I had to send my RC and aircraft to DJI for repair, I was constantly getting beeeping when switching on the RC and I found I could no longer plug in the aircraft to my laptop to transfer video from it.  I put this down to a fault in the drone.


DJI have kindly fixed the RC (FOC) and its on its way back to me.  However, I am puzzled by the comment that the drone cannot be used as a storage device.


Firstly, how do you access the built in memory on the drone?


Secondly, with the drone not being shown as a drive when plugged into a computer, this means we have to unplug the fiddly SD card every time we want to transfer video.


Surely not !!!!


Has anyone else experienced this, and can DJI comment please.


This is the official remark from DJI repair.


Remark: WARRANTY: No crash damage. No liquid damage. Left control stick defect. Right control stick defect. No issues found with aircraft. Using the drone as a storage device is not possible with all models and specially not with new firmware versions.

You need to connect the drone directly to your computer via USB - do not turn on the remote (so take off the props) and ensure the USB cable is connected to both the drone and the computer before turning on the battery. Take out the micro SD card before turning on too. You will then be able to import the files from the internal storage which is only 8gb on the MA. The only DJI drones that have internal storage are the Mavic Air and the Mavic 2 series. Also be sure to have selected internal storage for the files to be saved to before take off. You can also import files from the micro sd card using the same procedure but you'll find it much quicker to remove the card and import via the card adaptor that came with it.

A J Posted at 5-10 03:05
You need to connect the drone directly to your computer via USB - do not turn on the remote (so take off the props) and ensure the USB cable is connected to both the drone and the computer before turning on the battery. Take out the micro SD card before turning on too. You will then be able to import the files from the internal storage which is only 8gb on the MA. The only DJI drones that have internal storage are the Mavic Air and the Mavic 2 series. Also be sure to have selected internal storage for the files to be saved to before take off. You can also import files from the micro sd card using the same procedure but you'll find it much quicker to remove the card and import via the card adaptor that came with it.

Thanks AJ, but.......................

I have had the Air for over a year and have been easily connecting the drone to my computer for download of video.  Both the SD and Internal storage of the drone show up as external drives under Windows 10.  However, that has stopped working.  I shipped the drone to DJI and got the response above.

Apparently, the latest updates have stopped this drone being available as a storage device.

I would like DJI to comment on this (hope they don't tell me to calibrate the IMU or RC or something) just comment on the statement that the Mavic Air can NO LONGER BE PLUGGED INTO A COMPUTER FOR DOWNLOADING FILES.

Mavic Dave Posted at 5-10 03:41
Thanks AJ, but.......................

I have had the Air for over a year and have been easily connecting the drone to my computer for download of video.  Both the SD and Internal storage of the drone show up as external drives under Windows 10.  However, that has stopped working.  I shipped the drone to DJI and got the response above.

I never knew that - thanks for the info

Mavic Dave Posted at 5-10 03:41
Thanks AJ, but.......................

I have had the Air for over a year and have been easily connecting the drone to my computer for download of video.  Both the SD and Internal storage of the drone show up as external drives under Windows 10.  However, that has stopped working.  I shipped the drone to DJI and got the response above.

It sill works with my Air  with the latest firmware

The problem could be with your cable or computer.

Mavic Dave Posted at 5-10 03:41
Thanks AJ, but.......................

I have had the Air for over a year and have been easily connecting the drone to my computer for download of video.  Both the SD and Internal storage of the drone show up as external drives under Windows 10.  However, that has stopped working.  I shipped the drone to DJI and got the response above.

Without teaching you to suck eggs have you tried a different USB port, windows can get really confused with removable devices esp if you've got something that's similar but different (same type of hardware but different id).

Ridg Posted at 5-10 06:37
Without teaching you to suck eggs have you tried a different USB port, windows can get really confused with removable devices esp if you've got something that's similar but different (same type of hardware but different id).

Thanks for that, I am the MD of a software company so I know a bit about USB ports etc. and I have tried all of mine, anyway:

As I have said above the official repair report states:

"Using the drone as a storage device is not possible with all models and specially not with new firmware versions."