What's the consensus on best way to transfer images (I don't really do video) from the Mini 3 Pro to a Laptop?

Options I can think off...

• Remove the SD card and put in a SD Card reader on Laptop. Seems the easiest but little worried about stories of card readers being hard to access or even breaking.
• Using USB-C Cable from Drone to Laptop. Again seems easy but you do have to turn on the drone and you are using a USB-C port repeatedly.
• Quick Transfer via WIFI to Phone then Transfer by USB-C cable to Laptop. Definitely the least intrusive apart from having to turn on the drone and doing two transfers. But appeal of this is just leaving the SD card in the drone and not having to ever remove that or ever need to plug in a USB-C Cable to the drone.
  

What's everyone doing here?

Cheers

Good question. My answer:
ad 1) Too fiddly
ad 2) Unfold the drone, remove camera cap, drone gets hot while copying
ad 3) One extra network hop that takes a while

Frankly, what I'd like to have is a USB Dongle in the Synology Diskstation that quicktransfers the files directly. Why would I want to download 20GB of video files to my phone!?!??
Or the drone connects to the home Wifi and presents itself as network drive?

WernerD Posted at 6-22 03:41
Good question. My answer:
ad 1) Too fiddly
ad 2) Unfold the drone, remove camera cap, drone gets hot while copying

Cheers for that all good points too!  Yes not sure why a Laptop with Bluetooth and WiFi couldn't be used to directly transfer (apart from not being able to load Android?)  I wonder if an Android Emulator would work???

After quick transfer to iPhone, I use airdrop to download video and foto's to Mac.

Your point #1 is the fastest and simplest method.
Your fears of somehow damaging something are unfounded.
Powering on the drone and using cables etc are slower and clunky.

I used quick transfer to the android phone. And then let Google back it up to the cloud. Then I can just download it to the PC. I tried to do bluetooth from the phone to the pc but it was painfully slow. Would be nice if you could quick transfer to the PC... This should be an option.

I always pull the card from the aircraft and plug it in.  I've always done it this way, long before I had any DJI drones.  Yet to damage a card or socket through doing this.

Given the shear amount of data being written to the cards with 4k up to 60fps video, keeping the same card in will lead to excessive NAND wear, so I tend to rotate through at least 3 cards after ever day of flying, so would be pulling them out anyway.

JMCANZO Posted at 6-22 04:36
I used quick transfer to the android phone. And then let Google back it up to the cloud. Then I can just download it to the PC. I tried to do bluetooth from the phone to the pc but it was painfully slow. Would be nice if you could quick transfer to the PC... This should be an option.

There are cross platform wifi transfer apps. I use Superbeam.  Android to Windows. But the best way is straight from the Micro SD.

https://superbe.am/

Remove the card, also don’t buy big memory cards they tend to get stuffed with rubbish you end up deleting. 4x 32gb or 2x64 GB to me is much better than 128s or 256s unless you have projects that big .
Just my opinion…

I stick the SD card in my USB card reader, works for me.

Don’t like point 1 as the microsd mechanism on the drone has had issues with other flyers.  Option 2 is only good if you can cool the drone and probably most favourable if not a pain unfolding.  Option 3 owes the drone need to be powered to connect so same as option 2 but quicker?

Thanks for all the comments I usually take out the SD card but was getting spooked by comments on the SD slot on the controller https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=267588

Maybe I'll carry on taking out the SD card on the drone but keep the one in the controller firmly in there. Assume you can transfer out data on the controller by USB-C cable?

Cheers

chillibadger Posted at 6-22 08:04
Don’t like point 1 as the microsd mechanism on the drone has had issues with other flyers.  Option 2 is only good if you can cool the drone and probably most favourable if not a pain unfolding.  Option 3 owes the drone need to be powered to connect so same as option 2 but quicker?

Option 2 maybe different from Option 3.
According to some youtubers, apparently the drone in QuickTransfer mode does not power on all the electronics/processor inside, so it is supposed to run much cooler and the battery lasts longer than full power on.  Haven't tested it myself to see if this is true.

TLDR : No Consensus.

Hello there Bussty. Good day and thank you for reaching out. I hope that our fellow DJI co pilots can share and give out the best recommendation on there way on transferring there captured videos and photos from there DJI Mini 3 Pro to there Laptops. Thank you and have a nice day

hallmark007 Posted at 6-22 07:14
Remove the card, also don’t buy big memory cards they tend to get stuffed with rubbish you end up deleting. 4x 32gb or 2x64 GB to me is much better than 128s or 256s unless you have projects that big .
Just my opinion…

Just a question - how do you handle file names changing SD cards? I go crazy with drone starting from 0001 with the new SD or keeping different numbering on different SD's

On the subject - the only way for me is SD card as I film a lot and usually cam from day trip with some 30+ GB of files

I use 1 or 2 and ignore the nagging warning about the media being corrupted. It never is realistically.

Well, All DJI drones and camera uses MicroSD and I've always just removed the MicroSD and plug that into my PC and I have yet to have any problem with the socket or card.

alex_markov Posted at 6-22 20:39
Just a question - how do you handle file names changing SD cards? I go crazy with drone starting from 0001 with the new SD  or keeping different numbering on different SD's

It's pathetic that DJI left the File Index Option off the Fly app.
But if you format the SD card in your computer, after copying the files, that seems to prevent the file number resetting to 001.
Format in the drone and it resets.

TheBoy Posted at 6-22 06:40
I always pull the card from the aircraft and plug it in.  I've always done it this way, long before I had any DJI drones.  Yet to damage a card or socket through doing this.

Given the shear amount of data being written to the cards with 4k up to 60fps video, keeping the same card in will lead to excessive NAND wear, so I tend to rotate through at least 3 cards after ever day of flying, so would be pulling them out anyway.

One of the reasons I only ever film in 1080p

Option 1,  been doing it for years with no issues.

I always take the card out of the drone and put it into a USB card reader, when transferring images to my PC
Did it with my MINI 2 as well, just find it easier this way.

alex_markov Posted at 6-22 20:39
Just a question - how do you handle file names changing SD cards? I go crazy with drone starting from 0001 with the new SD  or keeping different numbering on different SD's

I tend to download all footage and photos to external hard drive after every shoot, because dji system is still a failed system, I gave up on it. Now I just create folders using my own system of numbering and titling and dating footage before formatting SD cards. So I tend to use smaller SD cards because I cannot fill up large ones. Sometimes when doing a lot I will only use 16GB card and swap out just in case something goes wrong. I did have a 64GB card get corrupted and I lost some nice footage on a holiday in Croatia. So a lesson learned.]

Just shove the SD card in a reader.
No removing gimbal covers or cables needed.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-23 01:45
I tend to download all footage and photos to external hard drive after every shoot, because dji system is still a failed system, I gave up on it. Now I just create folders using my own system of numbering and titling and dating footage before formatting SD cards. So I tend to use smaller SD cards because I cannot fill up large ones. Sometimes when doing a lot I will only use 16GB card and swap out just in case something goes wrong. I did have a 64GB card get corrupted and I lost some nice footage on a holiday in Croatia. So a lesson learned.]

I use a 256GB Very fast card (read is a bit less than 300MB/s ) for my travels - I shoot a lot and when away - download every evening content to my laptop but keep it on the card for backup - when at home - distribute files to several locations and delete SD

alex_markov Posted at 6-23 01:53
I use a 256GB Very fast card (read is a bit less than 300MB/s  ) for my travels - I shoot a lot and when away - download every evening content to my laptop but keep it on the card for backup  - when at home - distribute files to several locations and delete SD

Its very similar to what I do myself, hours of fun ;+)

Thanks all, seems consensus is to carry on removing the SD card and using a card reader.

Drone actually arrived today, no fogging and it was -5 here today and lens seems sharp so pretty happy. Only issue is care refresh number from dealer I received has already been used so just getting that sorted now.

USB fan has been great for keeping cool with all the updates etc.

Bussty Posted at 6-23 03:49
Thanks all seems consensus is removing the SD card  and using a card reader.

Drone actually arrived today, no fogging and it was -5 here today and lens seems sharp so pretty happy. Only issue is care refresh number from dealer I received has already been used so just getting that sorted now.

Nice one, you’ll be busy for awhile good luck.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-23 03:52
Nice one, you’ll be busy for awhile good luck.

Yes indeed, thank you!

WernerD Posted at 6-22 03:41
Good question. My answer:
ad 1) Too fiddly
ad 2) Unfold the drone, remove camera cap, drone gets hot while copying

Or the drone connects to the home Wifi and presents itself as network drive

Optimum solution. Maybe in a future update?

In my few days of owner ship I have tried options one and two.  I don't have any difficulty flicking the SD card out of the drone, nor much more difficulty putting it back. On balance I prefer that method to switching on the drone and connecting via cable, using battery time and heating up the drone.  Option three seems cumbersome, involving two transfers.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-25 08:34
In my few days of owner ship I have tried options one and two.  I don't have any difficulty flicking the SD card out of the drone, nor much more difficulty putting it back. On balance I prefer that method to switching on the drone and connecting via cable, using battery time and heating up the drone.  Option three seems cumbersome, involving two transfers.

Yes agree pretty much locked into option 1 now. First time you put your card in did you try it right side up and found it was right side down? Bet there was lots of us did that

Bussty Posted at 6-26 12:41
Yes agree pretty much locked into option 1 now. First time you put your card in did you try it right side up and found it was right side down? Bet there was lots of us did that

Once and once only

JMR58 Posted at 6-22 04:15
After quick transfer to iPhone, I use airdrop to download video and foto's to Mac.

Are you able to quick transfer the D-Cinelike files to your iPhone?

Mini3Valencia Posted at 6-26 18:42
Are you able to quick transfer the D-Cinelike files to your iPhone?

Yes, just checked it, recording in D-Cinelike! Files can be transferred with Quick Transfer to iPhone 11Pro, BT and wifi activated.