No SD Card - Can't Format any SanDisk Cards

[BlueAngels]

I have read through as many posts as possible but haven't been able to find anything regarding this problem.
I'm running DJI Go4 with a Mavic 2 Pro...all latest updates installed. I have tried two separate San Disk Micro SD cards installed in the drone. When trying to format it simply shows in Bold Red "No SD Card" I can't imagine both cards are unusable. Any Assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

You're putting the SD card in the aircraft body, not the controller, correct? (I believe the Smart Controller takes SD cards. You don't want to put your main SD cards in the controller.)

If so, I would try formatting them in a computer to see how that goes. Use the exFAT file format.

The old wives-tale of "never format your cards anywhere but in the drone" is one you can ignore. I mean, if it makes you feel better, then go ahead and always format in the aircraft. But in THIS case, it's a reasonable thing to check.

The M2P still recognize a valid SD card I would think regardless of file system, but this is worth trying.

Chris

 

[waltermitty]

what s/he said. also, using the SD adapter can yield sporadic performance as they're known to be glitchy. always try to load the memory card direct into the appliance if you can. also, keep multiple SD card adapters on hand as you may find one works and another one, not. nature of those beasts

(using the adapter requires the micro SD contacts to match directly with the SD adapter contacts....which in turn make full contact with the appliance (e.g drone, camera, computer etc). better to take out the middleman if you can

 

[db4476]

Interesting..... Sandisk is very reliable. If it is not the actual card then it is a hardware issue, either the Chip select pin (actually a switch) or the SDIO itself. Here are two things to try.

Does it read in a computer?
and/or
Download the format utility directy from the SD card Association here: Official SD card formatter and try a quick format first because a complete format will take quite some time depending on the size of the card.

Not all format schemes follow the official specs. We ship hundreds of Sandisk SD cards that are formatted with the official formatter with our products and rarely have a problem. It's worth a try and I hope this helps.

Cheers!

 

[Starz]

What controller is being used?

 

[BlueAngels]

You're putting the SD card in the aircraft body, not the controller, correct? (I believe the Smart Controller takes SD cards. You don't want to put your main SD cards in the controller.)

If so, I would try formatting them in a computer to see how that goes. Use the exFAT file format.

The old wives-tale of "never format your cards anywhere but in the drone" is one you can ignore. I mean, if it makes you feel better, then go ahead and always format in the aircraft. But in THIS case, it's a reasonable thing to check.

The M2P still recognize a valid SD card I would think regardless of file system, but this is worth trying.

Chris

Hi Chris, Thank you for the quick response. Yes I am putting the SD card into the aircraft body. If there is a slot to put an SD card in the controller (model: RC1B) I sure haven't found it, so Yes SD card put into the body of the aircraft. As you instructed I went back and formatted the SanDisk 32GB in the computer and it came back with several failures. Did the same with the 16GB and that also failed. Dug up a new SanDisk 32GB SD card and formatted that on my Mac Book Pro (MacOS Big Sur v 11.6.4) with exFat file format and then plugged the SD Card into the aircraft and bingo that worked. So it is possible that both of those SanDIsk cards must have been bad or went bad. The M2P never did recognize those other SD cards, but with the proper SD card and proper formatting it worked like a charm. I have read similar issues with the variations in SD cards and functionality. I have come across that on my Go Pro as well. Thank you very much for your help. Much appreciated.
Steve

 

[BlueAngels]

Interesting..... Sandisk is very reliable. If it is not the actual card then it is a hardware issue, either the Chip select pin (actually a switch) or the SDIO itself. Here are two things to try.

Does it read in a computer?
and/or
Download the format utility directy from the SD card Association here: Official SD card formatter and try a quick format first because a complete format will take quite some time depending on the size of the card.

Not all format schemes follow the official specs. We ship hundreds of Sandisk SD cards that are formatted with the official formatter with our products and rarely have a problem. It's worth a try and I hope this helps.

Cheers!

Hi, Yes I would agree.... I only have SanDisk SD cards and they have all never produced problem for me. Until now.
-1 Yes I was able to mount the SD card in the computer (MacBook Pro: macOS Big Sur) but the format on the 16gb and 32gb card produced errors no matter how much I tried to format it.
-2 I managed to dig up a new SanDisk 32gb card and formatted it with exFat and then plugged into the aircraft and it worked
So not sure but it would appear that both of those SD cards went bad or something.
Thanks for your help..this thread and the folks that are on it is fantastic.
Steve

 

[BlueAngels]

What controller is being used?

According to the back of the controller it is listed as a DJI Model: RC1B.
But I was able to get this fixed with a new properly formatted SanDisk SD Card.
Thanks for your help.
Steve

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Hi Chris, Thank you for the quick response. Yes I am putting the SD card into the aircraft body. If there is a slot to put an SD card in the controller (model: RC1B) I sure haven't found it, so Yes SD card put into the body of the aircraft. As you instructed I went back and formatted the SanDisk 32GB in the computer and it came back with several failures. Did the same with the 16GB and that also failed. Dug up a new SanDisk 32GB SD card and formatted that on my Mac Book Pro (MacOS Big Sur v 11.6.4) with exFat file format and then plugged the SD Card into the aircraft and bingo that worked. So it is possible that both of those SanDIsk cards must have been bad or went bad. The M2P never did recognize those other SD cards, but with the proper SD card and proper formatting it worked like a charm. I have read similar issues with the variations in SD cards and functionality. I have come across that on my Go Pro as well. Thank you very much for your help. Much appreciated.
Steve

Steve, glad to hear you're up and going now.

FYI: another possibility is that they are counterfeit Sandisk cards. They had a problem with that a few years back (you may have heard), even when you bought from seemingly reputable dealers. There are web sites devoted to identifying them, if it matters to you:

how to identify counterfeit fake sandisk cards - Google Search

Chris

 

[BlueAngels]

what s/he said. also, using the SD adapter can yield sporadic performance as they're known to be glitchy. always try to load the memory card direct into the appliance if you can. also, keep multiple SD card adapters on hand as you may find one works and another one, not. nature of those beasts

(using the adapter requires the micro SD contacts to match directly with the SD adapter contacts....which in turn make full contact with the appliance (e.g drone, camera, computer etc). better to take out the middleman if you can

Hi waltermitty,
Thanks for the help. You are so right I have come across a few of those adapters before that turned out to be there problem, but I did in this instance verify that they both worked with other cards. Turns out that it indeed could have just been 2 faulty SD cards. As I dug up a new 32gb card and properly formatted it in exFat file format. Plugged back into the aircraft and it worked.
Thanks again.
Steve

 

[BlueAngels]

Steve, glad to hear you're up and going now.

FYI: another possibility is that they are counterfeit Sandisk cards. They had a problem with that a few years back (you may have heard), even when you bought from seemingly reputable dealers. There are web sites devoted to identifying them, if it matters to you:

how to identify counterfeit fake sandisk cards - Google Search

Chris

Hi Chris,
Yes I did hear that, and that was the first thing that came to my mind. I typically buy my SD cards and tech stuff from a local Best Buy or Target, but as you said that may not have mattered. Thanks for the insight and link that would prove to be helpful going forward.
Steve

 

[Arnold LeVine]

BTW, the Sandisk 16gig microSD card in your photo is only a V1 and U1. these days, U3 V30 A2 more like your 32gig card is recommended especially for 4K video. They are so cheap it's not worth getting anything less than these high speed cards.
example.

Amazon.com

 

[BlueAngels]

Thank you for catching this. I had the 16gb card in the aircraft so at one time it was working, it was good for short missions around my property. But these days as you say no sense settling for out of date tech at the current cost points
Thanks again

BTW, the Sandisk 16gig microSD card in your photo is only a V1 and U1. these days, U3 V30 A2 more like your 32gig card is recommended especially for 4K video. They are so cheap it's not worth getting anything less than these high speed cards.
example.

Amazon.com

 

[lilewis]

Do you have the little tabs on the side of the card pushed all the way up? Otherwise the card is locked

 

[BlueAngels]

Do you have the little tabs on the side of the card pushed all the way up? Otherwise the card is locked

Thanks for the message, all appreciated. Yes I did have the tabs pushed up but still kept getting errors. Tried a few random things, turned out both the cards I was using failed or were defective. Good catch on the photo though with one of the cards tab not in the proper position. Thanks again

 

[KennethH]

I decided to format the SD card IN the drone (Mini 2), but use my computer to control things. I'm doing an exFat slooow format that shows its progress on my File Manager. This should take several hours, but it was going that slow when I tried it before using an adapter. I would like to see that solve the problem, and let me try out the Mini 2 later today. I named my SD card "Mini2" in a previous attempt, and that name seems to have carried on.

 

[KennethH]

I decided to format the SD card IN the drone (Mini 2), but use my computer to control things. I'm doing an exFat slooow format that shows its progress on my File Manager. This should take several hours, but it was going that slow when I tried it before using an adapter. I would to see that solve the problem, and let me try out the Mini 2 later today. I named my SD card "Mini2" in a previous attempt, and that name seems to have carried on.

Halfway there. I should be timing this.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I'm not sure why you're putting yourself through so much pain, formatting the card in the drone that's plugged into the computer. But even then, it shouldn't take that long either way.

Hopefully, you did not turn off "Quick format". You never need to do the full / slow low-level format unless you suspect problems with the card (and even then, low-level formats were designed before these solid-state cards with controllers built in, so I'm not sure it would actually do anything anyways)

Chris

 

[KennethH]

Halfway there. I should be timing this.

Almost done and it quit. Said it couldn't finish the format. Doesn't sound too hopeful. This was formatting the SD card IN the Mini 2. Got I guess to 90%.

 

[KennethH]

Was all set to check out things with a new card, but after promising delivery today, Amazon blew it. Now it will be here by 10pm tomorrow. So glad I have Prime. At least it's not as bad as when they kept giving me excuses for five days but never told me where my Mini 2 was. Finally had to cancel the order and reorder and I had it the next day.