Video/memory card problem with my new Mini 3 Pro

[MavicAir2Marc]

Perhaps your card reader is going bad and depending on if it seats properly or not you get the format message. I have one that I can only delete files from a certain computer (iMac) but if I try and delete them from my laptop, the card says it's locked (even though it is not).

 

[FLDave]

OK, this is just odd.

I reformatted the SD card in the Mini 3 and took a couple of videos while sitting on the desk. Took out the SD card, put it into my SD reader on my PC, and the files were there, like they are supposed to be. Deleted just those files and the folder they were located within. Which is the way I have done it for years with every other device I have had using SD cards. Took the card out of my PC and put it back into the Mini 3. No yelps from the controller. So I took another couple of videos sitting on the desk. Pulled out the SD card and put it in my PC. Could not read the card and said it needed to be formatted. So even though the Mini 3 DIDN'T care about that, it pretended to be writing those video files to that card anyway without a hint of a problem.

So I took the SD card out of the PC again, and put it in the Mini 3. Reformatted. Took a video. This time I just hooked up a USB cable from my PC to the Mini 3. Now what is strange, is that when I took out the SD card and put it into the card reader on my PC, it only showed one new drive volume. However, using the USB cable, it would show two (2) drives, with the video files alone on the drive that did not show up when I physically moved the SD card to the PC.

Copied file, then deleted the file and it's folder with USB cable connected. Disconnected USB cable. Took a video. Removed card and put it into the PC. File is there like it should be, so the USB cable method of copying and deleting files did not corrupt the SD card that apparently happens when the SD card is removed from the Mini 3 and used in my PC via a SD card reader to delete the video files.

Deleted the SD card file and folder on the PC. Put it back into the Mini 3. Took a video. Hooked up the USB cable. SD card is corrupted. I could see the two drives, but could not access anything on them.

So apparently, at least for me, deleting video files from the SD card on my PC is somehow destructive of the SD card formatting. The really bad part of this is, however, that the Mini 3 does not know that the SD card being put back into it is corrupted, and pretends to write video files to it anyway. So you don't know those videos are gone forever till you try to read them from the SD card, whether from physically moving from the Mini 3 to the PC, or by hooking up a USB cable from the PC to the Mini 3.

So here is the $64 question. Is my Mini 3 Pro defective and I am the only one having this problem? Or is my standard procedure of copying those files from the SD card by physically moving it from the Mini 3 to my PC somehow unique, and no one else on earth does it this way and consequently just not seen this problem?

So boiled on down to lowest common denominator, is my Mini 3 defective, or am I the only one who has stumbled upon this bug or design flaw? It SHOULD NOT HAPPEN like this, as I have mentioned before, I have done file copies exactly like this with every drone I have ever owned, as well as uncountable cameras, camcorders, and whatever, for years.

All batteries are now depleted. Depending on what I hear from feedback here, I may just be packing this thing up and sending it back to Amazon and decide on a replacement if my unit is defective or a refund if this is a design/bug. So no need to charge up those batteries quite yet. If ever.

And that seems to be why I use the Fly app to format and delete files on the SD card and connect the USB cable just to copy files from drone to PC. Formatting is always done in the drone to make sure it is the correct format type. The SD card stays in the drone. It may not be necessary but that's my practice.

 

[Meta4]

And that seems to be why I use the Fly app to format and delete files on the SD card and connect the USB cable just to copy files from drone to PC. Formatting is always done in the drone to make sure it is the correct format type. The SD card stays in the drone. It may not be necessary but that's my practice.

People frequently suggest this, but it makes no difference.
If you want to keep your file number sequence, you have to format in the computer.
I've done it thousands of times and it works perfectly every time.

 

[spsphotos]

Have you tried to pull the files off via the remote connected to your PC?

 

[retiredNH]

The problem is not the drone, and is not the card either. The problem lies in deleting files with the computer. I suspect the OP is deleting all files on the card, including hidden system files.
Since we don't know the details of DJI software running the drone, it's hard to say why it works more robustly, but it's clear that it does.

 

[mobilehomer]

The card might not be bad, just not fast enough. Try a faster card. And DJI uses ExFat not Fat32.

 

[Jaime Zapata]

So I took my Mini 3 out for the second time today, and flew for 2.5 battery charges. Taking video the entire time at 4K/60fps. Wanted to check the range and was getting just over 3,000 ft, through the trees. Everything just seemed to be running like clockwork. RTH worked OK, and this is a breeze to fly.

I got back to the house and pulled out the memory card from the Mini, and tried to load the files onto my PC. Hmm. Not recognizing the card. "The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Do you want to format?" Well, no, I do NOT! Volume name of the card is "SDXC", if that means anything. PC wants to format it every time I put it into the system to try to look at the contents. Used two different card readers. And tried both my desktop and laptop PCs.

So I put the card back into the Mini, and no sort of error message popped up. Showing that the SD card is 119GB, with 67.9GB remaining available on the card, so it certainly thinks there ARE files on it. So I just recorded more video from the table, and the available file space dropped accordingly. So it certainly THINKS it is writing to that card. Even took a couple of photos instead of videos to see if they would show up. Pulled the card back out and tried to look at it on my PC. No go. Still doesn't recognize the format. For the record, the internal RAM is a Total of 1.25GB with 1.21GB remaining available. So it isn't writing files there.

Aircraft Firmware: 01.00.0320
RC Firmware: 01.00.0300
Flysafe Database: 01.00.01.27
App version: 1.6.6

Entonces, ¿qué está pasando (Mod Removed Language)? ¿Qué estoy haciendo mal? ¿O este Mini 3 no tiene detección de errores para la tarjeta de memoria y realmente no le importa si está escribiendo o no?

Cuando tomé mi primer vuelo, simplemente grabé normalmente, entré a la casa y descargué los archivos normalmente. Luego eliminó los archivos de la tarjeta y volvió a colocarlos en el Mini 3 como debería ser.

Oh, la tarjeta de memoria que estoy usando es una SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB MicroSDXC UHS-1 |3| Tarjeta 4K UHD. Sí, la tarjeta estaba colocada correctamente. Pensaría que recibiría algún tipo de mensaje de error si no fuera así.

No voy a estar realmente feliz con esto si no hay nada que haya hecho mal, y solo tengo que preocuparme cada vez que tomo un vuelo sin saber si realmente capturó el video o no. Pero tengo hasta el 31 de enero de 2023 para devolverlo a Amazon, si es necesario.

Esta es mi primera incursión en los productos DJI. Espero que no haya sido un gran error. Hasta ahora, estaba pensando que este es un animal bastante impresionante. ¿Pero ahora? pues no tan seguro....

usar la micro SD recomendado en el manual: U 3 A 2 V 30. Si alguien necesita tengo manual en español e inglês a

 

[4wd]

I don't know why there is often resistance to the simple suggestion of regularly formatting in the drone.
This is recommended for all cameras.
It is not arduous or time consuming you just need to get in the habit of doing it as best practice for trouble free longer term use.
The arguments against usually amount to having never needed to do it since started using digital cameras in 1975 or whatever but it has always been best way to avoid problems sooner or later.

 

[Rich Z]

OK, been doing a LOT of testing. Bought a handful of SD memory cards, tried them all. Tried them in other devices I own as well so I could eliminate the possibility of the problem being with my PC. Also did a bit of research on the web looking for memory card problems in respect to DJI drones. Seems others are having identical or similar problems. And here is my opinion of what is going on.

Yes, it is a problem with this DJI Mini 3 pro drone, either singularly in my own unit, or a bug or design flaw in the product. Actually there are two (2) problems. When it formats the memory card, it apparently alters the file structure of the card to make it partially incompatible with Windows PCs. At least those running Win10, as that is the only OS I have handy right now. When you take the memory card that was formatted in the Mini 3 Pro after taking video, and put that card into the PC, you can read the video files and copy them to the PC. But once you put that card in the PC, even only to make a copy of the files to the PC, this will cause the DJI formatted memory card to thereafter become corrupted. You do not have to delete the files for this corruption to take place. The card seems normal till you pull it out of the card reader, and just by placing it back in, the system tries to read the file structure, and fails, because it has become corrupted and unreadable in Windows 10. The Disk Management utility in Windows shows the file system in the card now as being RAW. Of course, you would not know this at the time, unless you specifically looked for it. Likely you would just put the card back into the DJI Mini 3 Pro awaiting the next time you would fly it.

My normal procedure I have used for YEARS with other SD memory card centric devices is that after using in said devices, I would put the card into my PC card reader, copy the files to one of my main hard drives in my PC and onto my NAS backup server. Then delete the files from the card, pull out the card in the reader, and just place it back in the drone (or whatever device I am using) to be ready for another session with a supposedly clean slate. Worked each and every time in the past in that manner without any hitches whatsoever. I have been doing it this way ever since SD cards were made and devices to use them were commercially available. This has ALWAYS worked for me.

So this brings us to problem number 2. If you take this same memory card and put it back in the DJI Mini 3 Pro after it has been corrupted from being in the Windows PC reader, there is NO indication whatsoever that the card is now corrupted. Starting up the drone and the controller doesn't flag any errors. When you initiate taking video or photos, this drone will happy do so, and the operator (me) has no warning at all that those videos and photos are falling into a black hole. You think you are recording your precious video to the SD memory card, and actually you are, but good luck accessing those files afterwards. The coding in the drone seems to not have any sort of error detection in place to detect a formatting problem with the SD memory card. At this point the SD card is basically dead to the outside world, but the DJI Mini 3 Pro is perfectly happy with it, but any videos or photos you take are GONE. Of course, there may be file recovery utilities available that can recover those files, but would anyone really want to have this as a standard procedure whenever they use the Mini 3 Pro?

Please bear in mind that I have tried multiple SD cards (I bought a handful of them at Best Buy on Wednesday) to rule out it being a bad SD card. I also tried this on other devices I have to make certain that I haven't had a sudden SD card reader or other PC issue now causing this problem, no matter what device the SD cards had files written to with. This problem is ALWAYS and SOLELY being caused by a SD card that is formatted in the DJI Mini 3 Pro drone. Without any exceptions in my testing.

So at this point, I am planning to only use SD memory cards that are either pre-formatted from the factory, or else formatted SOLELY on my PC, in this drone, hoping it is an effective workaround to this DJI problem. And I plan on testing the drone as much as I can before the return period from Amazon expires. If this resolves the problem, and no other side effects result from the PC based formatting, then I will keep the drone. Otherwise, it is going back to Amazon, along with the accessories I purchased too. DJI has a flaw in their SD card formatting algorithm in this drone, either by accident or design, IMHO. And I SERIOUSLY doubt that they can be unaware of it. So the question lingers concerning why it hasn't been fixed (yet).

FYI, I have done multiple sessions of creating video on a PC formatted SD card, and so far that seems to be working OK. Fortunately I can just create video files with the Mini 3 Pro sitting on my desk, so I don't even have to fly it to do testing on my workaround. The only wrinkle I can see is that when I put the SD card into the PC card reader, the system has trouble playing the video directly from the SD card. But copying the file to the hard drive of my PC and playing it from there will have it playing normally. So there is still something wrong going on somewhere, possibly being caused by a file system alteration being done in the drone when it is writing video files to the SD card. That has to be making changes to the file system directory/structure in some manner, but so far it doesn't appear to be destructive (from a Windows 10 perspective) like the formatting will do to the card. Windows will still read the card, but isn't real happy with it, apparently. But not much of an issue to me, as I normally don't need to play a video directly from the SD card anyway.

Anyway, this is all based on my experiences and conclusions formed as my opinion.

 

[Rich Z]

I don't know why there is often resistance to the simple suggestion of regularly formatting in the drone.
This is recommended for all cameras.
It is not arduous or time consuming you just need to get in the habit of doing it as best practice for trouble free longer term use.
The arguments against usually amount to having never needed to do it since started using digital cameras in 1975 or whatever but it has always been best way to avoid problems sooner or later.

That is fine and dandy for cameras and devices that don't format the card in such a way that using it in the PC then renders the card unusable afterwards. But to recommend reformatting the card each and every time you use it in order to correct that sort of corruption that has taken place merely by reading the card in another device, well, sorry, I cannot agree with that one.

 

[retiredNH]

^ Interesting. Nowhere does the OP say he formatted a card on his drone! Which is what most folks here suggested.
The difficulty playing video direct from the SD card is curious - suggests a slow card or card reader.
Has the OP tried chkdsk after reading files in the PC?

 

[Meta4]

hoping it is an effective workaround to this DJI problem

It's not a DJI problem, This is not an issue that others are finding.

DJI has a flaw in their SD card formatting algorithm in this drone, either by accident or design, IMHO. And I SERIOUSLY doubt that they can be unaware of it. So the question lingers concerning why it hasn't been fixed (yet).

It hasn't been "fixed" because there is no problem that needs to be fixed.
DJI has sold millions of drones and if they all had such a problem, someone would have noticed it by now ..... but they haven't.

The only wrinkle I can see is that when I put the SD card into the PC card reader, the system has trouble playing the video directly from the SD card. But copying the file to the hard drive of my PC and playing it from there will have it playing normally.

That's not abnormal.
A 4K video caries a lot of data.
To play it, the computer has to be able to access it fast.
Your post is too long and convoluted to understand exactly what you've done.
Have you tried formatting in your computer after copying the files off the SD card?
That's what I've done for several thousand flights and never had a glitch of any kind.

 

[Rich Z]

I will post a step by step that I just did this morning.

1. Recorded video with DJI Mini 3 Pro on a SD card already formatted in Windows.
2. Put card in PC card reader. Tried viewing video directly from card and it just showed segments with LONG pauses inbetween.
3. Copied video file to PC hard drive. Video viewed normally from the hard drive.
4. Deleted video file from SD card.
5. Removed and then reinserted card in PC card reader. Appears to be fine and shows up as a normally exFAT formatted card.
6. Put SD card back in Mini 3 drone.
7. Formatted card in drone.
8. Took video.
9. Removed card from drone and inserted in PC card reader.
10. Video plays fine from the card.
11. Copied video file to hard drive in PC.
12. Did NOT delete the video file from the SD card.
13. Removed SD card from PC card reader, waited a few seconds, then reinserted it into the PC card reader.
14. Card cannot be read from the card reader. Got error message "The volume does not contain a recognized file system."
15. Disk Management shows the SD card as having a RAW file system.
16. Removed SD card from PC card reader and inserted into the DJI Mini 3 Pro drone's slot.
17. No error messages on the controller.
18. Took video using the drone. No error messages displayed.
19. Removed SD card from drone and placed in PC card reader, same error messages as mentioned in steps 14 and 15 above.
20. Removed card from PC, reinserted in drone
21. Hooked up USB cable between drone and PC. Started up drone.
22. Two files show up when the drone is recognized by the PC. Disk Management shows one as being exFAT formatted, the other as RAW. No video files are on either of the two volumes.
23. Removed USB cable. Removed SD card from drone and inserted into PC card reader. Reformatted the SD card in the PC. Put PC formatted SD card back in the drone.
24. Done.

 

[Robert Prior]

Or is my standard procedure of copying those files from the SD card by physically moving it from the Mini 3 to my PC somehow unique, and no one else on earth does it this way and consequently just not seen this problem?

I always remove the SD card from my drone and read the files on my computer. I then format the card when I put it back into the drone. This is a procedure I've followed since I got my first digital camera, nearly two decades ago.

I don't know if it's necessary, but I've never had problems this way.

 

[Rich Z]

I always remove the SD card from my drone and read the files on my computer. I then format the card when I put it back into the drone. This is a procedure I've followed since I got my first digital camera, nearly two decades ago.

I don't know if it's necessary, but I've never had problems this way.

If I remember correctly, my first digital camera body was the Fujifilm FinePix S1 Pro. So yeah that was about 20 years or so ago. My procedure has been to either use the factory formatted memory cards unchanged, or as more often was the case, put the card into a card reader on my PC, delete the extra crap the manufacturers would put on there, and then just slap it into the camera or whatever, as is, and run with it. As best I can recall, I never had a situation where I needed to reformat a memory card, ever. The two most recent devices I did tests similar to what I indicated above are the Panasonic HC-X1500 camcorder, and the Sony RX10 Mark IV camera, just because I just happen to have them sitting right here in the den next to me. So I formatted the cards in those devices, took some video and still pics, and basically ran through the steps to see if that formatting would get corrupted after using those cards in my PC. Nope. didn't bother them a bit.

I recently formatted the memory card inside the Skydio 2 also sitting here in the den, but haven't taken the time to fly it yet. I have flown it several times since I got it, downloaded the video files from the memory card to my PC, deleted the files on the memory card, and just stuck it back in the Skydio 2 without any issues. But I really can't remember if I have ever formatted the card in the drone itself, or just ran with the standard Windows formatting.

Perhaps my problem was just following DJI's instructions and formatted the card in the Mini 3 Pro. Had I just left it with the factory formatting, I probably would never have stumbled upon this problem. I only found out there was a problem when I discovered that the video files I had taken one day were just gone because the memory card was no longer readable in my PC.

So is my particular DJI Mini 3 Pro drone the ONLY one in the world with this particular problem with the internal formatting? Beats me. I have found bits and pieces elsewhere showing where others have had problems with memory cards in DJI devices, but often details are missing about exactly what transpired. This is such an example, I think -> Can't read my Mavic 2 Pro SD Card files using Windows 10 PC

 

[Rich Z]

^ Interesting. Nowhere does the OP say he formatted a card on his drone! Which is what most folks here suggested.
The difficulty playing video direct from the SD card is curious - suggests a slow card or card reader.
Has the OP tried chkdsk after reading files in the PC?

Did you happen to miss posts #2 and #3 in this thread?

And by the way,

So what the(Mod Removed Language)is going on? What am I doing wrong?

Is the word "Hell" considered as bad language around here?

 

[Rich Z]

The problem is not the drone, and is not the card either. The problem lies in deleting files with the computer. I suspect the OP is deleting all files on the card, including hidden system files.
Since we don't know the details of DJI software running the drone, it's hard to say why it works more robustly, but it's clear that it does.

Nope. Only deleted the video files in later testing. Earlier I was deleting the directory called (I believe) 100MEDIA, because in other devices I have had, they would create subsequent directories for new sessions if a current one existed. I imagine that was to keep from overwriting files that might have been taken yesterday and not removed. So I thought if I didn't delete it, I would wind up with 100MEDIA, 101MEDIA, 102MEDIA, etc., etc.

Matter of fact, I discovered that I didn't even have to delete a video file in order for the memory card to develop a corrupted file structure after being formatted in the Mini 3 Pro and then just read in a PC card reader.

And not sure where you are getting that the DJI software "works more robustly". More "robustly" than what? From what I am seeing it corrupts the file structure of the memory cards it formats into something that is not real compatible with Windows10. Then causes the card to self destruct when you read that memory card in a Windows system.

 

[FLDave]

What type of format by windows: FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS?
What type of format in the drone?

 

[Rich Z]

What type of format by windows: FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS?
What type of format in the drone?

exFAT for both.

 

[RogerDH]

I always remove the SD card from my drone and read the files on my computer. I then format the card when I put it back into the drone. This is a procedure I've followed since I got my first digital camera, nearly two decades ago.

I don't know if it's necessary, but I've never had problems this way.

I've always done that, too, and I've been doing it for about 15 years with at least a couple dozen different cameras ranging from cheap action cameras to DSLRs, and more than a dozen toy drones with cameras. If you have a lot of files, I think formatting is easier on the card than deleting. I like to take the cards out of cameras and drones before I pack them away, and after copying them to a computer, I like to go ahead and format them, so they're ready to use in any camera.

BUT I always use the SD Memory Card Formatter app from the SD Association rather than Windows, and I've never had a problem with cards formatted with that app, in any device.