# Would a strong magnet damage my flash-memory MP3 player?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800 "2011-12-02T04:54:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800/1 "2011-12-02T04:54:01Z")

</div>

I have a small MP3 player. The thing is about the size of a stack of 4 sticks of chewing gum, so obviously it has flash memory.

I don’t like sticking it in my pants pocket. I want to rig up a magnetic clip so I can attach it to my shirt front. I wear a name tag at work that uses such a clip.

The magnets are pretty freaking strong for two little nubs the size of shirt buttons.

They won’t damage any of the workings of the player, will they?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Consensus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Consensus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Consensus)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800/2 "2011-12-02T04:59:46Z")

</div>

I think no, flash memory is not magnetic unlike (classic) harddrives and floppydisks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800/3 "2011-12-02T13:49:47Z")

</div>

From what I’ve seen, unless the magnetic field is strong enough to physically damage the device (such as being sucked out of your hand into the bore of an MRI scanner) you’ve got nothing to worry about.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800/4 "2011-12-02T13:58:15Z")

</div>

No, flash memory shouldn’t be affected unless you somehow warp the physical components. Really, magnetic drives are pretty resilient too, it takes some pretty powerful stuff (and by powerful I mean _very_ strong electromagnets) to reliably do anything of note to the data on a modern magnetic hard drive without smashing it with a hammer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-strong-magnet-damage-my-flash-memory-mp3-player/604800/5 "2011-12-02T15:04:39Z")

</div>

I suppose if you swept the magnet over the MP3 player very quickly, you might be able to induce electromagnetic eddy currents in the conductors inside the MP3 player. I don’t know how fast you’d have to do this to generate voltages high enough to damage the chips in the player.