OT: Go Pro Hero 3 not saving files to SD card

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2611 Posts The 503 METAL

So took the family to the Gorge last weekend...hiked Oneonta Gorge, cliff jumped at Coberg park, and went to nephews wedding up in Parkdale. Got all the epicness on my Go Pro Hero 3. Got home to download the pics and video and...

SD card was empty. Bummed. Crying or Very sad

Now the camera acts like it's taking pics and vids but nothing saves. It seems like it's reading the SD card because it shows the remaining space e.g. how many more pics it will hold and how much more video footage it will hold. But nothing saves.

I know the files were saving after Oneonta Gorge because I previewed some with the backpack. My theory is that something happened when jumping off the cliffs at Coberg that somehow wiped the card and left it in this state. I bought the fastest 64 bit card I could find and I don't use Protune.

I submitted a support request to GoPro on Monday. They advertise a 1-2 day response time and I haven't heard back yet which is disappointing.

Anybody got any insights?

SoCam · Since 27 Jul 2011 29 Posts Ventura CA

Are you reading the SD card from the camera or removing and reading directly in your computer?

I've had the same problem with my Hero 2 when I removed the card - but I discovered that if I put the SD card back in the camera, and connected with a USB cable to the camera, all the files magically reappeared.

kieran · Since 06 Jul 2011 45 Posts

Could be a bad card. It happens.

Freeride Kiter · Fri Sep 06, 13 9:23 am

With the card installed and camera on does the lcd show pictures / videos taken?
And by "show" I mean the number of videos /pics taken captured.

Gman · Since 11 Feb 2006 4910 Posts Portland Unstrapped

safetychek · Since 07 Nov 2006 72 Posts Hood River

Had a similar problem where when I plugged card into USB reader,
it looked like card was empty.

Found out my older USB card readers can't read SD HC cards.

Was able to read card successfully when I plugged the camera into PC.

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2611 Posts The 503 METAL

Thanks for the input...

Are you reading the SD card from the camera or removing and reading directly in your computer?

I've tried both. I usually just camera straight into the USB port. Tried pulling out the card and using an adapter put the card straight in the laptop. Then put the card back in my camera and connected...no luck.

With the card installed and camera on does the lcd show pictures / videos taken? No, but I don't think my Hero 3 ever does with the LCD. What is does show is things like how many pictures there is room remaining for. So even now in this broken state as I take pictures, I see the number of remaining pics go down. This tells me it's reading the card. The backpack normally lets me see what pics and vids I've taken and watch them and now it says "card is empty" or something like that.

Could be a bad card. It happens. The cards been working fine for months, so if it's bad it went bad. I did however just test the camera with a different card and it's working fine. What interesting is with the bad card, there is only 2 folders: DCIM and MISC. Normally there should be a "100GOPRO" folder under the DCIM folder.

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2611 Posts The 503 METAL

More info...

So I was able to copy a file into the DCIM folder but when I tried creating or copying a folder in the DCIM folder got a message that the 'directory was corrupt or unreadable'. So I renamed the DCIM folder and created a new DCIM folder and Created a 100GOPRO folder in it, then tested the camera. It worked!

When I went back into the original DCIM folder it now displayed 5 identical 100GOPRO folders! Sadly they were all empty. Crying or Very sad

But that was the corruption, you can't have more than one folder with the same name in the same directory and the camera somehow caused the corruption and blew away all my files.

I renamed the original DCIM folder back to "DCIM" and renamed all the bogus 100GOPRO subfolders and test the camera. It created a new 100GOPRO folder and everything is working as expected.

So I think all my files are gone but at least I have my camera working again with the $65 SD card. The bogus GOPRO100 folders were time/date stamped in rapid succession Friday evening about the time I was trying to charge it using the GoPro USB cable plugged into my Motorola Droid Phone outlet plug. The phone charger accepts 2 USB cords and I was trying to charge both my phone and the camera and in hindsight, I remember some funny behavior with blinking lights. Once I took the phone cord out, it acted normal and did charge, but it was after that the camera stopped saving files.

Lesson learned: I am certain I have use the phone wall charger before with no issues, but that may be the first time I tried to charge my phone and camera at the same time. Going forward I'm not going to risk it again.

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2611 Posts The 503 METAL

They came back....

Screwing around some more, for no good reason I decide to check through the 5 phantom folders one more time...and in the 5th folder, still renamed, all the sudden some files were there...looks like everything after I charged it on Friday night...so I got the most important stuff back.

F'in weird, GoPro Gremlins. Smile

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2611 Posts The 503 METAL

Follow up:

Next time I tried to use the camera with my line mount, it froze, the SD card was dead. Like the partition was wiped and there was no way to reformat.

Thinking that GoPro support had not responded, I reached out again. Turns out they did respond and their emails were caught by my spam filter.

Turns out GoPro support is VERY good and responsive and in the end, SanDisk is replacing my card with no fuss. Very Happy

Again the summary takaway...use only the GoPro chargers with your camera or weird stuff may happen. Thumb's Up