SD Card for Mavic Pro - Gimbal Resets 64 GB [FAKE microSD CARDS?!?!]

The Bob · Aug 14, 2019

Thomas B said:
Don’t use the U1, it is not recommended by DJI and likely is too slow. Stay with U3 cards.

Consider that you may have gotten counterfeit cards which is a problem recently. Maybe try a known working borrowed or purchased U3 card.

I will def consider counterfeit cards. I did check the ones I have and they appear to be legit. How to tell?
If you have a known good source for a 64 GB U3 card please share. I have been using Amazon mainly.

Update:
Just looked at the card I purchased from Amazon and YOU ARE SPOT ON!!! It is being reported that they are fakes in reviews.
DO NOT BUY: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-microSD-UHS-I-Adapter/dp/B07FCMBLV6
At this point I just need a good confirmed source.... appears Amazon is the prime seller of fake cards.
I can buy direct from DJI but flat rate shipping means I pay double for the card... and also possible fakes?

Hopefully a good one... I will report back next week after some testing.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-extreme-plus-64gb-microsdxc-uhs-i-memory-card/6282920.p?skuId=6282920

HK! · Aug 28, 2019

The Bob said:
I will def consider counterfeit cards. I did check the ones I have and they appear to be legit. How to tell?
If you have a known good source for a 64 GB U3 card please share. I have been using Amazon mainly.

Update:
Just looked at the card I purchased from Amazon and YOU ARE SPOT ON!!! It is being reported that they are fakes in reviews.
DO NOT BUY: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-microSD-UHS-I-Adapter/dp/B07FCMBLV6
At this point I just need a good confirmed source.... appears Amazon is the prime seller of fake cards.
I can buy direct from DJI but flat rate shipping means I pay double for the card... and also possible fakes?

Hopefully a good one... I will report back next week after some testing.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-extreme-plus-64gb-microsdxc-uhs-i-memory-card/6282920.p?skuId=6282920

lol 2089 reviews for that seller, %81 5 star, and you take the few counterfeit reviews as gospel.
Counterfeit cards tend to stick out aesthetically before they do functionally. You would know if you had one
and had looked at it closely.

Some people try to test card speeds using USB 2.0 or even 1.0 readers/interfaces, get awful speeds and
use this as basis for it being counterfeit

Heres an idea, go back to using 32gb or even 16gb Fat32 Cards.
By all accounts of this thread the problem seems to be 64gb cards and exFAT.

I'm sure I've had the odd reset with the stock 16gb Sandisk Extreme..But whatever the issue is, 64gb cards clearly
aggravate it.

You can format your 64gb card fat32 with Fat32Format (simple freeware)

System - Hard Disk Utils Downloads

Download software in the Hard Disk Utils category

www.softpedia.com

The Bob · Aug 28, 2019

HK! said:
lol 2089 reviews for that seller, %81 5 star, and you take the few counterfeit reviews as gospel.
Counterfeit cards tend to stick out aesthetically before they do functionally. You would know if you had one
and had looked at it closely.

Some people try to test card speeds using USB 2.0 or even 1.0 readers/interfaces, get awful speeds and
use this as basis for it being counterfeit

Heres an idea, go back to using 32gb or even 16gb Fat32 Cards.
By all accounts of this thread the problem seems to be 64gb cards and exFAT.

I'm sure I've had the odd reset with the stock 16gb Sandisk Extreme..But whatever the issue is, 64gb cards clearly
aggravate it.

You can format your 64gb card fat32 with Fat32Format (simple freeware)

System - Hard Disk Utils Downloads

Download software in the Hard Disk Utils category

www.softpedia.com

Yeah I did test the cards with a few utilities and turns out they are NOT fake. (I got busy and forgot to update this post!)
They held the appropriate speeds (USB3.0) and after doing close ups and examination (using my phone's camera) of the print they did not appear to be fake to me.
I even still had the packaging they came in and it all checked out.legit.

What I did do after confirming they were not fake is:
1. Re-flashed my Mavic Pro firmware (twice)
2. Cleared the data and uninstalled/reinstalled DJI GO4 on my iPad mini4
3. Increased my 4K resolution to the highest setting possible. (to try invoking the resets)
4. Ran several test flights with the 64GB Extreme card; so far so good... maybe too early to tell.

And the reason I want to go with 64GB cards is so that I can keep more video flight logs without having to format the card.
PLUS DJI says it is supported? (They sell the exact card I am using as a compatible card)

HK! · Aug 29, 2019

Sounds like exactly what i recently did to correct my gimbal resets Thumbswayup

Pretty sure Flight Logs can be saved to your device, but it's your file system..
My excuse is I just got a shiny 'Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb', and dont have any smaller
cards lying around.
I formatted it Fat32, but next Gimbal Reset and im putting a Sandisk Extreme 16gb
in there

Theres a 1 TB Sandisk Extreme out now.
These are the cards that are worth the trouble of counterfeiting i think.

Anyone heard of a Hifacsonmic?
At $63.90 Maybe it's ligit, just really really really slow.

Hifacsonmic 1TB 1024GB Micro SDHC SD TF Memory Card Class10 with Micro SD Adapter 1024G + SD Card Reader Black: Amazon.com.au: Electronics

www.amazon.com.au

appleair · Aug 29, 2019

Samsung 64GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSD EVO Select Memory Card. $12 at Amazon, from Amazon. Flawless since January, hundreds of images, in and out to the computer. Formatted twice, no issues at all.

HK! · Aug 30, 2019

I got an EVO + 64gb. Almost exact same speed as the Sandisk Extreme. Great card for $.
I had resets with it too.

The Counterfeit Evo's aren't half bad an effort
If it was your first Samsung card & you didn't have internet to tell you what to look for you could be forgiven for not knowing
you had one.

The Bob · Sep 1, 2019

Counterfeit or not if the card spec out to proper speeds on usb3 then they should not cause gimbal resets. I am on Mavic Pro #2 and had the issue with #1 also. Not too sure it's card related at this point... seems like the issue is wide spread DJI fw related.

Update:

I have now used 3 diff 64 GB U3 rated cards and they all cause gimbal resets. My last hope just happened to the SanDisk Extreme Plus U3 card over the weekend.
The cards are capable and def in spec and DJI even sells them.
---------------------------------------------
How to simulate.. (in most cases this is what triggers it)
Take a few photos.. re-focus and then start the video recording.
When it happens...
(first time) it is scary and appears that your drone is falling out of the sky and then wobbling... DO NOT PANIC it is just the gimbal resetting, . wait it out.
After it is all done come home and land for a sd card swap out and a power cycle / fresh battery. [There will be no video on the card during the reset.]
---------------------------------------------

It really just looks like I can't use 64 GB cards. I will just stick to 32GB card.
To be sure.. I ordered a 32 GB U3 SanDisk Extreme card to test.

HK! · Sep 4, 2019

I've done about 10 Flights since formatting my 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro to FaT32.

I have not had a reset since

All the situations, places, etc where i would get them in the past...Flying Colors!

I have not changed anything else in my flight routine, so am %99 sure exFAT is the issue
here.
So stick to your 32gb, or just use this simple tool to format your 64gb card
to Fat32.
This is the tool I used (default allocation)

Download FAT32format GUI (GUIFormat) 1.0.1.0

Download FAT32format GUI (GUIFormat) - Seamlessly format FAT32 file system drives and partitions and avoid potential performance issues in the future using this application

www.softpedia.com

Let me know how you go..

PS: Obviously dont Format with DJI GO anymore as will go back to exFAT.
Just remember to move or delete your files prior to flight.

The Bob · Sep 18, 2019

So after testing several different 64GB cards... Samsung EVO as well as SanDisk and any other 64GB card I could test... U3 Cards; all of them had resets when formatted with DJI GO 4. (exFAT) After several suggestions in this thread to format the 64GB card as Fat32 using a utility, the resets have stopped. I mean gone completely. 20+ flights so far and no resets on the same cards that 3 flights in would reset. So the issue appears to be DJI exFAT or perhaps just exFAT in general with a Mavic Pro/DJI GO 4 is bugged.

Thanks All for your help and replies. If anyone wants to test further, I am using Mavic Pro FW V01.04.0300 and various Samsung/SanDisk 64GB U3 cards.
I have still to test formatting ExFAT outside of DJI GO 4 and seeing if I still get the resets.

Staying with Fat32 is not desirable due to the file size limitation, but perhaps the Mavic Pro and ExFAT are just not compatible/stable enough in the FW version I am using.

call-151 · Sep 27, 2019

This is interesting, I have a 64GB card formatted with EXFAT and I get the jittery gimbal once in a while, but I just accepted it. I'm formatting it with FAT32 now, we'll see how it goes.

DanMan32 · Sep 28, 2019

Even with ExFAT allowing files greater than 4GB, DJI still limits the video files to 4GB and starts another file when 4GB is reached during a recording session.

I didn't think FAT32 could achieve full 64GB capacity. Is the cluster size increased to accommodate the limited FAT table size?

call-151 · Sep 30, 2019

Hi DanMan, I initially formatted the 64GB card in Win10 using DISKPART commands and it formatted to 32GB. But after reading your message mentioning cluster size, I had an ah-ha moment and downloaded a utility called Fat32format and it allowed me to format it to 64GB (diskpart reports 58GB but that's good enough for me). The cluster size is 32k instead of 16k. It seems that the diskpart command has a limitation that only allows you to format to 32GB max when it's FAT32 so you need another OS or 3rd party utility.

BlairTheMaori · Oct 19, 2019

I used to use a 512gb card, sandisk u3, now im on a Samsung 400gb u3. both without problems. just got sick of having to retrieve the video after every sortie. im lazy like that.

DanMan32 · Oct 20, 2019

call-151 said:
Hi DanMan, I initially formatted the 64GB card in Win10 using DISKPART commands and it formatted to 32GB. But after reading your message mentioning cluster size, I had an ah-ha moment and downloaded a utility called Fat32format and it allowed me to format it to 64GB (diskpart reports 58GB but that's good enough for me). The cluster size is 32k instead of 16k. It seems that the diskpart command has a limitation that only allows you to format to 32GB max when it's FAT32 so you need another OS or 3rd party utility.

I also tried diskpart and command line format, no go natively formatting 64GB storage as FAT32 even though it technically can be done within documented specs.
I probably wouldn't recommend it if storing lots of small files as you'd lose storage to cluster slack space but photography files are quite large so percent slack would be small.

DanMan32 · Oct 20, 2019

BlairTheMaori said:
I used to use a 512gb card, sandisk u3, now im on a Samsung 400gb u3. both without problems. just got sick of having to retrieve the video after every sortie. im lazy like that.

One of these days though, you might lose the quad, and all the pictures/recordings with it. If you use smaller cards and swap often, you'll have less to lose. Also larger storage is more prone to failure, especially how FAT32/ExFAT stores data.