What happens if you connect a USB flash drive to a mobile phone charger and power it up?
Can connecting a USB drive to a portable charger be dangerous? Here’s what actually happens and the risks involved if you decide to do it. While curiosity may lead you to wonder what’s going on, it’s important to understand that it’s not a recommended practice by any means.
Nowadays, mobile phone and laptop chargers have seen a remarkable development. The big and bulky chargers that occupied almost the entire power sector are a thing of the past. Now, they are more compact and have a more efficient design.
Some brands offer different styles, some built into one piece, while others separate the charging hub from the cable, allowing for greater flexibility of use.
High-end mobile phones usually come equipped with chargers that include USB-C ports, which have become the standard for their ability to transfer power and data efficiently.
However, many mid-range and low-end devices still use the traditional USB-A port, which, although less advanced, allows you to easily connect data cables, providing a practical option if the original cable breaks.
Now, you may have wondered what would happen if you plugged your USB flash drive into the USB-A port of your cell phone charger and connected it to power. Could it explode? Would your device or memory be damaged?
- Is it dangerous to connect a USB flash drive to a mobile phone charger?
To clear up these doubts, an experiment was conducted that shows that when you plug a USB memory stick into the USB-A port of the charger and then connect it to power, the first thing you should know is that no explosion or damage will occur.
The flash drive will not be damaged, but it will not work as if it were connected to a computer or device that can read or write data.
This is because the portable charger is designed only to transmit electrical power, not to process data. Therefore, when you connect the USB flash drive to the charger, it simply supplies current, but does not interact with the memory in any way.
It is important to understand that this experiment has no practical use, and therefore the USB flash drive will not charge, nor will it serve any other purpose such as storing data when connected to a suitable device, such as a computer or mobile phone with a USB port.
It should be noted that in the best case scenario, the charger will ignore the USB flash drive and nothing will happen. In the worst case scenario, a short circuit or damage to the drive, the charger, or both can occur, especially if low-quality or uncertified chargers are used .