DJI Mini 3/Mini 3 Pro SD Cards: How to Insert, Eject, and Format 

We are glad you are enjoying the series and will continue to focus on content that is clear and concise. Thank you!

Thank you for watching and we wish you the best with your early flights.

Thanks Bar Niedo. Because I "normally" flip the RC over (with the screen pointed down) the pins are right-side up for me, normally. I see in this vid I put them in the correct way everyone does, while still saying to put them in pin-up. I'll drop a disclaimer in the description. Thanks for the catch.

I almost screwed up as I was following your instructions. Good thing I read the top comment as it won’t slide with your video description. Thanks Barnie!!

I’ve had my M3P for about a year now and and only after watching this have I worked out how to properly use DJI rc. Thanks mate 👍🇦🇺

You're quite welcome. Thank you for viewing.

Thank you very much, we appreciate that.

Thankfully the card is not necessary for the function of the Mini 3/Pro at all. It's just used for screen shots and screen recording currently. Some use it to house a spare card in case they forget their Minis card.

I think that the screen recording feature is incredibly valuable, especially as a beginner. I screen record every flight, then review the flight afterwards. I usually wind up seeing something I missed during the actual flight. Also, if you ever had a flyaway, the screen recording could help identify where the drone actually was. Finally, you can connect a microphone to the RC and the audio will be recorded on the screen recording. You can record narration or ambient sound. SD cards are inexpensive, I think well worth the small investment.

@@jamesrea329 Appreciate the response. I ended up having some spare SD cards around so I popped one in there. I flew around today and totally forgot to even try to play around with the screen recording. How common are fly aways? I have a Phantom 4 Pro and I've never had one albeit with moderate use only. I'm definitely going to play around with the microphone as well. Thanks for the tips.

@@virginiatrailcameravideos Hopefully flyaways are very very rare! I've never had one, but I've only been at it for 3 months and I'm a pretty cautious flyer. But I've seen other RU-vid videos that mention the helpfulness in a flyaway or crash situation (what exact tree did it crash into?) For me, I have made starting the screen recording an automatic habit when I power on the controller. The screen recordings are pretty small so it seems like I could get a years worth of flights on one $15 card. So far I haven't even bothered to delete old flights. I really find it illuminating to review the flight afterwards with all the "cockpit" data visible. Perhaps as I get more experienced I won't bother any more, but for now it's easy and I enjoy it.

@@jamesrea329 can you help me understand something, how will I get the best resolution, by the SD card being in the drone or in the RC? I purchased a 32gb and inserted it in the Drone and on my RC screen says something about Slow, do I need much bigger GB?

Thanks Harry :)

Thank you, glad it was helpful!

We are glad to hear this series was helpful to you. Thank you.

SanDisk Extreme v30 cards that write up to 190mbs are great for most DJI Drones. The size all depends on individual budgets. The Mini 3 Pro can take cards up to 512g, and the Mini 3 256g, per DJIs information.

I have a mini 3 pro and budget isn’t an issue. So just get the 512GB for the drone and what card for the controller?

512gb cards will also work in the RC as well.

Do i need to put sd card on RC?

Thank you, we appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment. Flying SD cards are the worse, especially when outside.

Glad we could help!

Truthfully, we make it a practice to format the card in/for the device they'll be used in (Mini/RC), as they might use different directories. Will it cause huge problems? I don't think so, as I have swapped out SD cards even between different manufacturers (Autel and DJI) and they recorded just fine. Hope that helps.

Thank you. And thanks for taking the time to watch.

You're quite welcome. When you format an SD card it pretty much erases it and gets it ready for the next round of data. It isn't necessary to do it much, unless you do a LOT of filming.

Glad it was helpful! You are quite welcome.

The Mini 3 Pro drone itself has 1.2GB of internal storage. In a pinch, you can use that space to save a small number of pictures and videos. If the RC detects that there is no SD Card in the Mini 3 Pro, it will prompt you to allow it to change file location to the internal storage. Once you put a card in, it will prompt you to change to the SD card.

Hi, if you don't want to screen record the controller or take screenshots, you only need a micro sd-card for the drone itself. That's where the photos/videos that your drone makes are stored. :)

@@thelittlegeniussofly8341 Thank you!

Is the SD card reader you are using in the Mac or Windows able to read data off any non-drone related card?

You're welcome!

Thank you for taking the time out to view the video.

It's only like 1gb, which isn't much room these days. Like one 2 min video at 4k. Having a 128 say would get you at least 20 hrs of high quality footage. Always grab more room, specially if traveling.

1. The Mini 3 Pro only has about 1.2GB of storage. That is only enough for a very short video or 20 photos taken with the 48 MP option. 2. Having an SD card in the RC is only for taking screenshots and screen recordings of the DJI RC. Those who do tutorials and videos benefit from this. To take photos and videos you'll want an SD card in the Mini 3 Pro and not in the RC. 3. For recreation, either 128 or 256 GB will be great.

We use sandisk 128 and 256 in our controller. The main reason being we do a lot of screen recording. Aside form that, when the port is not in use we occasionally use the card in our drones when backups are needed when shooting for clients.

You're welcome and thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

4k file recorded at 150mbps will get you Approx. 1 hour 50 minutes on a 126gb SD card.

It won't reduce quality, however, it will reduce quantity. The internal memory won't let you film much in 4k at all. It's pretty much a "just in case" solution for when your standard SD card is forgotten at home.

Only if you plan to do screen recordings and screenshots. If not, you'll only need a card in the drone.

If planning on just storing drone footage and images, you'll only need an SD card in the Mini 3. IF you are looking to screen record, then you'll need an SD card in the DJI RC as well.

It depends on how you hold the controller when inserting the card. We will add a corrective blurb. Thank you for catching that.

@@Droneblog but look at the way you are holding the RC in your hands. this may cause problem for your viewer as they will try to push it the wrong way and destroy their RC SC Card slot.

You are indeed correct. A blurb has been added in the description alerting viewers to this. Thank you!

We are using the standard readers that connect via USB and have slots for standard sized and micro SD cards.

If you'd like to do screen recording, then you'll need an SD card in the DJI RC. If not, you'll only need a card in the Mini 3 Pro itself for photos and videos.

Thank you.

Mini 3 - 256Gb, Mini 3 Pro - 512Gb

The SD card in the Mini 3 is for the videos and pictures you capture while in flight, whereas the SD card in the RC is strictly for saving screenshots and screen recordings taken with the DJI RC.

De nada, obrigado por assistir...

Did you format the cards in the Mini 3 Pro itself through the fly app, or in your PC/Mac? If in the Fly App, you can try and reformat the card again. Alternatively, you could also format the card(s) in windows or MacOS.

@@Droneblog you won’t believe what the problem was. I was using the SD card reader and the “lock” was switched on. Total newb move on my part.

Glad to hear you found and fixed the issue!

Obrigado!

Great suggestion!

The Mini 3 Pro comes with 1.2GB of internal storage. Sadly, an SD card is not included.

Check this article on what SD card to get: www.droneblog.com/best-mini-3-sd-cards/

Many photographers and videographers format their cards after major jobs, to start from a clean slate. While you certainly don't have to format the card, doing so after a lot of shooting ensures you have enough space for the next go-round.

@@Droneblog thanks for the info Greetings from korea 🇰🇷

You are quite welcome. As a side note, we recently used the Mini 3 Pro on a client job and many of the pics and videos were really bad quality. The fix ended up being reformatting the card, True story. :)

Not at this time. Maybe DJI will have an update to that...

If the port cover is lifting upwards (controller is right side up), the insert the card with the gold pins facing down.

We know many professionals that have built into their schedules regularly formatting their SD cards after large jobs when the data has been dumped. We do as well, to get everything tidy and ready for the next client job or production.