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Image recovery from crashed Mavic Pro 4 Creator internal storage

Bill Lazar

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Is there a way to recover images from this crashed drone's internal storage? I've tried connecting it with USB C cable to my computer, to no avail.

Thanks.
 
Is there a way to recover images from this crashed drone's internal storage? I've tried connecting it with USB C cable to my computer, to no avail.

Thanks.
The internal SSD should be accessible even without a battery on an undamaged drone, although I haven’t independently verified it, but if the USB C port internal connection to the SSD is damaged, all bets are off. In that case, you would have to open up the carcass, and try directly connect to the SSD, or remove the SSD for drive recovery service.

Oh, yeah. What happened?
 
I tried accessing it through the USB C port and could not get it to appear. But I put a battery in it and, surprisingly, it powered up. So now I've accessed the images and downloaded them. Thanks.

Drone destroyed by my being tired and careless. I was photographing some aspens in Utah and decided to fly to another grove across the meadow. Foolishly I neglected to gain altitude before using sport mode. It crashed at about 30-40 mph into a tall pine. I followed the Find My Drone map and found it completely destroyed. Arms broken, head and gimbal hanging separately by wires--a real mess. I have insurance, but I feel stupid and was just careless. Too tired after a week of sunrises and sunsets in Utah/Arizona on a wonderful drone photography workshop with Action Photo Tours. Got a bunch of images I am really pleased with.
 
Glad you at least recovered the images. Drones can be replaced. The unrecoverable images on them, not so much.

So, after powering up with a battery, were you then able to access the SSD through the USB C port, hooked up to a computer, using the same USB C cable as before?
 
No. For some reason my computer did not recognize it so I uploaded them to my phone. Now I am transferring them to my computer.
So the USBC port connection to the SSD remains disconnected even with battery power?
So the transfer to your phone was via BT?
Android phone or iPhone?
Haven’t been able to get the BT transfer to work for me, when using an iPad for the target device. It keeps erroring out.
What type of insurance did you manage to secure for it?
Where will you buy your replacement from?
 
I tried accessing it through the USB C port and could not get it to appear. But I put a battery in it and, surprisingly, it powered up. So now I've accessed the images and downloaded them. Thanks.

Foolishly I neglected to gain altitude before using sport mode. It crashed at about 30-40 mph into a tall pine.
I'm glad you were able to boot it up and recover your images, sucks the drone is pretty much totalled though.

So I've had a few close calls in Sport mode. I've also lost a few drones, mostly older ones where locate my drone failed or I wasn't able to find it for whatever reason or the drone just died out of nowhere. Once on a M1P, my controller died so I pulled out the spare RC and did not know that the 2nd Slave controller doesn't record the drones location. Drone battery started loosing voltage, I was able to land but but could not find it later. That was a learning experience..... Why they would ever do that I don't know. It's my understanding that it's still that way too. It was my first drone and I had it a week. Or I thought I was recording a shot when I wasn't. So I put these stickers on all my controllers. It helps! Especially if your distracted or someone talking to you or your tired or whatever. I just buy printable sticker paper and make them on my computer or phone.

RC Pro 2 Stickers.JPG

If you wanted to try and salvage it, since there's no DJI Care in the USA, I see that almost every single part for that drone is available on Amazon. If you want to try and order the parts and send it to a shop to repair if you think the parts it needs are less than a new drone. I wouldn't personally fix it unless the parts equal to or less than ⅔ of what you paid . More than that I would consider it totalled if I had to repair it myself. Claim the insurance and repair it or get a new 1.
 
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I tried accessing it through the USB C port and could not get it to appear. But I put a battery in it and, surprisingly, it powered up. So now I've accessed the images and downloaded them. Thanks.

Drone destroyed by my being tired and careless. I was photographing some aspens in Utah and decided to fly to another grove across the meadow. Foolishly I neglected to gain altitude before using sport mode. It crashed at about 30-40 mph into a tall pine. I followed the Find My Drone map and found it completely destroyed. Arms broken, head and gimbal hanging separately by wires--a real mess. I have insurance, but I feel stupid and was just careless. Too tired after a week of sunrises and sunsets in Utah/Arizona on a wonderful drone photography workshop with Action Photo Tours. Got a bunch of images I am really pleased with.
Ah yeah, Sport Mode, that's the mode to use if one is feeling cocky and invincible ( that's what someone else said to Me )
Live and Learn, hope you get a new one soon . :)
 
So the USBC port connection to the SSD remains disconnected even with battery power?
So the transfer to your phone was via BT?
Android phone or iPhone?
Haven’t been able to get the BT transfer to work for me, when using an iPad for the target device. It keeps erroring out.
What type of insurance did you manage to secure for it?
Where will you buy your replacement from?
I used a USB connection to my phone, not BT. But I had problems getting all the files to upload to Google Drive. So I used my in-the-field backup solution to download the images. I use a hub connected to my Android phone with an OTG cable. I connect the drone (powered up) to the hub. I connect an SSD to the hub. I connect a battery to the hub. The phone acts as a controller to copy files from one storage location to another. I use this to copy files from a shoot as we drive to the next shoot. That way I don't need a laptop to back up my images between shoots.
 
So the USBC port connection to the SSD remains disconnected even with battery power?
So the transfer to your phone was via BT?
Android phone or iPhone?
Haven’t been able to get the BT transfer to work for me, when using an iPad for the target device. It keeps erroring out.
What type of insurance did you manage to secure for it?
Where will you buy your replacement from?
I have Hiscox insurance on my camera equipment, but they have raised my rates a lot because I already lost 2 drones. I will (have already) get my new drone from Korea.
 
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