MakeMKV has suddenly stopped reading UHD Blu-ray discs after months of working perfectly

[monorailab]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction because I've been struggling with a problem that appeared out of nowhere.

I've been using MakeMKV regularly for several months to back up both Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray discs, and until recently everything worked exactly as expected. I haven't changed my hardware or made any intentional changes to my setup, so I'm confused about why this suddenly started happening.

A few days ago I noticed that MakeMKV could still recognize my Blu-ray discs without any trouble, but every UHD Blu-ray I insert either sits there spinning for a very long time or eventually fails to open. In some cases the disc title briefly appears, making me think it's about to load, but after waiting several minutes I end up with a read error instead. What's even more confusing is that some of these are discs I successfully backed up only a few months ago using this exact drive and the same PC.

At first I assumed it might just be one damaged disc, but after trying several different UHD titles from different studios, I got exactly the same result every time. I cleaned the discs carefully, reinstalled the latest version of MakeMKV, restarted my computer multiple times, switched to different USB ports, replaced the USB cable, and even disabled my antivirus software for testing. None of those steps made any difference. The drive is detected normally by Windows, and regular Blu-ray movies continue to work perfectly, which makes the issue even harder to understand.

I'm beginning to wonder if this could be related to a recent Windows update, a firmware issue, some kind of USB power management problem, or perhaps the laser inside the drive is starting to wear out in a way that only affects UHD media. Before I spend money replacing the drive, I'd really like to know if anyone else has experienced something similar or has any ideas about what I should check next.

Are there any MakeMKV logs or diagnostic tools that could help identify whether this is a hardware problem or a software issue? I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions from people who have run into this before.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Billycar11]

What drive do you have?

I recommend you clean the lasers

[SpencerC]

What drive do you have?

I recommend you clean the lasers

What is the best way to clean the lasers?

[Billycar11]

What is the best way to clean the lasers?

with a lint free cloth and distilled water or alcohol
and dry with another lint free cloth do not let it air dry

cleaning disc are junk dont ask about those