Cameras · DJI exFAT microSDXC card
One DJI flight's media is missing
How do I recover footage from one missing DJI flight?
Short answer
First find out why the clip numbers are missing: deletion, a different card, an interrupted recording or an incomplete import. The flight time and the adjacent filenames tell you which card was in the drone. Check your ingest drive, then scan only that card read-only for the missing range of clips.
The situation
Files before and after a flight are present, but its expected clip numbers are absent.
Files on both sides of the gap are intact, so this is not a card-wide failure. One flight's clip numbers are absent, and the reason decides everything: a deletion behaves differently from an interrupted recording, a second card, or an import that only looked complete.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
Flight numbering is sequential, so a missing block points at one session. If a different card was in the aircraft that day, the footage is simply elsewhere. If recording was interrupted, the clip may exist without a closing index. If an ingest reported success but skipped files, the originals were deleted from the card afterwards and now sit in freed clusters.
The gap can reflect deletion, another card, interrupted recording, or incomplete ingest.
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Take the flight time from the log and compare it with the timestamps of the clips either side of the gap to pin down the session.
- 2
Check every other card you own and the ingest drive, including partial folders, before deciding that this card is the right place to scan.
- 3
Stop flying with the identified card, mount it read-only and scan the exFAT volume for the video format that flight used.
- 4
Export the results to a computer drive and match them to the flight by duration and timestamp before adding them to your archive.
Do not fly with the suspect card while you investigate, and do not delete the clips around the gap to tidy the folder. Renumbering or formatting in the aircraft removes the only evidence tying a recovered clip to the flight you are missing.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
If the footage was never recorded, because the camera was off or the recording failed to start, no scan will produce it. File Recovery Hero reads supported cards and images without writing to them, but it cannot tell which card was in the aircraft on a given day.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
Success means the recovered material carries timestamps inside the flight window and durations that add up to roughly how long the aircraft was airborne with the camera running. Clips from adjacent flights that merely look similar do not close the gap; check the times before you accept them.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can DJI exFAT microSDXC card be recovered in this situation?+
Files on both sides of the gap are intact, so this is not a card-wide failure. One flight's clip numbers are absent, and the reason decides everything: a deletion behaves differently from an interrupted recording, a second card, or an import that only looked complete. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not fly with the suspect card while you investigate, and do not delete the clips around the gap to tidy the folder.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
How do I know whether the result is complete?+
Success means the recovered material carries timestamps inside the flight window and durations that add up to roughly how long the aircraft was airborne with the camera running.