I don't make any claims that the length of time for the M3 to acquire sattelite lock is or isn't an issue.  This thread is to share how I make lemonaid from lemons.

I've factored in the time-to-lock and come up with a "post" pre-flight checklist, so I utilize the amount of "time-to-lock" productively.

First I will lift off the ground by about 9 or so feet to reduce the ground level obstructions that may be impeeding lock.  I don't have any scientific evidence that this helps, but my observations are that it does seem to reduce the amount of time required.  It seems to help when I can go above 10' as well, but that's personal observation without real evidence.

While in a stationary position and waiting for "lock", I will go into settings and validate my "environment" specific settings (that's my term).  I'll review my bypass mode, I'll review RTH height (which is not always used now), and I'll review my max altitude setting (I fly around places where ground level changes dramatically in a short amount of time, so sometimes 400' isn't enough to account for the ground level elevation changes in my environment).  P.S.  I don't condone flying over 400' AGL.  

I then recenter my gimbal.  It seems to always start uneven, and recentering seems to address the issue.  Oddly, it seems to improvde during flight as well.

I then set the pro settings on my camera (I am now pretty much avoiding auto settings most of the time).

Usually when I finish, lock has been acquired, and I'm ready to fly.

Some of this can occur pre - lift off, but I'm using the time that DJI has graciously given me.

Good use of 'waiting' time!

I completely agree since I do something similar and also I notice if you leave the aircraft hovering around 10-15 FT will acquire the satellites faster. I also take the oportunity to change the maps to Hybrid to have satellite pictures from the ground and give time to download the satellite images if I am in a new location.

It's wasted time.  
The M3 should be able to acquire the satellites as quickly as with the original firmware in the delivery state!  
And what if the satellites are "lost" during the flight, if the hardware does have problems?  
Who will replace the damage if you have already seen that the M3 is not working properly ???  
That would be negligent ... !!!

I agree the Mavic 3 should acquire the satellites as fast as the first firmware. Also should be faster than the Air 2S which is very fast doing this because is a newer technology. Also, I notice my Air 2S lock between 24-27 satellites when my Mavic 3 only locks 16 after the last firmware.

I guess DJI needs to fine tun the firmware or they are using an inferior satellite system now because of the short in chips. I hope this is not the case.

frankymusik Posted at 1-11 08:16
It's wasted time.  
The M3 should be able to acquire the satellites as quickly as with the original firmware in the delivery state!  
And what if the satellites are "lost" during the flight, if the hardware does have problems?  

I'm not disagreeing with you Frankymusik.  That's a reasonable topic covered by other threads in this forum.  I'm focusing on how I make best use of the time that shouldn't exist.  I'll either do my "post" pre-flight check or I will stew on how long it's taking.  My choice is to use the time productively.

ZeuS-FL Posted at 1-11 08:22
I agree the Mavic 3 should acquire the satellites as fast as the first firmware. Also should be faster than the Air 2S which is very fast doing this because is a newer technology. Also, I notice my Air 2S lock between 24-27 satellites when my Mavic 3 only locks 16 after the last firmware.

I guess DJI needs to fine tun the firmware or they are using an inferior satellite system now because of the short in chips. I hope this is not the case.

What your saying is contradicting yourself, you say FW update caused it, then you say inferior equipment, if the equipment was inferior then it would have been a problem from the beginning. So it could be FW but I don’t believe its a cheap receiver.

Yeah. I came to a similar workaround for my typical "sunset shooting scenario".
1. Get out of the house, open the PGYTech case
2. Start RC Pro (without handles) - it takes its sweet time to boot up
3. Unstrap/unfoam the drone
4. Start the drone - it is not going to get enough sats anyway
5. Move the drone to potential launch position, unfold the arms/props
6. By this time launch is usually permitted, so take off, go above the rooftops (about30 ft) - still without the handles
7. While it's hovering and acquiring more sats, attach the RC Pro joystick handles, set up camera settings, etc.
8. Typically that's enough time to get above 12 sats, so I can go on my mission.

I would prefer to not waste the juice for steps 6..8, but with the M3's extended battery life this seems like a decent tradeoff.
And I do hope that the upcoming January FW will fix the acquisition time, so we can all go back to the "whatever" launch routine

I thought you were going to say you fire up the drone and come back to it after lunch.

I remember the mini2 used to take significantly longer to acquire a gps lock than the mavic2, and then I found out letting it hover a few meters in the air would speed up the  process, and it seemed to work every single time. I noticed it had become a lot quicker after one or two firmware updates since release but I've lost track of which one. So I am inclined to believe the Mavic 3 will be in a similar situation. In all honesty I think we should all be patient and if possible refrain from relying on the OA dependent features at least until the 22/01 update.

NGC Posted at 1-11 11:28
Do we even know if the release is on 1/22? Where did that date even come from?

Thought the 22/01 date was all over this forum??? Or was it just my imagination, just like I remembered seeing the words 'The Smart Controller will support all future drones with OC2...'

NGC Posted at 1-11 11:42
I have seen people mention Jan 22 but it seems to be a magical Saturday on the calendar with no evidence to support it being a release date for the January Jesus Jubilee Unicorn Magic Firmware.

Or Festivus

NGC Posted at 1-11 11:51
That was Dec 23. I got my Festivus pole ready.
https://us.amazon.com/Festivus-Poles-FEST21940-72-Fest21940-72/dp/B004EET9K0

I see you are in the spirit!  I was referring to next Festivus (in 2022).  But that's me being cynical.

Do you happen to live in a valley?

Geebax Posted at 1-11 13:19
Do you happen to live in a valley?

Who do you ask?  If me, no.  I live in Colorado.

Charles Adams Posted at 1-11 13:22
Who do you ask?  If me, no.  I live in Colorado.

Climbing would only make a difference in satellite acquisition times if it gives the drone a substantially bigger skyview.
If you are starting uo in an open area where the horizon isn't blocked by buildings, trees, terrain etc, it won't make any difference.

Labroides Posted at 1-11 14:01
Climbing would only make a difference in satellite acquisition times if it gives the drone a substantially bigger skyview.
If you are starting uo in an open area where the horizon isn't blocked by buildings, trees, terrain etc, it won't make any difference.

Agreed, but I am frequently flying in some locations where there is ground obstructions (home, roof, trees, etc).  And I didn't think that the existing "obstructions" would obstruct as much as they seem to.

I'm going to stress that i have no scientific evidence that waiting at ground level with some ground obstructions is the cause (or a cause).  But my observations are that the lock occurs faster if I can climb up a bit from ground clutter.

So how long does all that take before the sats are locked on? How many sats are you waiting for before you actually decided to fly off?

TopDrones Posted at 1-11 15:48
So how long does all that take before the sats are locked on? How many sats are you waiting for before you actually decided to fly off?

The time to lock varies.  Some have reported minutes, and my worst was 90 seconds.  I don't decide when to fly with what quantity of satellites, the software makes that decision.  There are 3 tiers.  Too few, and pilot can go up 3 meters.  Some higher number and pilot can go up 30 meters.  And >=12 pilot has no restrictions other than what they have configured and whatever regulations exist.

Charles Adams Posted at 1-11 16:03
The time to lock varies.  Some have reported minutes, and my worst was 90 seconds.  I don't decide when to fly with what quantity of satellites, the software makes that decision.  There are 3 tiers.  Too few, and pilot can go up 3 meters.  Some higher number and pilot can go up 30 meters.  And >=12 pilot has no restrictions other than what they have configured and whatever regulations exist.

Thanks for the reply

Charles Adams Posted at 1-11 16:03
The time to lock varies.  Some have reported minutes, and my worst was 90 seconds.  I don't decide when to fly with what quantity of satellites, the software makes that decision.  There are 3 tiers.  Too few, and pilot can go up 3 meters.  Some higher number and pilot can go up 30 meters.  And >=12 pilot has no restrictions other than what they have configured and whatever regulations exist.

There are 3 tiers.  Too few, and pilot can go up 3 meters.  Some higher number and pilot can go up 30 meters.  And >=12 pilot has no restrictions other than what they have configured and whatever regulations exist.

There are two levels and it has nothing to do with the number of satellites.
From the manual:
  Height is restricted to 30 m when the GPS signal is weak and VPS is operating.
  Height is restricted to 3 m when the GPS signal is weak and light conditions is not sufficient for VPS.

When DJI say GPS signal is weak, that's confusing and badly written or translated.
What they mean is that the flight controller rates the GPS data reliability at less than 4 (out of 5).
You won't see the GPS data reliability on your screen, but it is shown in the recorded flight data.

The drone cannot record a home point when GPS data reliability is >3.

Labroides Posted at 1-11 16:55
There are 3 tiers.  Too few, and pilot can go up 3 meters.  Some higher number and pilot can go up 30 meters.  And >=12 pilot has no restrictions other than what they have configured and whatever regulations exist.

There are two levels and it has nothing to do with the number of satellites.

I stand corrected, thanks for the info.

The methodology aside, I don't choose when I can fly high.  I have to wait for the 3m tier, 30m tier, and then full lock.  The system decides for me, and I wait, and wait... and sometimes wait some more.

Nothing that the regular "experts" here say means anything since this drone is just repeatedly way slower than all the others I own....in the exact same location day after day, frequently in the same hour. Pure logic, the M3 is way slower.

GaryDoug Posted at 1-11 20:13
Nothing that the regular "experts" here say means anything since this drone is just repeatedly way slower than all the others I own....in the exact same location day after day, frequently in the same hour. Pure logic, the M3 is way slower.

Maybe the way it locks onto sats will be fixed in the upcoming firmware.

Suren Posted at 1-11 20:20
Maybe the way it locks onto sats will be fixed in the upcoming firmware.

I certainly hope so. As I recall it did not take as long on the first flight.

I like Your way of thinking - positive is good.
pity I seat and cures for 2-3 minutes every day unknown Chinese programmer left this bug in FW

GaryDoug Posted at 1-11 20:13
Nothing that the regular "experts" here say means anything since this drone is just repeatedly way slower than all the others I own....in the exact same location day after day, frequently in the same hour. Pure logic, the M3 is way slower.

Nothing that the regular "experts" here say means anything.
Care to give an example of something a " regular expert" said here that meant nothing?
Or was that just a lame attempt at being snarky for no reason again?

Charles Adams Posted at 1-11 08:22
I'm not disagreeing with you Frankymusik.  That's a reasonable topic covered by other threads in this forum.  I'm focusing on how I make best use of the time that shouldn't exist.  I'll either do my "post" pre-flight check or I will stew on how long it's taking.  My choice is to use the time productively.

Please understand me correctly:
I am concerned that there is indeed a problem, which can have serious consequences during the flight ...
Waiting a bit wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have to worry about getting into big trouble during the flight ...

I also make good use of the time waiting on the M3 to acquire satellites. Do all my pre flight stuff, go have dinner, throw some laundry in the washer and by then I might have 13 satellites locked. No wonder DJI increased the battery life.