The police recovered my stolen Mavic 2 Pro.  It was stolen last year, along with my whole backpack, batteries, controller, etc.  I can see video files the thief recorded before he lost the drone.  I can see only glimpses of him operationg the drone.  It looks like they tried to use it to record fireworks at night, and I can see in the dark that it is in the front yard of their house.  However, I cannot find GPS data.  

Is there any way to 1) use this drone again?  I don't have the controller., and 2) find the GPS data on the drone or on the card?  I don't have a charger for it anymore so its dead, but I can see the data card.  I see a file on there called DJI.GIS - does this contain anything?

Thanks for helping!

T

If they took photos then the GPS coordinates should be in the exif data of the photos. If they had subtitles etc. enabled you might see coordinates in any videos.
If you find the data give the details to the police rather than go round there yourself, given you are in the USA the person might shoot you.

Install DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series) and export all the flight logs that you see. This would give you better details than any photo or video ever would.

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-8 17:40
Install DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series) and export all the flight logs that you see. This would give you better details than any photo or video ever would.

It would be really neat to catch the thief using the data in the drone.

djiuser_6ONwRHT9Dylo Posted at 3-8 19:22
It would be really neat to catch the thief using the data in the drone.

I agree, I hate a thief and would love to help catch the low-life. I'm not super familiar with Mavic 2's but don't they usually require a phone to fly with? Unless the original Smart Controller was stolen with it. Whoever has been flying it had to be signed into a DJI Account to use it, right? The logs on the drone will hold a lot of telemetry that could easily track down who has had it.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-8 16:20
If they took photos then the GPS coordinates should be in the exif data of the photos. If they had subtitles etc. enabled you might see coordinates in any videos.
If you find the data give the details to the police rather than go round there yourself, given you are in the USA the person might shoot you.

Now Sean, the UK has plenty of violence too.  Let's not detract from the fun of a hunt for the thief!

TonyPHX Posted at 3-8 22:34
Now Sean, the UK has plenty of violence too.  Let's not detract from the fun of a hunt for the thief!

But not the wide scale shootings, including those of people who pulled into the wrong driveway or knocked on the wrong door.

So, do you think the advice - to let the police deal with the thief is flawed ?

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-8 17:40
Install DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series) and export all the flight logs that you see. This would give you better details than any photo or video ever would.

But the logs on the drone, DATs, would need to be processed by DJI in order to get the GPS data out of them. DJI might charge to do the processing.
Those logs are encrypted and ONLY DJI can read them.
The days of readable DATs on the drone are LONG gone

djiuser_6ONwRHT9Dylo Posted at 3-8 19:22
It would be really neat to catch the thief using the data in the drone.

See the above post, DJI would need to process the logs on the drone.

Hi,

Did the thief uses your DJI account ?
If yes, log into this account  and replay the video, this will download the flightlog back on your device.

Upload a flightlog to PhantomHelp.com.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-9 02:44
Hi,

Did the thief uses your DJI account ?

"Upload a flightlog to PhantomHelp.com."
I wouldn't do that.
The thief is innocent until proven guilty and posting a log that shows their home may constitute libel and may leave the way open to the OP being sued for libel.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-9 04:05
"Upload a flightlog to PhantomHelp.com."
I wouldn't do that.
The thief is innocent until proven guilty and posting a log that shows their home may constitute libel and may leave the way open to the OP being sued for libel.

Why assume that he flies from his home and what harm is there in uploading data to Phantomhelp?

Labroides Posted at 3-9 04:29
Why assume that he flies from his home and what harm is there in uploading data to Phantomhelp?

"Why assume that he flies from his home" ?
Answer, the OP said "and I can see in the dark that it is in the front yard of their house.".

"what harm is there in uploading data to Phantomhelp ?"
Answer, it is arguable that, at the moment, a/the resident, if they are indeed a/the thief, is anonymous.
If a log is uploaded to PH and published then, with what the OP has written, it amounts to an accusation that someone at the house highlighted is a thief.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-8 16:20
If they took photos then the GPS coordinates should be in the exif data of the photos. If they had subtitles etc. enabled you might see coordinates in any videos.
If you find the data give the details to the police rather than go round there yourself, given you are in the USA the person might shoot you.

They only took videos.  I can see the operator in one video but hard to see well enough to get a police picture.  I think the combination of this screen grab AND the gps location of the video in the yard would be pretty compelling.  But I can’t figure out how to get the gps data out of the drone.

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-8 20:00
I agree, I hate a thief and would love to help catch the low-life. I'm not super familiar with Mavic 2's but don't they usually require a phone to fly with? Unless the original Smart Controller was stolen with it. Whoever has been flying it had to be signed into a DJI Account to use it, right? The logs on the drone will hold a lot of telemetry that could easily track down who has had it.

They stole my whole bag .  Drone, controller, batteries, charger, lenses, etc.  I only recovered the drone with the SD card and 5 videos (they must have wiped my card before they used it).  The person who found the lost drone (by itself) turned it in to the police using my phone, email, and FAA # I affixed to the drone).  

Now I’m wondering if I’ll be able to use it again.  I have no charger or controller, but I do have a Mavic 3 controller.

Of course you can fly it again but you will need a mavic 2 controller, RC1A or RC1B or smart controller, and a charger and batteries. That said if the police are involved then you may get the whole shebang back, an added incentive to involve them perhaps.

Regarding location data in the video.
Unless the person had captions or subtitles switched on then I think you are out of luck, I can find no GPS data in my mavic 2 videos.
That leaves asking DJI to  decrypt the DATs from the drone and you will need to get them off the drone which requires the assistant 2 and a reasonably charged battery.

DO not switch the drone on until you are ready to retrieve the DATs, within the drone there is limited space available for DAT storage so old DATs are over written as necessary.

Then you would have to send the DATs to DJI and they may charge you for decrypting them.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-9 10:23
Of course you can fly it again but you will need a mavic 2 controller, RC1A or RC1B or smart controller, and a charger and batteries. That said if the police are involved then you may get the whole shebang back, an added incentive to involve them perhaps.

Regarding location data in the video.

Thanks!  I ordered a charger for the battery - hope I can revive it.  Taking screen shots and working them in photoshop does reveal some interesting stuff.  I might have enough to send this to the police.  Not sure what they will do about this but who knows.

tgonser@gmail.c Posted at 3-9 10:45
Thanks!  I ordered a charger for the battery - hope I can revive it.  Taking screen shots and working them in photoshop does reveal some interesting stuff.  I might have enough to send this to the police.  Not sure what they will do about this but who knows.

Screenshots? I'm confused on your wording. Does the SD card have .jpg files on it? Using  Lightroom or better yet exiftool with these images should provide location data. Also try scanning the SD card using a data recovery tool. Even if the files have been deleted you can usually recover them quite easily. I've formatted cards on accident before and was able to recover everything in 4-6 hours. Just make sure you don't write anything new to the card if you choose to go this route. Make an .iso image of the SD card and I'd be happy to do it for you if you don't know how.  

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-9 10:54
Screenshots? I'm confused on your wording. Does the SD card have .jpg files on it? Using  Lightroom or better yet exiftool with these images should provide location data. Also try scanning the SD card using a data recovery tool. Even if the files have been deleted you can usually recover them quite easily. I've formatted cards on accident before and was able to recover everything in 4-6 hours. Just make sure you don't write anything new to the card if you choose to go this route. Make an .iso image of the SD card and I'd be happy to do it for you if you don't know how.

I am taking the video file and pulling screen shots out if it.  No photos on the card unfortunately.

Hi there. We are glad you got your drone back. You can refer to the steps below to retrieve the GPS coordinate data:
1. When taking a photo, the coordinates at the time of photo taking are stored in the photo’s EXIF information. Please note that the information is for a single photo-taking point.
2. If Video Captions are enabled, you can export the coordinate data with the videos at the time of recording. Please note that the data covers the entire video recording process.
It is not possible to export the GPS coordinate data during the entire flight period. Have a great day ahead.

DJI Tony Posted at 3-10 06:28
Hi there. We are glad you got your drone back. You can refer to the steps below to retrieve the GPS coordinate data:
1. When taking a photo, the coordinates at the time of photo taking are stored in the photo’s EXIF information. Please note that the information is for a single photo-taking point.
2. If Video Captions are enabled, you can export the coordinate data with the videos at the time of recording. Please note that the data covers the entire video recording process.

Thanks ChatGPTony for taking the information already said above and summarizing it into a comment of your own.

tgonser@gmail.c Posted at 3-9 10:55
I am taking the video file and pulling screen shots out if it.  No photos on the card unfortunately.

If the SD Cards are erased (not formatted), all the data is still on there. Deleting files only marks them for writing over. Plenty of free data recovery apps out there will restore the data.

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-10 07:24
Thanks ChatGPTony for taking the information already said above and summarizing it into a comment of your own.

GPTony

CloudVisual Posted at 3-10 09:23
If the SD Cards are erased (not formatted), all the data is still on there. Deleting files only marks them for writing over. Plenty of free data recovery apps out there will restore the data.

Exactly. Unless this is a brand new SD card I guarantee OP will find additional media/clues if it is scanned by one of these tools. A 100% free software for this is Autopsy. You'll be able to see deleted files in just a matter of minutes. People usually move SD cards around from device to device. So even if it recovers files from something other that the Mavic 2 it could be useful. GoPro's and other cameras save location metadata too.

Johnnokomis Posted at 3-10 07:24
Thanks ChatGPTony for taking the information already said above and summarizing it into a comment of your own.

Hello, I apologize for unintentionally providing the same answer as the others. I did not read the previous comments before sharing my response. My primary objective is to assist people with their questions and issues. I appreciate your understanding.

So the old battery is charging.  I will be able to startup the drone.  It must have had a RTH point set when it was lost.   Is there a way to see what/where that was?  I don’t want to over write any data before I have a chance to find it.

tgonser@gmail.c Posted at 3-12 16:08
So the old battery is charging.  I will be able to startup the drone.  It must have had a RTH point set when it was lost.   Is there a way to see what/where that was?  I don’t want to over write any data before I have a chance to find it.

When the drone is powered off, any homepoint is lost.
There is no homepoint still in your drone.

tgonser@gmail.c Posted at 3-12 16:08
So the old battery is charging.  I will be able to startup the drone.  It must have had a RTH point set when it was lost.   Is there a way to see what/where that was?  I don’t want to over write any data before I have a chance to find it.

Hi,

As said before, if the thief used your account to fly than the logs are probably on the DJI servers.

So log in your (old) account, if you can replay the video than the logs are downloaded back to your device.
If that is the case....logs will have all the info in there!

cheers
JJB

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-9 00:34
But not the wide scale shootings, including those of people who pulled into the wrong driveway or knocked on the wrong door.

So, do you think the advice - to let the police deal with the thief is flawed ?

Totally solid advice.  I just kind of wince about the perceptions of us.  Maybe I'm just defensive.  : )

DJI Tony Posted at 3-10 06:28
Hi there. We are glad you got your drone back. You can refer to the steps below to retrieve the GPS coordinate data:
1. When taking a photo, the coordinates at the time of photo taking are stored in the photo’s EXIF information. Please note that the information is for a single photo-taking point.
2. If Video Captions are enabled, you can export the coordinate data with the videos at the time of recording. Please note that the data covers the entire video recording process.

DJITony, in circumstances like this would DJI charge the OP or the police, for decrypting the DATs from the drone ?

Obviously the drone and related parts are not designed to provide the clues you need so it would only make sense that you will have a hard time using any of this in a legal setting.  Is it really worth the effort?  I would just concentrate on getting your new found drone back up and running.

The Saint Posted at 3-14 06:34
Obviously the drone and related parts are not designed to provide the clues you need so it would only make sense that you will have a hard time using any of this in a legal setting.  Is it really worth the effort?  I would just concentrate on getting your new found drone back up and running.

That's an odd thing to say, yielding the location of where the drone is used is one of the functions of the flight logs, be they .txt or DAT.
It is just a pity that DJI choose to encrypt the DATs on the drone and, perhaps, charge for decrypting them.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-14 06:55
That's an odd thing to say, yielding the location of where the drone is used is one of the functions of the flight logs, be they .txt or DAT.
It is just a pity that DJI choose to encrypt the DATs on the drone and, perhaps, charge for decrypting them.

Only speaking from a legal perspective, not saying it cannot be done.  But imagine going into a courtroom and presenting the data to try to get someone thrown in jail and when asked where did you get this data from you reply by saying DJI in China gave it to me.  You may have a few jury members who aren't convinced, it all depends on the totality of the entire case.  Is anyone prepared to speak to the DJI encryption process and the reliability of the data?  Not sure what it proves.

If you can capture good stills of the area, use Google photo search. It works fairly well.

Stills of the operator, house of the operator + gps coordinates of flights might be useful - maybe recover my controller and batteries, etc.  Without them I will probably sell it as I do t have a controller to fly it and I have another drone.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-14 01:41
DJITony, in circumstances like this would DJI charge the OP or the police, for decrypting the DATs from the drone ?

Hi, Sean. Let me check this with the relevant team. I will be back with an update. Thank you for your patience.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-14 01:41
DJITony, in circumstances like this would DJI charge the OP or the police, for decrypting the DATs from the drone ?

Thank you for patiently waiting. Due to the protection of personal information under relevant laws, we are unable to disclose the personal information of others. If law enforcement or other regulatory agencies require verification of information, they are suggested to contact legal@dji.com for needed documentation. We will have dedicated personnel to assist them. Have a nice day.

tgonser@gmail.c Posted at 3-14 08:39
Stills of the operator, house of the operator + gps coordinates of flights might be useful - maybe recover my controller and batteries, etc.  Without them I will probably sell it as I do t have a controller to fly it and I have another drone.

Well tgonser there you have an answer ------ of sorts. You will need to contact DJI yourself and see if they will decrypt the DATs on the drone and how much, if anything, they will charge.

DJI Tony Posted at 3-18 01:59
Thank you for patiently waiting. Due to the protection of personal information under relevant laws, we are unable to disclose the personal information of others. If law enforcement or other regulatory agencies require verification of information, they are suggested to contact  for needed documentation. We will have dedicated personnel to assist them. Have a nice day.

OK and thanks

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-18 08:55
OK and thanks

You are most welcome. Please reach us anytime if you have further concerns. Have a great day ahead.