DNG files are present in app, but not showing on card reader

[AdeptAir]

Problem?
When the drone is running, I can press the button for the image gallery and see all 184 of my DNG files from today through about 6pm. When I remove the SD card and plug it into my card reader, it looks as though I stopped taking pictures at 1:25pm and only have 17 images. Around this time I got a "slow SD card" warning from the drone and had to eject/re-insert, turn drone off/on and then it started working again. This is a 3 month old SanDisk Extreme Plus 256GB SD card. Where are these images and can I/how do I get to them? Is there an issue with the SD port in my drone? I had this issue with an older card that I thought might have been worn out after extensive usage, hence the new card, but now I'm not sure. I'm hoping someone has some insight into this because I'm going to have about 170 miles to re-drive if I can't sort this out.

Was unit in a crash?
No

What have you tried so far?
Removing/re-inserting card. Attaching drone to PC through USB (no effect)

What device are you using ( iphone , ipad, Samsung , etc)?
Google Pixel 9

What firmware are you running ( aircraft, remote controller)?
Not sure

What Go app version are you using?
I've been using Litchi for a while. Google play store stopped carrying DJI Go and my phone would shut down the app when I installed it directly from their webpage.

Any modification? (if so what)
No

Did you change anything or install any apps? (if so what)
No

Do you have a video or pictures of the problem? (if so post link)

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Felix le Chat]

What you're seeing in the filmstrip are the tiny thumbnail copies of the original image files present in the image cache in the GO4 flight app - the digital equivalent to an old photographic contact sheet, very low resolution and technically: ghost images.

Have a look in the flight app menu at the camera tab, scroll down to the 'format' section... What available capacity is the app reporting? (e.g: mine reads "..115.35gb out of 118.57gb..." which shows that my 128gb micro SD is 13gb short of its advertised capacity). Note that the drone doesn't even recognise the last 10gb of available card memory.

Don't bother connecting the drone to the PC, pop the microSD out of the drone and into a card reader, then using your PC/laptop Explorer see if the proper DNG+JPG's are on there.

DJI specs recommend a maximum capacity of 64gb and the maximum 'write' bitrate of the gen #1mavic pro is 60mbps so you don't really need a blisteringly 'fast' card.

I think this is down to one of two things:

a) the drone having difficulty using such a large capacity card, or:

b) the card being a duff one.

Addendum

If there is nothing you want to save on the microSD: you can also use your card reader and PC to run a read/write speed test. That'll tell you whether the card is operating properly.

If you want to check the microSD for recoverable data (stuff you can't see or access normally) there is a professional grade piece of software named Disk Drill. It is the same type as used by police and other investigation agencies - if there's anything lurking in the background... that app will find and recover it

 

[AdeptAir]

I checked the storage capacity and there was about 4GB taken up. So I bit the bullet and used Disk Drill and all the files were on there and recoverable as full size DNG's. Even the test picture I took at my desk today. But they would not show on my file explorer or photo software. So I have the drone writing these files to the disk but all of a sudden doing so in a way that makes them unreadable to my standard software. I've taken hundreds of pictures on this card with this drone over the last 3-4 months without issue. Do you think options 1 or 2 could still apply or do I need to get my drone hardware checked out?

 

[Felix le Chat]

I checked the storage capacity and there was about 4GB taken up. So I bit the bullet and used Disk Drill and all the files were on there and recoverable as full size DNG's. Even the test picture I took at my desk today. But they would not show on my file explorer or photo software. So I have the drone writing these files to the disk but all of a sudden doing so in a way that makes them unreadable to my standard software. I've taken hundreds of pictures on this card with this drone over the last 3-4 months without issue. Do you think options 1 or 2 could still apply or do I need to get my drone hardware checked out?

The free version of Disk Drill is limited to recovering only a certain number of megabytes (as a proof of worth feature).

I had an entire 1TB hard drive crap out on me that contained all my DNG originals from the last 6 years (most of them unrepeatable shoots) and after finding out that it worked, I happily paid the cost of the pro license.

The result was the full recovery of over 22,000 DNG's & JPG's in their original file formats... something I consider a worthwhile investment...

Give a detailed account of the steps you've taken to recover the data and if I possible, I'll steer you in the right direction if you've approached this from a 'first-time' user perspective. I'm no expert with Disk Drill: but I can get it to work.

 

[AdeptAir]

Oh, I already bought it and recovered all the files I needed. It worked perfectly. My question being: is it more likely a relatively new SD card went bad that quick or is something up with my Mavic where it's saving the files but in an unreadable state to a basic file explorer so that I have to recover them using Disk Drill? Or is it affecting my SD cards? Totally fair if you don't have an answer to that. I'm just trying to figure out if I need to look at repairs, a new drone and use the Mavic as a backup, or what. Bought a new, smaller card today and it worked fine, but this is the second card it's happened to.

You've already helped me out so much turning me onto Disk Drill and saving me another big trip, so I'm really thankful for that either way.

 

[Moozer]

Are you formatting the new cards in the drone the first time you use them? I found that has made my Mavics the happiest.

 

[AdeptAir]

Are you formatting the new cards in the drone the first time you use them? I found that has made my Mavics the happiest.

I can't say about the previous cards, but I for sure did on this new one!

 

[Felix le Chat]

Oh, I already bought it and recovered all the files I needed. It worked perfectly. My question being: is it more likely a relatively new SD card went bad that quick or is something up with my Mavic where it's saving the files but in an unreadable state to a basic file explorer so that I have to recover them using Disk Drill? Or is it affecting my SD cards? Totally fair if you don't have an answer to that. I'm just trying to figure out if I need to look at repairs, a new drone and use the Mavic as a backup, or what. Bought a new, smaller card today and it worked fine, but this is the second card it's happened to.

You've already helped me out so much turning me onto Disk Drill and saving me another big trip, so I'm really thankful for that either way.

You're welcome.

 

[BossBob]

I thought I’d have a look at Disk Drill until I saw that it was only a free trial version of an expensive paid for program. I’ve never paid for this kind of program and have always been able to recover all kinds of files from all kinds of media.