An unmanned aerial vehicle manages storage of data and transfer between other connected devices. The unmanned aerial vehicle captures sensor data from sensors on the unmanned aerial vehicle. The unmanned aerial vehicle transfers the captured sensor data from the unmanned aerial vehicle to a remote controller via a wireless interface. The captured data may be transferred via a TCP link, a UDP link, or a combination thereof. If a loss of link is detected, the captured sensor data is stored to a buffer and a battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a flight status of the unmanned aerial vehicle is monitored. The stored sensor data is transferred from the buffer to a non-volatile storage responsive to the battery level dropping below a predefined threshold or detecting that the unmanned aerial vehicle is stationary and a shutdown may be imminent.