diff --git a/cpp/include/raft/core/device_container_policy.hpp b/cpp/include/raft/core/device_container_policy.hpp
index 30233b69e6..c706c69d6c 100644
--- a/cpp/include/raft/core/device_container_policy.hpp
+++ b/cpp/include/raft/core/device_container_policy.hpp
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
  * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (2019) Sandia Corporation
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2022-2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2022-2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause
  */
 /*
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@
 namespace RAFT_EXPORT raft {
 /**
  * @brief A simplified version of thrust::device_reference with support for CUDA stream.
+ *
+ * @note This proxy performs H2D or D2H transfer and a synchronization on the given
+ *       stream on every access.
  */
 template <typename T>
 class device_reference {
@@ -53,12 +56,14 @@ class device_reference {
     auto* raw = ptr_.get();
     value_type v{};
     update_host(&v, raw, 1, stream_);
+    raft::interruptible::synchronize(stream_);
     return v;
   }
   auto operator=(T const& other) -> device_reference&
   {
     auto* raw = ptr_.get();
     update_device(raw, &other, 1, stream_);
+    raft::interruptible::synchronize(stream_);
     return *this;
   }
 };
diff --git a/cpp/include/raft/core/device_mdarray.hpp b/cpp/include/raft/core/device_mdarray.hpp
index f7f564283c..65d30c66f8 100644
--- a/cpp/include/raft/core/device_mdarray.hpp
+++ b/cpp/include/raft/core/device_mdarray.hpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2022-2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2022-2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
  */
 
@@ -149,7 +149,9 @@ auto make_device_scalar(raft::resources const& handle)
 
 /**
  * @brief Create a device scalar from v
- * (async copy in the resource-provided stream).
+ *
+ * @note This function performs a H2D copy and implicitly synchronizes the resource's stream,
+ *       which impacts performance when there's unfinished work in the stream.
  *
  * @tparam ElementType the data type of the scalar element
  * @tparam IndexType the index type of the extents