Video and Photos Missing

[Etopsflight]

Guys

I had flown my MP minimum every week since Mid December accumulating over 100 flights and progressing well through the levels.

Having not flown her for two weeks due to weather and domestic commitments, I find myself on holiday for the most recent flight

I have a few 32Gb San Disk Extreme cards that I have been using since the start. No problems whatsoever before. So on holiday I accumulated a number of flights on one card over 3 days. I saw photos in the DJI GO 4 app but videos were not evident due to cache being full and the delete option not activated.

When I tried to transfer the files to my WD My Passport HDD, they did not appear. I then tried to download the files directly from the MP using the USB cable and there were no files on the card although I had taken videos and photographs.

I tried another card and the same result. I tried to format the next card and then success, the files were there. I was able to view these files no problem.

Believing it was purely a formatting problem, tried a 4th card that was formatted before took two more 20 minutes flights but and again no files were to be found on the card.

Why is this happening? I did have a firmware mismatch before my first flight but I did check at home the day before I flew. Does anybody know and has anybody else experienced this?

I am totally gutted as the shots I took, were of good quality. 70% of my flights on holiday missing and presumably lost forever.

Any comments regarding this particular problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Etops

 

[Filmscum]

This is odd. When you say "I tried to format the next card and then success, the files were there" I'm assuming you formatted a card in the Mavic then went and flew and everything was fine? And on the problem cards did you format them in the Mavic just as you did the one that worked? You then say you "tried a 4th card that was formatted before", when was it formatted and how? While you were shooting on the problem cards was the Mavic behaving normally, meaning getting the shutter sounds and spinning wheel with stills and the recording tones when starting and stopping? It seems you somehow have several corrupt cards but you said you have been using them all for some time. Very strange.

You say you see the photos in GO4 app, have you tried downloading the original files to your device (Mavic, controller and device powered on and choose download original file and it will do so wireless).

Man sorry I know the feeling of losing digital info it really stinks.

 

[Etopsflight]

Filmscum

Affirm, I formatted the cards while they were in the MP just after power up and before the flight.

The controller was making all the right sounds and tones for photo and video taking.

The download method I tried was connecting the MP with supplied USB cable to my MacBook while it was powered up. I can see the top folder on the card but once I click in, there are no files.

You mentioned downloading wirelessly, how do you do that?

I am going to stick the cards into my digital cam and take a few shots and then try to see if it stores content.

Biggest problem about losing the footage, I spent time and money travelling here to shoot, weather has been very good, my first time to shoot beach and island scenes and it's my first trip overseas with my MP!

It had been behaving very well until now, this is adding insult to injury!

Etops

 

[mfarris2]

I've had a similar situation with my new iMac. I have a 128Gb card and thought that might be the issue. What happened was a hard drive would appear on my desk top,...when I clicked onto it,....it would open and I would have no MP4's or jpg's. I would have to shut down my Mavic, and controller. Disconnect the USB cable. Then re-connect the cable and turn back on the controller and Mavic. A few times I had to do that twice. And then behold,.....the movies and pics would appear in the folder. I thought it was due to the possibility of using a 128GB card. If you find you can get it to work after attempting what I just informed you of,.....then it would appear that it is a glitch with some of the Mavic's,.......or the software within DJI Go 4 or our own Mac OS.
I think once I even had to restart my iMac and then reconnect everything.

 

[Etopsflight]

mfarris2

Thanks for the reply.

Previously I had been transferring the files direct to a WD My Passport Wireless Pro using the dedicated SD card slot with the San Disk adapter. Worked flawlessly before and was rather quick.

Bought the portable HDD for many reasons but it great for transferring MP content in the field.

I don't have high hopes of your suggestion working since no files were transferred to the device. However, will give it a go and report back.

Cheers
Etops

 

[mfarris2]

mfarris2

Thanks for the reply.

Previously I had been transferring the files direct to a WD My Passport Wireless Pro using the dedicated SD card slot with the San Disk adapter. Worked flawlessly before and was rather quick.

Bought the portable HDD for many reasons but it great for transferring MP content in the field.

I don't have high hopes of your suggestion working since no files were transferred to the device. However, will give it a go and report back.

Cheers
Etops

Good luck.

 

[Etopsflight]

mfarris2

Took my Mavic for 2 more flights along the beach this morning not long after dawn.

I have got some very weird red aliasing on my controller screen that does not show up on the video. I actually used the playback function for the very first time and could confirm the files are there.

After breakfast, just plugged my Mavic into my MacBook and low and behold, no files in the DCIM folder. However, with everything powered up, unplugged the USB cable and inserted again - NOW the files appear.

I am currently copying the files over which is estimated will take 14 minutes and will eat into my lipo power and waste time waiting for the lipos to recharge. This will also count as one charging cycle and reduce the life of the battery?

DJI - I am really hating this now. Luckily I have my portable hard disk and multiple SD cards with me but this manual file transferring is very inconvenient!

What has actually happened in the past two weeks to make this happen? Is it software or hardware issue?

Okay, I have just edited this post. The included Lexar 16Gb card was used this morning and the files have been retained. I tried downloading the files from the previous flights using my San Disks and the file thumbnails are there. Video files just show icon and photos show thumbnail of shot. No files can be opened, they are corrupted!

What am I looking at? A series of 4 or 5 San Disk cards ALL defective? I think the probability of that is extremely low!

Crappy-do! I have lost so much good footage.............spent so much time and money getting to these places by boat and motorbike and for almost no benefit. Hope nobody has this bad luck ever!

Cheers
Etops

 

[Filmscum]

Red aliasing on your controller? If you mean in the image on your iPad it is most likely focus peaking, look in general settings to see if it is enabled. If you're using the playback function it is playing back the images in your cache, not what's on your SD card. A Mavic just sitting on the table downloading files uses very little battery power, and I believe the battery needs to be below 50% to count in the charge cycles so I wouldn't worry about that. I'm confused what you mean by "manual file transferring"?

So you can now see all of your files but can't open them? If so your on a better track than your original post when you couldn't see any of them, or am I misunderstanding you? I agree the chances of all of your cards being defective is extremely low.

Have you tried a different USB cable or card reader by chance?

You asked me how to download wirelessly, as I mentioned power everything up (Mavic, controller, iPad) and go into editor where you can see the photos and videos in your cache. Tap on a photo and select download original file. It will download that file onto your iPad if it's a jpeg. If it's successful that will at least tell you that the info is indeed on your SD card. I haven't tried doing that with video files as they are really big.

 

[Etopsflight]

Filmscum

Did more research on the red aliasing and also realised it was peak focus setting although I have not confirmed yet.

Spending more downtime lying on the beach with the wife instead of with the Mavic woes.

Manually transfer, I meant by USB cable. I only brought the dedicated USB cable, once micro SD Card adapter and my WD My Passport Wireless Pro 2Tb.

I'm using 2 year old iPhone 6+, it's getting slow and not really wanting to load stuff onto it.

After my troubles started, I've only been able to save footage from the included Lexar SD Card. Even so, transferring by USB cable they did not appear immediately. It took one unplug and replug of the USB cable for the files to appear in the media file.

I think my WD portable HDD is playing up. It has a SD card slot and quick file transfer mode. Unluckily I have left the wifi password at home and cannot access the HDD to update firmware and alter the settings. Currently I have it set to transfer files then delete the files. With the current situation would prefer to just purely copy and check to see if the files have successfully been copied before I reformat the card in the Mavic.

May fly later if the weather holds up, very sunny now but rain expected in early to mid afternoon.

Cheers
Etops

 

[Etopsflight]

Guys

It would seem my Mavic Pro is ok and the problem lies with my WD My Passport Wireless Pro.

I flew a few more flights then found the files were in fact on the cards. However, I had to power up the drone first before the USB cable was connected otherwise a blank folder would appear. I always connect devices to the USB cable before powering up. Is this mentioned in the user manual?

Anyway, looks like 80% of my holiday footage is there. Thanks again for the replies and comments.

Cheers
Etops

 

[Filmscum]

Happy you got it sorted Etops!

 

[Etopsflight]

Filmscum

It's good news, need to check if my portable HDD requires a firmware update. Left the password at home and forgot to save the details on my phone.

I deleted the wifi connection so did not have wireless connection to it from day 2 of the holiday.

Will check this evening after I get home.

Cheers
Etops