Formatting the SD card in the Blackvue 500

rayseawa

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To format the SD card in the Blackvue 500 the instructions are to hold the WiFi button on the unit for 10 seconds. This feature has never worked for me. Has anyone had this feature work? Or, not work?
 
Yes it works. Just hold the button until the camera says formating card. It actually says this.
 
rayseawa said:
To format the SD card in the Blackvue 500 the instructions are to hold the WiFi button on the unit for 10 seconds. This feature has never worked for me. Has anyone had this feature work? Or, not work?


The instructions also say not to format it in the camera if doing software updates.

Is a far better idea to download the SD formatter from the Blackvue site and use that
 
Thank you for the replies. I have only tried this when the camera announces, "Please check the SD card." I press and hold the WiFi button and nothing happens. This button does turn on the WiFi, however, as it is supposed to.
 
rayseawa said:
Thank you for the replies. I have only tried this when the camera announces, "Please check the SD card." I press and hold the WiFi button and nothing happens. This button does turn on the WiFi, however, as it is supposed to.

try doing it when you're not getting that error message and it will probably be ok
 
rayseawa said:
Thank you for the replies. I have only tried this when the camera announces, "Please check the SD card." I press and hold the WiFi button and nothing happens. This button does turn on the WiFi, however, as it is supposed to.

It doesnt mean to format it Usually taking it out and putting it back in fixes it Or use a better grade card
 
Thank you for the suggestions.

To follow up on the responders suggestions I have completed some testing.

1) When I pushed and held the WiFi button for about 15 seconds there was a momentary beep followed by "Formatting the SD card," or something similar to these words. So the format function works when there is no SD card error message being spoken.

2) After a couple hours of driving on two days with no problems, and successfully using the format function several times, the message "Please check the SD card" started after power up this morning. Now when I pushed and held the WiFi button, nothing happened. The "Please check the SD card" error message kept repeating. I tried using the WiFi button to format the card several times. Each time there was no response to the formatting attempt. I tried several power cycles, adjusting the timing of the WiFi button format function to catch the system before the error message occurred with no success. The camera didn't format, and the error message kept repeating.

3) I reseated the SD card once (with power off) and this did not resolve the SD Card error message. However, in the distant past this did work for me once or twice. Most of the time I have tried this, it did not help.

4) When the DR500GW has the SD card error, it repeats the message many times, then restarts as if it was power cycled, even though the power remains applied the entire time. If the SD card error is still present, the error message starts again and repeats, then restarts, and so on. Today, after the third restart the "Please check the SD card" message didn't come back and the operation appeared normal.

5) After this recovery, I pressed and held the WiFi button to format the card and it succeeded in doing so.

My conclusion from this testing is the WiFi button works to format the card when there are no errors. But it doesn't work when I need it most, e.g. "Please check the SD card."

The SD card is SanDisk Ultra, 32 GB. According to the SanDisk website this is a class 10 card good for 30 MB/second. There is not enough room on the card to print the class number so I referred to their website.

My other conclusion is the DR500GW firmware "fumbles" its file writing to the SD card now and then, which creates the "Please check the SD card" error message. When I check the card on my iMac using the disk utility, it confirms there is an error on the card and corrects it.
 
rayseawa said:
Thank you for the suggestions.

To follow up on the responders suggestions I have completed some testing.

1) When I pushed and held the WiFi button for about 15 seconds there was a momentary beep followed by "Formatting the SD card," or something similar to these words. So the format function works when there is no SD card error message being spoken.

2) After a couple hours of driving on two days with no problems, and successfully using the format function several times, the message "Please check the SD card" started after power up this morning. Now when I pushed and held the WiFi button, nothing happened. The "Please check the SD card" error message kept repeating. I tried using the WiFi button to format the card several times. Each time there was no response to the formatting attempt. I tried several power cycles, adjusting the timing of the WiFi button format function to catch the system before the error message occurred with no success. The camera didn't format, and the error message kept repeating.

3) I reseated the SD card once (with power off) and this did not resolve the SD Card error message. However, in the distant past this did work for me once or twice. Most of the time I have tried this, it did not help.

4) When the DR500GW has the SD card error, it repeats the message many times, then restarts as if it was power cycled, even though the power remains applied the entire time. If the SD card error is still present, the error message starts again and repeats, then restarts, and so on. Today, after the third restart the "Please check the SD card" message didn't come back and the operation appeared normal.

5) After this recovery, I pressed and held the WiFi button to format the card and it succeeded in doing so.

My conclusion from this testing is the WiFi button works to format the card when there are no errors. But it doesn't work when I need it most, e.g. "Please check the SD card."

The SD card is SanDisk Ultra, 32 GB. According to the SanDisk website this is a class 10 card good for 30 MB/second. There is not enough room on the card to print the class number so I referred to their website.

My other conclusion is the DR500GW firmware "fumbles" its file writing to the SD card now and then, which creates the "Please check the SD card" error message. When I check the card on my iMac using the disk utility, it confirms there is an error on the card and corrects it.


Lately I'm also experiencing the same problems as you state, more or less word for word, the only difference is I'm using a Sandisk ultra 64gig card formatted to FAT32, but its been OK for about 3 weeks with this card so not sure what the problem is
 
mollydog said:
Lately I'm also experiencing the same problems as you state, more or less word for word, the only difference is I'm using a Sandisk ultra 64gig card formatted to FAT32, but its been OK for about 3 weeks with this card so not sure what the problem is

in your case I'd say stick to 32GB, anything bigger isn't officially supported and file errors may result, no point having a camera if nothing gets recorded
 
rayseawa said:
Thank you for the suggestions.

To follow up on the responders suggestions I have completed some testing.

1) When I pushed and held the WiFi button for about 15 seconds there was a momentary beep followed by "Formatting the SD card," or something similar to these words. So the format function works when there is no SD card error message being spoken.

2) After a couple hours of driving on two days with no problems, and successfully using the format function several times, the message "Please check the SD card" started after power up this morning. Now when I pushed and held the WiFi button, nothing happened. The "Please check the SD card" error message kept repeating. I tried using the WiFi button to format the card several times. Each time there was no response to the formatting attempt. I tried several power cycles, adjusting the timing of the WiFi button format function to catch the system before the error message occurred with no success. The camera didn't format, and the error message kept repeating.

3) I reseated the SD card once (with power off) and this did not resolve the SD Card error message. However, in the distant past this did work for me once or twice. Most of the time I have tried this, it did not help.

4) When the DR500GW has the SD card error, it repeats the message many times, then restarts as if it was power cycled, even though the power remains applied the entire time. If the SD card error is still present, the error message starts again and repeats, then restarts, and so on. Today, after the third restart the "Please check the SD card" message didn't come back and the operation appeared normal.

5) After this recovery, I pressed and held the WiFi button to format the card and it succeeded in doing so.

My conclusion from this testing is the WiFi button works to format the card when there are no errors. But it doesn't work when I need it most, e.g. "Please check the SD card."

The SD card is SanDisk Ultra, 32 GB. According to the SanDisk website this is a class 10 card good for 30 MB/second. There is not enough room on the card to print the class number so I referred to their website.

My other conclusion is the DR500GW firmware "fumbles" its file writing to the SD card now and then, which creates the "Please check the SD card" error message. When I check the card on my iMac using the disk utility, it confirms there is an error on the card and corrects it.

Where did you buy the card from as Sandisk is the most counterfeited card on sale and a fake one will give really poor performance

I have a genuine Sandisk 16gb in my DR350 and a Samsung 32gb in the 500 and the only time I have had an SD card error was when I upgraded the firmware on Wednesday night.
I resolved it by removing and reinserting the card and it has been operating correctly since.

I always format mine using SDFormatter in a PC as the instructions say not to format in the camera if upgrading.
 
I bought the SanDisk card in a high-end camera shop. The microSD card was in the usual SanDisk packaging with SD adapter. If the counterfeiters have exactly duplicated the packaging also, then I'm not sure how to tell the difference. The microSD card under a 10X magnifying glass looks the same as the SanDisk website.

I have never tried to format the card in the camera when upgrading. I always have removed the card and used the official formatting program using Windows 8 in VMWare Fusion on my iMac. Besides, the card has to be attached to the computer to load the new firmware. I format the card, then run the ...setup,exe program. Just did this tonight for v1.008E, and the camera works okay. I will test the new firmware tomorrow in the wild.
 
rayseawa said:
I bought the SanDisk card in a high-end camera shop. The microSD card was in the usual SanDisk packaging with SD adapter. If the counterfeiters have exactly duplicated the packaging also, then I'm not sure how to tell the difference. The microSD card under a 10X magnifying glass looks the same as the SanDisk website.

I have never tried to format the card in the camera when upgrading. I always have removed the card and used the official formatting program using Windows 8 in VMWare Fusion on my iMac. Besides, the card has to be attached to the computer to load the new firmware. I format the card, then run the ...setup,exe program. Just did this tonight for v1.008E, and the camera works okay. I will test the new firmware tomorrow in the wild.

Format it using the SD formatter from the Blackvue site and do a " Full Format Erase" which takes about 2 hours but will scrub the card completely clean as it was when new.

Otherwise if you cant run that do a full format in Windoze
 
Hello.

just got mine delivered.

But can someone clarify how formatting on device itself works?

since it erases everything , what happens to the settings & (eventual) firmware upgrades?

IE; does the device return to factory settings after the format...?
 
Fakes are easy to spot. Use your fingernail and scratch the wording on the car. All the fakes I have, the paint rubs off.

Also, if you play a movie on the fake card, the movie will be choppy and lag. Transferring a 4GB+ movie to the card should only take a few minutes. If it takes more than 10 minutes, it's a fake.

A lot of time, the fake 32GB is only 4-8GB. I once transferred a 4gb movie to my new class 10 card from Hong Kong. I checked the space and it said no more space! lol I got my refund from ebay.
 
egonvdv said:
Hello.

just got mine delivered.

But can someone clarify how formatting on device itself works?

since it erases everything , what happens to the settings & (eventual) firmware upgrades?

IE; does the device return to factory settings after the format...?

The original software is in the camera. When its turned on it loads what it needs onto the card You dont usually have to format a new card.

When you update firmware you should (but not absolutely necessarily) format the card in FAT32 format and load the new firmware onto the card and put it in the camera and follow the instructions.

Thats how its done.

It is best to format in a PC using the SD formatter from the Blackvue site
 
thanks reply!

but what I mean to say is, IF I format with the device I lose all settings & newer firware right?

after format, it will re-load the original firmware from the camera, and I will have to reset all the settings?

Basically formatting with the device itself should only be used for "emergencies"...?
 
egonvdv said:
thanks reply!

but what I mean to say is, IF I format with the device I lose all settings & newer firware right?

after format, it will re-load the original firmware from the camera, and I will have to reset all the settings?

Basically formatting with the device itself should only be used for "emergencies"...?

Basically yes Except the settings will be in the camera I NEVER do it I always use the computer.

You would lose all the video you have taken though If you load new firmware it will load into the camera and if you format after an update it will retain the new firmware in the camera, not on the card so it wont matter except as I just said.

Download the manual from Blackvue and read the threads here
 
ok thanks, that's exactly what I needed needed to know. I do have the manual btw, but it does not say anything about the format option
 
Does anyone have experience formatting the card under Linux (Ubuntu)? I don't have easy access to a Windows or Mac computer here. What format is it and are there any special requirements? Thanks
 
It must be formatted in FAT32 with default cluster size.
 
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