Alkaline batteries are the crappy ones that leak. Get the more expensive lithium batteries, or go full on rechargeable ones, and you can leave them in without worrying about your device getting ruined.

Somewhat related, I’m so annoyed that my USB 3.0 SATA adapter doesn’t pass S.M.A.R.T. data. Didn’t even think to check for such a deficiency. Just another thing to watch out for when buying these adapters.

I just use Firefox Sync. Works on all those platforms.