I recntly lost half of my shots due to a problem with the micro sd card, the pictures either say 0 buytes or have grey lines accross the images. Videos also needed to be repaired and I lost sections of them.
The odd thing is this was on my P4 and Mavic on different occasions.

The may hours spent working out the fault and trying to make sure it didn't happen again resulted in me coming to the conclusion that I should format the card after each days use. Which then begs the question what you do with all the footage if you are away and only have a laptop?

The formatting of the card worked and I have never since had any image corruption, however running out of storage space on my laptop resulted in another struggle, do I use a usb drive or go for cloud storage.

In the end I went with cloud storage from www.xlcloud.uk because I can easily upload images from the drone to my phone and then phone to the cloud storage and not worry about laptop space, I can then download the ones I like, after viewing them online, to my laptop to edit.

All-in-all I now think I have a great way of ensuring every shot I take with my drones will come out fine and I have a great way to keep my images safe and also easily share them out very easily.

John

Maybe the problem is coming from your sd card? I never had to reformat the SD card. As for cloud storage, Google drive is my favourite for cloud storage.

This could very well be a memory card issue, I had a stuttering image with my Mavic so purchased this card, http://amzn.to/2tW4MSG Never had a problem since, it is the best card for the price

to answer your question, I reformat the card on every time i go out and power up the drone for the first time that day.  The current SD card in my drone has been formatted at least 20 times.

I format it once the card gets within 5% of full, because I'm not sure if this thing has wear leveling, and I suspect not, so if I'm gonna wear it out, I want all the memory there to take its share of the aging, not just the bits up front.

After finding myself in the air without space left on the card, thus losing a very nice picture... It's on my before takeoff checklist.

I use the same workflow I  have used for ages on my non-flying cameras -

Format the card every time you insert it into any device, on that device.

It's the cleanest procedure and minimizes the chance of data corruption.  I will review the page that comes up in DJI GO 4 once you connect to the aircraft, then  hit "Format" there each time.

I've taken photos over many cameras for over 15 years now and never lost a picture or video.

GoHoos Posted at 2017-6-23 07:16
I use the same workflow I  have used for ages on my non-flying cameras -

Format the card every time you insert it into any device, on that device.

Agreed - I started doing the same a long time back when I was having some odd errors with cameras and now do it with all my memory cards as I find it ensures consistent performance.

My workflow is to keep an eye on how much free space remains on the card (64 GB SanDisk).  If it's getting full (say... 75%) I'll reformat it in the Mavic, after assuring I have everything off the card, of course.  I keep my imagery on an external drive (which is backed up w/Carbonite).  And I have an empty backup card (another 64 GB SanDisk) always with me, as well as the original 16 GB card that came with the Mavic.

I agree with others in that it might be your card.  I've never had issues with losing any data on the cards I use with my Mavic.

I only reformat if there's a problem, otherwise, I erase after transferring files to long-term storage. Reformatting resets the AC's file numbering system.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-23 08:17
I only reformat if there's a problem, otherwise, I erase after transferring files to long-term storage. Reformatting resets the AC's file numbering system.

The numbers are not reset in DJIGO4 to Android. I do not know anything about DJIGO4 on an Apple system.

Personally I low level formating my SD cards for about every 10 times they are emptied. This allows me to easily find the pictures/videos on the card with other software if there is a reading error on the card.

PS. A low level formatting removes all traces of images/videos that were on the SD card.

Regards Leif.

GoHoos Posted at 2017-6-23 07:16
I use the same workflow I  have used for ages on my non-flying cameras -

Format the card every time you insert it into any device, on that device.

Same here, I format the SD card every time on both the drone and my DSLRs.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-23 08:17
I only reformat if there's a problem, otherwise, I erase after transferring files to long-term storage. Reformatting resets the AC's file numbering system.

It doesn't reset the file numbering if you have it set to continuous.
It's quick and easy enough to format in the Mavic.
I usually do it while it's acquiring GPS - after I downloaded what I want obviously.
Like others above this is how I always do it with other cameras - after downloading what you want to keep, next time it's put back in camera format it.

Just deleting the files leaves behind various hidden items which gradually build up reducing capacity and potentially causing problems to write/read correctly eventually.
It might not happen but why risk it; formatting takes no longer than deleting files.

Formatting on Mavic itself corrupts SD card every time

After every flight and upload of media. I always start fresh and it certainly doesn't hurt.

I transfer all of my photos/videos taken as soon as I'm done flying the drone.  Then I format the SD card at the beginning of each flying session.

every day at the first flight of the day.

If there is file corruption with SD card, I'd suspect problems with the card. A normal format shouldn't be a problem, as it just clears the directory table, but a low,level (if it's actually possible) will wear out the card faster as there are more write cycles.
In the past when I've had cards which throw up errors, even infrequently, they have usually seen the bin, as it's just not worth the risk.