Mavic 3 sd card problem

[St.]

Hello, I just completed filming my footage on my Mavic 3 and I turned it off, exported the battery and then exported the Sd card, which I inserted in my mac. Although every file is there, only a few of them have a specific amount of space used in the Sd card (the others occupy no more than 262KB) and only one is readable with quick time player or vlc (they are all of them d log files). Same in PC and media player, which says it does not support the file type. I read in a forum discussion that I should have exported the Sd card as the drone was on, to "close" the file. So, I inserted the card back in, powered on the drone and suddenly, the Sd card became "unavailable" as a storage option (see the photo below). I exported and reimported it in the drone, without any success. When exported, it says the Sd card slot is empty (as indicated in the attached photo), and when it is in, it is unavailable. Note that every time I was filming, first I was turning off recording and then I was landing and powering off the drone. After that, I cannot access the content of the Sd card through the app (which I could previously do), or my mac. Note that I am using a brand new Sandisk Extreme 256GB U3 V30 A2. Does anybody have any idea who to fix the problem? Shall I use SanDisk's RescuePRO Deluxe to recover the files (although they are not damaged)? I attach a screen shot of the files, as they appear in the finder. Thanks a lot!

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

It sounds to me like you have a corrupted SD card. I would try a repair utility to see if you can recover your data. Even if you can't recover the data, I would recommend re-formatting the card before you use it again and do a few test captures to verify that problem is resolved. Although it does not happen very often, SD cards can fail.

 

[St.]

When I use SanDisk's RescuePRO Deluxe it locates all the videos and says 0 corrupted files. However, I have not tried to extract them with this application, until I verify that I can not do it another (simpler) way. And the thing is that the sd card worked perfectly with DJI app, until I removed it and put it in my Mac to store the files.

 

[Pallidin]

When I use SanDisk's RescuePRO Deluxe it locates all the videos and says 0 corrupted files. However, I have not tried to extract them with this application, until I verify that I can not do it another (simpler) way. And the thing is that the sd card worked perfectly with DJI app, until I removed it and put it in my Mac to store the files.

Did you by chance forget to "Stop Recording" before powering-down the drone?
This can corrupt the file.
With the MA2, when one does that, all one needs to do is (with the drone powered OFF) re-insert the sd card, power-up everything, start recording for a few seconds, stop recording, power everything down, the eject the card and insert elsewhere. All is now good. Just delete the "few second recording"
Next time don't forget to stop recording.

Don't know if this recovery technique works for the Mavic 3, but it has for me with the MA2.

 

[St.]

Did you by chance forget to "Stop Recording" before powering-down the drone?
This can corrupt the file.
With the MA2, when one does that, all one needs to do is (with the drone powered OFF) re-insert the sd card, power-up everything, start recording for a few seconds, stop recording, power everything down, the eject the card and insert elsewhere. All is now good. Just delete the "few second recording"
Next time don't forget to stop recording.

Don't know if this recovery technique works for the Mavic 3, but it has for me with the MA2.

Thank you for your reply, but I don't think so. Or perhaps I did it, without remembering it. Anyway, I tried to re-insert the sd card and then the battery, I turned it on and I recorded for a few seconds, I stopped recording and then turned it off, without success. I will try it one more time though. I also used SanDisk's RescuePRO Deluxe to extract the files and I found in the sd card all the photos and the videos. I can view the photos without a problem but I can not play the videos, although they have their actual size in my SSD, where I copied them. QuickTime Player says it is not possible to open the file because it is not compatible and vlc does not play it.

 

[sbunting]

Sorry you had issues with your card, but it does happen, even when you do everything right. But if don’t do everything right then it will happen more often. So what is right to a computer?

When you are recording, the file is open. It stays open until you stop recording and the program closes the file. Removing the card while recording would likely corrupt the file and the file system.

Turning off the drone normally should cause an open program to close properly but whether or not an open file in the act of recording gets saved properly is not something I would count on.

You are using some words to describe removing / inserting MicroSD cards, importing and exporting. You use the same words for the battery, so I take them to mean insertion and removal.

An operating system (DJI uses Linux), uses mount and unmount to attach a card to its system. This occurs in the background if you insert or remove the card physically when the drone is off. Inserting when on is ok. Removing when on, results in an unclean dismount and results in problems quite often. Best to power down before removing card.

Mac is very rigid about having you eject a media card before removing it and scolds you if you don’t. Windows is much more tolerant on this, but should not be. Always best to eject before removing. Always!

Something a little weird with the SD card

Indeed, why reformat them at all? Today is my DJI FPV assembly day! In anticipation of this blessed event, I bought two new SanDisk Extreme 256 GB microSD cards, which I plan to pop into the drone and the goggles with no preliminary other than taking them out of the packaging. I can't imagine...

mavicpilots.com

All this and more is discussed at length in this thread. The location of the SD card in the Mavic3 is a pain to access with the battery in place. This is a blessing in disguise, perhaps even planned that way, but that’s giving too much credit. It almost forces you to have the battery out to insert or remove the card, which is a best practice In my opinion, as this ensures proper mounting and unmounting.

 

[St.]

The funny thing is that I do not remember switching off the drone and removing the sd card while recording. I can not be 100% sure of course, sometimes we do things we forget the minute after. But the question now is if I can view somehow the video files. This is the problem I have not solved yet. Note that while the sd card was on board, I could view or even download all the videos through the app. Once I recorded my footage, returned to the office with the drone switched off and removed the sd card, I could not view the video files anymore (except for one only). I had the same issue with photos, but SanDisk's RescuePRO recovered them all.

 

[sbunting]

Mac's disk utility has a pretty good 'first aid' function that will repair, usually, what's wrong with the media card file system structure, usually, without data loss. I'd try that first and that should render your disk readable again in both your Mac and your bird.

In the link above, in the other discussion, I reference a free tool, Access Data's FTK Imager. It's not a watered down or limited function tool, but rather a kick butt imaging tool. That said, it can see a file system structure when the operating system won't allow it to mount. Once 'mounted' inside the tool, you can export out files and folders, including 'recoverable' deleted files. It's a good tool to have on hand.

 

[St.]

Thank you very much for your suggestions, I'll try them and I'll be back with the outcome! Should I copy the content of the defective sd card to another one for security reasons before I try these tools? Access Data's FTK Imager works with Mac?

 

[sbunting]

Thank you very much for your suggestions, I'll try them and I'll be back with the outcome! Should I copy the content of the defective sd card to another one for security reasons before I try these tools? Access Data's FTK Imager works with Mac?

FTK Imager used to have a command line version that worked with Mac, but that has fallen by the wayside. I'm afraid FTK is a Windoze-based tool. I'd copy whatever you can first. If you can use a Windows machine, FTK Imager would allow you to make a bit-for-bit copy of the disk, preserving everything on it, good or bad. You can also do this in Disk Utility. Right or option click on the SD card in the left window and choose "Image from ... " where ... is name of disk. This will create a DMG or disk image of it, which is the best way to 'image' it in Mac.

 

[St.]

Update 1:
The SD card is not faulty, says Mac's Disk Utility. I used first aid to both Generic Storage and disk2s1, as seen below.
The SD card available space is huge. It should not be, I used more than a half of the whole memory to film with my Mavic.
Most of the files in the SD card do not seem to have any size (the number is close to zero, only a few KB).
Only when I used SanDisk's RescuePRO, I could retrieve in an external SSD the files in their actual size, but still they are not viewable.
I am going to use Access Data's FTK Imager to access the files in the SD card or view the retrieved files in the external SSD.