Sandisk extreme SSD performance drops and overheating during mac video exports

G-Technology
1

Hey everyone,
I’ve been using a sandisk extreme portable SSD with my macbook setup for a few months now, and I’m hitting a wall that I’m hoping someone here has navigated before. Most of my daily workflow involves using capcut mac to process 4K footage directly from the external drive to save on internal storage. Initially, the speeds were blazing fast, but lately, I’ve noticed the drive getting incredibly hot—almost too hot to touch—about halfway through a long export.

When the heat kicks in, the write speeds seem to tank, and I start getting “Disk Not Ejected Properly” errors or the app just hangs entirely. I’m currently formatted to exFAT for cross-platform flexibility, but I’m wondering if switching to APFS would handle the metadata-heavy nature of video project files better? Or is this purely a thermal throttling issue with the SanDisk enclosure itself?

I’ve also seen some weird behavior where the Mac doesn’t recognize the drive after a crash until I do a full system reboot. Is anyone else seeing these kinds of stability issues when pushing their portable SSDs with heavy video rendering? I’d love to know if there are specific macOS settings or firmware updates I might have missed that could help stabilize the connection during high-load sessions.

2

@molly878

Have you checked our knowledge base articles?
( Get Support for Your SSDs and Flash Products | Sandisk )

Try these.

3

Update the drive’s firmware first, export to your Mac’s internal storage temporarily, and set the SSD to APFS—it’ll run cooler and way more stable for video work.

4

The reason is that prolonged 4K exporting causes the SSD to overheat, triggering its self-protection mechanism, which leads to frequency throttling and forced disconnection. This results in errors such as “disk not ejected correctly,” software freezes, and even Mac crashes.

If you’re only using it on your Mac, immediately back up your important footage, then use Disk Utility to erase the drive and format it to APFS. APFS processes video metadata much more efficiently, reducing the read/write load and heat generation. [How to Format an External Hard Drive on Mac?]

You can also download the Firmware Update Tool from the Western Digital/SanDisk website to update the SSD’s firmware to the latest version.

Finally, when exporting video, place the drive on a cool metal surface (like your Mac’s aluminum case) or use a small fan to cool it down; don’t let it get too hot.