SanDisk Portable SSD Lawsuit: Affected Drives, Firmware, and Case Status

The SanDisk portable SSD lawsuit is a consolidated class action in the Northern District of California accusing Western Digital of selling Extreme, Extreme Pro, and WD My Passport portable solid-state drives that abruptly disconnect, wipe stored data, and become unreadable. The case, In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation, No. 3:23-cv-04152, is still pending as of 2026. No settlement has been announced, and no class has been certified yet.¹

Which Drives Are Covered

Western Digital acknowledged problems with five specific models in spring 2023 and issued a firmware update at the end of May that year:²

SanDisk Extreme Portable 4TB (SDSSDE61-4T00)
SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 4TB (SDSSDE81-4T00)
SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 2TB (SDSSDE81-2T00)
SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 1TB (SDSSDE81-1T00)
Western Digital My Passport 4TB (WDBAGF0040BGY)

The lawsuits reach further than that list. The complaints also name 500GB and 1TB Extreme-series drives, additional My Passport models, and the SanDisk Pro-G40.³ The Jafri complaint defines the proposed class as buyers of any of the affected drives manufactured after November 2022.⁴ Whether the Pro-G40 shares the same defect is not established; Ars Technica reported it was “unable to determine if the drive has a widespread problem.”

What the Drives Are Alleged to Do

Plaintiffs say the drives share a common defect that causes them to unexpectedly disconnect from computers, wipe all stored data, and become unmountable, sometimes within days or months of purchase. The complaints call the drives “worthless” for reliable storage and point to marketing that described them as “professional grade,” “rugged,” and “dependable.”⁵ Named plaintiff Brian Bayerl said he spent nearly $8,000 attempting to recover lost data.³

The suits seek full refunds, compensation for lost data and recovery costs, and an injunction against further sales until the defects are disclosed or fixed.³

Did the Firmware Update Fix It

Western Digital says yes. In statements to Futurezone and PetaPixel, the company said it “recognized a problem” in spring 2023 and released a firmware update that “fixed the problem,” adding: “We do not believe hardware issues played a role in the product concerns that we successfully addressed with the firmware update.”⁶ The company also stated that currently shipping products are not affected.²

Users kept reporting failures after applying the update, and some of the complaints allege that a follow-up July 2023 firmware release (version R332G190) introduced its own bug.⁷

An Austrian data recovery firm, Attingo, reached a different conclusion in a November 2023 analysis. Managing director Markus Häfele identified what he called manufacturing defects: surface-mount components physically larger than the pad layout on the internal circuit board, creating weak mechanical contact and excess heat during file transfers. Attingo also found voids in the solder joining the ASMedia bridge chip to the internal SSD, and said thermal cycling fractures those joints over time.⁸⁹ Häfele described epoxy applied to newer production runs as a “makeshift solution,” and said firmware updates alone cannot fix a physical manufacturing problem.

Where the Case Stands

Three class action complaints filed in the Northern District of California in August 2023 were consolidated on October 25, 2023, along with at least two related cases, into In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation, Case No. 3:23-cv-04152.¹

Western Digital moved to dismiss. On June 5, 2024, Judge Rita F. Lin granted the motion in part and denied it in part. Claims that survived include the plaintiffs’ standing to pursue nationwide claims and claims on behalf of My Passport buyers (deferred to the class certification stage), implied warranty of merchantability, fraud by omission, and state consumer protection claims under California’s UCL, FAL, and CLRA. The court cited Western Digital’s own May 2023 public acknowledgment of the problem as evidence supporting the plaintiffs’ allegation that the company knew about the defect.¹⁰

Express warranty claims, Song-Beverly Act claims, and most misrepresentation claims were dismissed with leave to amend. The court found the bulk of the cited marketing statements were “mere puffery,” though it flagged two statements about the drives’ design and heatsink as potentially actionable.¹⁰

The case remains active before Judge Lin, with Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros handling discovery. The docket shows activity as recently as May 2026.¹¹¹ No settlement, class certification ruling, or trial date has been publicly reported. Western Digital’s only public comment on the litigation has been that it “does not comment on pending litigation.”¹²

What Owners Can Do Now

Because no class has been certified and no settlement fund exists, there is nothing to file a claim against yet. If you own one of the listed models, keep your proof of purchase, the drive itself, and records of any data recovery costs. If the case reaches settlement or certification, notice normally goes out to purchasers through the court-approved claims administrator, and the model number, purchase date, and receipts are what a claim form typically asks for.

1
CourtListener. In re Sandisk SSDs Litigation
2
Ars Technica. SanDisk Extreme SSDs Are Still Wiping Data After Firmware Fix, Users Say
3
Ars Technica. SanDisk Extreme SSDs Are Worthless, Multiple Lawsuits Against WD Say
4
ClassAction.org. Unreadable SanDisk Extreme Pro Hard Drives Are Defective, Class Actions Claim
5
SGT Law. SanDisk Extreme Solid State Drive Defect Litigation
6
Blocks and Files. Western Digital Denies Hardware Flaws in SanDisk SSDs
7
Ars Technica. Lawsuit Takes Western Digital to Task Over SanDisk SSDs Allegedly Erasing Data
8
Galaxus. Defective External SSDs From SanDisk: Data Rescuer Attingo Explains Possible Cause
9
Rossmann Group. SanDisk Extreme Firmware Failure
10
FindLaw. In Re SanDisk SSDs Litigation
11
GovInfo. In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation, Document 146
12
PCMag. Western Digital Hit With Class-Action Suit Over Faulty Portable SSDs