So I purchased the Action 3 last year with the waterproof housing to record my dives. The first OA3 I got failed on the first dive after cutting out at the worst moment when me and a group of divers found a double decker bus underwater in pitch darkness. It was surreal, and I thought I got it all on camera. I ended up sending the unit back and getting a replacement.

I used the replacement successfully on a trip to the Red Sea in Egypt. There was no cutting out, and the recording only stopped when I stopped it. The whole thing was shot at 1080p 60fps using a Samsung DS card.
(Samsung PRO Plus SD Card, 128 GB, UHS-I U3, Full HD & 4K UHD, Read Speed 180 MB/s, Write Speed 130 MB/s)

Fast forward to a recent trip to Deep Dive Dubai in the UAE, and the dreaded failure was back. Again recording 1080p @60fps using the same SD card (formatted before the trip).
There was no message on screen, nor did the unit turn off completely. It just literally stops recording at random times. Some recordings quit after a few minutes, some only a few seconds after pressing record. You can tell when I've manually stopped recording on some of the clips as you can hear me touching the camera and see my fingers in front of the lens.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I'm new to action cameras, and I just want to get some cool diving footage without the camera randomly stopping.


Thanks all.

Hi there. Sorry about the trouble. This usually happens when the card speed does not meet the requirements, the storage space in the microSD card is insufficient, or when the Osmo Action 3 is used while being charged which may cause overheating. Please try replacing the microSD card with one listed on the DJI official website. You can refer to the image below:

Have a great day.

DJI Tony Posted at 2-24 19:29
Hi there. Sorry about the trouble. This usually happens when the card speed does not meet the requirements, the storage space in the microSD card is insufficient, or when the Osmo Action 3 is used while being charged which may cause overheating. Please try replacing the microSD card with one listed on the DJI official website. You can refer to the image below:
[view_image]
Have a great day.

Wow, I never realized you can only use a small handful of SD cards on the market! I didn't know that was even a thing.

Question though, I own a SanDisk Extreme 64GB V30 A2 UHS-I Speed Grade 3. Since my 64GB card isn't on the list, do you think I need to buy another card?

Thank you for the help!

DJI Diver Posted at 2-25 13:18
Wow, I never realized you can only use a small handful of SD cards on the market! I didn't know that was even a thing.

Question though, I own a SanDisk Extreme 64GB V30 A2 UHS-I Speed Grade 3. Since my 64GB card isn't on the list, do you think I need to buy another card?

That list is completely outdated and DJI never updated it since the 80s.

I have the same card, SanDisk Extreme 64GB, V30. Been using it since I bought the camera in October 2022. Never had any issue so far.

BTW, you said you're using the Samsung Pro Plus. Well, that's on the list. And the SanDisk Extreme 64GB is not on the list, yet it works flawlessly. So you can see that list is not the gold standard - so to speak.


I do think it might be your card, though. Regardless of brand and age, they can develop issues.

osmonauta Posted at 2-25 13:25
That list is completely outdated and DJI never updated it since the 80s.

I have the same card, SanDisk Extreme 64GB, V30. Been using it since I bought the camera in October 2022. Never had any issue so far.

Thank you for that. Interestingly enough, the website seems to have removed Samsung's offering from the list now: https://www.dji.com/uk/osmo-action-3/specs

Maybe there were issues with Samsung cards? Interesting

DJI Diver Posted at 2-25 13:18
Wow, I never realized you can only use a small handful of SD cards on the market! I didn't know that was even a thing.

Question though, I own a SanDisk Extreme 64GB V30 A2 UHS-I Speed Grade 3. Since my 64GB card isn't on the list, do you think I need to buy another card?

Hi, DJI Diver. The list on the website is just a recommendation, those are the microSD cards that are tested and confirmed to work. You can try replacing the card or using your Sandisk Extreme 64GB however we cannot guarantee it will work accordingly as we have not tested it yet.

Even if your card is/was on the list, it could be a non legit one bought from ebay/amazon or just a faulty one.

DJI Tony Posted at 2-26 00:33
Hi, DJI Diver. The list on the website is just a recommendation, those are the microSD cards that are tested and confirmed to work. You can try replacing the card or using your Sandisk Extreme 64GB however we cannot guarantee it will work accordingly as we have not tested it yet.

Thank you for that. I ended up getting a Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128GB Speed Grade 3 from the list. Hopefully I shouldn't get any random stoppage now.

johansenfoto Posted at 2-27 01:01
Even if your card is/was on the list, it could be a non legit one bought from ebay/amazon or just a faulty one.

Yeah, could be faulty. I got it from some electronics store in London Gatwick airport. It did seem legit, but you never know I guess. Thank you.

One last question guys, if I may. I just got the Kingston SD card in the mail and tested it using 'H2testw' to see if the card is legit.

Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128GB Speed Grade 3:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0858MY6RT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Does that look right?

Well, I dunno. 23MB read/write doesn't seem to be near the claimed 170 xfer speed.

However, the spec sheet says that in order to achieve that speed, you need a "MobileLite Plus microSD Reader". When you search for "MobileLite Plus microSD Reader", you get this:
https://www.kingston.com/en/memo ... plus-microsd-reader

So apparently that's what you need in order to read that super highway speed. (There's marketing for ya...) But 23MB/s? Did you format the card in the camera?

On another note, the H2testw site says "If the test shows the result Test finished without errors, your SD card is good and you can delete all .h2w files on your SD card"
https://h2testw.org/

----------

Out of curiosity, I just tested my SanDisk Extreme 64GB card (not the PRO version, eg SanDisk Extreme PRO - that's a different card). The official rating is up to 170MB read and 80MB write.
(https://www.westerndigital.com/p ... =SDSQXAH-064G-GN6MA)

I got 81MB write and 88MB read. Which is not bad, I'd say. But your 23MB seems way too low. (PS. I formatted the card in the camera, if that matters at all.)

It could be that your SD card reader is the bottleneck and it cannot perform above a certain speed. I just read that my 2015 MacBook Pro's SD card reader can support a max xfer speed of 480 Mbits, which is about 60MB/s.

DJI Tony Posted at 2-26 00:33
Hi, DJI Diver. The list on the website is just a recommendation, those are the microSD cards that are tested and confirmed to work. You can try replacing the card or using your Sandisk Extreme 64GB however we cannot guarantee it will work accordingly as we have not tested it yet.

“ You can try replacing the card or using your Sandisk Extreme 64GB however we cannot guarantee it will work accordingly as we have not tested it yet.”

Toni, DJI is selling the 64GB Sandisk Extreme in their store. Are you saying you guys have not tested it, yet you are selling it in the store?
https://store.dji.com/product/sa ... card-64gb?vid=22261

osmonauta Posted at 2-27 20:52
“ You can try replacing the card or using your Sandisk Extreme 64GB however we cannot guarantee it will work accordingly as we have not tested it yet.”

Toni, DJI is selling the 64GB Sandisk Extreme in their store. Are you saying you guys have not tested it, yet you are selling it in the store?

Hi, osmonauta. If you scroll down a little bit to check the "Compatibility" you will see that the Osmo Action 3 is not listed. Upon checking further from our end, the said microSD card was actually tested and confirmed incompatible, the recording may stop automatically. Therefore, it is not recommended to use this card. You can still use it to record videos with a low resolution or low frame rate, but we cannot guarantee the security of the footage you capture. Thank you for understanding.

DJI Tony Posted at 2-27 21:11
Hi, osmonauta. If you scroll down a little bit to check the "Compatibility" you will see that the Osmo Action 3 is not listed. Upon checking further from our end, the said microSD card was actually tested and confirmed incompatible, the recording may stop automatically. Therefore, it is not recommended to use this card. You can still use it to record videos with a low resolution or low frame rate, but we cannot guarantee the security of the footage you capture. Thank you for understanding.

1. Please go to the DJI store.
2. Select Accessories.
3. Select View All Accessories
4. Select Osmo Action
5. And finally select Osmo Action 3 (or Osmo Action 4)

You will see the card is listed under Osmo Action 3 accessories.

https://store.dji.com/hu/list/ac ... y=101%3D101.209.301

osmonauta Posted at 2-27 23:32
1. Please go to the DJI store.
2. Select Accessories.
3. Select View All Accessories

You can still use it with Action 3 however it is not recommended. However, I will forward this to the relevant team for awareness. We greatly appreciate your feedback.

DJI Diver Posted at 2-27 10:08
Thank you for that. I ended up getting a Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128GB Speed Grade 3 from the list. Hopefully I shouldn't get any random stoppage now.

We are more than glad to help. You can always reach us if you have further concerns. Have a great day ahead.

I was curious and tested both my cards in each OA4, and got about same result on both with 81MB read and 86MB write
Lexar 633x and Sandisk Extreme Pro, both U3 and 128GB

So we know that both OA3/4 caps out at 130Mbit/s max, which is about 16MB/s. So theoretically all modern cards should work fine (eg U3, UHS-I) because most of these cards are rated at 100MB+ speeds. Yet, some cards seem to give people problems. It's possible they get corrupted one way or the other. After all, even SSDs fail or develop bad sectors.

I read that Apple supports UHS-II speeds in some of their 2021 or newer product line. Curious what the read/write test of these cards would show with the modern HW.

References:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102352
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/1 ... -card-reader-speed/

Cards have theoretically max speed, and higher graded cards like U3 vs U1 will not cap below certain values.
10+ years ago all cards needed to be Class 10 for 1080p but now they are not even fast enough for 1080p in modern cameras with higher bitrate and framerates.

osmonauta Posted at 2-27 16:30
Well, I dunno. 23MB read/write doesn't seem to be near the claimed 170 xfer speed.

However, the spec sheet says that in order to achieve that speed, you need a "MobileLite Plus microSD Reader". When you search for "MobileLite Plus microSD Reader", you get this:

Thanks for the info, appreciated. No, I formatted the card on my PC right before testing it.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... 621&pid=3267592