Formatting SD card above 32GB on A119

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Further to my thread on installation queries, I decided to fit a 64GB memory card. As it was a new card, I did a quick format on my computer then tried it. Message came up "memory error" so I did a full format with the same result. I then tried an old 32GB card & it worked fine, so the camera was ok. Tried another format, same result, so I then tried loading some files on the card & it worked, so card was ok. Tried umpteen things with same result, then by chance I came across this video on YouTube where the guy said that the file system on all new cards above 32GB come as ex fat partition & cards up to 32GB come as Fat 32 which is what the A119 reads, so the bigger card would not work. However Viofo obviously realised this & designed their camera to reformat the card to Fat32, but you had to format the card in the camera, not a computer. I tried this & it worked first time. Video below
Also I changed my firmware to version 3 as the camera came with version 2.. Easiest way is to download version 3 on to an SD card then put it into the camera & update it that way. Another useful video after I spent ages trying different ways
Hope this of help & saves a lot of time unlike my efforts:)(y)
 
It is fairly well known that PC's format cards above 32Gb into Ex-FAT which many devices won't work with.

As you've found, always format the card in the device.
 
Maybe its fairly well know, but I didn't know that & I'm sure many other people don't. Hindsight is a wonderful thing:rolleyes:
 
This should be mentioned in the manual for sure, otherwise some people could get a frustrating start to their dashcam career.
Even if you format in the correct way on the PC, it is smart to do a format in the camera too before you set off on your adventure in traffic.
 
Yes, my 'everyone knows' comment was a bit silly. My excuse is that I was a developer.

I have performed a quick format in Win10 which seems to leave the FAT status alone but it still needs formatting in the dashcam or it rejects it.
 
In the digital age we live in, I find it interesting, but not surprising that formatting memory cards should be done in the device being used. You'd think there would be a universal standard. I wonder what difference there is between formatting via PC and formatting in the device that causes these errors?
 
PC's under Windows won't format a memory device over 32Gb in FAT or FAT32. It formats it to ex-FAT that is a different structure.

You can use a PC but you need third party software. Easier to just use the dashcam.
 
I use a Macbook Pro and even with SDFormatter, it doesn't format my 128GB card to FAT32. I just fully format the card with SDFormatter and then let my Viofo A119V3 do a quick format, which only takes a few seconds and is no big deal.
 
kamkar said:
This should be mentioned in the manual for sure, otherwise some people could get a frustrating start to their dashcam career.
Even if you format in the correct way on the PC, it is smart to do a format in the camera too before you set off on your adventure in traffic.
Click to expand...
I looked at the viofo A119 mini manual, and it doesn’t show how to do it. I mean, a step-by-step. For goodness sakes. Why can’t they do this? I saw this video above and it works on one of the Viafo Dash cams, but does not include unfortunately the A119 mini but it can be done. I just wish these dash cam manufacturers will do a simple “how to“ for us folks.
 
Manuals can indeed be very lackluster, not least for newcomers to the tech.
In general it seem to me that if you just pop a new memory card in a camera, it would chime and there would be a MSG on the screen that it would like to format the memory card, and you can then use the up / down arrow keys to select yes.

Alternative if the camera actually just do start recording, you can also stop recording ( by pressing rec button ) and then open the camera menu and scroll down to one of the last items which should be format memory card.

The leftmost button on the mini with the horizontal lines on it is the menu button, but you need to stop recording before it work.
Next button is the record on / off button, and beside it is the Microphone on/off button, and then the wifi on/ off button.

These buttons often have 2 functions so short press do one thing and long press something else, for instance on the mini as i recall a short press of the wifi button with change the preview camera arrangement on the LCD screen, where as a long press of the button ( a few seconds ) will turn on / off the wifi, when wifi are active the mane of it and the password are displayed on the screen.
In most things though the default wifi password are 012345678 or something along those simple lines.

Once you have connected with your phone once, it should remember this so next time its just a matter of turning the camera wifi on.

If you want i can put together a talking hands video on the mini cameras menus and functions, i have done that before though that YT channel are now taken down
 
I always format the memory cards of any volume in the computer using Guiformat2.
Repeated formatting in the DVR is not required.
 

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kamkar said:
Manuals can indeed be very lackluster, not least for newcomers to the tech.
In general it seem to me that if you just pop a new memory card in a camera, it would chime and there would be a MSG on the screen that it would like to format the memory card, and you can then use the up / down arrow keys to select yes.

Alternative if the camera actually just do start recording, you can also stop recording ( by pressing rec button ) and then open the camera menu and scroll down to one of the last items which should be format memory card.

The leftmost button on the mini with the horizontal lines on it is the menu button, but you need to stop recording before it work.
Next button is the record on / off button, and beside it is the Microphone on/off button, and then the wifi on/ off button.

These buttons often have 2 functions so short press do one thing and long press something else, for instance on the mini as i recall a short press of the wifi button with change the preview camera arrangement on the LCD screen, where as a long press of the button ( a few seconds ) will turn on / off the wifi, when wifi are active the mane of it and the password are displayed on the screen.
In most things though the default wifi password are 012345678 or something along those simple lines.

Once you have connected with your phone once, it should remember this so next time its just a matter of turning the camera wifi on.

If you want i can put together a talking hands video on the mini cameras menus and functions, i have done that before though that YT channel are now taken down
Click to expand...
Thank you. Very surprised that I would get any kind of response on this. I just had to rant a little bit on this older thread that I stumbled across. my viafo A119 mini is on the way. I am looking forward to it.
 
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