I cannot get the ice bucket out of the door. It has always been very difficult to remove unless it was just after I emptied the bucket and let it completely dry out before returning it to the door. I decided to empty the bucket and dry it monthly as a preventive measure in hopes that the ice that seemed to form around the mechanism would remain at a minimum. It appeared that ice formation might have been instrumental in making the bucket stick. The first month of this plan was up last week, but with grandchildren visiting I decided to delay the preventive emptying process until they left. I couldn't remove the bucket. This time, I removed all of the ice by hand and have, to the best of my knowledge, melted the remaining ice with a hair dryer. The unit seems looser than it did before, but still won't release. I press the side release bar in as far and as evenly as I can, but there seems to be one point where it won't disconnect. These things also happened: Last night the unit wouldn't dispense ice. (The beginning of the saga) It was grinding but there seemed to be an obstruction (melted and refrozen water?) that kept ice from dropping. After doing the exercise of emptying by hand and drying the unit with the hair dryer as described above, I closed the freezer door and let some more ice drop. That part worked. The unit would then dispense ice but I still couldn't remove the bucket. I slept on it. Today, it has returned to grinding with no dispensing. It sounds like the ice crusher might be running but it is set on cubes - or it might just be struggling.