I've been using an Orico 16 port usb hub for the past 3 years. Rock solid with no issues whatsoever:

 

Oh, so do I. They will not get corrupted while being on the external drive, while in use, or re-saving them. (that I have really noticed). When you will not see the problem, is a steady stream of data being dumped and saved to the external drive.

Have you ever had a hardware (like a synth) firmware update fail when using a hub, but then work perfectly with no hub? Or have you ever downloaded archive file releases, had them fail to extract, and then a new downloaded copy of the same file work perfectly? The dreaded "CRC error" when extracting? It's usually some kind of packet loss during the transfer, and probably other reasons too. The real problem only arises when you think you have safely backed up data; and finding out at a later date that what you expected to be there, is corrupt.

 

When it comes to USB ports, USB devices and USB hubs, you have to prioritise USB devices according to their importance, USB bandwidth, usage. USB hubs are wonderful things to offload stuff like mouse, keyboard, camera, printer and simple stuff like that. Just make sure it's powered, so you can connect many devices to it, but always keep in mind that these 3 or 4 more USB ports are actually on one USB port and share its bandwidth and even more importantly - power, which is very important if your hub is not externally powered.

When it comes to audio interfaces, it is quite important to put it on its own USB port because you don't want it to share the bandwidth and IRQs with some other hardware. it could work, but it's safer and better to have it on its own port. Also external hard disks, but it depends on how you're using them. If they're just backup hard disks, it doesn't matter much where you stick them, but if it's a hard disk you're using for holding big sample banks... put it on its own USB port.

Also keep in mind there is a big difference between USB2 and USB 3.1, 3.2, C ports in bandwidth. Big difference. USB 3.2 and C can support a couple of hard disks, but only one fast SSD, for example.

Stuff like that... you have to figure it out for yourself how to use your USB ports properly.

I'm so glad Clone mentioned updating firmware through USB ports. It's a good example of why we don't use audio interfaces with USB hubs and on a shared USB port. It could happen that you get a failed firmware update and glitchy audio, cracks etc.

 

Oh good to know that. I did not know hubs increased chances of corruption on drives. Thanks!