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DroneField

Import errors

“The selected folder is empty.”

Section titled ““The selected folder is empty.””

The selected folder contains no files at all.

Fix: pick the folder that holds the flight. The import scans sub-folders too, so you can select the memory card’s root (or DCIM/) — DroneField finds the images in every sub-folder.

”No valid drone images found in the folder.”

Section titled “”No valid drone images found in the folder.””

There are JPEGs in the folder, but none are from a DJI drone.

Likely causes:

  • The images are from an unsupported drone (Mavic 2, Phantom 4 Pro, etc.) — not supported
  • The JPEGs were post-processed in Adobe Lightroom or similar — XMP metadata may be lost
  • These are diagnostic thumbnails: DJI Pilot 2 creates low-res previews; the import filters them out

Fix: use the original DJI files directly from the memory card, or lossless copies of them.

”Permission denied to read the folder.”

Section titled “”Permission denied to read the folder.””

macOS doesn’t allow DroneField to read the selected folder (typical for removable volumes, Desktop / Documents / Downloads, or network shares).

Fix:

  1. Click Import images again and pick the folder — if macOS asks whether DroneField may access it, choose OK.
  2. Or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders and allow DroneField access to Documents, Downloads and Removable Volumes / Network Volumes.
  3. As a last resort, copy the images to a folder inside your Home (e.g. ~/DroneField-uploads/) and import from there.

No MRK file / lower positional accuracy

Section titled “No MRK file / lower positional accuracy”

The MRK file is not required: without it DroneField imports the images with the positions from the photos’ own GPS tags. If MRK files are present but none of them can be read (empty or damaged), the import stops with “MRK file is empty or has invalid format.” — remove or replace the damaged MRK and import again.

If the drone writes an MRK (every RTK flight with DJI Pilot 2), it is still worth using:

  1. Verify that the MRK lives in the same folder as the JPEGs on the memory card (DJI Pilot 2 writes them there).
  2. If you copied the JPEGs but forgot the MRK, fetch it again from the card and import again.
  3. If the survey was multiple flights, bring the MRK from every sub-folder. DroneField uses timestamps to match the right MRK to the right images.
  4. Don’t rename the file and check it is not 0 bytes (a partial file after a mid-flight landing or a damaged card).

Check the RTK status in the project details after import: on GPS-only positions expect metre-scale positional error.

”Unsupported drone: …”

Section titled “”Unsupported drone: …””

The detected drone type is not on the supported list.

Supported:

  • DJI Phantom 4 RTK (P4R)
  • DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral (P4M)
  • DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise (M3E)
  • DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral (M3M)
  • DJI Matrice 4E / Matrice 4T (wide camera)
  • DJI Matrice 5TD (wide camera, beta)
  • DJI M300 / M350 RTK + Zenmuse P1 (beta)

If you have another DJI model, it’s not supported today. Send the request via the portal support form — we track demand.

Corrupt images

Section titled “Corrupt images”

During import, images are skipped if:

  • The JPEG is 0 bytes
  • The XMP metadata is missing (post-processed files)
  • The GPS coordinate is zero or invalid

The list of skipped images is shown under the import dialog. The import proceeds with the surviving images.

Multispectral drone special cases

Section titled “Multispectral drone special cases”

”NIR band missing”

Section titled “”NIR band missing””

The M3M captures 4 MS TIFFs per exposure. If one is missing (e.g. a damaged file), the whole exposure is dropped for all bands.

Fix: check the memory card for *_MS_*.TIF files corresponding to each image.

”The estimated image count doesn’t match”

Section titled “”The estimated image count doesn’t match””

The number shown in the import dialog differs from what DJI Pilot 2 reported.

  • DroneField counts JPEG files, not missions.
  • For multispectral drones, the MS bands (G, R, RE, NIR) are separate files, but DroneField shows the exposure count (G+R+RE+NIR = 1 exposure).

The difference is normal — don’t worry.

”Import takes forever”

Section titled “”Import takes forever””

A 200-image folder imports in ~30–60 seconds on M3. If it takes significantly longer:

  • The images are on NFS or a network folder — slow I/O
  • The memory card is slow (older than Class 10)
  • The Mac is low on memory (8 GB) — swapping slows it down

Fix: copy the imagery to the Mac’s NVMe SSD and import from there.

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