The Optical Drive Autoplay
While most modern Macs lack built-in optical drives, many users still rely on external USB SuperDrives to access older software, burn backups, or rip audio. By default, macOS retains a legacy behavior: the moment you insert a commercial DVD movie into an optical drive, the operating system aggressively assumes you want to watch it right now, automatically launching the built-in “DVD Player” application and frequently throwing it into full-screen mode. If you are inserting the disc simply to rip it to a digital file using Handbrake, or to copy a specific data file from it, this automatic launch is highly annoying.
Preventing the Media Player Launch
To gain manual control over your optical media and stop macOS from automatically launching the DVD Player application whenever a disc is inserted, you must modify the CD & DVD handling preferences.
Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen and select System Settings. This specific setting is only visible if you actually have an optical drive connected to your Mac. If your USB drive is plugged in, scroll down the left-hand navigation pane and look for a section labelled CDs & DVDs (often located near the bottom of the list). Click it. In the right-hand panel, you will see a dropdown menu labelled When you insert a video DVD. Click this dropdown menu and change the selection from “Open DVD Player” to Ignore. You can also apply this same “Ignore” rule to audio CDs and picture CDs. Now, when you insert a disc, it will simply mount silently on your desktop, waiting for your manual instructions.