After a few weeks of not flying, I wanted to shoot some beautiful snow  images. Unfortunately the communication between controller and mini 2  would not start. Start-up procedure was normal and rear led kept  flashing yellow. When I wanted to switch off the mini 2 it turned out  that this was no longer possible. Had to remove battery to turn off.  Tried different battery, phone and controller rebooted but no results.  In the meantime I had gotten quite frustrated and then thought let me  try booting again without memory card. Then a big smile appeared on my  face, everything worked normally again.

The memory card works fine in Windows 10 and shows all files neatly. It  now appears that there are certain requirements for the file names on  the card, because I had added text to the default file name. Had e.g.  DJI_0345.MP4 changed to DJI_0345 WITH EXPLANATION OF WHAT I HAD INCLUDED  IN THIS VIDEO.MP4.

Apparently the Mini 2  cannot handle long file names. Had already added 5 characters a few  times and this worked without problems. Hopefully I can save others the  frustration with this shared experience.

@DJI this could be additionally mentioned in the manual with the requirements for the memory card.

Love the internet. Thanks for sharing.  I could image doing this myself at somepoint.

Hello there DronePerspectiv. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused you before and thank you for sharing these information and your experience about this matter. I will cascade these information to the designated DJI department for further evaluation. Thank you and fly safe always.

the 8.3 (8 characters, a point and an extension of 3 charachters) format is typical for FAT, which is used by DJI. Following the manual the Mini 2 supports FAT and exFAT as formats of the SD card. Windows 10 is an NTFS based operating system. If you would format the SD card as NTFS, which is possible on Windows 10, your drone couldn't even use your SD card anymore. Therefor you should format the SD card only in your drone. Ps, camera's do the same.

Althou there's an backward compatibility for long file names (LFN) in Windows for FAT formated media. It has it's own system to store a long file name in a non-visible file and make an 8.3 alternative file name. With other words, your Windows 10 messes up the file system used by your camera or drone. The best thing is to copy your pictures or video from the SD to your PC and then reformat the SD card in your drone before reusing that SD card.

JohnDG Posted at 1-18 00:54
the 8.3 (8 characters, a point and an extension of 3 charachters) format is typical for FAT, which is used by DJI. Following the manual the Mini 2 supports FAT and exFAT as formats of the SD card. Windows 10 is an NTFS based operating system. If you would format the SD card as NTFS, which is possible on Windows 10, your drone couldn't even use your SD card anymore. Therefor you should format the SD card only in your drone. Ps, camera's do the same.

Althou there's an backward compatibility for long file names (LFN) in Windows for FAT formated media. It has it's own system to store a long file name in a non-visible file and make an 8.3 alternative file name. With other words, your Windows 10 messes up the file system used by your camera or drone. The best thing is to copy your pictures or video from the SD to your PC and then reformat the SD card in your drone before reusing that SD card.

After reading your story, I continued to study exFat because I did not understand that adjustments to 14.3 characters did not cause a problem before. I found the table below which states that file names up to 255 characters in length are supported. Since exFat is supported according to the manual, this shouldn't really be a problem. Hopefully DJI finds out what the long name problem is. A mini 2 that no longer responds to anything without explaining why is very frustrating.

So this explains things for me too. But that being said, I added a text file: "REWARD IF FOUND..." in case I lose my drone. How can I add this without messing things up?

DronePerspectiv Posted at 1-18 11:39
After reading your story, I continued to study exFat because I did not understand that adjustments to 14.3 characters did not cause a problem before. I found the table below which states that file names up to 255 characters in length are supported. Since exFat is supported according to the manual, this shouldn't really be a problem. Hopefully DJI finds out what the long name problem is. A mini 2 that no longer responds to anything without explaining why is very frustrating.[view_image]

indeed, not knowing why it is going wrong is frustrating.

255 chars are supported. Microsoft tend to use it own LFN and write a 8.3 version in the original file allocation table, often with a sign called tilde. It could be that this was not supported by DJI.
Let us know if you find out what is the culprit.

Thanks for this. My new Mini 2 had a great set of first day flights. Next day the controller would not connect to the drone. After much talk and trying actions requested by DJI and my retailer, it remained unable to connect and I had to send it back. Had I renamed files on the memory card? I don't remember but I usually do rename files. It's very strange that in your case long file names prevent the controller connecting to the drone.

I had the similar problem: could not connect the drone to the controller. Also, could not power off the drone. In between uses I had added a bunch of Movie Maker files to the sd drive. This apparently caused the drone software to malfunction. Once I removed all the Movie Maker files I was good to go. Sorry, folks, this is a pretty lame and basic software design issue. If you cannot handle Window's usual long file names you need to make this clear to users and not just let the drone go haywire! Please rectify this bug in future software updates. I spent a couple frustrated hours troubleshooting this until I came across this great post.

djiuser_uFUh6lk88PTl Posted at 2-6 12:06
I had the similar problem: could not connect the drone to the controller. Also, could not power off the drone. In between uses I had added a bunch of Movie Maker files to the sd drive. This apparently caused the drone software to malfunction. Once I removed all the Movie Maker files I was good to go. Sorry, folks, this is a pretty lame and basic software design issue. If you cannot handle Window's usual long file names you need to make this clear to users and not just let the drone go haywire! Please rectify this bug in future software updates. I spent a couple frustrated hours troubleshooting this until I came across this great post.

This explains why returning the drone for service did not help. When the drone was tested without the unacceptable long file names everything would have diagnosed as normal. It also explains why just taking out the sd drive could prevent the malfunction.

Thank you for this DronePerspectiv.

I had exactly the same problem as this mid April.  After the first flight I swappped SD cards over and the drone wouldn't connect to the control and wouldn't switch off without removing the battery.  I contacted my UK supplier and after going through some checks they said that I shoud return the Mini2 to them.  They then sent it onwards to DJI Europe inThe Netherlands.  A month later and apparently it is about to start its journey back to me.  Somebody here suggested it was a file problem on the card so I re-formatted both of the cards I use with the Mini2.  Since I found this post I've done some experiments with the cards used in my Phantom 4 Pro and Spark.  I found that if I read the cards with my Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, it, or something installed on it, is writing an 'Android' directory to the SD card. This has a sub directory 'data' which contains four sub-directories all with long filenames.  I've been using the S3 for processing pictures from the P4P and Spark for several years now and the extra directory causes them no problem.  Unfortunately I cant do the trial with the Mini2 as I don't have it, but would seem to be a problem with the Mini2.

DJI Mini 2 suddenly stopped connecting. I’ve changed the cords and formatted SD cards, yet I’m still not having any luck. Is there a solution to this issue?

DJI Mini 2 suddenly stopped connecting. I’ve changed the cords and formatted SD cards, yet I’m still not having any luck. Is there a solution to this issue?