There is provided an aerosol generating system comprising: a storage portion for storing an aerosol-forming substrate, an aerosol generating element for generating an aerosol from the aerosol-forming substrate, control circuitry in communication with the storage portion, and disabling means within the storage portion for rendering the storage portion inoperable in the aerosol generating system in response to a disable signal from the control circuitry. There is also provided a method in an aerosol generating system comprising a storage portion for storing aerosol-forming substrate, an aerosol generating element for generating an aerosol from the aerosol-forming substrate, control circuitry in communication with the storage portion and disabling means within the storage portion configured to render the storage portion inoperable in the aerosol generating system in response to a disable signal from the control circuitry, the method comprising: sending a disable signal from the control circuitry to the disabling means following a determination that an amount of the aerosol-substrate in the storage portion is below a threshold level or following a determination of a malfunction in the system.
