Image recovery from crashed Mavic Pro 4 Creator internal storage

Bill Lazar · 2025-10-05T20:20:08-0400

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.

PyroProdigy · 2025-10-05T22:01:22-0400

Bill Lazar said:
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.

Does it power on at all?

& OH NO! How'd that happen?!

GadgetGuy · 2025-10-05T22:30:48-0400

Bill Lazar said:
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?

Bill Lazar · 2025-10-06T00:01:34-0400

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.

GadgetGuy · 2025-10-06T00:29:45-0400

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?