# is it ok to leave your pen drives connected to a device (not computer)



## DBR70 (Sep 7, 2014)

i went to this page explaining it, i got more confused: Is it safe to leave a flash drive plugged in all the time?
i just leave 3 pen drives connected to the back of an LG smart TV. and so far its doing fine. i never leave them plugged into my computer or a device that gets hot. the LGsmartTV does not get hot. it stays pretty cool when not in use for a while. and my pen drives are working fine, but i only had the drives for a few months. is there any danger of leaving them in there. its in the back of the TV, so its hard reconnecting back there, especialy with my bad vision.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

My answer is conjecture. In a computer there would be "action" even if nothing is being inputted from the user. On the smart TV I can't see anything happening and therefor TV on or off, the flash drives would just be sitting dormant.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

I have yet to hear of any problems associated with leaving a flash drive permanently plugged in. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. As with all data, just be certain that any information stored on the drives are backed up to at least one other device (not each other).


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## DBR70 (Sep 7, 2014)

there are other devices in the house like 2 old blu ray players one Mexican one that freezes up until you upgrade the firmware and the 2008 american one that does seem to black out sometimes. but the do play the usb videos i keep one plugged into the 2008 american one. the newer Mexican one thats been known to freeeze up, i try not to bother just play blurays mexican DVDs on it, its safer. 
with all that explained, there are 2 cableboxes with USB ports that i use but i do not leave the pen drives in because the boxes are hot. its not OK to leave them in a hot device is it? i dont. but if yall say its ok then... (I REALLY hope what i just explained was understandable about the blu ray players. i know it was confusing. i had a really hard time explaining...WHEW!)


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Again, I can't see any "action" occurring in Blu Ray devices. When plugged into a computer, things like AV checks also examine the devices to make sure they're malware free so I wouldn't leave them plugged into anything that could do that.


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## DBR70 (Sep 7, 2014)

OK i get that but what about hot devices? i dont like to let the pen drives get too hot. will the heat effect it?


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Extreme heat can screw up data. Drive would have to hit like 140º F which a flash drive not in use can't possibly reach unless you set it on fire.


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## jimscreechy (Jan 7, 2005)

As to the issue of USB drives getting hot I can definitely testify to that happening and causing my USB hub to fail. I bought a batch of USB drives, 2 were Toshiba 64 gb types. I started formatting and went about my business after a few mins came upstairs and could smell plastic burning. Then the USB Hub died. I could barely touch the USB stick it was so hot. Long story short I thought it was faulty and packed it up but tried the second stick in the USB 3 port directly on the PC. It started getting hot after about 20 seconds. I whipped it out and returned them both.

I've not encountered this before after having used USB drives for years. These were supposedly Toshiba USB 3.0 drives but they were clearly not up to spec. I've had other USB 3 drives get 'warm' but not like this, and Never had any problem with USB 2.0 drives. 

I'm pretty sure the formatting process had something to do with this, but I'm just a little more careful now about leaving the these flash drives plugged in now.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

Shouldn't be an issue.


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