Maximum uSD Card Size

[ScottTX]

Hi All,

I just bought a 400 GB SanDisk from Costco today for 50$, for my Mavic Air 2:



Even thought the Air 2 calls out a 256GB uSD as the largest disk that it will support, the 400 GB uSD seems to be recognized and can be formatted:

 

[Pallidin]

Huh. Wild for sure.
But, just because it can format doesn't necessarily mean it will be able to use past 256.
Let us know.

 

[DavidLee]

why such a large card?

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Why do you need such a large card. I only use 32 GB or 64 GB max. More than enough and change out frequently.
If you lost your drone with that amount saved it would come to quite a few hours of footage gone.

 

[ScottTX]

Why do you need such a large card. I only use 32 GB or 64 GB max. More than enough and change out frequently.
If you lost your drone with that amount saved it would come to quite a few hours of footage gone.

I like to treat my uSD card as "permanent storage". I.E. I don't typically remove it. I download the files via. the USB-C port on the Drone.

For 50$, having all of that storage is nice in the sense of not having to worry about running out.

I also always use the drones formatting utility, even though I have Ubuntu/Linux PC (and Windows) that will accommodate varied uSD file formats.

Finally, only using a small part of the uSD cards capacity makes the uSD card last longer as most uSD cards these days use wear leveling which pushes the write endurance way up if you only use a (small) portion of the uSD cards total capacity.

I do get the "lost drone = lost media" perspective...

 

[GadgetGuy]

I like to treat my uSD card as "permanent storage". I.E. I don't typically remove it. I download the files via. the USB-C port on the Drone.

For 50$, having all of that storage is nice in the sense of not having to worry about running out.

I also always use the drones formatting utility, even though I have Ubuntu/Linux PC (and Windows) that will accommodate varied uSD file formats.

Finally, only using a small part of the uSD cards capacity makes the uSD card last longer as most uSD cards these days use wear leveling which pushes the write endurance way up if you only use a (small) portion of the uSD cards total capacity.

I do get the "lost drone = lost media" perspective...

Do you download the new files after every flight, when changing batteries? If not, the size of the card isn't the problem.

 

[ScottTX]

I download them "as required" I get it that a 400 GB uSD card is overkill.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I download them "as required" I get it that a 400 GB uSD card is overkill.

It's not overkill, as long as you only use it for backup purposes. The size of the card is really irrelevant otherwise. If you care about your footage, you should either download from the card after every flight, or swap cards, regardless of the card size. Otherwise, you risk losing your only copy of your prior footage, by sending it off into the national airspace, which is really not intended for storage.

 

[Meta4]

Otherwise, you risk losing your only copy of your prior footage, by sending it off into the national airspace, which is really not intended for storage.

That's a different kind of cloud storage?

 

[GadgetGuy]

That's a different kind of cloud storage?

Definitely! Not a good backup! LOL!

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

My self I still can’t see the purpose. It’s like getting a 1 TB hard drive on your computer and only using 250 GB to make it last longer.
USD cards, flash drives, SSDs etc have come a long way in just a few years.
My preference is still to use say 64 GB usd card and change out each flight.
Download to file on computer, format card in drone then go again.
I think the drone will wear out before the card will.
My preference though.
It doesn’t affect your flying anyway no matter what size you use, so your choice.

 

[ScottTX]

The official DJI reply is that this 400 GB uSD card is not on their official "blessed list"


However when I brought it to their attention that Costco is selling this uSD card as the "Drone" accessory for the Mavic Mini 2 drones that they are selling, they said they would bring this to the attention of their engineering group.

 

[PAW]

As I often point out to my wife, size doesn't matter...

 

[BigAl07]

I fully understand your thought process but from someone who lost a day's worth of VERY valuable footage I can tell you that having any important DATA on the bird is a huge risk. Now we swap out the SD card with every battery change period. It's a bit of a hassle to manage a dozen SD cards but much better than losing several hundreds of dollars worth of DATA due to a Uh Oh moment.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I fully understand your thought process but from someone who lost a day's worth of VERY valuable footage I can tell you that having any important DATA on the bird is a huge risk. Now we swap out the SD card with every battery change period. It's a bit of a hassle to manage a dozen SD cards but much better than losing several hundreds of dollars worth of DATA due to a Uh Oh moment.

Same here! CostCo is definitely encouraging very poor workflow practices by including such a large card, instead of multiple 64GB or 128GB ones!