Hello,

as I met it twice and a few users also reported it :

http://forum.dji.com/thread-104793-1-2.html
http://forum.dji.com/thread-104608-1-2.html
http://forum.dji.com/thread-104773-1-3.html

I openned a case for corrupted files directly through e-mail support (case is #638435 )

I made the 2 files available to them in case they can use them to :
- make them readable which would be nice to me
- help them to understand and solve the issue.

My initial message is in english and pretty clear :

"Subject: Corrupted video files

Message:  Hello, I have already experienced twice corrupted video files. Both  time, it was last file of the flight and I suspect that I power off the  drone before stopping the recording. Files are available here : https://we.tl/8HXHPZyAya https://we.tl/DwaleeKvH9  I'll be glad if you could "uncorrupt" them, and I believe that if the  corruption is related to operation sequence, it should be addressed by  firmware or app, e.g. adding an option to automatically stop recording  when motors stop. Regards"

I just got an answer by them (in French as I'm from France)  :

"Pouvez-vous nous renvoyer les vidéos svp. Il est impossible de les visionner malgré plusieurs essais sur différentes platformes."
which mean basically :
"Could you please resend the file. It is impossible to view them despite several tests on different platforms."

As this was exactly the point of the e-mail, this is quite Kafkaesque isn't it ?

Their new answer :

"Power off when recording videos will cause the file corrupt. Please put the SD card back and turn on the drone and wait for some minutes. If the file still corrupt we will offer you a diagnostic and a repair."

And mine :

"I tested the method that you proposed and its not working in any way...

I put the files back on the SD card (one at a time) and the SD card in the drone. I powered for 5 minutes and shut down again.
Files are not modified at all.

I then formatted the SD card, and started to record a video. I purposely shutted down the power of the drone before stopping recording.
I downloaded the file (copying, not moving) and it is corrupted (which seems to demonstrate that the root cause is indeed powering down without shutting down recording)
I then put the SD card back and powered of for 5 minutes (for 1 min recording) and once again, the file is not modified at all.
Is 5 minutes not long enough or was your method just a blind guess that used to work on other drones from DJI (as i could find on some foum or other drone manuals...)

The 2 video files that are corrupted are not important and I don't want to go further about them with you on those.
However, I consider that the corruption on shutdown is a bug that should be corrected.

Regards"

At least the test I took time to carry seems to show that you indeed have to stop recording before powering off... (at least for now), but the answer from support is really very disappointing.

hi,

sorry for loosing files, this sounds indeed funny... but do you thought they would be able and willing to "repair" the files for you? They will never, because they can't. Powering off before stopping recording is a deathmatch...

Brunetti Posted at 2017-7-19 23:50
hi,

sorry for loosing files, this sounds indeed funny... but do you thought they would be able and willing to "repair" the files for you? They will never, because they can't. Powering off before stopping recording is a deathmatch...

Wrong...

Tool found at http://djifix.live555.com/ + ffmpeg is 100% working for me. I was able to recover both of my videos thanks to it.

The website seems nots always to be running : it was out yesterday anytime I tried to reach it, but it's up now.

Shame that DJI support or website does not link to it in FAQ's....

Matioupi Posted at 2017-7-20 00:04
Wrong...

Tool found at http://djifix.live555.com/ + ffmpeg is 100% working for me. I was able to recover both of my videos thanks to it.

excellent, thanks for this

Here is a video on how to use it...