I've been experiencing a problem during a hour+ recording session where my Action 2 + Power module recording will stop and then restart without any interaction from me. For example today, attached.


The first 2 videos are complete and transition seamlessly from 840 to 841 to 842, but 842 only lasts a minute and the camera begins recording again ~5 minutes later. And this continues to happen, with only one other full video completing.

What causes the Action 2 to interrupt but automatically resume?

Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for giving out these information. May we please know what is the specifications of the microSD card that you are using please? For reference the maximum capacity of a single file will not exceed 4GB. If exceeded, the recording will be stopped, and a new recording will be started. In addition, the maximum file size of FAT32 is 4GB. Hence, a file that is larger than or equal to 4GB will be divided, otherwise, the file may be lost or abnormal and cannot be read. Although exFAT allows a larger file size, the larger file may be damaged due to abnormal power-off and SD card removal, or even cannot be recovered. So the storage of the camera is 4GB regardless of the file systems. So it is normal the video will be split if it reaches 4GB. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 7-29 20:22
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for giving out these information. May we please know what is the specifications of the microSD card that you are using please? For reference the maximum capacity of a single file will not exceed 4GB. If exceeded, the recording will be stopped, and a new recording will be started. In addition, the maximum file size of FAT32 is 4GB. Hence, a file that is larger than or equal to 4GB will be divided, otherwise, the file may be lost or abnormal and cannot be read. Although exFAT allows a larger file size, the larger file may be damaged due to abnormal power-off and SD card removal, or even cannot be recovered. So the storage of the camera is 4GB regardless of the file systems. So it is normal the video will be split if it reaches 4GB. Thank you.

Yes, of course the video is split. This is the same card I have had in it for 8 months.
SanDisk Extreme 128 GB MicroSD v30 XC I  U-sign-3 A2
https://amzn.to/3OFdbTm

The problem is that I'm riding my bike and the video stops and does not record for 30 seconds and records for a while and stops and starts again 2 minutes later.

3 months ago recording at that resolution I would have 15 videos each 5:28 long and they were seamless with no gaps between them.  Now my recording is choppy only recording for 1 min, 46 seconds then a gap of no recording and then 18 seconds recorded and then a gap and then 2 min 15 seconds and then a gap.

Are you using the magnetic case?  For me, when biking the magnetic case caused additional stress on the clips that lead to the two modules slightly disconnecting and leading to the exact issue you describe.  (In addition to two catastrophic failures where the clips totally failed.)

As soon as I took the case off, all problems went away.   https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=267018

jhoff80 Posted at 7-30 18:33
Are you using the magnetic case?  For me, when biking the magnetic case caused additional stress on the clips that lead to the two modules slightly disconnecting and leading to the exact issue you describe.  (In addition to two catastrophic failures where the clips totally failed.)

As soon as I took the case off, all problems went away.   https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=267018

Thanks for the lead.  No, I'm using the SmallRig graphene case to mount the Action 2 to my bicycle handlebars. https://amzn.to/3oTGVl0  
I'll see if maybe I can jam it in tighter, but I'm surprised DJI can't tell me what would cause this sort of behavior.

I have exactly the same problem.
I'm also using it on  my bike for a long recording.
The cam + display unit sit a bit loose on the DJI magnetic mount on my handle bar. It's shaking like hell, producing noise on the audio.
Additionally It also split the recording I only startet once into files of a length between 4:40 min to 4 s.^^ Some are seamless, some are missing a few seconds between one end and the next beginning. 3 of the 33 files can't be opened in Adobe Premiere due to wrong compression.
I'm using the additional DJI case on both camera and front screen unit.

Outside temperature was about 20 °C. I can see that the first 12 videos make it to 5 to 3 mins length. The following rather stay at a minute or way less.
The camera and the display module are pretty tight to each other. So I would rather expect a temperature issue than a lose contact issue.
@DJI: Would it be normal that the recording pauses due to too high temperature and continues with a new file after the temperature dropped below some critical level again?

I also tried to apply some layers of tape on the magnetic mount to make it sit tight on the mount and reduce the shaking (and the noise). Unfortunately that leads to a losening of the clamps after some vibrations, so that the whole thing fell off down on the asphalt!
:/

I suppose I should also mention I'm often seeing a whole bunch of .DJI_####.LRF.trinf & .DJI_####.MP4.trinf  files amongst the frequent, erratic stop-autorestart recording.  Not always, such as my most recent ride, first video (both the .LRF & .MP4) interrupted, 2nd, 3rd, 4th very short, 5th video files actually 0 bytes & included 0 byte .trinf files.

Stefan T Posted at 8-5 12:17
I have exactly the same problem.
I'm also using it on  my bike for a long recording.
The cam + display unit sit a bit loose on the DJI magnetic mount on my handle bar. It's shaking like hell, producing noise on the audio.

In my experience, overheating doesn't automatically resume, it just stops.

I would tend to still blame slight disconnects between the modules because in my case it lead to the exact behavior described here, but the fact an external cage is being used for one of you seems to make that less likely.  Have either of you tried using only the camera module and recording directly to the internal storage (without the power or screen module)?  That would at least rule out this issue.

Sadly, it seems that the Action 2 is an awful action camera (for biking at least), since all of the issues I've seen like this have been on bikes.

Based on our conversation on my 2nd to last ride, I noticed the camera acting afool, especially bad since I was trying to film with the mount in horizontal mode & 2.7k Horizon Stead, requiring starting it vertically then turning, so once it started spazzing out all the video was useless portrait. So I stopped, grabbed a couple leaves from a nearby bush, and stuffed them in the corner by the hinge. Half where the power unit's bottom is, half on the button side.  Rest of the ride is fine.  Last ride, I mounted it vertically for filming in 4k Horizon Balance & put a bit of single-fold PostIt under the power pack's bottom only. (I figured that was the least 'heatsink' needed area.) Perfect filming again.

But yeah, regretting purchasing this design. Wish I'd been more skeptical of the 'these magnets will hold it together just fine' marketing fluff.

A friend used his Action 2 for diving pretty deep. The cam stopped due to overheating. ^^

In my case, as soon as the camera warms up after about 15 minutes (1080P and 30FPS), the videos only save less than 2 minutes, instead of the full length...

This is a bit late and I've read that you didn't use the DJI Magnetic case, but for anyone who has a problem where the camera (action 2) randomly stops recording:

I've noticed that when i used my magnetic case whilst I'm recording and hit a bump that shakes the camera, it beeps and stops recording. And when I playback the footage, the video ends a few seconds before the moment that I hit a bump and the last few seconds or so of the video have the same frame. So I tried hitting some bumps whilst recording with no magnetic case (just the dji camera and battery module stuck together) and there were no beeps and the camera didn't stop recording! I think what might have been happening is the dji modules disconnected during the bump because of the case. So I think a possible solution is to not use the dji magnetic case of you know that the camera will get shaken.

I attached my dji action 2 using a bike handlebar mount I bought from amazon when I was doing the things that I described above