Question Why do I no longer get the 'safe to remove hardware' notification in Windows 10?

[ComputersOftenIrritateMe]

Recently, I have noticed that upon ejecting my external hard drives (HDD), I no longer receive the 'it is now safe to remove hardware' popup at the lower right of my screen. I've looked around and tried a few different solutions from the internet, but haven't had much luck. Namely, I've confirmed that focus assist is not on since that seems to be a common problem.

My questions are:

1. Am I still safe to remove the hard drives without needing to worry about data loss/corruption assuming the notification fails to pop up. I confirmed that the drive itself turned off (light turned off, no sound) and that it was no longer listed in Windows explorer after pressing eject.

2. Why is it that the notification still pops up assuming I have the device manager open? This, to my current knowledge, is the only way to get the notification to come up upon safe ejection as of late.

 

[Ralston18]

In Device Manager > Drives find the drive(s) in question by clicking the ">" arrow.

Right click a drive and select Properties.

Check the Policies tab.

Is Quick Removal or Better Performance selected?

To see the notification Better Performance should be selected as I understand your post.

 

[ComputersOftenIrritateMe]

In Device Manager > Drives find the drive(s) in question by clicking the ">" arrow.

Right click a drive and select Properties.

Check the Policies tab.

Is Quick Removal or Better Performance selected?

To see the notification Better Performance should be selected as I understand your post.

This was something I checked. The external HDD has quick removal active.

What I don't understand is that quick removal being the default has been a part of windows 10 for years and yet, up until roughly a week or so ago, I still received notification whenever I ejected my drive. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it feels a little weird not receiving confirmation after pressing eject on an HDD, quick removal or not.
What really makes me think this is some sort of error is the fact that, like I said, I still get the notification assuming the device manager is open.

 

[Ralston18]

Late thought:

Look in System > Notifications

Type "Notifications" in the oval Search "box".

Check the configuration settings therein.

 

[ComputersOftenIrritateMe]

Just wanted to hop in real quick to do an update as I have figured out what the problem was.

In the end, the issue actually was the fact that focus assist was on when I ejected the drive. I was pretty sure this wasn't the case as I was careful to turn FA off each time.

What was happening, and still is happening, is that Focus Assist is reactivating despite the settings I have for it. Stranger still is the fact that opening Device Manager immediately deactivates Focus Assist (thus explaining a significant element of my original question), but upon closing it FA will eventually turn back on.

 

[Ralston18]

Referencing:

"but upon closing it FA will eventually turn back on."

Focus Assist has some "rules" that can be applied.

Not readily apparent or found.

Try WIN + I > System > Notifications > Focus

[Note: A couple of times the path became System > Focus.....]

Take a close look at the existing configuration settings.

No need to make any immediate changes. Just check the current settings first.

Then, as deemed applicable to the described problems, make one change. Keep a note of what you changed, where you changed it, plus the original and new "value" or setting.