I've searched the forum and haven't found any similar issues. I have computer experience so I dont believe I am doing anything procedurally incorrect. Here's my issue:I have a Mavic 2 Pro and am using a SanDisk Extreme 128Gb V30 U3 A2 card and flew/shot yesterday for some time. After I got home I copied the video and photos to my PC. This afternoon I took the drone out to catch some sunset pictures and after shooting, prior to copying files to my PC, suddenly requires formatting. I copied the photos and videos from yesterday without removing the card from the drone with a Windows 10 PC in Windows Explorer which is the same procedure I have used since it was new which has been just about 3 weeks. I also have a Mini 1 and use the same class/manuf card/procedure yet have never had this issue. Multiple SD card readers, PC connections and the AC all see the card is there but that it requires formatting and I am able to read other SD cards with all so it isn't cable(s) or PC ports or any other hardware. Firmware has been updated on RC, all batteries and AC recently but have used the same card/procedure since (and prior to) the upgrade and this is the first time it has done this.

I just connected the AC,RC and my iPad Air 2 and got an inconsistient Firmware between devices warning. When I tap on the Fly now button the AC status inciator states that the FW is latest under overall status.
Firmware vs:
AC - 01.00.0670
RC - 01.00.0640

Any insight would be appreciated.  

Hi AkDroneFlyer,

ignore the "format" request from your windows machine. When the format of the SD card differs from what the operating system think it should be, you get a warning. Just ignore it.

You did well, formatting the SD card on the drone. The way the SD is formatted is depending on off the system where you did format it. If you don't want recording problems, follow formatting on your drone.

The inconsistent firmware message is mostly given when the batteries are not upgraded yet. Normally, you should have the option to "update". This doesn't take long, but you better do it.

JohnDG Posted at 2-1 01:29
Hi AkDroneFlyer,

ignore the "format" request from your windows machine. When the format of the SD card differs from what the operating system think it should be, you get a warning. Just ignore it.

My point is why did the card require formatting since no changes were made to it? The only thing I did was to copy files from it, while still in the drone, to my PC. I have several trips planned this year where I will be out away from civilization for multiple days at a time with no means to save photos and videos to a PC which is why I purchased a high capacity SD card. I don’t want a similar issue to occur after having gotten shots that are irreplaceable. Fortunately at this point I am in learning mode in regards to the capabilities of the camera on the M2P but do not want to be in this situation when I am in a remote location with no method to save the files on the card to other media.

AkDroneFlyer Posted at 2-1 10:07
My point is why did the card require formatting since no changes were made to it? The only thing I did was to copy files from it, while still in the drone, to my PC. I have several trips planned this year where I will be out away from civilization for multiple days at a time with no means to save photos and videos to a PC which is why I purchased a high capacity SD card. I don’t want a similar issue to occur after having gotten shots that are irreplaceable. Fortunately at this point I am in learning mode in regards to the capabilities of the camera on the M2P but do not want to be in this situation when I am in a remote location with no method to save the files on the card to other media.

I thought of this also once and how to back up a SD card with videos I would never be able to film again without a lap top. I found 2 items which you can easily back up your SD card with. Either the WD My Passport Wireless SSD or the Gnarbox. There may even be more on the market, but I know about these 2.
Edited: Found one more device: Nexto DI NPS-10 Nexto Photo storage

AkDroneFlyer Posted at 2-1 10:07
My point is why did the card require formatting since no changes were made to it? The only thing I did was to copy files from it, while still in the drone, to my PC. I have several trips planned this year where I will be out away from civilization for multiple days at a time with no means to save photos and videos to a PC which is why I purchased a high capacity SD card. I don’t want a similar issue to occur after having gotten shots that are irreplaceable. Fortunately at this point I am in learning mode in regards to the capabilities of the camera on the M2P but do not want to be in this situation when I am in a remote location with no method to save the files on the card to other media.

DJI write a lot of files to the SD cad that are placed in hidden folders, so the card is constantly filling up with material you don't need. The cue is to remove the files from the card regularly and then format it in the drone.

Geebax Posted at 2-1 13:45
DJI write a lot of files to the SD cad that are placed in hidden folders, so the card is constantly filling up with material you don't need. The cue is to remove the files from the card regularly and then format it in the drone.

So there’s really no reason to use a high capacity card? Go 4 app indicated that there was still 2-1/2 hrs of video storage when I started shooting yesterday yet it saved nothing/didn’t write to the card at all and didn’t indicate the card was full which of course it wasn’t as I had only used approx 16gb of a 128gb card the previous day.

Thanks for all of the input!

AkDroneFlyer Posted at 2-1 13:59
So there’s really no reason to use a high capacity card? Go 4 app indicated that there was still 2-1/2 hrs of video storage when I started shooting yesterday yet it saved nothing/didn’t write to the card at all and didn’t indicate the card was full which of course it wasn’t as I had only used approx 16gb of a 128gb card the previous day.

Thanks for all of the input!

like Geebax already said, DJI stores some extra files on the SD card. The other problem is that writing data is done in blocks. So, your video or picture uses a number of blocks. The last block of the video or picture isn't filled up entirely. Say blocksize is 4k and the last block is only used for 1k. This means 3k lost on that video. This is called slack space. Any digital media has this, your hard disk, SD card,... The more you have small files, you will have more slack space.
After I copied the files from my SD card, I reformat the card on my drone, giving me a clean SD card to start with.

Why the message from your PC? Not all devices uses the same formatting system. Little or even large differences in that process can cause other devices unable to write on the card. Your windows pc will follow the formatting of your SD card even if it thinks he can do better and giving you that message to reformat. I had this even with other types of memory cards from my DSLRs.

The PC not recognizing it shouldn’t be due to the fact that I copied files off of it yet didn’t reformat it with the drone due to differing file system structures and if all I did was copy (read) files and not write anything to the card, why/how would that require a reformat by the drone? Not being critical but trying to understand as well as have a proper procedure for saving files and ensuring this doesn’t repeat itself.

This information brings up another concern; does the Go4 app accurately display the amount of video or photos that can be stored on the media?
If DJI is constantly writing to the disk as well as media being stored on it one would think the displayed value may be erroneous.?

EDIT: I understand the ideology behind sectors on a drive or blocks. The issue isn't that the card ran out of space or even came close, it simply was unreadable. That said, my understanding now is that best practice is to format the SD card from the drone after copying files off of the card. Might be time for a wireless flash drive for storage purposes and/or multiple SD cards and a card wallet.

Sounds like a bad card to me - I've never had to worry about cleaning up extra files or formatting the card repeatedly etc; I fly with a 64gb U3 (sandisk).  

All things being equal, I doubt this is an undiscovered bug in Go4.  How sure are you of the provenance of the card, there are plenty of fakes out there.  The PC not recognizing it is because the reader or the card is bad.  I would bet the firmware mismatch has to do with reading and interpreting bad data from the card.

If it was me I'd throw the card in the garbage and get a new one.   Go4 also gives you a pretty accurate estimate.  I would also say it is not best practice or even remotely normal to format after copy.  But multiple SD cards is a requirement.  Happy flying.

I would feel safer using several smaller cards like 32Gb or 64Gb instead of one 128Gb. If something goes wrong, at least you do not loose everything.

Porktree Posted at 2-2 08:12
Sounds like a bad card to me - I've never had to worry about cleaning up extra files or formatting the card repeatedly etc; I fly with a 64gb U3 (sandisk).  

All things being equal, I doubt this is an undiscovered bug in Go4.  How sure are you of the provenance of the card, there are plenty of fakes out there.  The PC not recognizing it is because the reader or the card is bad.  I would bet the firmware mismatch has to do with reading and interpreting bad data from the card.

After many scenarios tested on the bench, I was able to replicate the issue. I took some video and several photos, copied to my PC several ways (RC connected, RC and app connected, no RC connected, etc) ejected the ext drives in Windows (sd and internal) shut the AC down and restarted. Was able to see all of the files on the card for each test....until I didn’t eject the ext drives in Windows (even though copying was complete) and viola, card required formatting after reconnecting to my PC. I got an “SD card not inserted” warning that I didn’t get on Sunday as that would’ve prompted me to then format it or at least attempt to. App recognized the card and apparently added video and photos but no matter what I couldn’t get the PC to recognize it until formatting again in the AC.
Long story short I can only believe that I missed a fundamental step by not ejecting after copying Saturday’s video and photos as well as a warning Sunday or inadvertently pressed “ok”.
Lesson learned.

kyalami Posted at 2-2 08:37
I would feel safer using several smaller cards like 32Gb or 64Gb instead of one 128Gb. If something goes wrong, at least you do not loose everything.

I have since ordered multiple 64gb cards and a WD wireless pro for for redundancy. Bigger isn’t always better.

AkDroneFlyer Posted at 2-2 10:07
I have since ordered multiple 64gb cards and a WD wireless pro for for redundancy. Bigger isn’t always better.

Hi AkDroneFlyer.
Hope that you get all to work fine now and that you will find everything much safer now. Good luck and hope you will catch a lot of nice videos to save safely. I love the WD pro and take it with me all the time. I share 3 cards with land shots, under water videos and now up in the air shots and copy all to the WD pro so that I do not lose anything should something go funny with my SD cards. Can not afford to lose anything on expensive long overseas trips. All the best.

kyalami Posted at 2-2 11:27
Hi AkDroneFlyer.
Hope that you get all to work fine now and that you will find everything much safer now. Good luck and hope you will catch a lot of nice videos to save safely. I love the WD pro and take it with me all the time. I share 3 cards with land shots, under water videos and now up in the air shots and copy all to the WD pro so that I do not lose anything should something go funny with my SD cards. Can not afford to lose anything on expensive long overseas trips. All the best.

I believe I have it figured out now but will continue to put the system through the ringer on the bench especially since the forecasted winds around my home have me grounded for this week.

Thank you all again for your wisdom, insight and suggestions!

Can I know how to format the sim card? I had the same problem after I downloaded file into my Mac Pro , inset again it appeared full ... this is the new SIM card as I thought the old one is damaged... can anyone advice ? I can’t find it in my DJI mimo apps   Is annoying and was my third cards now I tried .. urgently needed help as I need to use it for work

djiuser_WQGbY69RBr7C Posted at 2-3 07:26
Can I know how to format the sim card? I had the same problem after I downloaded file into my Mac Pro , inset again it appeared full ... this is the new SIM card as I thought the old one is damaged... can anyone advice ? I can’t find it in my DJI mimo apps   Is annoying and was my third cards now I tried

Not sure of how to do this with a Mimo or a MAC as I am not familiar with the app that is used with it and use a PC but have found that as long as I eject the ext drives (the M2P has 8gb onboard storage as well) from my PC the card remains in tact. It was only when I didn’t eject yet simply unplugged the usb plug from my pc that the card became unusable. Note that the Go4 app still saw the card and may have actually been writing to it since the app was seeing the size reduce as it was writing files to it. Always use the app/product to format and never the computer as the file systems are different.

I ran into a string of fake SanDisk micro SD cards on ebay, they all did weird things.  Since I switched to Samsung Micro SD cards from Amazon, I have had no issues.

Porktree Posted at 2-2 08:12
Sounds like a bad card to me - I've never had to worry about cleaning up extra files or formatting the card repeatedly etc; I fly with a 64gb U3 (sandisk).  

All things being equal, I doubt this is an undiscovered bug in Go4.  How sure are you of the provenance of the card, there are plenty of fakes out there.  The PC not recognizing it is because the reader or the card is bad.  I would bet the firmware mismatch has to do with reading and interpreting bad data from the card.

I go with multiple cards too.  I have a memory card problem, every time it is on sale I buy more even though I have some on the shelf unopened.

I also have one of these card holders for each drone and every camera system so I can swap them out frequently.  In hindsight, the smaller capacity cards are a way smarter way to swap through the day.  That 256gb is just overkill.

kyalami Posted at 2-1 10:50
I thought of this also once and how to back up a SD card with videos I would never be able to film again without a lap top. I found 2 items which you can easily back up your SD card with. Either the WD My Passport Wireless SSD or the Gnarbox. There may even be more on the market, but I know about these 2.
Edited: Found one more device: Nexto DI NPS-10 Nexto Photo storage

Wow, thank you for the tip on stand alone back up devices.

I just ordered a WD Wireless Pro not SSD but still provides a means to not have to carry my laptop on the boat or 4-wheeler, saving space yet providing a more portable means of redundancy. My laptop is SSD but I’m not going to bounce that around on my wheeler even in a pelican case and it’s simply too large to put on the boat.

AkDroneFlyer Posted at 2-2 14:43
I believe I have it figured out now but will continue to put the system through the ringer on the bench especially since the forecasted winds around my home have me grounded for this week.

Thank you all again for your wisdom, insight and suggestions!

You are more than welcome.

maihem.rc Posted at 2-3 08:19
Wow, thank you for the tip on stand alone back up devices.

You are more than welcome. Glad I could be of some help.

maihem.rc Posted at 2-3 08:17
I go with multiple cards too.  I have a memory card problem, every time it is on sale I buy more even though I have some on the shelf unopened.
[view_image]
I also have one of these card holders for each drone and every camera system so I can swap them out frequently.  In hindsight, the smaller capacity cards are a way smarter way to swap through the day.  That 256gb is just overkill.

Proof that great minds think alike,  I have several of the exact same SD things from BANDC, in orange.  I keep one with my Mini and one with the Pro.

And can you really have to many SD cards?

Porktree Posted at 2-3 20:40
Proof that great minds think alike,  I have several of the exact same SD things from BANDC, in orange.  I keep one with my Mini and one with the Pro.

And can you really have to many SD cards?

Fair point, in looking through my Amazon purchases of micro SD cards there are only 14 of them since 2018.  I should get more.