How many times can i plug and unplug a thumb/flash drive before it doesn't work?

[kofman13]

I am wondering how many times i can plug in a thumb drive and unplug it before i wear out the contacts on the usb connection. I know there is no definite answer but im wondering if theres any general "rating" or if people have ever done tests?

[SpookyCitrus]

I have flash drives that are 10+ years old that see daily use, going from one computer to the next, 20x a day. And have had zero issues. I've also had flash drives that fail after a week. It really just depends on the quality of the drive and how rough you are with it. The majority should be fine for several years. As for an exact number, not something you're going to be able to find unless the exact model you have or are looking at has been tested in that way and had a release of the results.

[podkall]

I'm certain that the internal hardware of USB will fail sooner before the outer contacts get somehow worn to the point where they're not working anymore, at least with decent handling

[Orangeator]

Didn't LTT do a video on different types of cables and how long they take to fail from plugging and unplugging them?

 

I think I am imagining things.

[Needfuldoer]

If you pull it straight out of the connector? Hundreds of times. USB type A is designed for something like 1,500 insert-remove cycles at a minimum.

 

If you yank on it at an angle? A few before something breaks.

 

You're more likely to software corrupt the drive by unplugging it while the PC's trying to write data, than you are to break the drive physically.

 

I consider USB flash drives to be disposable anyway. Never trust them with the only copy of important data.

[BiotechBen]

8 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Didn't LTT do a video on different types of cables and how long they take to fail from plugging and unplugging them?

 

I think I am imagining things.

It was James' first or nearly first video iirc. I know the video you're talking about. Linus mentioned it on WAN show before and how many man hours it ended up taking. 

https://youtu.be/OqtNleXhTRE?si=kDbMsiqJDGktM-mZ

[Orangeator]

34 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

It was James' first or nearly first video iirc. I know the video you're talking about. Linus mentioned it on WAN show before and how many man hours it ended up taking. 

https://youtu.be/OqtNleXhTRE?si=kDbMsiqJDGktM-mZ

Thank you! I searched but I couldn't find it. Figured it was a fever dream or something. Lol.

[BiotechBen]

10 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Thank you! I searched but I couldn't find it. Figured it was a fever dream or something. Lol.

There are a few videos I've remembered and thought were fever dreams as well. Just gotta fight through the ruined search algorithms and SEI's