Rookie Mistake

[ToledoJDF]

Well, I was at the lake over the weekend, and was asked by someone who worked there and knows I fly my drone there, if I could take pictues/video of the end-of-the season closing ceremony., he was going to be taking pictures and video as well,....i jumped at the chance, especially since they had been very tolerant of my flying there...took several pictures, no problem, then the video, 9 plus minutes, with eveyone waving ....then, as i was almost done, the other guy next to me taking pictures says, OK, were done... now!.... and so im hurrying to get my bird landed, and move out of the way, and yep....forgot to stop the video before powering down....
I havent done that in a very long time...and so now im trying to find out if yhere is a way to salvage the video, even the preview version...
Thanks.

 

[Amigorick]

I think when you power the bird back up, it will finalize the video on the memory card.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[ToledoJDF]

Thanks, tried that, and all that appears to be there is the preview version...i tbought I lucked out when i started downloading (took forever at 760kb) and when done downloading, all it played was first 10 seconds, then it froze, and remaining 9 minutes was
continuation of the frame it froze at.

 

[hawkeye62]

Hmmmm, I never stop video recording when I finish a flight and have never had any issues with the video.

Jim

 

[ToledoJDF]

I have always had repeated issues with the file being lost unless I stop the video before turning off the drone.

 

[Amigorick]

Have you tried recording another short video while just holding the drone? That would make sure it is writing to the card.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[ToledoJDF]

So i am the only one that loses video if i turn the drone off before stopping the recording? This is an everytime thing with every sd card. First time it happened, I was told it was because i didnt stop video first, and everytime i dont, i cant retrieve the video, so now i make it a point to stop recording first...except for this weekend...

 

[ElGuapo]

Try this..
Put the memory card back in the drone. Open the DJI Go App in your mobile device but do not connect the mobile device to the RC, turn on the air craft ( for this you do not need to install the Props). In the DJI GO App go to the Upper left corner (there should be a little triangle depicting the AC) and click on that. Play the low version of the video in your mobile device. close the DJI Go App and re-start your mobile device with the App closed. Turn off the AC, remove the mem card and insert in your computer to try to play the video.

Hope this works.

 

[Reed L]

What I did was to power everything back up (rc, bird w/ same sd card & go-app) start and make a short test clip, then stop the video and shut down. This way then you pull the card, and if it's going to be there, it will be there. I had it happen after a crash where the battery came out. You will lose the last 15 seconds during the processing but hopefully the rest will still be there.

 

[Mark The Droner]

What is supposed to happen is you're supposed to power the craft back up and DJI software on the craft will repair the video file, although you'll lose the final seconds. You might even lose close to a minute. You're not supposed to lose nine mins and you're not supposed to have a freeze frame, so I don't know what happened there.

It sounds like what you played back was the downloaded file, not the actual file.

Could it be the file on the SD card is repaired? Have you tried playing the file directly from the SD card? That is, you remove the SD card from camera, place it in a reader, insert reader into your desktop, and play from there? Once it has played, and if it played correctly, then copy to desktop. Most of the video will be in static memory and it will copy very quickly.

If that doesn't work, maybe there is file recovery software on the internet that will save it?

I would be hesitant to write on the SD card again before salvaging the file. The new file might overwrite some of the data you're trying to salvage.

In the future, you might consider Litchi. Litchi has a setting that automatically starts the video when the props start, and automatically stops the video when the props stop.

 

[ToledoJDF]

I have been using Litche for several months in allbut a few selected situations, and got used to that, because this involved a large group of people, and was rather important, I decided to go back to DJI, since I had most of my experience on it, to be as safe as possible. Sort of backfired in regards to this issue, not saving it begore shutting down.
I tried the 2 suggestions above last night, and after each, i was unable to play the video when i removed the sd card and plugged it into my laptop. 2 things unusual, when i tried to download the video while in DJI GO app, it said could not download in HD, must update the aircraft firmware...
Which i havent tried yet, will tonight.
This all worked a week ago, same sd card, so not sure why its needing a firmware update to work now...
Second thing, i made a video clip of the majority of the video, and then converted it to a movie, and was able to share it via "Moments" and "Copy URL"....but dont know if that helps me or not, in getting it to the people i need to...i have never worked with sharing via those applications, and dont know what options are and arent avaikable for retrieval by others.
One thing I havent tried, because my daughter took over the computer before I could attempt it, was to connect cable from Phantom to computer and download that way.
Again, I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[Mocho]

Have you tried any video file recovery tools? Even windows scan disk may repair it.
The file wasn't closed out because you shut off the bird, and it needs that information in order to play back. If the phantom OS hasn't closed out the file by now then it likely has some corruption as well and can't close out the file.
I believe your only option now is to find a video file repair tool.

Good luck...

 

[Fplvert]

So i am the only one that loses video if i turn the drone off before stopping the recording? This is an everytime thing with every sd card. First time it happened, I was told it was because i didnt stop video first, and everytime i dont, i cant retrieve the video, so now i make it a point to stop recording first...except for this weekend...

This might help you get that data repaired.
Repairing Corrupt DJI Phantom or Inspire Video Files