USB flash drive no longer mounts after renaming

A portable SSD is no less reliable than a portable HDD.
A USB stick is no less reliable than a portable HDD.

There's nothing wrong with using a USB stick as a go-between as long as you do not erase any original files until the USB stick copies have been copied to the other computer.
- So, when it fails, you have lost nothing.
- I still find it convenient to pass some particular files by USB stick, even though I have a network, so I adhere to the same discipline.
- One of my USB sticks was in daily use for a decade and is still working correctly.

As you are looking at improving your arrangements, I agree that transferring your files directly across your network instead of having a go-between would be an excellent improvement. I do the same.
- Instead of using any third-party syncing utility, I use the built-in RoboCopy command. If you decide to consider that then post back here when the time is ripe and I'll give you some relevant links for RoboCopy guidance.
- You can search TenForums for threads about syncing utilities. They are better than RoboCopy if your requirement is to sync both ways [as opposed to regarding one computer as the 'primary' and copying files from it one-way, as RoboCopy does].
- This one contains several links to syncing utilities Trying to Sync Data Between Two Windows 10 Systems w/ .bat Script

All the best,
Denis

My experience with drives of all types except ODD going back to MS-DOS 5 of the early '90s is that simple relabeling/renaming has no effect on use of the drives. However, there are times using sneaker net that a drive can be corrupted, sometimes by static electricity generated by what the user is doing. My wife killed a motherboard just by moving room to room then picking up the mouse to wake the computer.

decatron said:

I currently use FreeFileSync and manually Sync between drives, I will have a look into RoboCopy; that sounds interesting.

But do bear in mind what I said about RoboCopy & one-way working.
RoboCopy is fine for me because I treat the folders & files on my main computer as the primary copies and they get written to my secondary computers. If I do alter anything on the secondaries [which does not happen often], I copy them back to the primary computer separately [before the next RoboCopy run would overwrite them].

decatron said:

I am still considering the best method; my house is in need of repair which is holding up any potential wire-based networking options for now.

Understandable.
- Much will also depend on the nature of your internet connection.
- I ditched ethernet ages ago in favour of a WiFi network

- - My WiFi router does have ethernet connectors on it but they are not used.
- - Not all my computers have ethernet connectors.

- Even my internet connection is a WiFi one.

All the best,
Denis