After 34 flights and latest firmware updates my mini did not respond to RTH and slowly lost altitude and landed in the bay.
Does DJI offer any discounted replacement drone for loss of drone due to faulty software or hardware?
Has anyone else had this issue?
I can download a flight log if anyone would like to see it.
I plan on contacting DJI tomorrow since it's off hours now.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Wow , i am starting to worry about mavic mini. There are so many reported cases of the drone loosing altitude ( sometimes only a few metres but sometimes until crashing) that makes me thinking that the drone has got some trouble.

Could you Tell us a bit more about the envirement to isolate the issue?

Sorry for your loss!

Hello and good day WINGMAN01. I am sorry to know that your DJI Mavic Mini crash over water. This is not the experience that we want you to have with DJI. Since this unfortunate issue happened. Kindly please contact out DJI Support Team for further assistance at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav. We would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the incident and thank you for your understanding.

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 1-5 12:28
Wow , i am starting to worry about mavic mini. There are so many reported cases of the drone loosing altitude ( sometimes only a few metres but sometimes until crashing) that makes me thinking that the drone has got some trouble.

Could you Tell us a bit more about the envirement to isolate the issue?

SUnny nice day out with less than 10mph wind.  temperaures in the mid 60's farenheit.
Trying to find best file format to upload log.

DJI Stephen Posted at 1-5 12:34
Hello and good day WINGMAN01. I am sorry to know that your DJI Mavic Mini crash over water. This is not the experience that we want you to have with DJI. Since this unfortunate issue happened. Kindly please contact out DJI Support Team for further assistance at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav. We would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the incident and thank you for your understanding.

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-5 12:43
[view_image]

DJI Stephen Posted at 1-5 12:34
Hello and good day WINGMAN01. I am sorry to know that your DJI Mavic Mini crash over water. This is not the experience that we want you to have with DJI. Since this unfortunate issue happened. Kindly please contact out DJI Support Team for further assistance at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav. We would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the incident and thank you for your understanding.

Thank you,  I plan on contacting soon.

On the surface it looks like it used a lot of battery trying to climb to the RTH height you set (315 feet) while maintaining GPS position, then had very little juice left to even hold itself up, so down she went.  

Minnesota Posted at 1-5 15:32
On the surface it looks like it used a lot of battery trying to climb to the RTH height you set (315 feet) while maintaining GPS position, then had very little juice left to even hold itself up, so down she went.

It still had 53% battery when it lost altitude and over 7 volts.  The other wierd thing about the mini is that the RTH altitude randomly changes itself. I did change it to 315 becuase some reason it was over a 1000. Not the first time it did that and I'm not the only one to experience it change on it's own.

If you upload the flight log someone will look at it in more detail. in TXT format

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-5 12:44
Thank you,  I plan on contacting soon.

You are very much welcome WINGMAN01. Please keep us posted on the said issue for further assistance. Thank you.

Bigplumbs Posted at 1-6 08:23
If you upload the flight log someone will look at it in more detail. in TXT format

I will in a few hours when I think home from work. Thxs

Bigplumbs Posted at 1-6 08:23
If you upload the flight log someone will look at it in more detail. in TXT format

even in text it says file size too large

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 16:22
even in text it says file size too large

Upload it to dropbox or similar and post a link here and I'll have a look for you.

Labroides Posted at 1-6 16:35
Upload it to dropbox or similar and post a link here and I'll have a look for you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nr8cggrrxep9rjz/Jan-4th-2020-10-28AM-.txt?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nr8cggrrxep9rjz/Jan-4th-2020-10-28AM-.txt?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7sbbnl5nppqzul/Jan-4th-2020-10-28AM-Flight-Airdata.csv?dl=0

Labroides Posted at 1-6 16:35
Upload it to dropbox or similar and post a link here and I'll have a look for you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7sbbnl5nppqzul/Jan-4th-2020-10-28AM-Flight-Airdata.csv?dl=0

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 16:58
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7sbbnl5nppqzul/Jan-4th-2020-10-28AM-Flight-Airdata.csv?dl=0

Now if you can just post a dropbox link to your flight data instead of Airdata stuff, I'll be able to look into it for you.
What I need is a file with a name like:
DJIFlightRecord_2019-12-31_[20-58-39].txt

Labroides Posted at 1-6 17:08
Now if you can just post a dropbox link to your flight data instead of Airdata stuff, I'll be able to look into it for you.
What I need is a file with a name like:
DJIFlightRecord_2019-12-31_[20-58-39].txt

Okay I'll check

Labroides Posted at 1-6 17:08
Now if you can just post a dropbox link to your flight data instead of Airdata stuff, I'll be able to look into it for you.
What I need is a file with a name like:
DJIFlightRecord_2019-12-31_[20-58-39].txt

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ip7mfwwfl98iq76/DJIFlightRecord_2020-01-04_%5B10-27-16%5D.txt?dl=0

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 17:59
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ip7mfwwfl98iq76/DJIFlightRecord_2020-01-04_%5B10-27-16%5D.txt?dl=0

We're getting closer but not there yet.
This data is from a very short flight where you used auto take-off, which took the drone about 6 ft up.
It never got more than two feet away and you brought it back down after 30 seconds.

Can you find the .txt file with the latest date?

Lol.  Alright. 3rd time's a charm. I appreciate it

Labroides Posted at 1-6 18:43
We're getting closer but not there yet.
This data is from a very short flight where you used auto take-off, which took the drone about 6 ft up.
It never got more than two feet away and you brought it back down after 30 seconds.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tg0f0j2fwcvkmk3/DJIFlightRecord_2020-01-04_%5B10-28-07%5D.txt?dl=0

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 19:07
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tg0f0j2fwcvkmk3/DJIFlightRecord_2020-01-04_%5B10-28-07%5D.txt?dl=0

That's it.
I'll be back in a while with details but here's what (a short version of) the data looks like:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/F1XLCU56ADQBBKPXWAEP/

Labroides Posted at 1-6 19:20
That's it.
I'll be back in a while with details but here's what (a short version of) the data looks like:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/F1XLCU56ADQBBKPXWAEP/

Wow,   Thats pretty neat.  Just looke like crazy charaters to me thats why I did it with the other file formats!  Thxs!

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 19:23
Wow,   Thats pretty neat.  Just looke like crazy charaters to me thats why I did it with the other file formats!  Thxs!

Here's what I see in the flight data.
It's not pleasant but there's nothing in there to suggest any operator error or a problem with the wind.
It looks like the Mini didn't even put up a fight.


From 5:14.9 the drone was hovering at 72 feet and maintaining position with small pitch and roll numbers suggesting only a gentle wind.
You had flown out 3900 feet.

From 7:02.9 you were at 189 feet and in Sport Mode, full stick you could only fly NW and NE at 7-8 mph.
At full stick in Sport Mode the drone was only pitching to 15° (the specs suggest it should go to 30° in Sport Mode).
Around 7:20 (still at full stick) the speed was down to <2mph and the pitch angle as <3°.
From 7:14.6  to 7:21.5 the drone descended from 190 ft to 151 ft without and left stick input.

From 7:21.6 you gave it full left stick to climb but the descent continued until 7:34 when it stabilised.  (I can't see what stopped it).
At around 7:43 you flew full-stick in SPort Mode but the drone was again, very slow.1-5 mph and pitch <5°.
There is an uncommanded ascent from 7:52.2 with the drone climbing from 52 feet to 88 ft at 7:59.5 when you initiated RTH.
The drone climbed to 227 feet when you stopped the climb with the left stick and the drone commenced flying toward home very slowly.
It was descending as you had the left stick down.
At 8:37.8 you tried giving it some right stick to speed it up but it had no effect and speed remained <2 mph.
At 8:47.7 you stopped pushing the left stick down but the drone kept descending with the drone down below 80 feet and going further despite no stick input.
When it got to 44 ft at 8:56.7 you gave it full left stick to climb but it made no difference.
The descent continued till the data ended when the drone went kerplunk.

This is a very disturbing flight record and shows what should be an open and shut warranty claim.
The bad news is that I've seen a few similar incidents.

Definitely get on to DJI about this and feel free to copy my analysis.
They will need you to synch the data to upload it to their servers so they can see it.

Labroides Posted at 1-6 20:04
Here's what I see in the flight data.
It's not pleasant but there's nothing in there to suggest any operator error or a problem with the wind.
It looks like the Mini didn't even put up a fight.

I really apreciate you looking at the log.
I know that I could have done better with the RTH altitude setting..  Did not need to be over 300 feet.  However it some how changed itself to well over a 1,000 feet.  I'm glad I checked it.  I changed to 315 or so because I thought it was better then what it was set at.  I just wanted to set it at something lower than was it set itself too.  It is the second time it changed itself since I purchased the drone.
But yes you are absulutely correct.  It did not respond at all.  It acted a little off in the first place thats why I initiated RTH.  Thinking it woud help the issues hat I was having.
Battery was fine, weather was fine(gave me a warning about wind but it was about the nicest day out).
am new with drones but I've flown RC helicopters for years.  Much harder to fly than a drone.  Especially inverted and nose in.
Hopefully DJI will figure this out because it sounds like a common issue.  Thanks again for the analysis.

I've posted this a number of times, but here goes again:

Was the battery in the drone updated to the same firmware revision as the drone had?

I updated my mini, the RC, and my phone from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4 a few nights ago.  When I did the update to the drone, that automatically updated the battery that was in the drone at that time.  But that left my other two batteries with their older firmware (could have even been from before 1.0.3, since my drone updated to 1.0.3 when I first fired it up, and again, I did not update its batteries because I saw no indication that this was required.

Anyhow, when I flew with the two NON-Updated batteries, the drone did a very strange thing.

It flew normally up until the battery level got down to around 50%.  Then it suddenly descended to only 1 foot above the floor. (I was flying indoors, thankfully).  When this happened, no amount of up-stick with the left stick could get the drone to rise.  It hovered at 1 foot above the floor for the remainder of these flights.  I think ground effect is what allowed it to actually sort of hover, but had I been outside, this loss of power would have caused a crash or loss of the drone.

I later found out that you need to update the battery firmware any time you update the drone firmware.  So I have updated the other two batteries, and now the drone flies OK with those batteries, too.

Is it possible that you were flying with a battery that had not been updated to the same firmware revision as your drone had when you had this crash?  If what happened with my drone happened to yours, the effect would have been exactly what you saw.  I'm just lucky that I was unable to fly outdoors here due to the weather.  Otherwise, I probably would have lost my Mini, too.

I can probably find the flight logs for my two "non-updated battery" flights and upload them, but they have no GPS data because I was just flying in my office area.

Anyhow, I think these drones should always auto-check to make sure the battery firmware matches the drone firmware before they allow you to fly.  This seems like a serious problem.

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-6 20:37
I really apreciate you looking at the log.
I know that I could have done better with the RTH altitude setting..  Did not need to be over 300 feet.  However it some how changed itself to well over a 1,000 feet.  I'm glad I checked it.  I changed to 315 or so because I thought it was better then what it was set at.  I just wanted to set it at something lower than was it set itself too.  It is the second time it changed itself since I purchased the drone.
But yes you are absulutely correct.  It did not respond at all.  It acted a little off in the first place thats why I initiated RTH.  Thinking it woud help the issues hat I was having.

I feel you on this one, I made a post while ago about my mini acting weird. It auto changed RTH to 7m also the max one I could set was only 15m, basically I couldn't set the scale more than that, the things to be worse that all happened while i was loosing contact with my drone at not more than 50m distance and around 20m height. The other thing is, when i looked in the log of that flight the data of the RTH change to 7M was nowhere to be found.


Also few days ago my Mini descended 4 meters down  over the water without any warning. I was flying at around 20m hight. I remember holding the left stick up for like 3-4 seconds and after some time it went up again, but in the log that controller input was nowhere to be found.

I ALS was able to gain altitude manually when it descended the first time. However the last descent was unable to overcome with the controller.  Splash

Sigmo Posted at 1-6 20:52
I've posted this a number of times, but here goes again:

Was the battery in the drone updated to the same firmware revision as the drone had?

I only think that in battery was updated with the drone. I agree that it should prevent you from fluid UNL u he the latest firmware update for both the drone and the battery. I hope they get this figured out..

This is the issue that worries me most and makes me afraid to fly the Mini as it seems there is no way to prevent it. If you run out of luck and the Mini decides to do this, then that's that. Adding to that the fact that I purchased my Mini from NY and I'm now using it in Europe, I don't suppose the warranty process would be very straightforward...

Sigmo Posted at 1-6 20:52
I've posted this a number of times, but here goes again:

Was the battery in the drone updated to the same firmware revision as the drone had?

Same here: I had a drop of my drone and in the log I saw the same ESC Errors. Luckily the drone only dropped into snow..
However, for me it looks like I was using an non updated battery. So I believe I can confirm Sigmo's post here.

Ice_2k Posted at 1-7 00:38
This is the issue that worries me most and makes me afraid to fly the Mini as it seems there is no way to prevent it. If you run out of luck and the Mini decides to do this, then that's that. Adding to that the fact that I purchased my Mini from NY and I'm now using it in Europe, I don't suppose the warranty process would be very straightforward...

I wouldn't fly it until the next firmware update.
Hopefully they make this right from us.

DrohnenWalti Posted at 1-7 00:57
Same here: I had a drop of my drone and in the log I saw the same ESC Errors. Luckily the drone only dropped into snow..
However, for me it looks like I was using an non updated battery. So I believe I can confirm Sigmo's post here.

I believe Sigmo is on to something. Hopefully no one else losses Their drone into the ocean.
I wonder if a shark ate my drone yet

WINGMAN01 Posted at 1-7 02:59
I wouldn't fly it until the next firmware update.
Hopefully they make this right from us.

That's the problem. Nobody from DJI's side has at the very least acknowledged this issue, let alone tell us they're working on a fix. Every time somebody reports this, one of the DJI moderators asks him to try another location because maybe there was some interference. That's a horrible and very concerning answer to such a serious issue as being unable to maintain altitude.At the moment, I have no confidence that the next firmware update will address this issue.

New pilot here and I'm not at home to test.  If you inserted the non-updated batteries, would DJI Fly give you a prompt about an update available for the battery?

TooManyHobbies Posted at 1-7 06:16
New pilot here and I'm not at home to test.  If you inserted the non-updated batteries, would DJI Fly give you a prompt about an update available for the battery?

I believe only if you are connected to WiFi. Not sure though

TooManyHobbies Posted at 1-7 06:16
New pilot here and I'm not at home to test.  If you inserted the non-updated batteries, would DJI Fly give you a prompt about an update available for the battery?

Yes, but not in the Camera View (which is default). You have to go back clicking the "<" symbol on the screen (left of the flight mode). Some co-pilots reported that you might need to restart the App after inserting a new camera.
Hope this helps.