defect - WD Elements external hard drive errors with "not capable of SMART self-check"

[kageurufu]

I get the following error from smartd with one of my external drives, connected over USB.

Device: /dev/sdf [SAT], not capable of SMART self-check
Device: /dev/sdf [SAT], failed to read SMART Attribute Data

I am able to query using smartctl, execute short and long tests, and get the results

smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.10.40-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD140EDFZ-11A0VA0
Serial Number:    [redacted]
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 290c402e0
Firmware Version: 81.00A81
User Capacity:    14,000,519,643,136 bytes [14.0 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Thu Jun 24 11:59:23 2021 MST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled