A USB flash drive with activity light gives the user visual feedback the device is working.

Click here to buy a USB flash drive with activity light. While on this site, consider some other advanced functions you might need, but didn’t think of. Advanced functions such as:

• Maybe you want the USB flash drive to be read-only (write protected)
• Maybe you want the USB to act like a CD-ROM drive
• Maybe you need to copy protect files on the drive – meaning people can view the files but they cannot print them, save them, screen capture, share, etc. The files can only be viewed.

These USB flash drives use an activity light and also provide the other cool functions mentioned above. The landing website offers six different body styles and an unlimited number of body colors along with free printing / branding if required.

Many small and portable flash drives do not have an activity light and we don’t like those types of drives. They don’t give the visual feedback we want to see.

Benefits of a Blinking LED Light on a USB Flash Drive

• Data Transfer Awareness: A blinking LED lets users know data is actively being read or written. This helps prevent premature removal of the drive, which can corrupt files.
• Visual Confirmation: The light confirms that the USB device is properly connected and receiving power from the host system.
• Diagnostic Aid: If the LED never blinks or stays off, users can quickly determine there’s a connection or drive failure without launching Disk Management or File Explorer.
• Multi-Drive Management: In environments where multiple USB drives are used at once—such as duplicator stations or kiosks—a blinking light helps identify which drives are in use versus idle.
• Security Awareness: In high-security environments, a blinking light can alert users if a USB drive is unexpectedly being accessed, suggesting potential unauthorized read/write activity.

The people who write for this blog prefer a USB flash drive with an activity light. The USB manufacturers have different settings for the LED activity light. Here is a screen shot of the mass production software tool used when making a flash drive.

There are two main settings for a USB activity light:

• On or Off setting for the LED on when device is ready
• Blink or not when flash memory is being accessed (this is for either read or write)

In our experience any USB flash drive with an activity light will have both of the above settings to On. Meaning the LED will be a solid color when connected and ready, and will blink as the device is being accessed for either a read or write request.

The most common LED color of a flash drive is red. However, we have seen green and blue LED lights on occasion. Most flash drives can be customized with specific LED colors if required. Lead times and pricing might fluctuate depending on what is required.