Hi

New Mini 4 owner here

My drone won't recognise either of the microSD cards I've tried with it so far.

I've tried formatting to ExFAT and FAT32 (quick format and regular format via my laptop)
Inserting before the drone is turned on
Inserting after the drone has booted
Inserted the cards into the RC (recognised fine)
Firmware is fully up to date at the time of posting this (new update available and installed today actually)
SD cards are pictured below
Note that the RC recognises the cards just fine. Sadly the drone doesn't.

I imagine you realize they go in the drone bottom of the card up, (to the top of the drone), the opposite of the controller, and any other device in the Marvel Universe, lol.  Also get some faster cards for your drone. Sandisk extreme pro's or extreme plus are good ones.  

Hi there. We do apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please use one of the recommended SD cards that are listed on our website and check whether the issue persists. You may refer to the image below. Hope this helps.

You'll need faster cards like the ones DJI recommends. Also, it's best to format the cards in the drone itself for the best compatibility.

Thank you for the responses so far. Am I correct in thinking the slower card by design aren’t even recognised by the aircraft then?

New card will be here shortly so I can test, and hopefully it’ll work ok

When you put the cards into the drone, you need to pull down twice to get the top menu, you should see setup in the left pane, click that as you need to setup and mount the card in the drone. If it doesn't ask you with a popup after setup to do so, go into the regular settings menu and switch internal storage to the card. It's more for curiosity, you'll find the cards you showed in the pic are pretty slow for 4K recording, especially at higher frame rates.

on a side note, If I format my cards in my Integra goggles, neither my windows 10 laptop nor my One Plus android phone will detect them, but my buddy's Samsung S23 ultra android phone will detect them. He can format the cards with his phone and then my One Plus phone and laptop will detect them, lol. I'm thinking its somethig in how the goggles sets up the different folders etc while doing the format. I'm going to test and see if the Integra goggles will let me record to the card he formatted in his S23 Ultra, and also if I format them with windows on my PC. If not I need to plug the goggles into my laptop in order for wndows to detect and read the cards, which is fine, but it means I can't use them in the Mini 4 or RC2 as backup cards and have to leave them formatted specifically for the googles.

Note that my new SD card delivered today works absolutely fine. So the reason for my 2 older cards not being recognised by the drone must be due to their age. Strange, but I’m pleased it’s resolved.

This is the card I’m now using - SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO microSDXC card + SD adapter + RescuePro Deluxe ,up to 200 MB/s, with A2 App Performance, for smartphones, action cameras or drones UHS-I Class 10 U3 V30 https://amzn.eu/d/bm3XqIQ

AaronJWHull Posted at 3-10 11:55
Note that my new SD card delivered today works absolutely fine. So the reason for my 2 older cards not being recognised by the drone must be due to their age. Strange, but I’m pleased it’s resolved.

This is the card I’m now using - SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO microSDXC card + SD adapter + RescuePro Deluxe ,up to 200 MB/s, with A2 App Performance, for smartphones, action cameras or drones UHS-I Class 10 U3 V30 https://amzn.eu/d/bm3XqIQ

Hello there, Aaron. We appreciate you for keeping us posted. We're glad that you are now using a fully working SD card on your unit. Should you have other inquiries or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach us. Have a nice day ahead!

AaronJWHull Posted at 3-10 11:55
Note that my new SD card delivered today works absolutely fine. So the reason for my 2 older cards not being recognised by the drone must be due to their age. Strange, but I’m pleased it’s resolved.

This is the card I’m now using - SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO microSDXC card + SD adapter + RescuePro Deluxe ,up to 200 MB/s, with A2 App Performance, for smartphones, action cameras or drones UHS-I Class 10 U3 V30 https://amzn.eu/d/bm3XqIQ

Thats as good as it gets for micro SD cards Aaron, good choice

Im needing help with my cards, Ive tried 4 different ones and they all recored but I get dropped frames(stuttering) in all footage. Im trying to record at 4k 30fps 60S, have also tried 1080 30fps 60S with the same results.

Thai Life Posted at 3-28 22:32
Im needing help with my cards, Ive tried 4 different ones and they all recored but I get dropped frames(stuttering) in all footage. Im trying to record at 4k 30fps 60S, have also tried 1080 30fps 60S with the same results.

Hi,  Thai Life. Thank you for reaching out. Have you already tried using one of the microSD cards in the recommended list on the DJI official website? You can refer to DJI Paladin's posted image in reply 3#. Please keep us posted. Have a great day ahead.

Thai Life Posted at 3-28 22:32
Im needing help with my cards, Ive tried 4 different ones and they all recored but I get dropped frames(stuttering) in all footage. Im trying to record at 4k 30fps 60S, have also tried 1080 30fps 60S with the same results.

You didn't mention any details of the cards you tried.
Going by your very brief description, the most likely cause is that the cards are too slow.

What cards did you try?

Hoarfrost Posted at 3-9 21:49
You'll need faster cards like the ones DJI recommends. Also, it's best to format the cards in the drone itself for the best compatibility.

Also, it's best to format the cards in the drone itself for the best compatibility.
That's a forum old wive's tale and not true at all.
There's no downside to formatting in the computer and in some situations it's better.

Labroides Posted at 3-29 22:57
Also, it's best to format the cards in the drone itself for the best compatibility.
That's a forum old wive's tale and not true at all.
There's no downside to formatting in the computer and in some situations it's better.

Not anyone's recommendation but yours.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion. I'll stick to DJI recommendations.

Hoarfrost Posted at 3-30 03:36
Not anyone's recommendation but yours.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion. I'll stick to DJI recommendations.

Not anyone's recommendation but yours.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion.
That's very kind of you to suggest.
But it's not just an "opinion".
It's based on 9 years of flying DJI drones professionally and formatting several thousand times in the computer (and never in the drone), and never having experienced any problem.
Not only that, in nine years of reading drone forums, I've seen folks like say you should always format in the device you are shooting with.
They say it because they've heard others confidently say it.
It must be true, because it just sounds like it is.

I suspect very few of them have ever tried anything else.

But I've never seen anyone report trying to format in the computer and having a problem because of it.
Perhaps you have?

ps .. If your drone didn't like the format of your sd card, it tells you.
pps .. did you know that if you format in the drone (at least with recent models), you cannot recover data after accidentally formatting the disk?
But it's no problem at all if you had the good sense to format in the computer.

I'll stick to DJI recommendations.
Where did DJI recommend it?

Even if they have somewhere, that means very little.
DJI for years advised you to recalibrate the compass before flying even though it's completely unnecessary.

Labroides Posted at 3-30 03:56
Not anyone's recommendation but yours.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion.
That's very kind of you to suggest.

Labroides - we’re not questioning your years of experience.
There are people here who are new to the hobby and others who aren’t so tech savvy that they won’t make simple errors.
For example - on the computer, a new user can mistakenly format an SD card to NTFS thinking that is the latest format option.
Putting that card in the drone will give you an error message: “SD card unavailable. Storage location switched to aircraft internal storage.”

Labroides Posted at 3-30 03:56
Not anyone's recommendation but yours.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion.
That's very kind of you to suggest.

People also sometimes have issues with incompatible cards or damaged cards which are more common on some sites than they used to be. It’s important to be sensitive to these possibilities when supporting people on this forum.
DJI recommends in many places in the forums I visit that if you’re having trouble reading/writing to your microSD cards, that the first recommendation is to format it in the drone.
The drone format establishes the directory structure that you don’t get when you format in the computer. Yes - when you put the card in the drone, DJI Fly will create the directory structure for you - thank goodness that seems to work seamlessly for most users.
Formatting the cards in the drone is consistent with most manufacturers recommendations from nanny cams, to computers, to cameras.
Not everyone will have your skills to diagnose an issue if they don’t exactly follow OEM recommendations.

I'm having an issue where I went from an older 256gb sd card to a newer and faster 512gb.  It'll write pictures and videos to it just fine, but when I go to retrieve the videos, it says that it cannot play the file.  So I've used external software to convert the videos to .mkv via VLC video player and then back to .mov and it works well.  It's a pain in the butt, but it's working for now.  Should I format the SD card to try and fix this?

cachorropedorro Posted at 3-30 10:49
I'm having an issue where I went from an older 256gb sd card to a newer and faster 512gb.  It'll write pictures and videos to it just fine, but when I go to retrieve the videos, it says that it cannot play the file.  So I've used external software to convert the videos to .mkv via VLC video player and then back to .mov and it works well.  It's a pain in the butt, but it's working for now.  Should I format the SD card to try and fix this?

It'll write pictures and videos to it just fine, but when I go to retrieve the videos, it says that it cannot play the file.   ...   Should I format the SD card to try and fix this?
Formatting the card won't hurt, but it's unlikely that it would make any difference at all.
Better to find out what it is about the video file that your software doesn't like.

Hoarfrost Posted at 3-30 07:05
People also sometimes have issues with incompatible cards or damaged cards which are more common on some sites than they used to be. It’s important to be sensitive to these possibilities when supporting people on this forum.
DJI recommends in many places in the forums I visit that if you’re having trouble reading/writing to your microSD cards, that the first recommendation is to format it in the drone.
The drone format establishes the directory structure that you don’t get when you format in the computer. Yes - when you put the card in the drone, DJI Fly will create the directory structure for you - thank goodness that seems to work seamlessly for most users.

People also sometimes have issues with incompatible cards or damaged cards which are more common on some sites than they used to be. It’s important to be sensitive to these possibilities when supporting people on this forum.
What has that got to do with anything?


DJI recommends in many places in the forums I visit that if you’re having trouble reading/writing to your microSD cards, that the first recommendation is to format it in the drone.
Ihaven't noticed that, but if you are talking about the moderators in this forum, that counts for nothing.
They don't fly drones and have almost no technical knowledge of drones.
I've seen nothing in DJI's documantation recommending formatting in the drone rather than a computer, and I wouldn't expect to because it makes no difference anyway.


The drone format establishes the directory structure that you don’t get when you format in the computer. Yes - when you put the card in the drone, DJI Fly will create the directory structure for you - thank goodness that seems to work seamlessly for most users.
Just like formatting in the computer does ???

Not everyone will have your skills to diagnose an issue if they don’t exactly follow OEM recommendations.
No skill needed.
After copying the imagery from the SD card to your computer, you simply right click on the card, select format drive and acccept the default offering.
It's fast, it's convenient and works at least as well as doing it in the drone.
There's no need to accept the myth spreaders who insist that you must format in the drone.