I almost always launch and catch my drone while sitting in my car.  During the winter, this is especially nice.
However, during night flights, and only during night flights, I frequently get a compass calibration error that will not let me fly.
Then I have move away from my car like it is kryptonite so I can go through the compass calibration process before I can fly (just moving it away from the car isn't enough - you have to step through the compass calibration process).

I understand the metal car chassis could interfere with magnetic fields, but why does DJI insist that I just cannot take off?
I do it all the time during the day but at night it just refuses to take off.

I starting flying heli and multirotor about 25 years ago.  All the fancy control systems today are nice, but I don't need them to fly and I find it infuriating that DJI simply will not let me fly when I want to.

Is there any way to disable this ultra baby-sitting system and just fly my drone?  Clearly the drone is capable, since it'll do it no problem in daylight hours.

Don't be fooled.
This issue has nothing to do with the compass and recalibrating is not required.
There's no good reason that DJI makes the Compass Calibration message pop up when you try to launch in the dark.

I've encountered this issue many times and checked it out fully.
When it happens to me (like a few times this week) I get around this stupid imposition by launching from in front of the car with the headlights illuminating the drone.

Labroides Posted at 2-26 20:03
Don't be fooled.
This issue has nothing to do with the compass and recalibrating is not required.
There's no good reason that DJI makes the Compass Calibration message pop up when you try to launch in the dark.

Yeah I tried using flashlights to create more light under the drone but it just wouldn't work.
At night I try to make my launch quick so my strobe isn't blasting me in the face and attracting undue attention - it is really irritating to be fighting with the compass bug right when I'm trying to get in the air.

+1 getting the same issue with this message in the dark,   I just ignore it now.

DAFlys Posted at 2-27 00:15
+1 getting the same issue with this message in the dark,   I just ignore it now.

When I get this, ignoring won't help.
It won't let me start the motors.

Hi. Sorry about the trouble. It is suggested to not use the aircraft in a poorly lit environment without GPS signals (such as at night or in a dark indoor corner). The aircraft may drift when flying or may not hover when flying in these environments. We will forward your feedback to the relevant team for awareness. Thank you for your patience.

DJI Tony Posted at 2-28 02:00
Hi. Sorry about the trouble. It is suggested to not use the aircraft in a poorly lit environment without GPS signals (such as at night or in a dark indoor corner). The aircraft may drift when flying or may not hover when flying in these environments. We will forward your feedback to the relevant team for awareness. Thank you for your patience.

Hi. Sorry about the trouble. It is suggested to not use the aircraft in a poorly lit environment without GPS signals (such as at night or in a dark indoor corner).
This has nothing at all to do with poor GPS.
It happens out in the open with full GPS reception.
DJI have a message that says the compass needs to be calibrated, when the issue has nothing to do with the compass.
And no amount of compass calibration or moving the drone makes any difference

The whole thing is misleading and ridiculous.

+1 on this...

Labroides Posted at 2-28 03:01
Hi. Sorry about the trouble. It is suggested to not use the aircraft in a poorly lit environment without GPS signals (such as at night or in a dark indoor corner).
This has nothing at all to do with poor GPS.
It happens out in the open with full GPS reception.

Hi. We are actively submitting your feedback to the designated team. Rest assured this will be forwarded. Thank you.

DJI Tony Posted at 3-2 00:46
Hi. We are actively submitting your feedback to the designated team. Rest assured this will be forwarded. Thank you.

This issue is still existing. When will it be fixed?

Tobias Schlattmann Posted at 11-6 01:16
This issue is still existing. When will it be fixed?

Probably never.
DJI make great drones, but have a very poor record of paying attention to the users.
The moderators post the same optimistic copy/paste responses again and again and a year later nothing has happened.

Illuminating the drone and its surrounding area works.
I had to do it again last week.

Tobias Schlattmann Posted at 11-6 01:16
This issue is still existing. When will it be fixed?

Hi there. We have consulted our engineer and will definitely give you an answer as soon as possible.

Tobias Schlattmann Posted at 11-6 01:16
This issue is still existing. When will it be fixed?

Hi there. If you are in a dark environment with good GPS and no metal magnetic objects nearby, and you cannot take off for the compass error is displayed, that you need to calibrate the compass. After calibration, the same prompt still appears.
Then we recommend that you
1. Update the latest firmware for the aircraft and adjust the parameters.
2. Change the location for cross-testing.
If you still cannot take off after performing compass calibration in different locations, please send it back for inspection.

DJI Tony Posted at 11-6 22:18
Hi there. If you are in a dark environment with good GPS and no metal magnetic objects nearby, and you cannot take off for the compass error is displayed, that you need to calibrate the compass. After calibration, the same prompt still appears.
Then we recommend that you
1. Update the latest firmware for the aircraft and adjust the parameters.

In my case it was like many others posted here as well: just illuminate the surrounding of the drone with e.g. a torch and then the erroneous error about the compass recalibration is NOT displayed.

So it‘s a bug. Please analyse and fix it.

DJI Tony Posted at 11-6 22:18
Hi there. If you are in a dark environment with good GPS and no metal magnetic objects nearby, and you cannot take off for the compass error is displayed, that you need to calibrate the compass. After calibration, the same prompt still appears.
Then we recommend that you
1. Update the latest firmware for the aircraft and adjust the parameters.

None of that makes any difference.
I have had to deal with this several times and extensively tested all options.
I detailed my findings earlier in this thread.

There is no physical reason for the drone to indicate a compass warning, no amount of compass calibration or moving the drone makes any difference and illuminating the area makes the erroneous warning go away.

SirToby001 Posted at 11-7 14:34
In my case it was like many others posted here as well: just illuminate the surrounding of the drone with e.g. a torch and then the erroneous error about the compass recalibration is NOT displayed.

So it‘s a bug. Please analyse and fix it.

Thank you for your feedback, we will inform the relevant engineers of your request.
If you have other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Labroides Posted at 11-7 15:39
None of that makes any difference.
I have had to deal with this several times and extensively tested all options.
I detailed my findings earlier in this thread.

Thanks for your feedback, we will share your findings with our engineers.
If you have further questions in the future, please feel free to contact us.

SirToby001 Posted at 11-7 14:34
In my case it was like many others posted here as well: just illuminate the surrounding of the drone with e.g. a torch and then the erroneous error about the compass recalibration is NOT displayed.

So it‘s a bug. Please analyse and fix it.

Thank you for your feedback. Given the large number of customers who have provided feedback, our engineers are paying close attention to this issue. Therefore, we need to collect some information remotely to analyze the cause of the problem.

Please provide the flight controller log, APP log, specific test time, your country and specific location, and then upload them to this network disk: https://pan-sec.djicorp.com/s/3TbcKepHKxixoq4

1. Exporting Flight Controller Aircraft Data
(1) Download DJI Assistant 2 from the official website. Download link：https://www.dji.com/downloads
(2) Launch DJI Assistant 2. Within 20 seconds after the aircraft is powered on, connect it to DJI Assistant 2.
(3) After DJI Assistant 2 recognizes the aircraft, choose "Log Export", and then click "Save to local".
(4) The final exported data are ".dat" files.

2. App Log Export
Find the Log Upload function entrance:
Choose "Service" - "Support" - "Log Upload" to enter the log upload page.




Fill in and submit:
1. Please select the date of Occurrence, and then select the desired “App Log”.
2. Please fill in the issue description, specifying when the issue occurred, how it occurred, and what the outcomes were.
3. If there are any relevant screenshots or screen recordings related to the issue, please upload them together.
4. After completing all the content, please tap the “Submit” button to upload.


Submitted successfully:
After uploading successfully, please take a screenshot or photo of the successful submission page and send it to us for further assistance.

Labroides Posted at 11-7 15:39
None of that makes any difference.
I have had to deal with this several times and extensively tested all options.
I detailed my findings earlier in this thread.

Thank you for your feedback. Given the large number of customers who have provided feedback, our engineers are paying close attention to this issue. Therefore, we need to collect some information remotely to analyze the cause of the problem.

Please provide the flight controller log, APP log, specific test time, your country and specific location, and then upload them to this network disk: https://pan-sec.djicorp.com/s/bXWxKj2AxgXmj5o
1. Exporting Flight Controller Aircraft Data
(1) Download DJI Assistant 2 from the official website. Download link：https://www.dji.com/downloads
(2) Launch DJI Assistant 2. Within 20 seconds after the aircraft is powered on, connect it to DJI Assistant 2.
(3) After DJI Assistant 2 recognizes the aircraft, choose "Log Export", and then click "Save to local".
(4) The final exported data are ".dat" files.

2. App Log Export
Find the Log Upload function entrance:
Choose "Service" - "Support" - "Log Upload" to enter the log upload page.

Fill in and submit:
1. Please select the date of Occurrence, and then select the desired “App Log”.
2. Please fill in the issue description, specifying when the issue occurred, how it occurred, and what the outcomes were.
3. If there are any relevant screenshots or screen recordings related to the issue, please upload them together.
4. After completing all the content, please tap the “Submit” button to upload.

Submitted successfully:
After uploading successfully, please take a screenshot or photo of the successful submission page and send it to us for further assistance.

DJI Tony Posted at 11-10 00:11
Thank you for your feedback. Given the large number of customers who have provided feedback, our engineers are paying close attention to this issue. Therefore, we need to collect some information remotely to analyze the cause of the problem.

Please provide the flight controller log, APP log, specific test time, your country and specific location, and then upload them to this network disk: https://pan-sec.djicorp.com/s/bXWxKj2AxgXmj5o

Sorry .. this sounds like too much work.
I don't think I'll be going back to find which flights over the last two years gave me this issue and getting all that data.

I've given a lot of information earlier in the thread that might help.

Labroides Posted at 11-10 03:49
Sorry .. this sounds like too much work.
I don't think I'll be going back to find which flights over the last two years gave me this issue and getting all that data.

We are sorry that we need your information to provide to our engineers. You could provide us with this information next time you encounter this problem.

DJI Tony Posted at 11-10 06:02
We are sorry that we need your information to provide to our engineers. You could provide us with this information next time you encounter this problem.

With so many people reporting this same error why do you still need flight logs to start fixing this bug? The exact steps needed to replicate this bug have been spelled out in this thread. It would take less time for your engineers to just go outside at night and see for themselves then following your long 10+ step process for sharing a flight log. Your engineers are either incredibly lazy or this is just a stall tactic to not have to address the issue.

Johnnokomis Posted at 11-10 09:51
With so many people reporting this same error why do you still need flight logs to start fixing this bug? The exact steps needed to replicate this bug have been spelled out in this thread. It would take less time for your engineers to just go outside at night and see for themselves then following your long 10+ step process for sharing a flight log. Your engineers are either incredibly lazy or this is just a stall tactic to not have to address the issue.

Hi, there
We totally understand how you feel.
However, the issues that customers encountered are different, which depends on the actual scenarios. We need to analyze the situation on a case-by-case basis.
We look forward to your information when you are free of time.

DJI Tony Posted at 11-12 01:57
Hi, there
We totally understand how you feel.
However, the issues that customers encountered are different, which depends on the actual scenarios. We need to analyze the situation on a case-by-case basis.

No, the issues being reported are not different. You expect customers to follow your 12 step program just to be able to begin troubleshooting your own bug. How about this? Get your engineers to replicate the issue being seen in only 2 steps:

1) Go out in the dark.
2) Try to take off.

After following these steps successfully, please take a screenshot of the message being displayed.

Johnnokomis Posted at 11-12 16:58
No, the issues being reported are not different. You expect customers to follow your 12 step program just to be able to begin troubleshooting your own bug. How about this? Get your engineers to replicate the issue being seen in only 2 steps:

1) Go out in the dark.

How can they tell the issues being experienced are different if no-one has sent data?

All cases I've seen described here are identical to what I've experienced about 10 times now.

Johnnokomis Posted at 11-12 16:58
No, the issues being reported are not different. You expect customers to follow your 12 step program just to be able to begin troubleshooting your own bug. How about this? Get your engineers to replicate the issue being seen in only 2 steps:

1) Go out in the dark.

Hi there. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our engineers need to analyze the cause of the problem according to your specific situation. We hope you can cooperate so that we can better help you solve it.

I have a DJI Mavic 3 Twhich I bought 18 months ago.   I had no issues taking off after dark  until I crashed the drone ( in the day)  I sent it back for repair and paid for a NEW Drone  keeping my old controller. Since getting back it will not take off in the dark  i have updated and refreshed the firmware on both Done and the controller - still cant take off in the dark - since i use the Drone for wildlife rescue surveying in the dark as a professional service this is a major problem for me   can you give me any advice on how to find a solution to this

post note to my last post has anyone tried going back to earlier 2 year old  firmware?

Oh. its good that i found this topic , because i have thought that it is some feature of only my drone. I like to fly at night and each time , one or two times per flight session it unable to take off due to compass calibration reqiered. Thanks for nice trick with torch , i will also try this. but DJI ....come on

Going on from this  i recieved a further firmware update notification on my controller  yesterday  after having logged on to the internet  with the controller and drone switched on in my office.  Following the controller firmware update   I successfully took off in the dark  - so my advice is make sure you are completely up to date with you firmware upgrades as it seems DJI is gradually ironing bugs like this out  so Tick for DJI

It will be just perfect if DJI shows what are this updates for ))) and not used such explanation "known bugs fixes " . Becuase im now became afraid to update imediately just update comes )) . Just look at this new height and distance marks )) and active track limiting distance ..  some bugs (potensially ) fixed  but new bugs released )))