Repair corrupted DJI drone video — no command line, no upload

The battery died, the drone went down, and the last clip won't open. The footage up to that moment is still on the card; it needs a rebuilt index, not a Terminal session.

Your file never leaves your device — repair runs in your browser. 0 bytes uploaded.

Your data is the big block — usually intact. What breaks is the small index. Repair rebuilds it.

Drop a file here or browseTap to choose a file

ZIP · Office · PDF · video · JPG · PNG · RAR/7z · SQLite — repaired right here in your browser. Nothing is uploaded

0 bytes uploadedFree: 3 repairs/day — up to 500 MB video, 100 MB docs & archives, 50 MB photos. Free download. Single repair €5.90. No account required.

In short

In short: this tool repairs DJI drone MP4/MOV clips that won't play because an interrupted recording — a crash, a dead battery, a low-voltage cutoff — left the file without its index. It runs entirely in your browser: the file is read where it sits and 0 bytes are uploaded, which you can confirm yourself in the browser's Network tab. The honest limit: the last few seconds still in the drone's buffer at power loss never reached the card and can't be recovered.

Repair your DJI file now

  1. Drop the file
  2. Repair runs locally
  3. Download the result

Copy the clip straight off the SD card and drop it above. The diagnosis runs on your machine and confirms whether you have the classic truncated-flight file. Drone footage is big and often sensitive, which is why nothing here uploads: the file is read where it already is.

Engine status, honestly: the structural remux repair (damaged but readable files) runs today; full index reconstruction for truncated in-flight recordings is in development. The diagnosis is free and tells you which case yours is.

Why drone footage corrupts more than anything else

A drone is the worst place a video file can be born. Recording ends properly only when the camera gets to stop and finalize (writing the index that maps every frame), and drones keep getting that moment taken away: a crash, a battery ejected on hard landing, a low-voltage cutoff. Ground cameras mostly stop recording on purpose; drones stop when physics says so. The result on the card is always the same shape:

Everything the drone recorded up to the moment of power loss is physically on the card. Repair means rebuilding the missing index around it.

vs. djifix — a fair comparison

djifix is the best-known free fix for this exact problem, written by the developer of the live555 streaming library, and it has earned its reputation: it works, and it costs nothing. Its friction is equally real: command-line only (Terminal on a Mac, chmod +x first), output that is often a raw .h264 stream needing an ffmpeg remux before players accept it, DJI models only, and it wants the original file from the SD card.

Our aim is that same class of fix as drop → repair → playable file, in the browser, nothing installed and nothing uploaded. Where that stands today, plainly: the engine handles structural remux repair now; the reconstruction path for truncated in-flight files is in development. Until it ships, if you need the fix today and can live with the Terminal, djifix is the honest free recommendation — and the diagnosis above tells you first, in seconds, whether your file is the truncated case it can help with.

Which DJI models and files

The truncated-recording failure is identical across the lineup (Mavic, Mini, Air, Phantom, Avata) because they all write the same kind of MP4/MOV container to the card. Two rules apply to any repair tool, ours or djifix: work from the original file on the SD card (copied off untouched, not something another tool already "repaired") and keep that original safe so a failed attempt costs nothing. If the card won't mount or shows the clip at 0 bytes, that's a card-recovery problem to solve before any repair.

What this can and can't fix

The physics limit binds every tool, djifix included: the final seconds before power loss were still in the drone's buffer, never reached the card, and cannot be restored. Repair covers everything up to the cut. Out of scope: files from a physically failing or unreadable card (recovery first, then repair what comes back), clips that read 0 bytes, and footage whose data was overwritten after the fact. A failed repair is never charged.

FAQ

How do I fix a corrupted video from my DJI drone?

Start from the original file on the SD card: copy it to your computer and work on the copy. Then pick your path: djifix, the free command-line tool, if you're comfortable in a terminal; or the in-browser tool above, which reads the file locally, diagnoses the damage, and rebuilds the structure around the surviving footage. Either way, never repair a file another repair already produced.

How do I use djifix on Mac?

Download the binary from djifix.live555.com, open Terminal, make it executable with chmod +x djifix, then run ./djifix yourclip.mp4 (macOS may also make you approve the unsigned binary in Privacy & Security). The output is often a raw .h264 stream that needs an ffmpeg remux into MP4 before players accept it. If that workflow suits you, djifix is free and respected; if not, that's the gap a browser tool exists to close.

Why won't my DJI video play after the drone crashed?

The crash cut power before the drone finished writing the file. Footage streams to the card continuously during flight, but the index — the map players need — is written only when recording stops cleanly. No clean stop, no index: the card holds real footage no player can navigate, and everything up to the moment of power loss is typically still there.

Can DJI Fly recover a corrupted video?

No — DJI Fly has no repair function for corrupted SD-card footage. Worth checking, though: the app often keeps a low-resolution cached preview of the flight on your phone, watchable even when the card file is broken. That cache is a last resort, not the fix — the full-quality file on the card is the one worth repairing.

The last video on my SD card won't open — why?

Because it was being written when power was lost. Every earlier clip was finalized when its recording stopped; the last one never got its index, so it's the only broken one. That pattern (every video fine except the last) is the signature of an interrupted recording, and the repairable case.

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