Hi all, I have a Phantom 3 Pro I've been flying for a few years.  A couple of weeks ago during a flight the controller started beeping ~30s into a flight and the drone did a forced landing.  It did this while out in the field, and then again at my house.  I figured it was probably a sign I needed to upgrade firmware, since I haven't done so in a while (because the updates are of course notoriously unreliable).  So I upgraded firmware on both the controller and the drone, and that problem seemed to go away.  However, the drone appeared to be in beginner mode, since it wouldn't go above what appeared to be about 50 feet or so.  I don't use the GO app for flying, but our own app we developed for live streaming (I won't mention it right now, since this isn't an ad but a legit cry for help).  So I installed GO, and it wasn't in beginner mode, but did have a very low maximum height set for some reason.  I changed that, and it worked fine.  But then when I uninstalled GO, the same problem happened!  With GO, it will fly as normal, without it will not.  I am in a pretty rural area, there are no flight restrictions, so there is no reason the drone should behave like this.  Basically this update has effectively bricked my drone, unless I use GO, which basically destroys our abiliity to use our own app.

So, my question, to the forum and to DJI, is whether I am missing something and there is some way to get back to the situation I used to have, where I can fly my drone without the GO app.  I know in the past it has been difficult to impossible to revert firmware versions, but is that something I could do?  Have they changed the way the system operates so that the drone expects a no-fly map to be active on the phone, or else it won't fly?  Is there some way around that?  Help!

Per the P3P release notes, the current firmware includes a change that restricts the altitude to 30 meters and distance to 50 meters when not starting the Phantom while it's connected to DJI GO (and you're logged into DJI GO). I'm not sure how your custom app handles that login process. If it's not able to, you could start your Phantom up while it's connected to DJI GO, wait until DJI GO shows it's ready to fly, and then close DJI GO and switch over to your app (without restarting your Phantom).

Hi Barris, just to verify, do you log in your account in DJI GO? The latest APP requires to log in your account, keep the status and do not log out manually. Otherwise, the distance and altitude might be restricted.

"So, my question, to the forum and to DJI, is whether I am missing something and there is some way to get back to the situation I used to have, where I can fly my drone without the GO app"

Which Application do you use if not DJI Go 4 ?

Hi all, Thank you all for the questions and comments!
So, we usually operate without the GO app installed at all.  This is because GO requires itself to be the default USB app in order to connect, and when it is set to be the default, our app is then unable to access the video stream through the USB port.  Our app is designed just to do live streaming (it predates when GO on Android was functional for live streaming, that's why we wrote it!).  So, I did some testing this morning.  If I use GO to connect to the drone, I can then exit GO, turn off the default setting for the USB port, start our app, and fly as I want to (Thanks Phantom Help for the suggestion!).  OK, sounds good.  The problem is that our app is capable for streaming as long as possible, through drone battery changes, so we can stream events for customers continuously for hours  Which is now impossible, because when you turn off the drone to swap batteries, you would have to exit our app (killing the stream), make GO the default USB app, start it up, connect to the drone, close it, make it NOT the default USB app, and then restart our app.  
I also have a P4 I haven't flown for a while--is it going to have the same problem?  Because this basically does brick our drone from being able to do what we actually want and need for it to do.  

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-3-26 01:26
Hi Barris, just to verify, do you log in your account in DJI GO? The latest APP requires to log in your account, keep the status and do not log out manually. Otherwise, the distance and altitude might be restricted.

So how does one fly if they are out in the wilderness where there is no internet to be able to log into? I do not use a phone as a smart device, so I wouldn't be able to do that. Luckily, I haven't upgraded the app OR the firmware in several years, so both my P3P's still work and fly like champs while in airplane mode.

Barney

Barney Just make sure you are logged in, do this at home on your home wifi, then no probs when out and about

B.Barris, when you install the Go app and 1st run it, it asks you if you want to run it as the default app, just say no or dont tick the box, then it will ask every time, its always best this way, least if theres an issue in the future, you can rule out a USB connection issue. For no you can go in to apps, then default apps and clear the defaults, saves reinstalling it again

Barney Rubbel Posted at 2018-3-26 06:33
So how does one fly if they are out in the wilderness where there is no internet to be able to log into? I do not use a phone as a smart device, so I wouldn't be able to do that. Luckily, I haven't upgraded the app OR the firmware in several years, so both my P3P's still work and fly like champs while in airplane mode.

Barney

Barney, the login is required for the first flight. If you have logged in at home, keep the status and do not log out, the drone still fly well even if you are in remote areas.

Bashy Posted at 2018-3-26 21:40
Barney Just make sure you are logged in, do this at home on your home wifi, then no probs when out and about

B.Barris, when you install the Go app and 1st run it, it asks you if you want to run it as the default app, just say no or dont tick the box, then it will ask every time, its always best this way, least if theres an issue in the future, you can rule out a USB connection issue. For no you can go in to apps, then default apps and clear the defaults, saves reinstalling it again

Thanks for the information Bashy! As I mentioned, I have not upgraded either the app or the firmware in almost 2-3 years, so my system is not going anywhere near an internet. I see all the ESC errors, no video, won't start, etc., and came to the conclusion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do not use a lot of the newer features anyway. I haven't used all the ones I have! I just like to fly and do some aerial cinematography/photography.
PLEASE NOTE! I am not recommending that people don't update. I am just saying that FOR ME, this is the better way to go.

kind regards,
Barney

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-3-27 00:49
Barney, the login is required for the first flight. If you have logged in at home, keep the status and do not log out, the drone still fly well even if you are in remote areas.

Thanks DJI Susan. I must have logged in several years ago, or it was not required. I am not having any problems. Thus the reason I don't do updates.

Barney

Barney:  I'm usually a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" guy regarding firmware, but a month ago I was getting a forced landing after ~30s of flying, so that's why I upgraded.  I wish I hadn't, but I think it's too late now.

Bashy:  I tried not to make GO the default app, but when I did that the drone wouldn't connect to the camera.

We are looking at whether we can get around the issue by upgrading the app with the latest SDK.  With the P4 I don't seem to have this problem.  Yet.

b barris Posted at 2018-3-27 14:34
Barney:  I'm usually a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" guy regarding firmware, but a month ago I was getting a forced landing after ~30s of flying, so that's why I upgraded.  I wish I hadn't, but I think it's too late now.

Bashy:  I tried not to make GO the default app, but when I did that the drone wouldn't connect to the camera.

That does not make sense, probably just a coincidence cause to make any app default has no bearing on how that app works, it just tells Android or IOS which app to start when its sensing the controller, nothing else, well, nothing that im aware of...