Just wanted to put this out there, in the hopes that other Phantom owners who read this will be spared from my firmware woes:

In my opinion, you should never update firmware unless your Phantom is having some kind of problem you are hoping it will fix.  While many firmware updates go just fine (I am told), in my experience, a firmware update can potentially cause your drone to fly erratically, be uncontrollable, or crash.  I have a P2 that became uncontrollable with any firmware version above 1.08.  Thankfully, with versions below v3, you were able to roll back to fix it.  But with v3 and up, you can no longer roll back, so you're taking your quad's life in your hands, so to speak..

What's more, if you take a bad firmware update, DJI will be absolutely ruthless when it comes to fixing the problem.  Even though you updated in an effort to stay up to date and "do the right thing", they will charge you to rectify the problem.  As far as they are concerned (and a lot of people on this forum seem to agree, strangely enough..) it is YOUR fault that you updated, even if they're the ones that released lousy software AND bad it impossible to roll back.  So good luck with that.

In a nutshell, never update firmware unless you're mentally and financially prepared for the possibility of losing your Phantom or making it unusable.


My advice would be to NEVER update you Phantom's firmware unless it is having some kind of problem you are hoping the firmware update will fix.  While many firmware updates go just fine (I am told), in my experience, a firmware update can potentially cause your drone to fly erratically, be uncontrollable, or crash.  I have a P2 that became uncontrollable with any firmware version above 1.08.  Thankfully, with versions below v3, you were able to roll back to fix it.  But with v3 and up, you can no longer roll back, so you're taking your quad's life in your hands, so to speak..

What's more, if you take a bad firmware update, DJI will be absolutely ruthless when it comes to fixing the problem.  Even though you updated in an effort to stay up to date and "do the right thing", they will charge you to rectify the problem.  As far as they are concerned (and a lot of people on this forum seem to agree, strangely enough..) it is YOUR fault that you updated, even if they're the ones that released lousy software AND bad it impossible to roll back.  So good luck with that.

In a nutshell, never update firmware unless you're mentally and financially prepared for the possibility of losing your Phantom or making it unusable.

Hope this is helpful.
In my opinion, you should never update firmware unless your Phantom is having some kind of problem you are hoping it will fix.  While many firmware updates go just fine (I am told), in my experience, a firmware update can potentially cause your drone to fly erratically, be uncontrollable, or crash.  I have a P2 that became uncontrollable with any firmware version above 1.08.  Thankfully, with versions below v3, you were able to roll back to fix it.  But with v3 and up, you can no longer roll back, so you're taking your quad's life in your hands, so to speak..

What's more, if you take a bad firmware update, DJI will be absolutely ruthless when it comes to fixing the problem.  Even though you updated in an effort to stay up to date and "do the right thing", they will charge you to rectify the problem.  As far as they are concerned (and a lot of people on this forum seem to agree, strangely enough..) it is YOUR fault that you updated, even if they're the ones that released lousy software AND bad it impossible to roll back.  So good luck with that.

In a nutshell, never update firmware unless you're mentally and financially prepared for the possibility of losing your Phantom or making it unusable.

Another option is to wait a week or so after a new update has been released. If all seems to be well by the reaction in this forum, then it should be fine to install the new firmware.

Since DJI recently gave us the option to downgrade the firmware, this is pretty much a non-issue now. If you upgrade the firmware and don't like the results, then simply downgrade to a previous stable version.

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We are sorry if you encountered problems. On the other end there are those of us that do the updates religiously and then re- do the IMU , RC and compass calibration and have had no issues. I own two Phantoms and the only issue I ever had was when I did'tt follow the direction and made an error my self.  I have always done Windows updates on my computers, updated the software on my HD tv's my cell phone, router and other electronic components.
The software updates are not normally released until they have been tested. I will say that once in a while a revision may have to come out due to a problem but for the most part it has been tested.
I will only say I would not make a bold statement as you have but just say you have had problems. After the major upgrades did you recalibrate the IMU and compass. If not you may want to look at  the methodology of doing an update.
I  will agree that the information or steps for the upgrading procedure are  a little lacking in guidelines but for the majority the upgrade go ok.
Additionally after you updated you didn't state the issue you had or how you tried to resolve it.
Hope we can all come to terms but you have to admit some upgrades are necessary.  I once trashed my gimbel and camera doing an upgrade. DJI repaired it even though it was my error. In the upgrade area of the assistant it showed what firmware needed to be upgraded but I was smart and upgraded all lines which caused the problem. I failed to,follow the directions.
They don't just put out upgrades to just be doing it. It take time and money and testing and some pretty valid reason behind the scenes for publishing them. Such as upgrading to include all no fly zones or a bug fix for the wifi extender etc.
Sorry but I will continue to upgrade and after doing so will re calibrate and fly along with the update.

toblerone777 is entitled to their opinion, mine is completely different as after over a year of flying my V+ and updating the firmware each time on day 1 of release I have had no issues.
In my opinion having the latest firmware is a good thing, would you not want the latest updates to your PC / tablet / Phone / Console ? So why not your Phantom...

I am experiencing problems also with my Phantom 2 since I upgraded firmware 3.14.  My Dji Phantom 2 with the new controller is not responsive to the controller, a yellow light is blinking. On the controller the green power light is also now blinking. Is there a way to downgrade the firmware?

Well, here's the thing.  I look at it like Russian Roulette.  I would guess that 99% of upgrades go perfectly fine, and might actually add some nice features.  But there is a (let's say) 1% chance that your Phantom will become uncontrollable, dangerous, or un-flyable.  In my case, my P2 flew perfectly fine for over a year, then I upgraded from firmware 1.08 to 3.14, and suddenly it's nearly impossible to control.  It flies directly towards you as soon as it takes off, it practically refuses to fly downward, making it hard to land, it jerks upwards randomly, wobbles...  In short, it's out of control, and very dangerous.  I did calibrate the Phantom, and the controller, using both the Phantom software and the controller software, I re-calibrated the IMU very carefully, as well as the compass, I even de-magnetised the compass and did everything you're supposed to do.  In a nutshell, DJI's firwmare completely hosed my P2.  And I'm not alone.  This forum (and others) are rife with users who have trashed their Phantoms simply by upgrading their firmware (and doing it perfectly correctly).  While it's likely that a lot of Phantoms will be just fine when upgraded, it's not out of the realm of possibility that there are slight differences in hardware that make some Phantoms of the same generation incompatible with some versions of the firmware.  And since DJI no longer allows you to revert firmware (after v3), you're stuck.

And here's the clincher:  if your Phantom is out of warranty, and you send it in for repair, DJI will show you no mercy.  They will charge you for a repair (in my case $143 to replace the flight controller), even though you did NOTHING WRONG!  To me, that's like punishing diligent customers for dutifully taking their updates.  You would think they would want to encourage, not discourage users from upgrading regularly to receive the latest safety, reliability, and regulatory updates.  Well, lesson learned.

So, I'm really happy to hear that many people have had great success upgrading.  But I stand by my warning.  You are taking a risk, albeit a small one, of a very costly loss.  And the worst part about it is that DJI will be more than happy to charge you for their mistake.  I just want to make sure new users are aware of it, and I think it's irresponsible, and it's bad business for DJI to not take responsibility for their software mistakes.  I totally understand that things happen, and bad code gets out there.  But to not allow reverting, and to CHARGE people for making their products fly again is just not the way to do things.  A free repair under the circumstances (regardless of warranty) seems only right to me, given that those updates can damage not only a person's hard-earned toy, but can damage property, or even hurt people.

As far as I'm concerned, unless my Phantom has an actual problem that I'm hoping to resolve, I'm going to do everything possible never to update it.  After all, if my iPhone gets a bad update, it won't fall out of the sky and potentially kill someone...

I think that there will be no more firmware updates for phantom 2 as long as phantom 3 is here.The latest and probably last firmware works fine with my phantom 2.

Phantom Help Posted at 2015-9-2 23:35
Another option is to wait a week or so after a new update has been released. If all seems to be well ...

does this backward ability apply to P2V2plus?

or just the P3!