tango]

Have you tried power cycling the drive? An optical drive does have a tiny computer in it running the firmware. I occasionally have had my drive get into a weird state where it doesn't seem to work. Mine is in an external enclosure, so if I remove power from it, wait a few seconds, and power it up again, then it seems to work better. I have, in effect, rebooted the computer inside my optical drive.

I have to do that a lot when things go wonky. In this case, it's easier to quit and restart MakeMKV. There are a number of times I can't properly eject and can only get the disc out by disconnecting the drive. That's usually with a damaged disc. I'm at the point where, if a TV show has 3 or more seasons, and it does NOT include a damaged disc, I'm surprised. It's pathetic how many DVDs and BDs in TV show collections are damaged beyond readability, even when they're brand new.

[dcoke22]

This is why I have two different optical drives. It is not always true, but often when a disc won't read in my default drive, I put it in my other drive and it rips without error. I have a friend with a third optical drive I use occasionally when neither of my two drives work. It sometimes rips discs that won't work in either of my two drives, although just as often, if my two drives won't rip it, then neither will the third.

Adding a second drive has made ripping smooth & easy more often.

As a side note, MakeMKV lets one use more than 1 optical drive at the same time.