Improper Turn Off Sequence of Mini 2 Can Corrupt Photos/Videos?

[DroneSolutions]

Will fly my Mini 2 for 1st time tomorrow...temps in 50's Chicago suburbs. My understanding of the turn on sequence is: Drone, Remote, Connect Cable, and turn on Fly App.

This afternoon, I read 'somewhere' in the manual that turning the system off in the wrong order can corrupt pictures/videos. Of course, now I can't give you the page number so you can refer to what I read. The only remotely relevant post was Reporter23 having a file overwritten on a Mavic 2 Pro with improper turn off sequence.

First of all I don't know why I need to worry about corrupting photos/videos with an improper turn off sequence since I would never turn off anything before performing a Quick Transfer procedure and will configure
FLY>Camera settings to:
Sync Downloaded Files to Phone Album: ON
Auto Sync HD Photos to: ON
Cache When Recording:ON

But, I still have a the question: Is there a proper turn off sequence for the Mini 2 after flying? It's hard for me to believe that the system is so sensitive that I need to turn off in a particular order. But since anyone who has flown the Mini 2 once has more experience than I do, I will defer to everyone else. Thanks.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Will fly my Mini 2 for 1st time tomorrow...temps in 50's Chicago suburbs. My understanding of the turn on sequence is: Drone, Remote, Connect Cable, and turn on Fly App.

This afternoon, I read 'somewhere' in the manual that turning the system off in the wrong order can corrupt pictures/videos. Of course, now I can't give you the page number so you can refer to what I read. The only remotely relevant post was Reporter23 having a file overwritten on a Mavic 2 Pro with improper turn off sequence.

First of all I don't know why I need to worry about corrupting photos/videos with an improper turn off sequence since I would never turn off anything before performing a Quick Transfer procedure and will configure
FLY>Camera settings to:
Sync Downloaded Files to Phone Album: ON
Auto Sync HD Photos to: ON
Cache When Recording:ON

But, I still have a the question: Is there a proper turn off sequence for the Mini 2 after flying? It's hard for me to believe that the system is so sensitive that I need to turn off in a particular order. But since anyone who has flown the Mini 2 once has more experience than I do, I will defer to everyone else. Thanks.

This is more related to the Photos not finishing rendering and the card becomes corrupt because of it. The fix has been to simply put the card back into the drone and turn it on and let it finish the format and processing of the card.

There really is no special order, they all work.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Min 2 in the Pouring Rain. , Land on the Water

 

[Meta4]

But, I still have a the question: Is there a proper turn off sequence for the Mini 2 after flying? It's hard for me to believe that the system is so sensitive that I need to turn off in a particular order.

This is a common issue with many video devices, not just your drone.
It won't corrupt your videos, but unless the file has been properly closed, you won't be able to play them.
All you need to do is make sure that you stop videoing before you power the drone off.
Don't power off the drone until after you've stopped videoing.

 

[Tufargon]

This is more related to the Photos not finishing rendering and the card becomes corrupt because of it. The fix has been to simply put the card back into the drone and turn it on and let it finish the format and processing of the card.

There really is no special order, they all work.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Min 2 in the Pouring Rain. , Land on the Water

Indeed, normally starting then stopping a new video after re-inserting the card ends/finalizes the previous video. If this was caused by not finalizing the video it will only happen to the last video made because each time you open and finalize another video it shoud fix the previous one. It will show as corrupt with some kind of error.

 

[Fizzbang]

If you have corrupt files on the SD card.

1. Reinsert the card in the drone
2. switch on the drone
3. start to record a short video.
4. stop recording.
5. switch off the drone.

now check the files.

 

[zetetic]

I've powered down the Mini 2 before pressing the button to stop recording. Those videos have so far still been on the SD card, but have required post-processing to get them to work. If anyone requests it, I'll find my post processing method and upload the deets (there's a free kludge that works).

 

[aeciolemos]

I have done this several times. I forget to turn off recording and shutdown the drone. Usually turning the drone back on and waiting (30sec according to the manual) does the trick. If not, maybe you can follow the steps in this thread. I have not had to try them yet, but it seems to work.

Corrupt DJI video files need repair?

Repairing Corrupt DJI Video Files Sometimes, if you accidentally power off your DJI quadcopter (Phantom, Mavic, Spark, or Inspire) before stopping video recording, you'll be left with a file that's corrupt, and cannot be played. The user manual advises: "Keep or place the Micro-SD card back...

mavicpilots.com

I actually did that yesterday and I was crossing my fingers for the file not to turn out to have been corrupted, and luckily, it is fine.

 

[EpicFlight]

This problem has been around forever, and there is a dirt‐simple solution that DJI refuses to implement: Split the file at motor stop. That way it keeps recording, but if you lose part because of this issue, it's the part you almost always don't care about.

 

[aeciolemos]

That would be a good solution as well, @EpicFlight, but I think another idea would just be to automatically stop the recording when the power button is on, as part of the shutdown sequence. That would seem logical to me. After all, it is not a "hard" power button that just cuts out the power to the drone's circuits. It is a "soft" button that send a signal and then the drone initiates shutdown.

The only other scenario I would see my suggestion being a problem is if you remove the battery before shutting down or stopping the recording or if your battery actually draines and the drone actually cuts off due to total lack of power, but these two scenarios seem, to me, to be a bit radical. I for one never fly the drone to exhaustion of batteries or remove the battery before shutting down the drone.

 

[DroneSolutions]

I apologize for not responding sooner. I was dealing with a non-covid related long-term virus. All of your comments are really appreciated and make sense. I will update my post-flight checklist before turning off the Mini 2 and also have solutions if I forget to do this.

 

[Clintoops]

I find that I just switch to photos mode before landing that way I'm not recording just take a picture done

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I think the important thing to take from this is to stop the recording of video BEFORE you switch the drone off.
Everything after stopping the recording is a matter of personal choice but my sequence is then, drone first then the controller and then the app. The phone stays connected to the controller until pack up.
My reason being, the drone is still sending out data whilst switched on and the controller is passing some of it to the phone/app as a DAT log.
It might also have the added advantage that it prevents something unimaginably wierd happening and the drone going haywire.
Conversely the drone is the last to be switched on as I see little point in wasting its battery whilst I set up the rest of the equipment.

 

[ThatBeardedDroneGuy]

This has me curious. I noticed that I had one video yesterday that was corrupt and I can't figure out how. Maybe I was recording when I shut it down and didn't realize it. At least I know to be more aware now.

 

[EpicFlight]

I find that I just switch to photos mode before landing that way I'm not recording just take a picture done

Yeah, but if you can remember to do that, just remember to stop recording

 

[SethB]

This has me curious. I noticed that I had one video yesterday that was corrupt and I can't figure out how. Maybe I was recording when I shut it down and didn't realize it. At least I know to be more aware now.

To confirm, and likely get that clip:
put the card back in the drone,
power up,
start video recording,
stop video recording,
power down,
have a look!

 

[ThatBeardedDroneGuy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

@SethB, WTH? That worked! Thanks for the tip!

 

[ashyt16]

Never get this issue in Litchi and why I use it exclusively. I was forever forgetting to start or stop record.
Why DJI cannot put a simple auto record option in the settings, like Litchi, is beyond me.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

@SethB, WTH? That worked! Thanks for the tip!

Is far as I know it is not necessary to start and stop a new recording to fix a corrupted one, all that is necessary is a drone power on, boot and subsequent shut down. The only caveat is that the card should not have been 'messed with' and the drone not powered up with out the card or with a different card.
When I forget to press stop recording before shutting the drone down I normally remember as the drone is actually shutting down so I wait for the shut down to finish then switch the drone on again etc. etc.,