Check S.M.A.R.T. on external SSDs with USB-C

Ever came across this?

# smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.14.0-1008-oem] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/sdb: Unknown USB bridge [0x0781:0x558c (0x1012)]

You can try passing the -d sat parameter like this:

# smartctl -d sat -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.14.0-1008-oem] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     SanDisk SD9SN8W1T00
…

Don’t forget to check out the manpages for smartctl. It has a comprehensive list of options to pass.