BMPCC 6K Pro froze during wedding shoot; unreadable RAW file

During my first (and probably last) wedding shoot, my BMPCC 6K seemed to be working fine (BRAW, 60fps, 8:1) until I recorded the main ceremony (30 minutes.) When I pressed stop, the red time code froze and the camera was unresponsive (F1 – F3 buttons worked.) I eventually turned the camera off and on and the ceremony footage was gone . The camera seemed to work fine thereafter, though the same thing happened during toasting. When I plugged the Samsung T5 to my computer, there was an 88GB BRAW file that Resolve does not recognize. The RAW player shows a blank screen without any controls. The unusual thing is the ceremony footage does not exist on the drive (based on file name.) The 88GB file is the toasting part. Now I have to figure out how to tell the couple that I lost the most important part of the wedding and hope they don’t sue me and ruin my business .

Ouch, a good place to start is to create a complete iso back up of the drive to work with, then research recovery utilities and hex editors to try and stitch the braw file headers back together. It’s a real long shot, (and longer still with braw vs prores) you’re in for a long hall but you owe it to the couple to try your hardest to recover that footage.

Out of interest we’re you using the latest 7.9 firmware?

I’ve shot thousands of hours of client content on these cameras and something similar has happened to me only once, though in my case the camera did not freeze but produced an unreadable file that could not be previewed on camera or on the computer. Mine was recorded onto a (now disposed) Cfast card.

If you have preserved the file (ideally with the card intact), there may be a way to recover the file for a fee. I resorted to a company in Barcelona called Aeroquartet. After downloading their app and following a few prompts, including uploading a small part of the clip (the app does this for you), I received a message from them within hours with a preview of the file and a quote. In the end, the fee seemed more than reasonable and they were able to restore about 99% of the corrupted clip (only the last couple of minutes of the interview were unrecoverable).

To avoid this, I usually record critical content to one of our video assists in HD ProRes Proxy as a backup during shoots. This was the one (and last) instance I didn’t and paid the price.

Good luck.

The camera probably froze because the Samsung T5 stopped responding to signals.
While the T5 SSD seems to be a cheap solution for recording, this forum is full of horror stories with that specific device.

Better invest into a Cfast2.0 card for example from Angelbird.
I have done hundreds of hours of very long recordings (often 3 hours and more) and not once did those cards fail on me.

Back to your problem: what Fabián said about Aeroquartet is your best bet here.

During my first (and probably last) wedding shoot, my BMPCC 6K seemed to be working fine (BRAW, 60fps, 8:1) until I recorded the main ceremony (30 minutes.) When I pressed stop, the red time code froze and the camera was unresponsive (F1 – F3 buttons worked.) I eventually turned the camera off and on and the ceremony footage was gone . The camera seemed to work fine thereafter, though the same thing happened during toasting. When I plugged the Samsung T5 to my computer, there was an 88GB BRAW file that Resolve does not recognize. The RAW player shows a blank screen without any controls. The unusual thing is the ceremony footage does not exist on the drive (based on file name.) The 88GB file is the toasting part. Now I have to figure out how to tell the couple that I lost the most important part of the wedding and hope they don’t sue me and ruin my business .

Damn, as a fellow wedding filmmaker I can feel your pain, can just imagine all the emotions you're going through. I really hope you can recover the files. Just wondering though was it just a one camera shoot?

There are quite a few posts on FB groups about corrupt braw files on 7.9 all on the 6k (none on the 4k), most with the T5 but one with cfast. This could easily be explained by the scale of people using the camera to try the firmware… none the less the common denominator is long braw files. Stick to cfast prores if you need mission critical footage, always treat camera updates as beta.

Ouch, a good place to start is to create a complete iso back up of the drive to work with, then research recovery utilities and hex editors to try and stitch the braw file headers back together. It’s a real long shot, (and longer still with braw vs prores) you’re in for a long hall but you owe it to the couple to try your hardest to recover that footage.

Out of interest we’re you using the latest 7.9 firmware?

Yes, I had just updated to the latest firmware. I wish the camera had saved a corrupted file; it did not save anything for the 30 minute reception, though it seemed to be recording just fine.

I’ve shot thousands of hours of client content on these cameras and something similar has happened to me only once, though in my case the camera did not freeze but produced an unreadable file that could not be previewed on camera or on the computer. Mine was recorded onto a (now disposed) Cfast card.

If you have preserved the file (ideally with the card intact), there may be a way to recover the file for a fee. I resorted to a company in Barcelona called Aeroquartet. After downloading their app and following a few prompts, including uploading a small part of the clip (the app does this for you), I received a message from them within hours with a preview of the file and a quote. In the end, the fee seemed more than reasonable and they were able to restore about 99% of the corrupted clip (only the last couple of minutes of the interview were unrecoverable).

To avoid this, I usually record critical content to one of our video assists in HD ProRes Proxy as a backup during shoots. This was the one (and last) instance I didn’t and paid the price.

Good luck.

Unfortunately, for my situation, the camera did not save anything during the 30 minute reception. It seemed to be recording just fine. I wish it had saved a corrupted file; at least gave me an opportunity to try and recover the file.

The camera probably froze because the Samsung T5 stopped responding to signals.
While the T5 SSD seems to be a cheap solution for recording, this forum is full of horror stories with that specific device.

Better invest into a Cfast2.0 card for example from Angelbird.
I have done hundreds of hours of very long recordings (often 3 hours and more) and not once did those cards fail on me.

Back to your problem: what Fabián said about Aeroquartet is your best bet here.

I scoured lots of forums for something similar and did not find one instance of the camera "fake-recording." I wish my camera had frozen or even shut down; I could have gotten a chance to either restart recording or even use my phone to record. I also wish it had left me a corrupted file for the 30 minute reception like it did for the 2nd instance the problem happened. It did not save anything and recovery programs cannot find anything.

During my first (and probably last) wedding shoot, my BMPCC 6K seemed to be working fine (BRAW, 60fps, 8:1) until I recorded the main ceremony (30 minutes.) When I pressed stop, the red time code froze and the camera was unresponsive (F1 – F3 buttons worked.) I eventually turned the camera off and on and the ceremony footage was gone . The camera seemed to work fine thereafter, though the same thing happened during toasting. When I plugged the Samsung T5 to my computer, there was an 88GB BRAW file that Resolve does not recognize. The RAW player shows a blank screen without any controls. The unusual thing is the ceremony footage does not exist on the drive (based on file name.) The 88GB file is the toasting part. Now I have to figure out how to tell the couple that I lost the most important part of the wedding and hope they don’t sue me and ruin my business .

Damn, as a fellow wedding filmmaker I can feel your pain, can just imagine all the emotions you're going through. I really hope you can recover the files. Just wondering though was it just a one camera shoot?

Thank you. I reached out to the couple and explained the situation; offered them a full refund and promised to still deliver a video (minus the missing parts.) Blackmagic just cost me a lot of money and nightmares.

There are quite a few posts on FB groups about corrupt braw files on 7.9 all on the 6k (none on the 4k), most with the T5 but one with cfast. This could easily be explained by the scale of people using the camera to try the firmware… none the less the common denominator is long braw files. Stick to cfast prores if you need mission critical footage, always treat camera updates as beta.

For my situation, the camera did not create any file during the first instance (30 minute ceremony.) I wish it had created a corrupted file and gave me a fighting chance to try and recover it.

Thank you. I reached out to the couple and explained the situation; offered them a full refund and promised to still deliver a video (minus the missing parts.) Blackmagic just cost me a lot of money and nightmares.

Well, I absolutely understand your outrage and feel your pain - BUT let me be clear: It wasn't Blackmagic costing you a lot of money - it was the consumer Samsung T5 SSD and your decision to go for the cheaper option instead of buying a reliable CFast2.0 card.

The camera does save a usable file if for example power comes off. But if the T5 goes off/freezes then this does not work because it is using a hidden part of the drive as fast SLC cache during write and later maps that onto 3D-NAND cells...


So - did you contact Aeroquartet or did you just try a bunch of recovery programs (which ones)?

I use 1 TB and 240 GB CFast2, 128 GB SDXC II, and 1 TB Portable SSD; all from Wise Advanced.

Best practice is patience when removing any card; by that I mean I leave the device on the camera for at least a few seconds after recording before removing it to be sure that all records have been written to the device.

There are quite a few posts on FB groups about corrupt braw files on 7.9 all on the 6k (none on the 4k), most with the T5 but one with cfast. This could easily be explained by the scale of people using the camera to try the firmware… none the less the common denominator is long braw files. Stick to cfast prores if you need mission critical footage, always treat camera updates as beta.

For my situation, the camera did not create any file during the first instance (30 minute ceremony.) I wish it had created a corrupted file and gave me a fighting chance to try and recover it.

It almost certainly did record, I have recovered files for people which seemed to have never been recorded. Again, research ‘ISO backup’ ‘hex editor’ and how to copy and paste header information. It’s not pretty but you can get results. Or take Roberts advice and engage a company to essentially do that for you. The data is there, it can’t magically just disappear, it has to be overwritten, It’s likely just corrupted.

It looks like aero quartet have done their homework, it’s likely your best bet.
https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/black ... aw.en.html

The camera recorded the ceremony, then something failed, we cannot know why (cable, bad contact, bad power solution ?).

If I read the OP correctly, the corrupt file was overwritten by the OP - he nowhere states that he used another media to record the rest of the day ?

The camera recorded the ceremony, then something failed, we cannot know why (cable, bad contact, bad power solution ?).

If I read the OP correctly, the corrupt file was overwritten by the OP - he nowhere states that he used another media to record the rest of the day ?

Yeah good point, guess it’s a long shot then, but gota try everything at this stage, no take 2 for a wedding!

My guess is that the file was affected at the end of the marriage ceremony. After the ceremony was complete, did the OP turn off the camera as a way of stopping the recording? Weddings are exciting so sometimes it’s easy to affect what we do without thinking about it. Or perhaps the OP did hit the record button to stop the recording properly but then immediately shutdown the camera rather than wait a few seconds for all data to finish being written to the drive. Some operator error?

Today I did some bad test on Sd, cfast, good ssd.

- removed battery during recording (15min long)
- removed supports during recording!!!

Many test on longer shooting (I had times).

No problems… only one-two seconds missing of files at ends…

The real problems are ever the supports, braw is a all intraframe file, every single frame is written one after another, if you not waste a file in some way, you can read it without big problems.

Don’t forget how Windows is first reasons of corrupted files. If you had problems caused from wrong removed support is easy that windows try to correct support structure (often unnecessary), or waste it during copy.

I disable chkdsk command from regedit many years ago, and every time I install a win copy I disable it. No more problems.

I know, you have missed your shoot and your work, every word is a pain, but I hope to give you (and not only) suggest to help to avoid it in future.

Ah, ever and ever enable “stop when missing frame” this can give you more info about support trouble and if you have a problem you see and can change support or setup.


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalki io

If one is recording with exFAT, there may be an increased chance of file corruption in situations where the data is interrupted prematurely. The performance can be a little better with exFAT and the Windows/Mac interoperability is easier so it has features that recommend it over the Mac’s journaled option. But the journaled option provides a little more reliability and is the format I usually use.

This happened to me twice tonight. National Racing series. early in the day it froze in record mode. I then hooked it into an item Iso to get a back up, as I was using 2 6k models for the race. Grabed the same camera to capture the trophy presentation on the front stretch. seemed to be doing just fine till all the podium drivers were interviewed and went to shut it off and it froze again. I've just unloaded and have another race tomorrow. not much time to view if anything is corrupted yet as I have a lot to charge up/transfer for another12 hr shoot. Needed to see what info was out here about this. Not looking good. Better use a different camera tomorrow.

This happened to me twice tonight. National Racing series. early in the day it froze in record mode. I then hooked it into an item Iso to get a back up, as I was using 2 6k models for the race...

Thanks for the details! What card or drive are you using in the camera that froze? How is that card or drive formatted? Was the card or drive formatted in the camera before the shoot? Good luck today.

Thank you. I reached out to the couple and explained the situation; offered them a full refund and promised to still deliver a video (minus the missing parts.) Blackmagic just cost me a lot of money and nightmares.

Well, I absolutely understand your outrage and feel your pain - BUT let me be clear: It wasn't Blackmagic costing you a lot of money - it was the consumer Samsung T5 SSD and your decision to go for the cheaper option instead of buying a reliable CFast2.0 card.

The camera does save a usable file if for example power comes off. But if the T5 goes off/freezes then this does not work because it is using a hidden part of the drive as fast SLC cache during write and later maps that onto 3D-NAND cells...


So - did you contact Aeroquartet or did you just try a bunch of recovery programs (which ones)?

I downgraded the firmware and everything worked ok afterwards. To confirm, I upgraded the firmware again to 7.9 and the problem resurfaced. So yes... it is Blackmagic's fault. I've been recording on the T5 for years without any issues.

The camera recorded the ceremony, then something failed, we cannot know why (cable, bad contact, bad power solution ?).

If I read the OP correctly, the corrupt file was overwritten by the OP - he nowhere states that he used another media to record the rest of the day ?

I downgraded the firmware and everything worked ok afterwards. To confirm, I upgraded the firmware again to 7.9 and the problem resurfaced. I'm starting to see others experiencing the same problem... even with the 4K.

I use 1 TB and 240 GB CFast2, 128 GB SDXC II, and 1 TB Portable SSD; all from Wise Advanced.

Best practice is patience when removing any card; by that I mean I leave the device on the camera for at least a few seconds after recording before removing it to be sure that all records have been written to the device.

Both times I gave it 15 minutes before I had to restart the camera.

This happened to me twice tonight. National Racing series. early in the day it froze in record mode. I then hooked it into an item Iso to get a back up, as I was using 2 6k models for the race. Grabed the same camera to capture the trophy presentation on the front stretch. seemed to be doing just fine till all the podium drivers were interviewed and went to shut it off and it froze again. I've just unloaded and have another race tomorrow. not much time to view if anything is corrupted yet as I have a lot to charge up/transfer for another12 hr shoot. Needed to see what info was out here about this. Not looking good. Better use a different camera tomorrow.

It's funny how everyone else is blaming the user and storage, and not the camera. I downgraded the firmware and the camera is working fine now.

Ah, I saw your post on Reddit before this one. Had I known I wouldn't have created my own thread here.

it was the consumer Samsung T5 SSD and your decision to go for the cheaper option instead of buying a reliable CFast2.0 card.

FWIW, I was able to replicate this issue on a BMPCC 4K recording 60fps 1080p 5:1.

Thank you. I reached out to the couple and explained the situation; offered them a full refund and promised to still deliver a video (minus the missing parts.) Blackmagic just cost me a lot of money and nightmares.

Well, I absolutely understand your outrage and feel your pain - BUT let me be clear: It wasn't Blackmagic costing you a lot of money - it was the consumer Samsung T5 SSD and your decision to go for the cheaper option instead of buying a reliable CFast2.0 card.

The camera does save a usable file if for example power comes off. But if the T5 goes off/freezes then this does not work because it is using a hidden part of the drive as fast SLC cache during write and later maps that onto 3D-NAND cells...


So - did you contact Aeroquartet or did you just try a bunch of recovery programs (which ones)?

I downgraded the firmware and everything worked ok afterwards. To confirm, I upgraded the firmware again to 7.9 and the problem resurfaced. So yes... it is Blackmagic's fault. I've been recording on the T5 for years without any issues.

Fair enough, that's a good point.

I haven’t had any corrupt files recording BRAW Q0 or ProRes HQ on the BMPCC4K firmware 7.9 using the Wise Portable 1 TB SSD.

Thought I would chime in in case anyone else is having this issue. I’ve been shooting on the pocket cameras since they came out. I shoot a lot of weddings and we usually use 3 pocket 4Ks and a pocket 6K pro all recording to T5 SSDs exclusively and they’ve never given us issues.

Last week I decided to upgrade all of the cameras to the latest firmware, and at yesterday’s wedding I had 3 out of 4 of my cameras (including the 6K pro) freeze during recording and become unresponsive to Record/stop commands. 2 of the pocket 4K froze around the same time during the ceremony about 15 minutes in. The 6K pro froze later in the night during an 18 minute recording.

We didn’t initially realize that the cameras had frozen during the ceremony because the image was still moving and the text was still red, the only indications that there was an issue was that the timecode stopped counting, and the camera would not stop recording. We left the cameras in this state for a good 15 minutes after the ceremony in hopes that they were just writing data to the SSD. We ended up having to power the cameras off before they would exit the recording mode.

I should also add that initially this issue popped up as a write error on one of the pocket 4Ks (an exclamation mark over the record button) that was remedied by restarting the camera.

For whatever reason this issue doesn’t affect shorter clips. We were shooting B-Roll with the cameras earlier in the day and had no issues.

Again, the only variable that had changed was the firmware as I have shot many wedding this year with these cameras without issue. I have no doubt that this is a firmware issue.


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Which codecs were you using on the cameras and were the drives formatted in exFAT or HFS+? Did you format the drives in-camera before the shoot? If not, what OS version was your computer using?

Edit
You can ignore my questions as I saw your information in another thread. Thanks. I’m going to see if I can duplicate your problem, but I only have Mac gear and Wise Portable SSD.

Reading through this and several other threads, it seems that only the Samsung T5 drives are listed as having problems with the new firmware.

Again, I did have a recording stopped with the T5s I'd been using, while working with the previous firmware.

Outside on a very warm sunny afternoon, shooting high Q BRAW.

I reproduced the issue a couple days later, shooting a few 10 minute clips in the sun. And I never had this shooting indoors or cooler outside weather.

I got a Wise 1TB drive, and tested. I could not reproduce this with the Wise drive on the previous firmware. So I since have only used the T5 drives inside.

And I just shot a session recently outside in sun on a hot day with the Wise drives.

And using the new firmware. I shot several takes of 5 to 30 minutes. Over an hour shooting time with no issues.

So I'm wondering if the T5 drives have warm weather issues, and something about the new firmware just makes that more obvious? Does the camera perhaps push just enough more data that the drive circuits heat up a bit more?

Ata any rate, personally I would not use T5s in warm sun. With either firmware.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Formatted Wise Portable SSD 1 TB as HFS+. Recorded 4K Film in both ProRes HQ and BRAW Q0 for about an hour each. Successfully.

BTW, ProRes looked sharper.

Reading through this and several other threads, it seems that only the Samsung T5 drives are listed as having problems with the new firmware.

Again, I did have a recording stopped with the T5s I'd been using, while working with the previous firmware.

Outside on a very warm sunny afternoon, shooting high Q BRAW.

I reproduced the issue a couple days later, shooting a few 10 minute clips in the sun. And I never had this shooting indoors or cooler outside weather.

I got a Wise 1TB drive, and tested. I could not reproduce this with the Wise drive on the previous firmware. So I since have only used the T5 drives inside.

And I just shot a session recently outside in sun on a hot day with the Wise drives.

And using the new firmware. I shot several takes of 5 to 30 minutes. Over an hour shooting time with no issues.

So I'm wondering if the T5 drives have warm weather issues, and something about the new firmware just makes that more obvious? Does the camera perhaps push just enough more data that the drive circuits heat up a bit more?

Ata any rate, personally I would not use T5s in warm sun. With either firmware.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

May be T5 suffer more than others nvme of thermal throttling? I used my ssdSan disk extreme sata and cfast with newer firmware under 42 degree sun and never stop both of p6k with latest firmware.

Please don’t blame me if I find an excuse to exonerate firmware 7.9, but …
- may be 7.9 the devil ? No
- may change data rate? Yes, it add gyro data’s,
may be are more enough to fill cache of T5? May be… who knows?

At a same time, if thermal throttling change a bit the performance of T5 to reach the limits, who knows?
Blackmagic Design test T5 in past, with different data rate and I suppose in a lab controlled test (low temperature), but nvme had a defect called thermal throttling…

I pragmatist guy, I search the reason of problem to solve it.


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

I was able to reproduce the issue in an air conditioned space shooting BRAW 5:1 1080p. The T5 was not warm when I touched it.

I was able to reproduce the issue in an air conditioned space shooting BRAW 5:1 1080p. The T5 was not warm when I touched it.

Ok thermal throttling off


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

Nice to see data that this could be induced with a T5 in normal temperature environment. Useful information is always good to have.

I see one of two main possibilities at the moment. Perhaps the T5 simply gets overloaded under the new firmware, or the firmware itself is problematic.

So, does anyone get this behavior with the Wise SSDs?

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The camera recorded the ceremony, then something failed, we cannot know why (cable, bad contact, bad power solution ?).

If I read the OP correctly, the corrupt file was overwritten by the OP - he nowhere states that he used another media to record the rest of the day.

I downgraded the firmware and everything worked ok afterward. To confirm, I upgraded the firmware again to 7.9 and the problem resurfaced. I'm starting to see others experiencing the same problem... even with the 4K.

I tried doing a firmware update that didn't solve the problem, I test storage in another it works fine, I don't what the world is the problem, but because of this issue I can't record memorable movent of my sister-in-law's sister's wedding dance. I lied to my sister-in-law, that everything is recorded, thanx to god my friend has a habit to record everything but on the phone, I can take footage from there, why the hell this problem isn't solving

If feasible consider replacing your media.

Doing a simple stress test with my trusted Wise Portable SSD 1 TB recently, I had a dropped frame. I immediately ordered a Samsung T7 Shield 2 TB drive (because I had shoot shortly) that so far has done everything successfully. I was curious why my Wise SSD had failed so I did another stress test with it—wouldn’t you know, the Wise SSD performed flawlessly now!

That’s a good thing as I have a music festival to shoot June 9-11 and having SSDs totaling three TB available gives me comfort the BMPCC4K will manage without media intervention, or if one drive fails, I can very quickly mount the other SSD.

On the other hand my CFast2 cards are one-half of that capacity so I’ll need to rely on them running properly and off-loading the CFast2 media each day when I get home. I’ll try to offload the T7 Shield media each day too of course.

I was curious why my Wise SSD had failed so I did another stress test with it—wouldn’t you know, the Wise SSD performed flawlessly now!

Sometimes SSDs need to be trimmed which doesn't happen with some external enclosures and if I'm not mistaken you need to do it manually in Windows using optimize drive commands.

The camera probably froze because the Samsung T5 stopped responding to signals.
While the T5 SSD seems to be a cheap solution for recording, this forum is full of horror stories with that specific device.

Better invest into a Cfast2.0 card for example from Angelbird.
I have done hundreds of hours of very long recordings (often 3 hours and more) and not once did those cards fail on me.

Back to your problem: what Fabián said about Aeroquartet is your best bet here.

LOL just had a new Angelbird 1TB card become unreadable for no apparent reason. Go figure???

LOL just had a new Angelbird 1TB card become unreadable for no apparent reason. Go figure???

Lexar Workflow CR1 card reader used to corrupt cards when improperly ejected.