`findmnt` and `ls` still see a physically disconnected external storage drive

Here is an /etc/fstab record example of one of the mounts as per x-systemd.automount and other goodies:

UUID=XXXX-XXXX /media/XXXX-XXXX auto noauto,nofail,nouser,uid=root,gid=users,umask=007,X-mount.mkdir,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.device-timeout=1,x-systemd.idle-timeout=60 0 2

Currently this external exFAT-formatted drive is physically disconnected from the PC, but I still get the following surprises

$ ls /media
ls: cannot access '/media/XXXX-XXXX': No such device

and

$ findmnt /media/XXXX-XXXX
TARGET           SOURCE    FSTYPE OPTIONS
/media/XXXX-XXXX systemd-1 autofs rw,relatime,fd=55,pgrp=1,timeout=60,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=24590

This obviously fools other software, which might potentially be using findmnt to determine whether the mount is up, to believe that the storage drive is actually mounted and to proceed with further actions.

How do I make sure that when the drive is physically disconnected, it is no longer considered by the Linux system?