SD card failed mid flight without notifying me, ideas on how to save the footage?

AlecGB · Jul 19, 2023

This is the first time I've had this problem & it's a good one. An sd card I've been using for 2+ years failed on me mid flight leaving the files unusable by all of my editing software. I can play the video from my mac's media player, but I get maybe 20% of the frames. I have the cached files that weren't corrupted, but are half the resolution with no bit depth & are largely unusable as I filmed in log and converting to rec709 shreds the video.

I'm 90% sure there's nothing to be done about it & I've already received new sd cards but I'm throwing this out there to see if anyone knows of a way to restore the footage somehow. Since I'm getting 20% of the frames the file isn't entirely corrupted & the file sizes are normal so I'm slightly optimistic there's a wizard out there with a fix. Either way the corrupted footage is an interesting watch.

Corrupted:

Corrupted but played through mac video player:

Cached/Non-corrupted:

Thoughts?

GFields · Jul 19, 2023

Even with recovery software, it is doubtful that that file can be usable. Sorry. Also, and I doubt this was the case, but sometimes if the drone is powered down before the file is finished writing to the SD card this could happen. Putting the card back into the drone and powering it back on will fix that issue most of the time. However, sounds like it is most likely a different issue. Good luck.