Device guide
Drone video corrupted after a crash? How to recover the footage
Hit a branch, clipped a wall, battery ejected on impact — and the file of the flight (including the crash you'd love to see) is 3 GB of "unsupported format." The drone may be in pieces, but the footage usually isn't. Here's how to get it back.
Why the crash kills the file, not the footage
Drones write video continuously to the SD card but only finalize the file — writing the index that makes it playable — when recording stops normally. An instant power loss means that final write never happens. Windows reports "format not supported" or error 0xc10100be; VLC refuses too. The raw frames up to the moment of impact are still sitting in the file.
Skip the extension trick. Renaming .mp4 to .mov is the most-tried and least-effective fix on drone forums. The container is unfinalized; the name is irrelevant.
Recovery steps
- If the drone still powers on: reinsert the card and boot it. Some models detect the unfinalized file and repair it themselves — same principle as a stopped camera finalizing on restart. Also note: turning the drone off before stopping the recording causes the exact same corruption, no crash required.
- Copy files off the card — the broken file plus a healthy clip with the same settings (same resolution/frame rate; an earlier flight works).
- Try a stream copy:
ffmpeg -i broken.mp4 -c copy fixed.mp4— quick, occasionally sufficient. - Rebuild with the reference clip via the reference-file method. DJI files are large and often HEVC — a local tool avoids uploading multi-gigabyte files to a web service.
Recover the flight — locally
Drop the broken file and a healthy clip from the same drone into StreamSalvage. It rebuilds the index on your PC — no multi-GB upload, free preview, $29 only if your footage comes back.
Download StreamSalvage for WindowsIf every file on the card is corrupt
That's a different problem: a failing or counterfeit SD card, not an interrupted recording. Budget drones (Snaptain-class) are especially sensitive to slow cards. Test with a known-good, genuine card; if files still corrupt on every flight, the drone's card interface is the suspect.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my drone's last video file corrupted after a crash?
The impact (or a battery ejected on impact) cut power while the drone was still writing the file. The index that makes an MP4 playable is written at the end of recording — so a mid-flight power loss leaves a large file that no player can open. The frames up to the impact are usually intact.
Does renaming the drone video to .mov fix it?
No. The extension doesn't change the file's structure. An unfinalized recording is missing its index regardless of what you call it. It needs structural repair — ideally the reference-file method with a healthy clip from the same drone.
Can turning the drone back on repair the file?
Sometimes. Some drones, like some cameras, detect an unfinalized file on power-up and finalize it. If the drone still powers on, reinsert the card and boot it before trying PC-based repair. If the drone is destroyed, go straight to reference-file repair on your computer.
What reference file should I use for DJI footage repair?
Any healthy clip from the same drone recorded with the same resolution, frame rate, and codec (DJI models often use HEVC at high resolutions). An earlier clip from the same flight or a previous flight on the same settings is ideal.