MetaMask Bug Shortens SSD Lifespan, Users Warn on GitHub

Consensys, the blockchain firm behind MetaMask, has confirmed it will be “imminently” releasing a fix for its MetaMask browser extension after users reported it has been writing hundreds of gigabytes of data per day into their solid-state drives, potentially shortening their lifespan. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Consensys spokesperson confirmed there has been “usually high disk activity” affecting certain MetaMask users.

One of the more recent reports came from a user under the handle ripper31337, who said in a GitHub bug report on June 24 that after a fresh install of the MetaMask extension on Chromium-based browsers, such as Chrome, Edge and Opera, they discovered it was continuously writing data to the solid state drives (SSDs) in the background without user interaction.

The “abnormal disk writing” occurred at a rate of five megabytes per second, totaling 500 gigabytes daily and 25 terabytes in three months, according to ripper31337. 

An SSD generally lasts five to ten years under normal conditions, but can deteriorate much faster and fail with intense usage. 

Consensys says fix incoming 

In a statement to Cointelegraph, a Consensys spokesperson said its teams are actively investigating the issue and a “fix is being released imminently.” 

“While browser extension wallets do regularly write state to disk, which is expected behavior, we’ve taken note of a recent observation shared by a small number of MetaMask users who reported unusually high disk activity,” the spokesperson said. 

“The issue predominantly impacts users with unusually large state. We’re exploring strategies for reducing state size,” they added. 

Consensys said the company is also in the process of exploring strategies for reducing the size of each write operation and reducing the frequency of data fetching when the data is not being actively used.

The problem could be months old

Ripper31337 reported the issue on June 24; however, another user, under the handle “Quanquan,” flagged the same problem in a review on May 9. 

“The Chrome of MacOS, with the metamask plug-in turned on, but not used, wrote 100G of data to my SSD in one day. After disabling the metamask plug-in, it slowed down immediately,” the user said in the post, translated by Google. 

Related: ConSensys says Web3Auth acquisition to ‘greatly improve’ MetaMask UX

The review didn’t appear to receive a response, but two users flagged it as being useful. 

Bug issue still ongoing 

Another user on GitHub, under the handle PopCatMAGA, reported on July 17 that the bug is still active. 

“The worst part is that many users don’t even know this is happening. My browser with the extension runs 24/7, and it’s literally destroyed 50% of my SSD’s lifespan. Fix this mess already – seriously, this is unacceptable,” they said. 

A member of the MetaMask team responded in the thread on July 19 and reiterated that the team is currently working on a solution to fix the bug. 

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