FIXED: 24 flights missing - all now recovered

[Joe_Scot]

Last Sunday I flew several times - each flight was similar, as in normal take off, fly for 5-10 mins, take photos, land normally, no crashes - nothing at all out of the ordinary and no issues or warnings (a good day!!)

So, FF6 shows all of the flights except one of them (take off was about 1413 on 31st March). Photos from all of the flights were saved to the SD card OK and numbered sequentially as usual. Nothing I can do will make the missing flight appear in the app.

Looking at the SD card, there's a new folder created "FDR_092_20190331T141300+0100" that matches the time of the missing flight (plus folders for the other flights). Each folder contains a log.bin file of normal size (250-400MB).

Any ideas what has happened or why the flight has been 'lost'? It's not a big deal but just annoying to have an incomplete log!

Also - is there any tool that will interpret a log.bin file and make sense of it?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Flight logs can be a pain sometimes. I have had some that don't show up for a couple of days. Never did figure out why.
As for the bin files no one knows how to read them or what they are used for.
Our very own @h-elsner does not even know how to read them and he made the Show Anfi Log Program for us.

 

[Joe_Scot]

Flight logs can be a pain sometimes. I have had some that don't show up for a couple of days. Never did figure out why.
As for the bin files no one knows how to read them or what they are used for.
Our very own @h-elsner does not even know how to read them and he made the Show Anfi Log Program for us.

Sorry for the delayed response.... I've had multiple Anafi issues in the past week and all this raises further questions!!

(To be brief, Anafi #1 - just 6 weeks old - developed a gimbal problem after about 60 flights. Parrot agreed it could be exchanged for a new one, but had to be done via the online retailer, hence sent back to them. New one - Anafi #2 - arrived and seemed fine but after one flight (without incident) I got the 'vertical camera error' message and, somewhat strangely, from then on the main camera stopped working. No photos or video possible! Not sure if related to vertical camera or not, but anyway, I sent it straight back and now have Anafi #3)

so... Anafi #3 - all working well so far, and had reinstalled FF6 on my Android phone as part of previous troubleshooting. Was pleased to see that after entering my account details it showed the flight data from Anafi #1 and #2 - good! Also in the drone section of the app, the number of flights and last flight duration only relate to current drone - also good.

BUT ... today I have made 4 flights (these are flights 11,12,13 & 14 with Anafi #3) and only flight 12 shows in the app! The other 3 were much longer and are being ignored by the app. However in the drone section the last flight duration appears to relate to the actual true last flight (flight 14) and the total looks correct too. So, how is the app ignoring 3 of today's flights?

Onto the questions.... (if you can help)

• When you said you had examples where some of your flights didn't show up for a couple of days, did you have some new flights during those couple of days?
• Did all the missing flights eventually show up?
• Do you know if you format the SD card (I now need to as mine is close to being full) would that maybe mean any chance of the missing flights showing up is lost?
• When you request your flight data from Parrot, do you know if they might have these missing flights saved, or do they only have the same .json files we see in the app?

Finally a couple of pics from Glen Douglas near Loch Lomond where I was flying today. A beautiful place with almost no people

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Onto the questions.... (if you can help)

• 1. When you said you had examples where some of your flights didn't show up for a couple of days, did you have some new flights during those couple of days?
• 2. Did all the missing flights eventually show up?
• 3. Do you know if you format the SD card (I now need to as mine is close to being full) would that maybe mean any chance of the missing flights showing up is lost?
• 4. When you request your flight data from Parrot, do you know if they might have these missing flights saved, or do they only have the same .json files we see in the app?

1. I also had this. As a solution I never shutdown Anafi and controller at once after a flight but leave them on after landing (of course with smartphone!) for 1 or 2 minutes or until the flight log appears in the app. Since then every flight has it's JSON.
2. Yes.
3. I would not format the card but erase all media in the app. Only an intact log.bin file on the card guarantees, that the flights are logged.
4. Try it. Normally all JSON files listed in the app with a green cloud symbol left to the list entry are also stored on the Parrot server.

 

[Joe_Scot]

Thanks for the reply.... I did a short test flight today just to see if this would somehow coax the logs from yesterday to transfer to the app but no luck. The test flight log appeared in the app within a few seconds after landing. From now on, I will try to remember to leave the Anafi, SC3 and phone on for a bit longer to see if this means I will always get the log transferred.

Per my point 4 above, I did request my flight data from Parrot, but just got the same flights as I see in the app - none of the missing ones. Kind of expected that would be the case.

For now I've made a backup of the log.bin files that are currently on the SD card to my computer in the hope that one day someone will find a way to turn them into readable files.

 

[Joe_Scot]

I've conducted a few tests today and I'm fairly convinced now that this is a bug that just happens for no apparent reason. My only real theory is that it's somehow related to length of flight and space remaining on the SD card. But I could easily be wrong!

So... 6 flights today, all using SC3 and Samsung Galaxy S7 phone:

First 5 flights, all with provided 16GB sandisk sd card. Only 2 of these transferred to the app, and these were the short 1 minute test flights. The longer flights (10 mins, 15 mins) have not appeared in the app. Flights included photos and videos - no problems with any of these on the SD card. Left the drone running for 2-3 mins after landing on all flights.

Final flight, switched to a newly-formatted Sandisk Extreme 128GB card, and flew for full battery - 24 mins, taking photos and videos. Landed with battery @ 2% and the flight data transferred to the app within 10 seconds!!

I've had a look at the stats below the map in the drone section of the app after each flight, and the correct number of flights, last flight duration, and total flight duration appears after EVERY flight. So, it's only the full log that is not being transferred to the app on several occasions.

Will hopefully have time to try a few more tests over the weekend with the 128gb sd card.

 

[Joe_Scot]

Further tests over the past 2 weeks make me convinced now this is simply a bug. There is no rhyme or reason to when or why it happens.

On average about 80% of flights transfer to the app at end of flight, and 20% simply never register. I have been consistently using the same 128GB Sandisk Extreme card, which has plenty of free space on it. I have not had any issues with the SD card, and all photos and videos record perfectly - and can be transferred via wifi to the app at end of a 'missing' flight if I choose to do this.

As I mentioned in the previous post, one thing fortunately continues ... the stats below the map in the drone section of the app after each flight shows the correct number of flights, last flight duration, and total flight duration. So, it's only the full log that is not being transferred to the app on some occasions.

Just have to hope this gets fixed one day.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Further tests over the past 2 weeks make me convinced now this is simply a bug. There is no rhyme or reason to when or why it happens.

On average about 80% of flights transfer to the app at end of flight, and 20% simply never register. I have been consistently using the same 128GB Sandisk Extreme card, which has plenty of free space on it. I have not had any issues with the SD card, and all photos and videos record perfectly - and can be transferred via wifi to the app at end of a 'missing' flight if I choose to do this.

As I mentioned in the previous post, one thing fortunately continues ... the stats below the map in the drone section of the app after each flight shows the correct number of flights, last flight duration, and total flight duration. So, it's only the full log that is not being transferred to the app on some occasions.

Just have to hope this gets fixed one day.

I have a flight log from each of my flights. There is no one missing.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I also have all my flights logged. I am using the same phone and same app for two different Anafi's and each log shows up for each Anafi. I do not believe the logs we see have anything to do with the SDcsrd logging. All logs are generated in the App and stored in the App to be uploaded to Parrots server are they not? It is to bad we cannot figure out the info in those files on the SDcard. Maybe now that the SDK is out we will know more about how info is stored but we will have to wait for someone a lot smarter then I to let us know. [emoji3]

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

 

[Joe_Scot]

Your experiences (@Dirk_ANAFI and @Agustine ) are interesting especially as you’ve both had your Anafis for longer than me. I find the ‘bug’ annoying (if it is indeed a bug) partly because the geeky side of me likes to have a full log of flights, but also because I’m concerned that if I ever had an unexplained crash with total loss of my Anafi, I’d like to hope that I have full logs – as I’m sure Parrot would request proof and logs of the final flight.

I had always made the assumption that the huge log.bin files stored on the SD card somehow get parsed into a readable (and much smaller file) at the end of the flight, and then sent to the App (after landing). Maybe I am wrong about that. My largest two .json files are about 2,200KB, both from my longest two flight of 24 mins. By contrast of course the log.bin files are typically hundreds of megabytes.

Having seen many posts in the forum by people who have lost their Anafi and have not been able to produce a log of the final flight, this makes me wonder why the flight data isn’t transferred to the app periodically during the flight. Do you know if anyone has requested this enhancement from Parrot, or am I asking something unreasonable? (I don’t have experience of any other drones so I don’t know if other makes do this or not). As the largest .json file is only 2MB (about half the size of a typical JPG photo) then it seems logical that incremental flight data could be sent to the app frequently during a flight (unless of course the drone is out of range).

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Your request would be something that would help many of us. I have a Yuneec UAV that has a SDcard in the RC. Same type of holder we have on the Anafi. It holds all the telemetry and low res video\photos of your flight so if for any reason you had a fly a way you still had the records of the flight. I do not see why this could not be added to our phones memory storage instead of a SDcard that we can never retrieve if we have a fly a way.

I for one would really like to know what is in those log files on the Anafis SDcard ?

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

Your request would be something that would help many of us. I have a Yuneec UAV that has a SDcard in the RC. Same type of holder we have on the Anafi. It holds all the telemetry and low res video\photos of your flight so if for any reason you had a fly a way you still had the records of the flight. I do not see why this could not be added to our phones memory storage instead of a SDcard that we can never retrieve if we have a fly a way.

I for one would really like to know what is in those log files on the Anafis SDcard ?

Me too.

I have my Anafi since July 2018 now. I think, that having a JSON from each flight now was possible only under some conditions:
1. Changing the original SD before the first flight to a 128 GB type.
2. Never changing that 128 GB card since then.
3. Never making manual changes on that card.
5. Always using the same smartphone (until now, because my Note 4 doesn't work any longer with FF6! ).
5. From the beginning using the same Parrot account and logged in for every flight.
6. Waiting a few seconds after landing before switching off Anafi, controller and smartphone (allowing a data transfer from the drone) and verifying, that the last flight is in the "My Flights" list before power off.
7. Copying the JSONs to my hard drive after each flight day.

Under these conditions the JSON count is 100% for me. But of course there are conditions, in which no JSON can be stored in the app:
1. Actual flight ends with a crash or internal power probem, so there is no time to generate the JSON and transfer it to the app.
2. End of a flight with lost Wifi connection might result in a not received JSON.
3. SD card is full.
4. Others?

 

[Joe_Scot]

[Edited title of original thread from "One flight missing" to "FIXED: 24 flights missing - all now recovered"

Yesterday I updated my phone with FF6 v6.6.0 (from 6.5.2) and then updated the Anafi to FW 1.6.0 and my SC3 to FW 1.6.1

Between each process I noticed that my overall flight count on the home screen had increased... from 201 to 221 as soon as the Anafi had updated and then up to 225 once the SC3 had updated.

Going back through my spreadsheet of logs (where I had manually filled in the 'missing' flights) ALL 24 missing flights have now been transferred to the app!

Obviously I'm delighted that this bug (I'd concluded it had to be a bug) has now been fixed - and hopefully it won't now happen again. But I wonder how and where these missing flight logs had been retained. Definitely not on the SD card, as the oldest missing log was from April 2019 and I've reformatted the SD card several times since then.

One point to note was that the stats below the map in the drone section of the app after each flight always did show the correct number of flights, last flight duration, and total flight duration. It was the overall number on the home screen that was wrong, and the full details plus .json file that were missing.

Anyway great news, as this had been an unexplained annoyance and is now fixed!