Help - I deleted my video cache on DJI Go 4!

[davidro77]

Hi everyone

New to the forum and hoping someone can help advise me.

I think I have got myself into a right mess with DJI Go 4 and all my drone footage.

I’ve been using the app with several mavics in the last few years, first a spark and then a mavic air. I have never downloaded footage to, or used a computer, only the app. I have used aircraft WiFi to download the ‘original’ full res videos to the app when making movies etc.

Recently the app became slow. I made a movie and tried to export it to Skypixel. The movie created but every time I hit share the app would instantly crash. I searched online for explanations and came across suggestions that I should free up space by deleting my video cache. So I tried it....and promptly realised I have deleted EVERYTHING I had. All footage gone and all projects unusable and uneditable as it just says ‘missing footage’.

Now I’m reasonably tech savvy so pretty p*ssed off with myself for being so stupid. But at the same time I simply cannot believe the app doesn’t warn you about the consequences of what you are about to do. I assumed this was just releasing cached space used to generate videos etc not that it would delete all my footage.

So what do I do now? I have read that possibly you can recover the cache by connecting to iTunes. But I use iCloud backup and have not synced for ages. So will this work? I checked iCloud and the app does not even come up on the list so I assume you cannot ever back up the app using iCloud.

I do have most of the footage on SD Cards somewhere, if I can find them! But now I’m thinking maybe my approach is all wrong and I should not be using the app in this way. Where do you guys store your footage? Do you download to computer and if so how do you get footage into the app to make movies with it?

Can I restore my projects with missing footage by simply reloading the missing footage to the app? How can I get it off the aircraft to the iPhone quicker than using WiFi?

Any help appreciate me as I’m feeling pretty fed up after making this mistake and feelings like I have wasted Hours and hours on creating projects I now can’t share. Plus I thought the days of being able to wreck everything with one click were over?

Thanks David

 

[THE CYBORG]

I always save to SD card & transfer to PC, never used the app to make movies so no help from me.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Is the use of recovery software applicable to this situation?

 

[Greekislandlover]

I can't answer on how / if you can get the data back, but this is my approach.

The first thing I do when I get home is to plug the drone into the PC and copy the files to a specific location. This location is covered by my automated backup. I will delete files from the SD card, but never until I have checked there are at least two copies on my system.

I think you might need to dig out those memory cards

 

[RonW]

Hi everyone

New to the forum and hoping someone can help advise me.

I think I have got myself into a right mess with DJI Go 4 and all my drone footage.

I’ve been using the app with several mavics in the last few years, first a spark and then a mavic air. I have never downloaded footage to, or used a computer, only the app. I have used aircraft WiFi to download the ‘original’ full res videos to the app when making movies etc.

Recently the app became slow. I made a movie and tried to export it to Skypixel. The movie created but every time I hit share the app would instantly crash. I searched online for explanations and came across suggestions that I should free up space by deleting my video cache. So I tried it....and promptly realised I have deleted EVERYTHING I had. All footage gone and all projects unusable and uneditable as it just says ‘missing footage’.

Now I’m reasonably tech savvy so pretty p*ssed off with myself for being so stupid. But at the same time I simply cannot believe the app doesn’t warn you about the consequences of what you are about to do. I assumed this was just releasing cached space used to generate videos etc not that it would delete all my footage.

So what do I do now? I have read that possibly you can recover the cache by connecting to iTunes. But I use iCloud backup and have not synced for ages. So will this work? I checked iCloud and the app does not even come up on the list so I assume you cannot ever back up the app using iCloud.

I do have most of the footage on SD Cards somewhere, if I can find them! But now I’m thinking maybe my approach is all wrong and I should not be using the app in this way. Where do you guys store your footage? Do you download to computer and if so how do you get footage into the app to make movies with it?

Can I restore my projects with missing footage by simply reloading the missing footage to the app? How can I get it off the aircraft to the iPhone quicker than using WiFi?

Any help appreciate me as I’m feeling pretty fed up after making this mistake and feelings like I have wasted Hours and hours on creating projects I now can’t share. Plus I thought the days of being able to wreck everything with one click were over?

Thanks David

As others have said, take SD card out of drone and copy video over to PC. Do not use the app.

 

[davidro77]

So do you guys not ever use Go 4 to create movies and upload to skypixel?

I’m not really interested in creating the next Hollywood blockbuster I just want to piece together little clips and share them and in that sense the Go 4 editor was doing its job.

What editor do you guys use to create your movies on the Mac? And do you ever load any footage back into Go 4 for this purpose? Do you guys leave caching switched into keep low res copies in the app or not at all?

thanks

 

[Camino Ken]

I copy the SD card to my iPad and use iMovie to edit, add titles, transitions, and render the 4K video. You could do the same on your Mac.

 

[RonW]

I use a PC, upload files and colour grade in Da Vinci Resolve. Then export to a Mavic video folder at same resolution, 3840x2160 @29.97fps.
I prefer D-Cinelike, auto WB, auto exposure. Use professional LUT’s made specifically for Mavic Pro, not sure where I got them now, google it.
This setup seems to work fine for what I want. Never use Go4 app for anything. (Litchi fan!)
Not interested in posting to YT.

 

[Facherty]

I copy the SD card to my iPad and use iMovie to edit, add titles, transitions, and render the 4K video. You could do the same on your Mac.

This is also my method, with two added details:
1. I connect my Mavic Air to the Mac using a single purpose USB-A to USB-C cable, permanently plugged into the Mac - I don't use the cable adaptor that comes with the power supply, since that is permanently plugged into the power adaptor, and usually charging my Remote Controller. That way I don't have to fiddle with removing the memory card and replacing it later on - it stays in the drone.
2. when I have transferred my files from the removable discs, and then dragged those discs to the wastebasket to ensure the files are closed and ejected, I turn the drone off. I then look at the files I have transferred to see if any of them are at the maximum length, and therefore indicative of a "break" in the captured movie. If so, I stitch them into one file using the method here (Merging Overlength Mavic Air Video Files on the Mac...) and rename to something more meaningful (for example, 40m flight over Blackwater Foot)


(Actually, as a final step, I delete any files that I won't watch again due to quality issues. Often I capture three versions (3 batteries!) of a Litchi mission, and I might as well choose the best one immediately. It's better than editing it in a few months, and having to watch all three again...)