6k Pro USB-C issues: Freezing/Drop frames/SSD not detected

After a year and half from purchase we currently have severe recording issues with the BMPCC 6K Pro. The camera fails to read the SSD drives most of the times...
Once you're lucky and the SSD gets detected the camera either drop frames after few seconds and quits recording. While shooting longer takes it can freeze when hit the rec button to stop the recording (subsequently losing the video clip)

Firmware: 8.6

For three years we have shot exclusively with SanDisk Extreme Portable pro V2 SSDs USB-C drives almost flawlessly both on 6kPro and Ursa Mini Pro 12k.
- 1x 4TB,
- 3x 2TB,
- 1x 1TB
- Recently, following Blackmagic Support suggestion, we purchased a Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD 2TB, a drive that is on the approved media list for Blackmagic cameras, but the problem persist.
- I am currently waiting for a CFAST 2.0 card to run more tests.

The only issue that occurred periodically, is that sometimes the SSD is not recognized: when this happens, we change the usb-C cable or format the SSD and it's all back to normal...
This is not the case anymore...

ISSUES in detail:
Case 1 - SSD is not detected 80% of the time after boot. (we have tried original Sandisk cables, Kondor Blue, Smallrig, YIWENTEC USB C 3.2) Sometimes it gets recognized, sometimes it doesn't. Same SSDs work great with the URSA Mini and gets detected instantly!

WORKAROUND:
When the SSD is not recognized, a workaround is to turn off the camera, disconnect the drive then turning on the camera and plugging the SSD back again. This old trick doesn't work anymore...

Once the camera manages to read the drive:
Case 2 - Drop frames after a few frames or seconds (depending on FPS / Codec and compression quality). Switching to another SSD the problem still happens.

Case 3 - The camera can freeze after hitting the rec button to stop the recording. The only way to unfreeze it is to turn it off with no assurance that the file has been saved fully.
(I recorded a 1h20min concert but when I got back I only found the first 20 min of footage. During the recording the timecode would keep going colored in red and the interface showed that the camera was effectively in rec. This had never happened before with BMD cameras)

Case 4 - The camera works fine.

This behaviour is totally random as I need to turn on and off the camera dozens and dozens of times before it manages to read the ssd and keep it up with long time recording without failing.

We tested different powering solutions to power up the 6kPro
- Blackmagic Design NP-F570 Battery,
- AC Power Adapter,
- SmallRig V Mount Battery Adapter Plate with Dtap

Before shooting we format the drives in camera or through Video Assist 12G in exFAT format. The camera has been resetted to factory settings many times.

The situation it's getting worse and the camera turns to be unfit for professional work. Furthermore, it is difficult to reproduce the error with certainty, as the camera can work great for a few hours and then behave like described.

IMO the usb-c port is about die, and I need to send the camera back for assessment, but I'm curious to hear other users' feedback. Have any of you had this problem and found a solution?

i had the exact same problem with my BMPCC 6k Pro!
the camera freezes right after a long shot when I press the record button, and the only way to make it work again is shutting the camera off, and i lose the footage recorded...
I tried to change the usb-c cables then the samsung t5 drives I was using for the new t7 shield but the problem persisted...
then I thought it was a usb-c port problem, and bought some expensive sandisk extreme pro c-fast cards...
but to my surprise it happened again twice... then I thought it was a processor problem in the camera itself. that the camera was damaged...
the camera was already on the latest firmware, but i tried to re-upgrade the firmware. I used the camera 3 times now (also recording to an external monitor for safety) and didn't happen anymore. I don't know if it fixed yet but ill keep testing.
I tried to find similar problems here but found only 1 guy who had the same problem (tried to contact him, and he said he just bought some c-fast cards and its working)...

Hi Nicholas, thx for your reply!
Today I tried downgrading to 8.1.1 but had no luck. Back on 8.6 problems still persist.
Will try again with 7.9 soon
I will update this thread as soon as I receive the Angelbird CFast 2.0 AV PRO CF 512 GB with further tests

Sorry to hear about the hour of concert footage that disappeared. I think it’s a best practice to set the camera to Stop Recording on Dropped Frames. Not sure if it would matter in this situation, but it might alert you to a problem immediately and give you some time to get things going again. Better to loose two minutes correcting the problem than discover an hour lost afterwards.

Since all is working well on the URSA Mini Pro 12K, this might point to a problem with the camera’s USB-C connection rather than the external drive or cable. You could possibly have BMD investigate and correct the problem and/or pickup another camera as a replacement.

Both of my older cameras have continued to work well, but inevitably one is going to fail; when that happens, the pressure would be on to go for the Pyxis (or Cine 12K LF).

I second what Rick said about setting the camera to stop recording when drop frames.

I know a lot of folks use the camera to record long events and concerts that may require an external SSD. I’m not against it but this seems to have risks, regardless of camera brand and model, that if you’re doing it must be ready to accept. There 4 points of failure in this case - the port/camera, the cable, the external enclosure/connector, and the media itself. Don’t forget human error or accidents (like a loose cable).

Personally, I use external SSD setup for personal projects that are not important enough to warrant a heart attack, or on a set with sticks and good mounting and telling crew not to touch or f’up things near the camera. My preferred way is to use CFast or CF, cards that goes into the camera media caddy. Although nothing is 100% proof, a very good quality card gives me that safety net. Even with that, I test and test, and again test the card before actual shooting. Call me crazy but that’s my protocol.

Now there will be someone who will say we need 2Tb of storage and those cards can only do 512 or 1Tb each cause they are shooting a one hour concert or three hours of wedding events. Fine, I say. These are not “feature films” or need to be for VFX work. These are videos, period. Your camera choice is irrelevant and most likely don’t need RAW. At best, you can shoot in ProRes 422 Film or if you want RAW, shoot in highly compressed footage like BRAW 8:1 and you should be able to put a couple of hours in those CFast cards. If it is the cost of the cards, well that’s a different story but I think when doing professional or product work, there’s that saying “Penny wise and pound foolish”. But I digress.

Many times, these SSD problems are the cable, the cheap enclosure ports, or a slow and inconsistent write speed for the SSD being used.

For cables, I would recommend Angelbird, OWC cable that is certified for USB 3.2/ 1 or 2, or from Kondor Blue.

For enclosures, there’s many reputable brands out there, and so are SSDs. Look at how fast is the drive’s advertised sequential write speed, subtract 100 from it, and then use Robert’s Data Calc sheet to figure out what your maximum camera settings should be for the number of minutes you want to record on it.

Then, test, test, and test again. Good luck.