The Mavic air is junk. I recently returned it after having to reload the same firmware 3 days in a row. A $1000 piece of $h:t

Thanks for stopping by. I don't have the Air. I have 2 of the Pro versions from March,2017.

I have an Air and have had nothing but great performance from it.
You musta got a lemon.

It took me two tries to update, but it worked fine

It took me two tries to update, but it worked fine

Tell us how you really feel about the Air , lol  So did you get a different Drone ? or are you going back to flying Kites ?  Calm down just kidding .

It took me two tries to update, but it worked fine

I own the air and it does have its problems 1 the video feed keeps lagging even at 600 ft out it over corrects when turning do to the severe lag 2 when you stop to take picture the drone keeps drifting and doesn't stop drifting until  you  use the controls to hold it in place. 3 Can not calibrate the sensors using the dji Assistant program tried on 4 different computers.  4 The dji go 4 app keeps disconnecting from the remote and replaced the cable and still having the problem.

Dale Ty Posted at 2018-7-29 16:37
It took me two tries to update, but it worked fine

Think I am see a pattern here...

We are sorry to read your post. May I have more details about the difficulties you are experiencing? We'll check the exact status and try our best to help you.
Also, I understand your frustration and still hope that you would have a nice trip with DJI product, if there is anything else we can help, please kindly advise.

Everybody's entitled to their opinions but honestly what made your opinion of the Mavic Air so negative? All you said was it was a $1000 bad investment but you failed to list any reasons? I personally don't think the Mavic Air is that bad of an investment, it shoots stabilized 4K video, it's super fast, compact and travel friendly, it has decent range and image transmission. With all this said, the Mavic Air obviously is not as good as the Mavic Pro, it sounds like maybe your expectations were a little higher than you thought when you bought the Mavic Air and it may be you might have wanted to purchase the Mavic Pro instead?

forager3215 Posted at 2018-7-29 18:38
I own the air and it does have its problems 1 the video feed keeps lagging even at 600 ft out it over corrects when turning do to the severe lag 2 when you stop to take picture the drone keeps drifting and doesn't stop drifting until  you  use the controls to hold it in place. 3 Can not calibrate the sensors using the dji Assistant program tried on 4 different computers.  4 The dji go 4 app keeps disconnecting from the remote and replaced the cable and still having the problem.

Please give the device used for control info, version ios or android, app version,  drone firmware...

Hm – what I can say.
Yes – I have three times updated the same firmware (ending with 400, if I remember right). Twice via GO app and once via Assistant. All time with success. But anyway every time I start flying, GO app says that there is a new firmware with same version numbers that I have already in my Mavic Air. So I just ignore it. That’s all.
If not consider that and some other unfortunate things (for example in Europe promised 4 kilometer fly radius is pure fraud as normally there is no way to fly much more than 500 meters; very poor 360 stitched panorama; not just as easy to connect directly to mobile phone via WiFi as described in manual; and so on, so on…), Mavic Air is little beast and much easier to carry and use then for example Phantom and can take videos almost the same quality.

500m??? I can fky my MA up to 3km without any problems. I am from Europe

I don't know what's wrong with yours, but mine works PERFECTLY fine.

I dont think it helps if you can fly 100km or live on the moon.
Thats his experiences he describes . DJI comes with diffrent type of frustrations thats for sure.

Well I'm definitely not buying one now.

Darciukas Posted at 2018-7-29 22:24
I don't know what's wrong with yours, but mine works PERFECTLY fine.

Glad to hear that, but earlier in this forum you are complained about bad video quality. At least my Air's video is near excelent...
So as people are different, appears that there are also different drones with same brandname.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-29 20:05
[view_image]

Think I am see a pattern here...

ya do that 1667 times and hey i am a Captain rofl

OP if it's any consolation our Mavic Air is just dandy, flies like a dream, no issues whatsoever using an iPad mini 4. And just for giggles we just got a tello and hello thats just dandy too.

After purchasing, I spent 3 days trying to load the firmware via the app ( it would variably load up to 99% (1 hour) and get stuck there) . I would wait a few hours until I was sure it was frozen and try again the next day. On the 3 day, I contacted the online support and was told to use DJI Assistant 2. It loaded in 5 minutes. I flew it, no problems. Next day the error message stated new firmware available and asked me to reload the drone firmware again, the same firmware that was loaded already . I contacted the support again and the only solution they had was to reload . Once again I reloaded and everything fine. Third time same error message, reload the firmware. I used DJI Assistant and I reloaded the firmware. After successful reload , 3 other error messages
were encountered, one of which was I was in a prohibited zone and suggested I move.I was in my back yard as I had been the first 2 times.
The online support desk told me to reload the firmware and move to another location even after I told them I had reloaded the same firmware 2 days in a row and had been flying in the same location each time. After moving locations, same errors persisted and support desk asked me to reload again. I promptly packed up the Mavic Air in its box and returned to store for full refund with 1 day left on 2 week window for returnning the item (Apple store). I really wanted to keep it and work out the problems but based on the continuing errors I kept getting and inadequate help from the online support I was not confident that I would be able to resolve the problem.

fans1d206c40 Posted at 2018-7-30 05:43
After purchasing, I spent 3 days trying to load the firmware via the app ( it would variably load up to 99% (1 hour) and get stuck there) . I would wait a few hours until I was sure it was frozen and try again the next day. On the 3 day, I contacted the online support and was told to use DJI Assistant 2. It loaded in 5 minutes. I flew it, no problems. Next day the error message stated new firmware available and asked me to reload the drone firmware again, the same firmware that was loaded already . I contacted the support again and the only solution they had was to reload . Once again I reloaded and everything fine. Third time same error message, reload the firmware. I used DJI Assistant and I reloaded the firmware. After successful reload , 3 other error messages
were encountered, one of which was I was in a prohibited zone and suggested I move.I was in my back yard as I had been the first 2 times.
The online support desk told me to reload the firmware and move to another location even after I told them I had reloaded the same firmware 2 days in a row and had been flying in the same location each time. After moving locations, same errors persisted and support desk asked me to reload again. I promptly packed up the Mavic Air in its box and returned to store for full refund with 1 day left on 2 week window for returnning the item (Apple store). I really wanted to keep it and work out the problems but based on the continuing errors I kept getting and inadequate help from the online support I was not confident that I would be able to resolve the problem.

Were you using different batteries everytime? That could have been the problem since batteries have firmware upgrades too and you need to load it on each of them individually

Just wondering, it might have been a defective unit too!

After purchasing, I spent 3 days trying to load the firmware via the app ( it would variably load up to 99% (1 hour) and get stuck there) . I would wait a few hours until I was sure it was frozen and try again the next day. On the 3 day, I contacted the online support and was told to use DJI Assistant 2. It loaded in 5 minutes. I flew it, no problems. Next day the error message stated new firmware available and asked me to reload the drone firmware again, the same firmware that was loaded already . I contacted the support again and the only solution they had was to reload . Once again I reloaded and everything fine. Third time same error message, reload the firmware. I used DJI Assistant and I reloaded the firmware. After successful reload , 3 other error messages
were encountered, one of which was I was in a prohibited zone and suggested I move.I was in my back yard as I had been the first 2 times.
The online support desk told me to reload the firmware and move to another location even after I told them I had reloaded the same firmware 2 days in a row and had been flying in the same location each time. After moving locations, same errors persisted and support desk asked me to reload again. I promptly packed up the Mavic Air in its box and returned to store for full refund with 1 day left on 2 week window for returnning the item (Apple store). I really wanted to keep it and work out the problems but based on the continuing errors I kept getting and inadequate help from the online support I was not confident that I would be able to resolve the problem.
I had loaded the firmware with 400 in the version description, and using iPhone X, purchased the product at Apple store in Marlton NJ, on July 8, 2018. Very nice looking product.
Question to community: is the Mavic Pro better in the sense of fewer problems with firmware et al. I really want to purchase one but I don’t want to get burned again. Thank you

MuuSer Posted at 2018-7-29 21:02
Hm – what I can say.
Yes – I have three times updated the same firmware (ending with 400, if I remember right). Twice via GO app and once via Assistant. All time with success.  But anyway every time I start flying, GO app says that there is a new firmware with same version numbers that I have already in my Mavic Air. So I just ignore it. That’s all.
If not consider that and some other unfortunate things (for example in Europe promised 4 kilometer fly radius is pure fraud as normally there is no way to fly much more than 500 meters; very poor 360 stitched panorama; not just as easy to connect directly to mobile phone via WiFi as described in manual; and so on, so on…), Mavic Air is little beast and much easier to carry and use then for example Phantom and can take videos almost the same quality.

Ignore it, it won’t fly until error is resolved

Hestia Posted at 2018-7-30 05:48
Were you using different batteries everytime? That could have been the problem since batteries have firmware upgrades too and you need to load it on each of them individually

Just wondering, it might have been a defective unit too!

Battery firmware? All I know about drone batteries is I kept them at 100% everything I tried flying. Remote battery also kept at 100% when I tried flying. Never received error message regarding battery firmware. Online support never suggested loading battery firmware. Are you talking about the Mavic Air?

fans1d206c40 Posted at 2018-7-30 05:59
Battery firmware? All I know about drone batteries is I kept them at 100% everything I tried flying. Remote battery also kept at 100% when I tried flying. Never received error message regarding battery firmware. Online support never suggested loading battery firmware. Are you talking about the Mavic Air?

Yes, talking about the Air (I own one too). Batteries are named ''intelligent'' because they use a firmware just like your RC and drone. Some big upgrades (I think the one we have now was a big upgrade) requires to also update batteries: you power up the drone with the first battery and update, then swap batteries and upgrade again and so on!
Everytime you swap the batteries it says there is a firmware mismatch (I think this is what it said, if I remember correctly) because the drone has the latest version while the in-use battery doesn't.

Hestia Posted at 2018-7-30 06:04
Yes, talking about the Air (I own one too). Batteries are named ''intelligent'' because they use a firmware just like your RC and drone. Some big upgrades (I think the one we have now was a big upgrade) requires to also update batteries: you power up the drone with the first battery and update, then swap batteries and upgrade again and so on!
Everytime you swap the batteries it says there is a firmware mismatch (I think this is what it said, if I remember correctly) because the drone has the latest version while the in-use battery doesn't.

I hear they are coming out with Mavic Pro 2 in few months, maybe I try again with that, but st this point with the Air problems I had , I don’t wAnt to buy another Air and maybe (or maybe not) have same problems. Maybe mine was a lemon or maybe it had something to do with the battery firmware as you mentioned, but I’ll wait now for next version. A final note, the instructions they provided are very poor and almost useless. Even the help online support people have limited knowledge to help in these types of problems (non-conventional) . Thanks for your help.

fans1d206c40 Posted at 2018-7-30 06:13
I hear they are coming out with Mavic Pro 2 in few months, maybe I try again with that, but st this point with the Air problems I had , I don’t wAnt to buy another Air and maybe (or maybe not) have same problems. Maybe mine was a lemon or maybe it had something to do with the battery firmware as you mentioned, but I’ll wait now for next version. A final note, the instructions they provided are very poor and almost useless. Even the help online support people have limited knowledge to help in these types of problems (non-conventional) . Thanks for your help.

Yea, I was just wondering as I said

I would wait too and see for the new Mavic 2 at this point!

The bag of "lemons" just keep on growing..........

Nicksons Posted at 2018-7-29 20:39
Please give the device used for control info, version ios or android, app version,  drone firmware...

Using samsung galaxy s7 go4 app version 4.2.21 drone firmware 1.00.0400 remote 01.00.0100

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-29 20:05
[view_image]

Think I am see a pattern here...

Well, this was funny

rolling56 Posted at 2018-7-30 02:57
ya do that 1667 times and hey i am a Captain rofl

Go for it!   Might be best thread of year...

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-30 10:00
Go for it!   Might be best thread of year...

lol well all my posts have been just that posts and not store bought or given for joining this or that etc if you know what i mean. I earned everyone of them one by one with maybe a double post once in awhile

Which drone are going to switch to?

forager3215 Posted at 2018-7-30 08:41
Using samsung galaxy s7 go4 app version 4.2.21 drone firmware 1.00.0400 remote 01.00.0100

I m sorry to hear that you cant fly your drone, I have very good Android devices , none of them work properly, I´m reading in a lot of posts where the android devices are having a lot of issues with the DJI App, including the crystalsky monitor that runs android. If Ill be you, I would try a compatible IOS device, in that case you will clear up some of your issues, if it fails on IOS you have to check the IOS version, many users complain on 11.4, so if you really need it, the 12 beta is an option for those users... Hope you can give a try and get back on air as soon as possible... cheers

It always seems to be new users with these problems, maybe more instructions needed......

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-7-30 14:04
It always seems to be new users with these problems, maybe more instructions needed......

I rather believe that more willingness to read before use is required for new users...

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-7-30 14:06
I rather believe that more willingness to read before use is required for new users...

“The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.”

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-7-30 14:15
“The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.”

Very true words, thank you

Ever think you need to update each battery as well.  Too k 3 updates to start of the same firmware (one for each battery