Hello everyone,
I have around 100 flights so far with DJI Mavic 2PRO and I am very happy with it and had no problems with it until the other day. To summarize:

1. I had 2 batteries with me and on the first flight, everything was ok (all images and videos were properly saved).

2. Then I had to land to switch the battery (I did not change the SD card or do anything else).

3. When I was flying the second time I noticed that when switching to video mode I could not record the video (it automatically switched back to image mode). It seemed I could properly take images as it made the save sound. There was still plenty of room on the card (over 100GB).

4. When I got home and was checking the SD card I noticed that none of the images were actually saved on the SD card (or the internal storage).

5. When I check the flight logs I can see the 4 preview images and in the log itself I can see all the spots where the image was taken (the little thumbs) so I can be sure that I actually press the button to capture an image.

6. I tried to scan the SD card with recovery software but nothing was found. So I came to the conclusion that images were not actually saved in the first place. Please note that no error was showed during the flight that there is anything wrong with the storage (the number of images that I can still take was reducing with each shot as it should).

So my question is, has this ever happened to anyone before? Was it just some random bad luck or can anything be done to avoid this in the future? Also, I flew again yesterday and had no problems, everything was saved properly.

Thanks for reading the long block of text.

#5 seems to offer a clue. Is it possible after switching batteries you went into the image settings and accidentally designated saving to phone or SC? Preview images may mean the images were saved to your phone or Smart Controller. If these images are saved as originals then it's likely your phone or SC did not have enough storage.

Rule out the SD card by removing it and doing a test with the internal storage.

Hi, dreamypixel. Thanks for reaching out and our sincere apologies to read about what you just experienced. Just to further clarify, your SD card only saved videos and photos on your first flight, is that correct? If that's the case, does the app generates a cached copy of either or both of the videos and photos? Apparently and since there's no warning or error, it'll be hard to determine what could actually cause this unforeseen event aside from doing quick tests and status checks on the SD card before flying. In addition or if you do encounter yet another situation with the video mode, we recommend performing a camera reset then check whether the problem would be resolved.  

Hi,

thank you everyone for posting your thoughts. At this point, I just decided to buy a new SD card, just in case.

@Marty: that would be a possibility, but I guess I would see at least a few images on my phone then? There is still plenty of space on the phone so that shouldn't be an issue. I only can see 4 images in the log file which I think is just made automatically? As they are not sharp at all, looks like they are made when the drone is moving.

@DAFlys yes, for the future I will just get a new SD card.

@DJI Gamora:

1. No problem, I understand these things can happen and I am not really sure what was actually wrong.  Yes, the first flight was great, all the images and videos from the first flight are on the SD card. How can I check the cached copy if it exists?

2. Yes, I guess I should have paid more attention to the fact that the video was not recording and this was a clear indicator that something was not ok. I just disregarded it because there was no actual error, just switching back to image mode when you pressed the record button in video mode. I will definitely know now that if that happens again it's time to land and do a reset.

3. One more question is it possible to see from the flight log records that you download and then upload to Airdata if I actually took (pressed the button) the images?

Thanks again everyone.

I think Airdata only shows panos being taken,  its logged as a mode change on the tip screen.

Format the new SD card in your drone. Formatting a SD card on a pc could make it inaccessable for the drone.

And an SD card is still an electronic part. It can be defective too. Success, have a good flight.