Unable to eject USB stick after mount/unmounting repository with Veracrypt traveller version on W11 25H2

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
65/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
c
Domain
desktop

Research direction

The traveller version behaves differently from the installed version on Windows. Start from the Windows-specific mount/unmount code paths for the portable edition, identify what resources (handles, threads, processes) remain open after unmounting, and ensure they are released before the traveller exits.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug

I have just started using this (1.26.29), the aim being place repositories on removeable USB sticks, accessible from both Windows 11 and Linux (xubuntu 26.04). In order to do this a 2GB stick has ben formatted with a 500MB ext4 partition containing a folder with the standalone Linux Veracrypt AppImage, and the rest of the space (~1.3GB partition) is formatted to FAT32. This partition has a Windows folder containing the traveller standalone version of Veracrypt, and also the Veracrypt encrypted repository (200MB) called 'data'.

This all basically works, but I find that when on Windows 11 I have run the standalone Veracrypt version and mounted 'data' using the traveller tools, when I finish what I am doing (even if I didn't actually do anything at all) and unmount 'data' again, close down Veracrypt, then try to safely eject the USB stick, it won't because it says something is using it.

Logging off and back on doesn't help, it it still 'busy', it is necessary to actually shutdown the system.

However, this only applies if I use the traveller standalone Veracrypt. If I did the mounting and unmounting from the installed version, no problem.

So it seems, once the traveller version has been run, something hangs on to it.

Once the traveller version unmounts the repository and is then shut down, safe ejection of the USB stick should be possible.

Once the repository has been opened with the traveller version, the only thing that releases the USB stick for safe ejection is actually shutting the system down.

  1. Insert USB stick on a W11 system
  2. Run the traveller version from the stick, select the repository and mount it.
  3. Do something with the files in the repository (or not, doesn't seem to matter).
  4. Unmount it, close down the traveller version.
  5. Try to safely eject the stick - it will not allow it.
Image

Please tell us more about your environment

VeraCrypt version: 1.26.29 (traveller)

Operating system and version: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 OS build 26200.8655

System type: 64 bit

Dominant language
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