Help - Can View Images on Micro SD card - PC no longer recognizes card

[cjonesmn]

I've got a brand new 128mb SanDisk Extreme card for my Mavic 2 Pro. I formatted this card using DJI Go 4 and I've been able to download images from my M2P to my PC for the past few days. Today though that exact same process resulted in a "Please Reformat Card" message when I try to access this drive from my PC.

The images seem to still be on the MicroSD card (they can be viewed via DJI Go 4 app). Any suggestions for how I could get these images transferred to my PC without reformatting the MicroSD card?

 

[jzilla80]

Well, Id say that your PC isnt liking the possible fragmentation within your SD cards file system.
IIRC, your AC formats in exFAT, whereas your PC is likely running NTFS, which have different allocation sizes, among other differences, that over time, recording files to your SD card, then transfering them to your PC can, after several cycles of this w/o formatting the card, using Go4 again, these fragments will start to cause issues on a different system.

Question: How often do you format your SD card after transferring files from SD to your PC? Every time, every month, never?
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EDIT: just realized this is a brand new SD card... You may have a defective Sd card. The ONLY SD card I ever had an issue with was the exact same brand/size/type as you mentioned, but it was in a Fire Tab... I couldnt add files, I couldnt delete, I couldnt format, nothing. I found out it had 8 bad sectors (using free PC partition software - easy to find/ use) and I only had that card for about 3 weeks.

I'd return the card! but the below wireless method should still get your files to your PC, by way of an android or apple device... Sorry some of this post wont apply to your situation. I shouldve read more carefully!

Just to confirm: your usual process of transferring these files to your PC was by way of removing SD from AC and installing into PC port for SD cards right?
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Your best bet to access these files for storage, is to use your AC (w/ SD installed) and wirelessly transfer these files to your device that is hosting the RC. It'll require an additional step of transfer to get the files to your normal PC, and more time (especially, if theyre 4K video files) but the wirelessly transferred files SHOULD come through cleanly (ie: the file system issue wont transfer with them).

This process is quite simple.
With SD installed in AC and your RC w/ Device (w/ enough space to hold SD contents) all powered on (make sure your Batt is all charged up) go into file gallery within Go4 (bottom right), up on top, select SD card, then click on file (youll have to transfer individually - no batch txfr function, I dont think?), find the arrow symbol, then click it. There should be some indication via a bargraph, etc... Do that for each file.

In your Device, those files will be under the 'DJI' folder => 'dji.go.v4' => 'DJI_RECORD' (I think?)
Thats it for that.

Now, I definitely recommend that you format that SD thru Go4, with SD in AC.

If you face issue like this again, or you normally DO always format your card, then I'm not sure what your issue might be. You might need to buy an external hard drive, format that drive to the same file type as your AC, and then use your PC to transfer those files on your SD directly to your new hard drive, but this is all speculation.
I hope you dont have any further issues.

 

[tesohn]

Just use an external card reader. the ones that you can buy for $1, they work great

 

[cjonesmn]

Just use an external card reader. the ones that you can buy for $1, they work great

I tried that with an older reader I had, but same issue ("please format your card"). I'm going to the store today to get a reader that's specific to a microSD. Hope that works... I don't like the thought of having to remove the card each and every day in order to get images off it (for my clients), but if that's what's needed, so be it.

 

[cjonesmn]

1. Well, Id say that your PC isnt liking the possible fragmentation within your SD cards file system.
...
2. Question: How often do you format your SD card after transferring files from SD to your PC? Every time, every month, never?
...
3. Just to confirm: your usual process of transferring these files to your PC was by way of removing SD from AC and installing into PC port for SD cards right?
...
4. Your best bet to access these files for storage, is to use your AC (w/ SD installed) and wirelessly transfer these files to your device that is hosting the RC.
--------
4. Your best bet to access these files for storage, is to use your AC (w/ SD installed) and wirelessly transfer these files to your device that is hosting the RC.

Thank you jzilla80. In terms of your above comments...
1. That makes sense.
2. I'm a new pilot, 1st drone. I formatted three shoots ago and did not have any issues. It does make sense to reformat after each download.
3. I have NOT been removing the SD, but rather connecting my PC to the drone via the USB-C Port. This worked for the prior three downloads I had done, although my PC was recognizing two "drives" on the SD card, "H" and "I" ("G" is my DVD drive). The images were on "I".
4. The downside with the wireless approach is that I would have to download each file one-by-one. This is going to be really challenging considering the number of images I will be shooting as a commercial pilot.

 

[Mark_Y]

I've got a brand new 128mb SanDisk Extreme card for my Mavic 2 Pro. I formatted this card using DJI Go 4 and I've been able to download images from my M2P to my PC for the past few days. Today though that exact same process resulted in a "Please Reformat Card" message when I try to access this drive from my PC.

The images seem to still be on the MicroSD card (they can be viewed via DJI Go 4 app). Any suggestions for how I could get these images transferred to my PC without reformatting the MicroSD card?

On my windows 10 pc after the last windows updates I could not read SD cards. After installing the latest drivers for my card reader I can read SD cards again.

 

[cjonesmn]

...an update. A new microSD card reader did not solve this issue. I ended up having to reformat the microSD card (lost the images I shot) and will reformat this card (via DJI Go 4) each and every time I download images to be safe. If anyone has fail-safe solution to this issue (PC occasionally not recognizing a microSD card) let me know.

 

[Bob001]

You really shouldn't have to re-format if things are working as they should. I have the Smart Controller and images are radioed to it when they are taken and I download from the SD card in it, but I have as yet to see any "re-format" messages. Prior to using the SC, I was removing the Mavic 2 SD card each time but that is a pain. I tried plugging into the Mavic USB port but could never get it to work, but in the meantime mastered using the SC so now I just leave the Mavic alone (its SD card is a backup to the SC) and get my photos from the SC via its USB output on the bottom. The file names are in Mavic scrambly (seemingly random file numbers) so I have to resort them by the tag data for original order, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this method. I realize that you need the SC to do this which probably isn't your case.

I would forego the formatting and the next time this happens, pull the card and get your photos using a card reader. If they aren't in the DCIM folder as they should be, something is going on that shouldn't be. Don't alter any files or folders while you have the card out because that may lead to the need to reformat. Use the file manager in the controller for that.

 

[cjonesmn]

...
I would forego the formatting and the next time this happens, pull the card and get your photos using a card reader. If they aren't in the DCIM folder as they should be, something is going on that shouldn't be. Don't alter any files or folders while you have the card out because that may lead to the need to reformat. Use the file manager in the controller for that.

Well, even if I pulled the card and used a reader I was still getting the reformat card message when I lugged the reader into my PC. That said, I'm now able to to connect to the USB-C port on the Mavic and download photos to my PC directly... at least for the time being.

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened. I use my drone for client work and I just can't have these types of failures. I'm not sure how the microSD card lost it's formatting, but I was able to view the photos I shot that were on that card. I just couldn't retrieve them, no matter what I tried because the card was unrecognized by my PC.

 

[jzilla80]

Sorry you had to lose your files.

If your going to keep using this card, I recommend downloading the official 'SD Formatter' application from SDcard.org on your PC and using that once to format this SD card.

Before next professional use, FILL UP your card with useless footage, I'd go with 4K-30/H265 for its larger file sizes. Just record anything, but try to make it something dynamic, moving, with activity, instead of a staring at the wall...
Then format using this app. Make sure to select 'OVERWRITE FORMAT' checkbox!
This will run a deep format, where it overwrites every sector with 'zeros' instead of the standard format where it just deletes files and folders, much more shallow of a format. I know it might sound like the same thing but it really is more thorough and much more likely to remove whatever issue your SD had before. This will take a few hours, but its your best chance at having a successful SD card.

If this method reports back that it cant format the drive, this SD card is definitely bad.

If it passes, then this issue is not likely to reoccur!

After this, reformat again using your Mavic/Go4, so its back to its designed file system.

Truly though, you'd save yourself some time and maybe some agony by just getting new SD cards, but the 64GB size, as those seem to fail less often, than the larger capacity ones, likely because the smaller sizes have been around much longer, thus more perfected, and because 128GB is the max size that the M2 will take, which makes it more difficult for it to read/write to.

I wish you luck!

 

[cjonesmn]

...
Truly though, you'd save yourself some time and maybe some agony by just getting new SD cards, but the 64GB size, as those seem to fail less often, than the larger capacity ones, likely because the smaller sizes have been around much longer..
..

I appreciate the suggestion jzilla80 and will give that a shot. BTW, the only reason I went with the 128GB was because it was recommended by someone who is really familiar with the Mavic 2 Pro. I might reach out to them to see if they've heard of this issue. Thanks again!

 

[GeraldV]

This software has saved my images/videos in the past due to card corruption. A bit late now for OP but worth having in your PC's toolkit. It's free so nothing lost giving it a go:

PhotoRec

 

[W2EJ]

You really shouldn't have to re-format if things are working as they should. I have the Smart Controller and images are radioed to it when they are taken and I download from the SD card in it, but I have as yet to see any "re-format" messages. Prior to using the SC, I was removing the Mavic 2 SD card each time but that is a pain. I tried plugging into the Mavic USB port but could never get it to work, but in the meantime mastered using the SC so now I just leave the Mavic alone (its SD card is a backup to the SC) and get my photos from the SC via its USB output on the bottom. The file names are in Mavic scrambly (seemingly random file numbers) so I have to resort them by the tag data for original order, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this method. I realize that you need the SC to do this which probably isn't your case.

I would forego the formatting and the next time this happens, pull the card and get your photos using a card reader. If they aren't in the DCIM folder as they should be, something is going on that shouldn't be. Don't alter any files or folders while you have the card out because that may lead to the need to reformat. Use the file manager in the controller for that.

The full, high resolution images are not on the Smart Controller. They are only on the SD card on the drone itself. You can get them to the computer by connecting the drone to the computer with the drone powered on, or by removing the card from the drone and putting it in a card reader.

 

[Bob001]

I beg to differ. With my Smart Controller (“SD card” selected and “Autosync HD Photos” ON in
the camera controls menu) images captured by the aircraft are mirrored on the Smart Controller.
Actually, three different resolutions are present on the SC, two of which are thumbnail quality,
but the full resolution images are available on the SD card at: \DJI\dji.go.v4\DJI Album (the
other two lower resolutions go elsewhere). I compared one of these to the image on the aircraft
SD card and they are pixel for pixel identical (and 5472x3648 pixels in size). They also contain
the EXIF information of those on the aircraft.

I had a hard time finding these at first and DJI was not much help, escalating my request for information, but I did manage to sort it out before DJI got back to me. Their file system doesn't make too much sense to me but maybe they know something I don't.

Just for my own use, I usually move these to individual folders with date info as labels into the
DCIM folder on the SC leaving the DJI Album folder empty for the next day’s work. That way, I
have all my shots in the DCIM folder organized by date (avoiding the jumble of funky labels that
the SC assigns the original shots when they are mirrored).

The full, high resolution images are not on the Smart Controller. They are only on the SD card on the drone itself. You can get them to the computer by connecting the drone to the computer with the drone powered on, or by removing the card from the crone and putting it in a card reader.

 

[W2EJ]

I beg to differ. With my Smart Controller (“SD card” selected and “Autosync HD Photos” ON in
the camera controls menu) images captured by the aircraft are mirrored on the Smart Controller.
Actually, three different resolutions are present on the SC, two of which are thumbnail quality,
but the full resolution images are available on the SD card at: \DJI\dji.go.v4\DJI Album (the
other two lower resolutions go elsewhere). I compared one of these to the image on the aircraft
SD card and they are pixel for pixel identical (and 5472x3648 pixels in size). They also contain
the EXIF information of those on the aircraft.

I had a hard time finding these at first and DJI was not much help, escalating my request for information, but I did manage to sort it out before DJI got back to me. Their file system doesn't make too much sense to me but maybe they know something I don't.

Just for my own use, I usually move these to individual folders with date info as labels into the
DCIM folder on the SC leaving the DJI Album folder empty for the next day’s work. That way, I
have all my shots in the DCIM folder organized by date (avoiding the jumble of funky labels that
the SC assigns the original shots when they are mirrored).

I just did a test to see what the story is here. I shot an 8 second video. The file on the Smart controller SD card was 11,267 Kb. The file of the same video on the SD card from the M2P was 115, 971 Kb. "SD card" was selected as was "Autosync HD Photos" on the SC.

 

[Bob001]

We probably should pull this discussion of file locations to a separate thread. It doesn’t relate to
the OPs original question about data loss on their SD card. I originally mentioned the Smart
Controller as an alternate means to retrieve image data (as opposed to pulling the aircraft SD card
each time data is retrieved) should the pilot have the SC option. It not only eliminates the risk of
pulling and reading the aircraft card multiple times, but also provides a second set of image files
as a backup (which are available even if the Mavic crashes & burns before a shoot is finished).

That said, are you certain you’re looking at the DJI Album folder and not the CACHE_IMAGE
folder? The latter holds lower resolution images and that probably applies to video as well. I don’t
know where video goes in terms of the SC memory (I haven’t used my Mavic 2 for video yet) so
what I said about (still) images might not apply to video. Also, file size doesn’t necessarily relate
to image or video resolution (though it’s an indirect indicator thereof). There can be meta-data
involved which bloats file size and if that’s stripped off, the file size will diminish though image
resolution remains the same. That could be what’s happening in your case. The information I
finally got from DJI didn’t mention any resolution change. I know for a fact that still images are
identical though I didn’t look at file sizes in the comparison, and it is possible that DJI handles
video files differently.

Note: I’m going to open a new thread on SC files and file locations if you want to continue this
discussion which is pretty worthwhile for those who have the SC and are trying to obtain their
images or videos using them directly. The new thread is located at:

DJI Smart Controller Files and File Locations

 

[cjonesmn]

This software has saved my images/videos in the past due to card corruption. A bit late now for OP but worth having in your PC's toolkit. It's free so nothing lost giving it a go:

PhotoRec

Thanks GeraldV. I've had the same issue happen a second time, BUT was able to use PhotoRec to recover those files. For what it's worth I had been re-formatting my SD card after each download, but did miss a day. This is when the issue popped-up again.

I'm now going to try jzilla80's recommendation (to use the official 'SD Formatter' application from SDcard.org) and see if that helps.

 

[Thomas B]

FWIW, I never reformat the SD card, including when it’s brand new. I do remove from the drone and insert it in the card reader on my computer to transfer the files. After I dL the files, I just delete the files downloaded from the mounted SD card, empty computer trash, and reinsert card in the drone. This has never failed me.

 

[Bob001]

Another free program for retrieving disk information is "Disk Drill". It's fairly simple to use and brings up lost files that don't show in the directory. I just used it to recover a file I accidentally deleted and it got all the info less one file that had been overwritten.

I really don't think re-formatting your SD card is the answer. Are you removing it without using "eject" at any time? In some systems, that can corrupt the data. For the Mavic aircraft, the power must be off when the card is removed to be safe. I always use eject on my SD cards even though newer systems (like mine) are supposed to be auto-eject. Also, if you put a larger card (64GB+) in some older machines, they can corrupt data.

 

[cjonesmn]

FWIW, I never reformat the SD card, including when it’s brand new. I do remove from the drone and insert it in the card reader on my computer to transfer the files. After I dL the files, I just delete the files downloaded from the mounted SD card, empty computer trash, and reinsert card in the drone. This has never failed me.

Well... good for you. I prefer NOT having to remove a memory card from any device I shoot with just because I've already had the slot on one of my cameras go bad, likely due to wear and tear (I shoot daily and download nightly). I would much rather download directly from the device if possible.