how to prevent and fix loss of recording time on a flip ultra video camera

Written on January 21st, 2010 at 9:06 am by Bill

23 Comments

As you know, students in my Writing, Research, and Technology sections are using Flip video cameras to create video oral histories and other short video essays. We are using Flip Ultra cameras (non-HD, model F260W), which has 60 minutes of record time. After the first semester of use (spring 2009), I noticed that several of the video cameras appeared to have no videos on them yet the record time had dropped to less than 60 minutes. The drop wasn’t substantial—maybe a minute or two—and I attributed it to upgrades in the software.

After the fall 2009 semester, however, I noticed that several had a substantial loss of record time. Two indicated that they had 20 minutes of record time remaining, and one had just over 4 minutes remaning. I explored the memory to verify that video files hadn’t been renamed (the Flip will not recognize renamed videos) and that there were no video files outside the DCIM folder or inside the DCIM and 100VIDEO folders. All were empty.

Stumped, I called tech support. Here is what they told me. The loss of record time problem occurs when users who want to delete videos drag video files from their camera to the trash and then eject the Flip video camera before emptying the trash. (Deleting files in this way is much faster than having to delete them manually.) It seems that the problem is especially pervasive for Mac users. This makes sense; in spring 2009 the class met in a PC lab and I had only 2 Mac home users. In fall 2009 class met in a Mac lab and half the students were Mac home users. I recall telling students that they could drag video files to the trash.

So, to prevent the a loss of record time on a Flip video camera: if you drag video files from the Flip to the trash to delete them, make sure you empty the trash before you eject the camera from the computer.

If, however, you are like me and have a camera that already has a loss of recording time the fix is easy.

Here is how you restore full record time in a Flip Ultra video camera (note: this fix may be specific to my model camera–F260W):

  1. You will need a non-networked PC to fix the problem. The tech support woman and I tried several cameras several times on my Mac and each time the fix failed.
  2. Make sure that the video camera has no videos on it and/or that you have a copy of all videos that you want to save.
  3. Connect your camcorder to your PC.
  4. Close any window that pops up asking what you would like to do.
  5. Double click or open My Computer.
  6. Right click on the Flip Video icon.
  7. From the menu, select Format.
  8. Under File System, open the drop down list and choose FAT (this should be the default).
  9. Click Start and then click OK on the warning window.
  10. A bar will appear with the status of the formatting. Depending on the speed of your computer, the formatting process could take a few seconds to several minutes.
  11. When complete, properly eject the Flip from your computer.
  12. Turn it on. You should now have 60 minutes of record time.

I tried this with 3 cameras—the two with 20 minutes and the one with 4 minutes—and both were fully restored to 60 minutes. The process could have been simpler.

Good luck!

23 Responses to “how to prevent and fix loss of recording time on a flip ultra video camera”


  1. Hannah

    1 year ago

    Incredibly helpful! Thanks very much.


  2. Eric Zorn

    1 year ago

    Thanks. This is a really useful .. Way better than this:
    http://www.myflip.co.uk/2010/05/08/flip-lost-its-record-time/


  3. Micha

    1 year ago

    Thanks so much.
    Helped me as I panicked today, having deleted all videos but only having 40mins left out of my 2 hours!!!


  4. Dab

    1 year ago

    Thanks this worked like a charm on my flip HD Ultra.


  5. Keith PW

    1 year ago

    I was actually able to do this today on my FLIP Ultra cameras using a Mac (Disc Utility).

    I made a disc image of one of them to preserve the programs and installs on it. Then, formatted an Ultra as FAT-32. It wiped it and remounted it. Then, I did a restore to it using the disc image that I’d previously made. We’re running OS10.5, so it may be unique to the newer Disc Utility Program, but I was able to do it.


  6. Giovanni

    1 year ago

    Sooo glad you took the time to post this. I have the filp HD 2 hours and it read 45min. Now, after your post it reads 2 hours again. THANKS so much.


  7. Bill

    1 year ago

    @Keith Thanks for sharing that. You know, I did the same on my wife’s PC when reformating would fix the Flip, but didn’t think about doing the same on the Mac. I’ll give it a try in the future.

    @Giovanni, et al: Great! I’m glad it worked for you. It took a while to get this info from Flip and I didn’t want others to have to go through the same process for what is such an easy fix.


  8. Lolly

    1 year ago

    So happy! Worked on my Flip Mino, I was down to 24 minutes. I had looked at other answers but decided to try this first and it was so easy!


  9. DGC

    1 year ago

    Thanks a bunch for that. I had that Flip storage-loss problem for half a year now and your steps worked great. Much appreciated.

    Submitted it to Stumble as well. Hope you don’t mind.


  10. nancy in nyc

    1 year ago

    I really appreciate you taking the time to post this. I only have a Mac but as soon as I can I will fix it on a friend’s PC. Thank you.


  11. Bee

    1 year ago

    Thanks soooooo much…This was just what the doctor ordered; simple and fast. Thanks again mt friend.


  12. Ginger

    1 year ago

    Holy smokes, you made my day. Embarrassing videos from Thankgiving, here we come!!


  13. Sarah

    1 year ago

    Thank you so much for posting this! This problem has occurred with two of our project’s cameras. Your directions worked like a charm and I now have the full 60 minutes available.


  14. Don

    12 months ago

    On my Mac, I opened the flip disc on the desktop, deleted the DCIM folder. This will delete your videos, so save them first. Then I ejected the camera. When you record a video, it replaces the DCIM folder, and at least for me, it restored the full record time. Hope that helps.


  15. Tamara

    10 months ago

    Thanks for the advice! It worked beautifully! It took 10 seconds to fix! I was ready to go buy a new one! You saved me a great deal of money!!!!


  16. Adi da Great

    10 months ago

    You are awesome! I’ve only had 10 minutes recording time on my FLIPVID for over 6 months…YOU SAVED ME THE PURCHASE OF A NEW 1…Thx for the GREAT HEADS UP!!!!


  17. Pete

    10 months ago

    Thanks Bill! A very helpful tutorial that should be highlighted on the Flip site.


  18. Cheryl

    8 months ago

    Works like a charm! Thank you!


  19. sumi Helal

    7 months ago

    Bill Wolff’s fix is only working solution I could find. But informed by his fix, I decided to try a way to avoid having to use a PC for this job. It worked quite well. Here is what needs to be done.

    1. Start a terminal on your mac
    2. cd /Volumes You will see a volume named FLIPVIDEO
    3. cd FLIPVIDEO
    4. list all files including hidden files using the -a switch by issuing this command: ls -al
    5. You will see a file named .Trash (you may also see a file named ._.Trash, but you should focus only on .Trash
    6. cd .Trash
    7. ls and you will see a directory (may be more than one). In my case I found a directory named numerically.
    8. Whatever you find remove. This require the command rm -rf
    9. Eject the FLIPDRIVE volume from any Finder window
    10. Now you have your full hour (two hours in my case).


  20. Kevin

    7 months ago

    Problem solved,thanks a lot!


  21. Shantanu

    7 months ago

    I also have a Mac and dragged files to my trash, then disconnected the flip without emptying out the trash. I had 1hr and 20 min left on my 2hr flip. I reconnected to my Mac, emptied my trash can, and then disconnected the flip, and it had 2hr back on it


  22. Jim

    6 months ago

    Worked on the first Generation Flip as well!! Thank you !!


  23. Danielle

    5 months ago

    Thank you SO much! I am borrowing one of my teachers flip cams and it had 48 minutes when I got it. Then it had 48 because I didn’t delete them properly.

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