Hello.
I have a new external SSD Patriot Transporter Lite 2TB. When I first connected it to my laptop, in CrystalDiskInfo I noticed that Power Cycles value was 4 and Unsafe Shutdowns value was also 4. I figured that it was probably after the product have been tested in the factory.
A little bit later both of these values have risen to 9. Each time I properly closed the Windows 10 OS. There were no pending or ongoing operations regarding this SSD. There were no power failures. I did everything correctly. I'm a bit concerned though. These two values seem to increase after each shutdown. I'm worried that I'm shortening the lifespan of the drive. What if I need to use the warranty for another unrelated reason and the company will blame it on me and on Unsafe Shutdown SMART parameter.
Any thoughts?

Let me guess, you have an LGA 1700 motherboard.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I have an old model of Asus laptop. I think that the motherboard you've mentioned is dedicated for a desktop pc.
Yesterday I wrote to Patriot. Perhaps they will shed some light on the matter. There is another issue with Transporter Lite, because each power on cycle is counted twice.

I've just received a message from Patriot. They strongly recommend using "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" option every time before shutting down the computer. Doing so shouldn't increase the "Unsafe Shutdowns" parameter. Well, I won't be able to test this solution, because the drive went back to the store. It might however be a useful tip for someone with the similar problem.
I also have to give credit to the manufacturer. They promptly responded to my every question.

Right, but I doubt "Unsafe Shutdowns" is only affected by safe remove & ejects.
It remains to be seen.
I believe it's a relatively new SMART parameter, to me it's not important and it's related to unhandled buffer.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

See section 7.6.2 for an explanation of what happens on the host side during shutdown.

NVM Express Revision 1.3 May 1, 2017:
https://nvmexpress.org/wp-content/uploads/NVM_Express_Revision_1.3.pdf

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.