MetaMask might be in the middle of a nasty bug. This change leads to increased data writes on solid-state drives (SSDs), potentially reducing their lifespan. Browser extension is triggering an issue called “abnormal disk writing.” As we know, it continues to write data in the background 24/7, even when no one is using it. MetaMask’s developers are actively working on a fix to restore the feature.

The bug thus primarily punishes users of Chromium-based browsers (like Chrome, Edge, and Opera). While SSDs under common use circumstances would wear out in five to ten years, extreme use can greatly speed up the rate of decline.

Reports of Abnormal Disk Writing

Complaints about the bug began as early as May, when users began to notice excessive disk usage. And then on May 9, Quanquan shared a very surprising finding. When users used MetaMask with Chrome in MacOS and had the plug-in enabled, it was writing an incredible 100GB of data to an SSD every day.

"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." - Quanquan

Yet another user, Ripper31337 created the 2nd highest voted comment on June 24 describing the rapidly alarming rate at which data is being written. Their results show for the first time that this bizarre disk writing occurs at a staggering pace of five megabytes per second. That’s 500 gigabytes per day, for an incredible total of 25 terabytes over all three months.

Impact on SSD Lifespan

The uncessary data bloat generated by MetaMask is a dangerous waste, and it can dramatically shorten the lifespan of SSDs. It looks like the bug is still alive as of that comment from a GitHub user. It is making life expectancy of their SSD drive drop by half.

"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." - PopCatMAGA

On top of this, MetaMask’s browser extension is active 24/7, compounding the issue and causing extreme underutilization that can kill an SSD early.

MetaMask's Response

Importantly, MetaMask is cognizant of the concern, and in good faith has been working towards a proper resolution. A member of MetaMask's team responded to a report on July 19, reiterating the team's commitment to resolving the bug.

"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." - Consensys spokesperson

"The issue predominantly impacts users with unusually large state. We’re exploring strategies for reducing state size." - Consensys spokesperson

Consensys spokesperson mentioned that a fix is being released imminently.