I bought a 256 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro USB flash drive a few months ago:
From the beginning, when I mounted it, I got a message that the SMART system had detected problems with the device and that it was going to fail soon. However, the stick works fine, is very fast and doesn’t seem to care about this message (backup available of course). Is this rather perhaps a bug in SMART?
I found this reply from Scandisc but is from 2017 on Scandisc Extreme Pro USB Pro 3.1
I understand that you are getting SMART error on your flash drive. Please note that SMART test is for Solid State Drives (SSD). Extreme Pro USB 3.1 uses Solid State technology but basically it is a flash drive. Hence, we do not recommend running SMART test on it. A flash drive is a plug and play external storage device that saves the data inside it. You can simply connect the drive to your computer and transfer data onto it. There is not need to run SMART test on it as SMART test is for Solid State Drives. Please refer to the link given below in order to know more about USB flash drives and SMART test: