Bought a Mavic Air 2S and it's a giant paper weight....

[VegasDronePilot]

Hi everyone.... so I already own a Mavic Air 2 and LOVE it! Decided to buy the Air 2S to add to my fleet. Bought it on 12/13/21 and the same day I went out to fly it. Got home, tried downloading the video and adding it to my video editor. The video file is corrupted and will not work. Lovely! I take it back to the store that I bought it and they sent it off to DJI for repair. I just got it back on 1/7/22. Flew it yesterday same thing even though DJI said the SD card reader was bad and they replaced it.

I'm at the point I have had enough of this and I'm going to have either DJI buy it back or dispute the charge on my credit card since the store has said that they do not do refunds which I think is BS. My credit card company already said they would dispute the card.

Has anyone else had this problem with the Air 2S? I have seen online others talking about this problem but all of the solutions out there are not working for me at all. I fly a lot and quite frankly the only thing I like about this drone is the distance it can travel. I'd love to hear from the community about this situation and I'm open to some ideas.... thanks!

 

[zeusfl]

What SD card are you using?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Couple things I would be checking:
Sd Card is bad
Reader is Bad
I would even check your editor and wipe the Preference file
Seems unlikely that this is a drone problem.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2S in the Rain.

 

[VegasDronePilot]

What SD card are you using?

Hi, I'm using a brand new San Disk Extreme Plus 128 GB card... it works fine in the Air 2....

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Hi, I'm using a brand new San Disk Extreme Plus 128 GB card... it works fine in the Air 2....

have you formated it with the Air 2S

 

[VegasDronePilot]

Couple things I would be checking:
Sd Card is bad
Reader is Bad
I would even check your editor and wipe the Preference file
Seems unlikely that this is a drone problem.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2S in the Rain.

Hi, I read from the drone to my computer.....then download the files directly to my desk top... no problems when I use the Air 2 and the SD card is brand new works with my Air 2....thanks for the info...

 

[VegasDronePilot]

have you formated it with the Air 2S

Hi, yes first thing when I put the SD card into it....

 

[VegasDronePilot]

Also, why did DJI replace the SD Card slot on the drone if it's a problem on my end?

 

[mschaffer66]

Seems highly unlikely that they would replace a bad reader with another bad reader.

Not replacing the reader and some sort of miscommunication that they did seems more likely.

Just a thought.

 

[slup]

...The video file is corrupted and will not work.

When do you notice that the file is corrupt ... when trying to play it on your computer or when loading it into your editor?

Do you film in H264 or H265?

Which editor do you use?

 

[VinceEdward]

Can you be more specific about what you mean that the file is corrupt? Is that your conclusion or are you getting a message in your editor it’s corrupt?

What are your file settings for recording?

Can you watch the recordings in the app?

 

[kerryp24]

As Slup asked... what format are you recording in. If you are doing H.265... note that the video card requirements to play that format is MUCH higher. If you are doing H.265, change it to H.264 and see if that makes the video playable. And if that does work... you need a NEW video card in your computer. I had to do it myself on a Dell XPS 8700 i7, because the video card wouldn't decode H.265.

 

[zeusfl]

@kerryp24 you have a good point. He maybe be experiencing problems with the H.265 instead of the being an SD card issue.

As other mention. Just try recording in your drone at H.264 instead of andthe let us know the result.

 

[Rubenc87]

I was reading and the only one that I hadn't thought of was replacing the video card. All things point to the card is being used on both the A2 and A2S. not sure if they are compatible. Not enough info other than corrupted file.

 

[zeusfl]

I was reading and the only one that I hadn't thought of was replacing the video card. All things point to the card is being used on both the A2 and A2S. not sure if they are compatible. Not enough info other than corrupted file.

There is nothing to do with the video card. In order to read a video file on H.265 format, you need a codec that Windows does not have from the stock windows image (Windows 10). You need to pay Microsoft $1 for it.

Here is a workaround. How to Install Free HEVC Codecs on Windows 10 (for H.265 Video)

Let us know.

 

[fguthrie]

@VegasDronePilot This may help you. I have found that if I format the SD card in the Air2S and then try and read the files from a card reader, the files are corrupt or I am just unable to read them. That sounds like what you are experiencing. What I am about to say may seem backwards, but it has worked for me on many flights. Format the card on your computer (not the Air2S) and then place it in the Air2S. Take some video and stills on the Air2S and then pop the card into your reader and I'll bet it will work. After I download the footage and stills, I delete the files off of the card and place the card back into the Air2S and I am ready to go again. I have been using this strategy successfully since I purchased it

I forgot once and formatted the card on the Air2S and quickly remembered as I could not read the card from my card reader. Oh, one last thought. I do notice my computer has to work harder to get the files off of the card, but it works every time.

 

[kerryp24]

@VegasDronePilot This may help you. I have found that if I format the SD card in the Air2S and then try and read the files from a card reader, the files are corrupt or I am just unable to read them. That sounds like what you are experiencing. What I am about to say may seem backwards, but it has worked for me on many flights. Format the card on your computer (not the Air2S) and then place it in the Air2S. Take some video and stills on the Air2S and then pop the card into your reader and I'll bet it will work. After I download the footage and stills, I delete the files off of the card and place the card back into the Air2S and I am ready to go again. I have been using this strategy successfully since I purchased it

I forgot once and formatted the card on the Air2S and quickly remembered as I could not read the card from my card reader. Oh, one last thought. I do notice my computer has to work harder to get the files off of the card, but it works every time.

Very STRANGE. I format my cards in the A2S all the time and they are perfectly readable on all my PCs. And in fact, DJI recommends you format the card IN the drone.

 

[zeusfl]

When you format the SD card in the drone, the folder structure is created. I always format my SD card in the drone each time I finish a project.

 

[sduck]

When you format the SD card in the drone, the folder structure is created. I always format my SD card in the drone each time I finish a project.

If you format the card on a computer instead of inside the drone, the file structure gets created automatically when you insert the card into the drone and power it on the first time. So that's not an issue.

 

[zeusfl]

If you format the card on a computer instead of inside the drone, the file structure gets created automatically when you insert the card into the drone and power it on the first time. So that's not an issue.

That is true as well.