Hey DJI family,

I have had an amazing day of shooting in California with my Phantom 4 and I come home and plug in my MicroSD card to the slot on my Mac, open the file, and try to view the video I created, and the absolute worst thing happened... "QuickTime Player can't open "DJI_0051.MOV"." Now, I have a video file that has beautiful footage, but I can't access it through QuickTime, VLC, or Premiere Pro.

If someone knows how I could fix this issue, or maybe salvage the file, than I would appreciate it. It was just that one .MOV file that was unreadable, I have many photos and one other video that can be opened from my computer of the same flight.

Thanks!


(i am also wondering if anyone with the Spark Mavic Pro or P4P have the same issues)

It means your Mac does not have the correct codec for that file, you probably need to update Quicktime.

Geebax Posted at 2018-1-18 14:56
It means your Mac does not have the correct codec for that file, you probably need to update Quicktime.

My Quicktime is up to date, and I tried to open it with other applications and it didn't work.

I suspect that either your drone experienced some kind of power/processing glitch during that particular file recording period or the Micro SD card may have developed an internal memory issue.

I once had similar problem with one of my digital cameras in the past. It produced a one off unreadable file and then worked fine again. Never happened again so cause unknown.

Sorry for your loss.
Cheers

Spacetrakker Posted at 2018-1-18 15:19
I suspect that either your drone experienced some kind of power/processing glitch during that particular file recording period or the Micro SD card may have developed an internal memory issue.

I once had similar problem with one of my digital cameras in the past. It produced a one off unreadable file and then worked fine again. Never happened again so cause unknown.

Do you think it is possible to salvage the file? I know that all was going good on my end when flying, and I would think that some of the saved footage could be recovered, if there was any?

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-18 15:23
Do you think it is possible to salvage the file? I know that all was going good on my end when flying, and I would think that some of the saved footage could be recovered, if there was any?

You could upload the file to Dropbox, then we could take a look at it to see if there is an issue with the file.

Geebax Posted at 2018-1-18 15:29
You could upload the file to Dropbox, then we could take a look at it to see if there is an issue with the file.

Do I upload the file to Dropbox then post the link here?

This is the Link to the file, I can't open it https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9vi821de0frcw1/DJI_0051.MOV?dl=0

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-18 16:08
This is the Link to the file, I can't open it https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9vi821de0frcw1/DJI_0051.MOV?dl=0

No, neither can I. MediaInfo reports the file as truncated, meaning the end is chopped off it. I believe that means it cannot be recovered.

Hi eman_vg
I have also tried everyway I know to recover your mov file but unfortunately without success. Even commercial mov recovery software failed to recover your corrupted file.

Regards

Hi, guys. VLC and QuickTime Player doesn't support DJI Phantom 4 .mov formats yet, you need to transcode the videos to H.264 MOV for playing on Mac via a third party video converter: http://www.brorsoft.cn/mac-imedia-converter/

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-18 15:23
Do you think it is possible to salvage the file? I know that all was going good on my end when flying, and I would think that some of the saved footage could be recovered, if there was any?

Try to put the SD back in drone, power it up and keep it running for some minutes then power it down again and check the file.
How about the low res version on the card, can that one play?

I think you might have turned AC off while it was recording making the file corrupt, sometimes the craft can correct it itself, if all other fails you can try delete* all other files when you have copied them out and then try the method with power on the drone with card inserted again.

Edit: * select all files but the bad .mov and use shift+del to delete them.

Best luck.

Hi there, just to verify, does the issue appear in every video? May I know which SD card do you use? Please help us confirm, so that we can forwarded to our engineers for double check.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-1-19 03:01
Hi there, just to verify, does the issue appear in every video? May I know which SD card do you use? Please help us confirm, so that we can forwarded to our engineers for double check.

Only in that one video file, the card is a Sandisk Ultra Plus 32 gb

KedDK Posted at 2018-1-19 02:58
Try to put the SD back in drone, power it up and keep it running for some minutes then power it down again and check the file.
How about the low res version on the card, can that one play?

I'll try this later today and let you  know the result

Jojoyuan Posted at 2018-1-19 00:29
Hi, guys. VLC and QuickTime Player doesn't support DJI Phantom 4 .mov formats yet, you need to transcode the videos to H.264 MOV for playing on Mac via a third party video converter: http://www.brorsoft.cn/mac-imedia-converter/

It does... because I can open my other .MOV files

the file is most probably damaged (wrong EOF ?)  with an editor you might still be able to open it and then truncate the last few frames and save the edited file?

Antonio76 Posted at 2018-1-19 07:50
the file is most probably damaged (wrong EOF ?)  with an editor you might still be able to open it and then truncate the last few frames and save the edited file?

Which editor for MAC do you suggest?

Open the file with a hexadecimal-editor and look for the header and the end of file. On this way you can verify the file length with the headers value for it.

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-20 06:46
Which editor for MAC do you suggest?

I have IMovie and Final Cut Express, but don't use them very much as my Macbooc Pro is quite dated and still runs on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Alternatively I run 10.11 El Capitan from an external HD, but then it is very slow and I use only IMovie -but for lower resolution videos. No 4K... :-(  

Peterx Posted at 2018-1-20 08:00
Open the file with a hexadecimal-editor and look for the header and the end of file. On this way you can verify the file length with the headers value for it.

Can you give me a link where I could find the software for it? I can't find it on google

Peterx Posted at 2018-1-20 08:00
Open the file with a hexadecimal-editor and look for the header and the end of file. On this way you can verify the file length with the headers value for it.

Can you give me a link where I could find the software for it? I can't find it on google.

Antonio76 Posted at 2018-1-20 08:05
I have IMovie and Final Cut Express, but don't use them very much as my Macbooc Pro is quite dated and still runs on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Alternatively I run 10.11 El Capitan from an external HD, but then it is very slow and I use only IMovie -but for lower resolution videos. No 4K... :-(

I'm not able to view it on Premiere Pro, I'm going to try iMovie soon...

Spacetrakker Posted at 2018-1-18 23:14
Hi eman_vg
I have also tried everyway I know to recover your mov file but unfortunately without success. Even commercial mov recovery software failed to recover your corrupted file.

Really? So the file is completely wasted? Interesting that the drone would even save the file if it were corrupted.

You could try this http://grauonline.de/cms2/?page_id=5#purchase it has a demo version where it will do 50% of the file for free, You just feed it your damaged file and a good file for reference, Ive had good success with it for my gopro footage.

Sometimes with me, if the video doesn't have a thumbnail, like your photos, then the file is corrupt. And if it is, the file would be only taking up exactly 4KB.

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-20 12:45
Can you give me a link where I could find the software for it? I can't find it on google.

Try that link a hex edit for Mac.

Guess the back in drone trick didn't work.
As Hracek mention, what is the size of the bad file?
ShotCut is another free video editor, OS based, not sure if your Mac is up to the requirements.

AlanHd Posted at 2018-1-20 13:17
You could try this http://grauonline.de/cms2/?page_id=5#purchase it has a demo version where it will do 50% of the file for free, You just feed it your damaged file and a good file for reference, Ive had good success with it for my gopro footage.

I have had some trouble launching the software. I downloaded it but I'm missing a .zip file that didn't download or wasn't installed.

Hracek Posted at 2018-1-20 14:12
Sometimes with me, if the video doesn't have a thumbnail, like your photos, then the file is corrupt. And if it is, the file would be only taking up exactly 4KB.

The file itself is 1.6 gigabytes. So I guess it isn't fully corrupt

Peterx Posted at 2018-1-20 14:13
Try that link  a hex edit for Mac.

Downloaded. And I don't spot a set of codes out of place when examining the file

KedDK Posted at 2018-1-20 16:12
Guess the back in drone trick didn't work.
As Hracek mention, what is the size of the bad file?
ShotCut is another free video editor, OS based, not sure if your Mac is up to the requirements.

I haven't tried that trick yet, I have been busy, and I will try it and get back to you like I said. I don't know if any other app editor can read it since Adobe and iMovie couldn't

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-19 07:32
Only in that one video file, the card is a Sandisk Ultra Plus 32 gb

It sounds like this video has been corrupted. Is it the last video in the flight? If yes, please insert the SD to the aircraft, power it on and wait for more than 10 seconds to see whether it can be restored automatically. If it is not the last video, please kindly send us the complete MISC file and one normal video in this flight, we'd like to see whether we can help.

I've had this before when I've turned off the drone before stopping recording. Now every time I make a different shot I stop and restart the recordings.

nottuppaware Posted at 2018-1-22 19:30
I've had this before when I've turned off the drone before stopping recording. Now every time I make a different shot I stop and restart the recordings.

Thats not what happened. I believed I stopped recording to take a photo, but idk what happened.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-1-22 18:45
It sounds like this video has been corrupted. Is it the last video in the flight? If yes, please insert the SD to the aircraft, power it on and wait for more than 10 seconds to see whether it can be restored automatically. If it is not the last video, please kindly send us the complete MISC file and one normal video in this flight, we'd like to see whether we can help.

It is not the last video in the flight. Here is the file and the MISC file https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9vi821de0frcw1/DJI_0051.MOV?dl=0    Here is a full file: (dji doesnt support .MOV files uploaded so here's the link to VIMEO instead)

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-1-22 18:45
It sounds like this video has been corrupted. Is it the last video in the flight? If yes, please insert the SD to the aircraft, power it on and wait for more than 10 seconds to see whether it can be restored automatically. If it is not the last video, please kindly send us the complete MISC file and one normal video in this flight, we'd like to see whether we can help.

The files didn't upload properly, how should I send the files to you guys?

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-19 07:32
Only in that one video file, the card is a Sandisk Ultra Plus 32 gb

That disk is not really fast enough, it is a borderline speed rating, better to use the Sandisk Extreme series cards.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-1-22 18:45
It sounds like this video has been corrupted. Is it the last video in the flight? If yes, please insert the SD to the aircraft, power it on and wait for more than 10 seconds to see whether it can be restored automatically. If it is not the last video, please kindly send us the complete MISC file and one normal video in this flight, we'd like to see whether we can help.

You try to help me, yet you do not respond??

eman_vg Posted at 2018-1-20 16:20
I have had some trouble launching the software. I downloaded it but I'm missing a .zip file that didn't download or wasn't installed.

Same. I tried multiple times. It didn't download. Had to buy Stellar Phoenix then. I think there is some trouble with their exe.