This post is for all those people that own and Flip Mino Video that run into the problem of not being able to get it to shut off, it freezing on them, or not being able to turn it on. I'm doing this so others won't spend 4 hours like me to find any scrap of information on it. Hopefully you will find it here.
If the screen freezes, Flip says
If your Mino has frozen or become hung up, we suggest resetting the camcorder.
There are two methods of resetting the Mino:
-
The
quickest method to reset the Mino is to hold the power button down for
10 seconds. This should unfreeze the Mino and allow for its normal
function.
-
Another
method to reset the Mino is to simply take a pin and insert it into the
reset hole within the camera's tripod mount, wait five seconds before
powering on, and then power on without touching any of the buttons on
the back of the camcorder for an additional five seconds.
Please
note that resetting the camcorder using either method is safe and will
not harm any videos which have already been saved to the camcorder and
will only reset the camcorder back to its default settings.
I've heard that if you do the "pin reset" approach any videos on your Flip will be erased, but someone says it may not. May be a hit and miss situation.
You would do the same two procedures above if the Flip Mino Video
camcorder won't turn on. Someone this happened to uploaded a youtube video showing the process of the "pin reset":
I had to do something more drastic, I'll get to that in a minute, but when I called Flip's 24/7 support (888) 222-6689 they said something like I had to have the Flip connected to the computer and actually go to the computer's Trash Can / "Recycle Bin" and empty it. [This approached mentioned online] That may do the trick. But it didn't.
What happened to me was while I was recording something, the screen froze. The time stopped increasing and I could do nothing. I couldn't zoom in or out, stop the recording, or turn the device off. It turned into a paperweight at that point. Playing around with it, I held the power button for 10-20 seconds until finally the Flip turned off. I was able to turn it back on but the video didn't seem to be there at all. When I hit the play/pause button it says no videos were on it. It would take new video and show that but it didn't have what I was recording earlier.
If that is where it stopped I wouldn't have bothered with anything else but I noticed that instead of saying I had 60 minutes of recording space to use, it said I had about 46 minutes left. Got home, tried to see if the video was anywhere on the device, in a separate folder, got mixed up... anything. Nothing. No video. I tried all the above. Turned it on and off 8+ times, not change in the record time remaining. Clicked the reset button inside the tripod mount with the Flip Mino Video turned on and off. Did it several times. Did the trash can thing. Quadruple checked the DCIM folder. Nothing.
So to fix incorrect remaining record time I came across a video [scroll to bottom] that said the only way to fix it was to reformat / format the Flip Mino Video device and download the update for the Flip Video program. It worked. The remaining record time in now back to 60 minutes. Everything is copesetic. Until it freezes again but at least I know how to fix in under 30 minutes and not 4 hours.
I also found the process to reformat the Flip Mino Video in a Amazon.com customer review stated here [When I spoke with the Flip 24/7 support, I verified that this is official. It's not a scam, it won't [or I should say: shouldn't] destroy your Flip Mino Video. This is how Pure Digital Technologies advises customers to format their Flip]:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting us.
Please follow the below stated instructions to reinstall the program,
and to reformat your camcorder if necessary. Please note that you will
need to move your videos to a safe location, such as your desktop,
prior
to reformatting.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PC:
Please go to your Control Panel and select Add or Remove programs, also
called Programs and Features on Vista, and remove any instance of 3ivx
and Muvee.
After this is done, please reboot your computer and reconnect your
camcorder.
If the problem persists, we suggest reformatting your camcorder and
then
try to load the updated software again on your camcorder.
*Please note*
If you have videos on your camcorder that you wish to save, you will
need to open your DCIM>101VIDEO folder that resides in your camcorder's
root directory. Copy the files into another folder outside the
DCIM>101VIDEO folder, and outside the Flip Video directory. You need to
do this before reformatting your camcorder because once your camcorder
has been reformatted, all data resident will be erased.
Please follow these steps to format your camcorder on your PC:
1. Connect your camcorder to your computer
2. Close any window that pops up asking what you would like to do
3. Open My Computer.
4. Right click on the Flip Video icon.
5. Click on Format.
6. Under File System, open the drop down list and choose FAT.
7. Click Start and then click OK.
After this is done, please go to the following link to re-install the
updated software: http://www.theflip.com/app/prius/37/update/
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAC:
Please open your HD and in the search field type "3ivx". Drag all 3ivx
files into your trash can, and empty it. Then, start a search for
"Muvee" and drag all Muvee files into your trash can and empty it.
After this is done, please reboot your computer and reconnect your
camcorder.
If the problem persists, we suggest reformatting your camcorder and
then
try to load the updated software again on your camcorder.
*Please note*
If you have videos on your camcorder that you wish to save, you will
need to open your DCIM>101VIDEO folder that resides in your camcorder's
root directory. Copy the files into another folder outside the
DCIM>101VIDEO folder because once your camcorder has been reformatted,
all data resident will be erased.
Please follow these steps to format your camcorder on your Mac:
1. Connect your camcorder and wait for the icon to show on your
desktop.
2. Go to HD>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility.
3. In the left hand column, you should see Flip Video.
4. At the top, you should see Erase.
5. Make sure that you have selected Flip Video, and that the File
Format
reads MS-Dos FAT16. Keep the name column the same.
6. Click Erase.
After this is done, please go to the following link to re-install the
updated software: http://www.theflip.com/app/prius/37/update/
If this does not alleviate the issue you are experiencing, please do
not
hesitate to contact us further.
Thank you,
Consumer Support
Pure Digital Technologies, Inc.
Here is a video with some guy saying the same thing:
And it's pretty hard to find the update software page so I recommend going here. I'm putting the link here more for my benefit so I know what to look for and how to find it in the future when the update changes. Look at the address and find the highest number. Looks like they have a new program update too.