DJI and Android

cactus683 · Jun 14, 2017

So sick of going out to get good footage and the app always crashes.Cant have no smooth day of filming with android

rstekeur · Jun 14, 2017

Same way I felt, is as much as I dislike IOS I now have a Mini 4 and a Air 2

flyNfrank · Jun 14, 2017

cactus683 said:
So sick of going out to get good footage and the app always crashes.Cant have no smooth day of filming with android

Have you tried comparing your setup with others that have the same device that you have?

Juan M Salazar · Jun 14, 2017

I used to fly my mavic with a samsun S6 and it crashed few times, I got an ipad mini 4 (it is the only apple product that I have) and it runs much better, can fly further away without loosing signal (do not know why). Still the application stopped running once a week ago but I restarted it and picked up again without further problems.

willhay555 · Jun 14, 2017

Sony Z3
Android.
Nearly one hundred flights.
Not one issue that wasn't of my own making.

Londonpilot · Jun 14, 2017

The only issue I have on Android is my phone HTC 10 gets pretty hot other than that never had a app crash. Just don't use cheap hardware, Mavic isn't cheap so why use cheap phone?

Johnmcl7 · Jun 14, 2017

Londonpilot said:
The only issue I have on Android is my phone HTC 10 gets pretty hot other than that never had a app crash. Just don't use cheap hardware, Mavic isn't cheap so why use cheap phone?

It's nothing to do with the cost of the phone - if anything more recent expensive Android flagship devices with Android v7 are less likely to run DJI Go well (the Samsung S8 is one of the most expensive Android devices and has various issues with the app) while some of the older, cheaper Android devices run with less issues. There's so little consistency with Android performance I would fully expect others with the HTC 10 to have issues as I regularly see people with the same phones and OS versions having very different experiences. The most reliable device with DJI Go for me has been my four year old Sony Z Ultra running on the old Snapdragon 800.

John

doccy · Jun 14, 2017

Motorola moto X here.

I like the phone - but loads of crashes of the app

Londonpilot · Jun 14, 2017

Johnmcl7 said:
It's nothing to do with the cost of the phone - if anything more recent expensive Android flagship devices with Android v7 are less likely to run DJI Go well (the Samsung S8 is one of the most expensive Android devices and has various issues with the app) while some of the older, cheaper Android devices run with less issues. There's so little consistency with Android performance I would fully expect others with the HTC 10 to have issues as I regularly see people with the same phones and OS versions having very different experiences. The most reliable device with DJI Go for me has been my four year old Sony Z Ultra running on the old Snapdragon 800.

John

I agree with you that there is little consistency on the Android platform. I'm only speaking from my experience with it and it has been faultless to date. I think it boils down to the amount of bloat running on the device interfering with DJI Go and HTC and Sony have very clean OS's that are almost as close to Android stock as you can get. From my short time on this forum I've noticed hardly any people with Nexus, Sony or HTC phones complaining of app crashes, mainly Samsung or cheaper alternatives.

Also I believe the cost of the device does have a big factor in how well it works as in screen quality, processing power all helps at the end of the day. After all I thought that was a big selling point of the Mavic being able to update your hardware to enhance your flying experience just by hooking up a better device. Just my 2 cents.

Johnmcl7 · Jun 14, 2017

Londonpilot said:
Also I believe the cost of the device does have a big factor in how well it works as in screen quality, processing power all helps at the end of the day. After all I thought that was a big selling point of the Mavic being able to update your hardware to enhance your flying experience just by hooking up a better device. Just my 2 cents.

That's not the case at all though with the DJI software - it generally works better with lower performance hardware and older operating systems, one of the problems that occurs with the Galaxy S8 is that the software doesn't like the high screen resolution and may not start without a workaround. If you look at the official compatibility list, you'll notice there's very few recent phones:

Android: Samsung S7 edge, Samsung S7, Samsung S6, Samsung S5, Samsung NOTE4, Samsung NOTE3, Samsung tabs 705c, Ascend Mate 9, Ascend Mate 7, Huawei Honor 8, Huawei P8 Max, Vivo X7, Xiaomi 5, MI 3, Google Nexus 6p, Nexus 9, Google Nexus 7 II, LG V20, Sony Xperia Z3, Smartisan T1.

Worse yet the devices with the highest performance in that list (the S7's and the LG V20) are known not to work well with the Mavic, the V20 in particular is highly unstable. Although there's few devices that work consistently with the Mavic, at the moment older Snapdragon 800-805 devices (much slower than the current Snapdragon 821's and 835's) running Android v5 or v6 seem the best bet or the Shield K1 running Nvidia's custom silicon but again on Android v6, not v7 which can be problematic.

What you've said in general makes sense but it just doesn't apply to DJI Go and the Mavic, while it doesn't work well on very low performance devices, most of the app crashes and instability are not a result of low performance hardware. After trying out a few devices, the software runs best on my oldest and slowest device and it's unusable on my fastest and most up to date one.

While there is little consistency with what Android devices work well with the DJI software, it's definitely not the case that investing in a more expensive device guarantees better performance as in some cases it can be quite a bit worse. For those wanting a reliable device for the Mavic, Apple is the way to go as much as I dislike to admit that it's the truth.

John

cactus683 · Jun 14, 2017

Londonpilot said:
The only issue I have on Android is my phone HTC 10 gets pretty hot other than that never had a app crash. Just don't use cheap hardware, Mavic isn't cheap so why use cheap phone?

I use the galaxy s7 edge,not a cheap phone.

Londonpilot · Jun 14, 2017

Johnmcl7 said:
That's not the case at all though with the DJI software - it generally works better with lower performance hardware and older operating systems, one of the problems that occurs with the Galaxy S8 is that the software doesn't like the high screen resolution and may not start without a workaround. If you look at the official compatibility list, you'll notice there's very few recent phones:

Worse yet the devices with the highest performance in that list (the S7's and the LG V20) are known not to work well with the Mavic, the V20 in particular is highly unstable. Although there's few devices that work consistently with the Mavic, at the moment older Snapdragon 800-805 devices (much slower than the current Snapdragon 821's and 835's) running Android v5 or v6 seem the best bet or the Shield K1 running Nvidia's custom silicon but again on Android v6, not v7 which can be problematic.

What you've said in general makes sense but it just doesn't apply to DJI Go and the Mavic, while it doesn't work well on very low performance devices, most of the app crashes and instability are not a result of low performance hardware. After trying out a few devices, the software runs best on my oldest and slowest device and it's unusable on my fastest and most up to date one.

While there is little consistency with what Android devices work well with the DJI software, it's definitely not the case that investing in a more expensive device guarantees better performance as in some cases it can be quite a bit worse. For those wanting a reliable device for the Mavic, Apple is the way to go as much as I dislike to admit that it's the truth.

John

I can't really agree because I don't keep my old Android devices around to test nor would I. I have tested it on a Sony Z5 premium, htc10 and iPhone6 and I haven't experienced app crash. Again I'm speaking from my little experience of owning the Mavic and you sound more experienced than me, you may have owned other DJI products in the past and had app crashes so I can't really argue the point. It is interesting though but my feelings tell me that good hardware and a clean OS will generally lead to an issue free experience. I think we can all agree that no matter the hardware/OS people will have problems mainly due to not keeping their devices up to date or clutter free.

Kilrah · Jun 14, 2017

The S7 tends to grow increasingly wonky and unstable over time with the incremental Samsung system updates. Recently mine started misbehaving, DJI GO not working correctly was one thing but only one of them, several other apps also behaving strange and huge battery drain. Full firmware reinstall and factory restore from the Smart Sync app cured it all, no more battery issues and DJI apps work fine again.

With my phone that I pretty much dedicate to DJI stuff (Huawei Mate 8) I never had a hiccup even through updates.

Londonpilot · Jun 14, 2017

cactus683 said:
I use the galaxy s7 edge,not a cheap phone.

Agreed S7 isn't a cheap phone but Samsung is synonymous for having plenty of bloatware installed. The S7 has great hardware so only thing left to fault is software and like John says the compatibility of DJI Go and Android.

Domagoj · Jun 14, 2017

I had often dji app crashes or freezing on my samsung s7e. But after the latest update of dji go app, i had all 130 minutes of flying wihout any problems. My s7e is on the latest version of android too.

Johnmcl7 · Jun 14, 2017

Londonpilot said:
I can't really agree because I don't keep my old Android devices around to test nor would I. I have tested it on a Sony Z5 premium, htc10 and iPhone6 and I haven't experienced app crash. Again I'm speaking from my little experience of owning the Mavic and you sound more experienced than me, you may have owned other DJI products in the past and had app crashes so I can't really argue the point. It is interesting though but my feelings tell me that good hardware and a clean OS will generally lead to an issue free experience. I think we can all agree that no matter the hardware/OS people will have problems mainly due to not keeping their devices up to date or clutter free.

Your feelings as I've repeatedly explained are not correct, it's great it works on a couple of your devices but really don't have to look far to see Android devices have a lot of problems and the ones that have the most problems are the new, high end devices ( - nearly half the reviews on the Play store are one star for the software. Also while it works for your HTC 10, it's entirely possible it doesn't work on another as I know people with an identical Z Ultra to mine but the software repeatedly crashes.

The stability of the application is nothing to do with how good or bad the hardware is, devices with insufficient hardware have different symptoms (lagging playback, distorted screen etc.) In general yes, buying a newer better device is usually better option but advising people to buy a better, newer phone for DJi GO to get a more stable experience is simply wrong as it's just not the case - their performance is inconsistent and DJI themselves do not officially support the HTC 10, the Samsung Galaxy S8/Plus nor the LG G6. There's no Android devices I would recommend for those wanting a stable crash-free experience but if pushed, I wouldn't go for a current v7 device.

It's frustrating all round given DJI use Android for their own tablets (like the device on the P4P+) so there's really no excuse.

John

Oglo · Jun 14, 2017

This is from a previous post of mine, it may help some:

Maybe you are already doing it, but I do the following -

# In Android control panel(settings), go to battery settings and turn on battery optimisation of all apps, this is designed to extend battery by killing background apps starting up, optimising/killing them. Optimise all apps, but then un-optimise DJI GO. It has the advantage of killing unnecessary background apps starting up while you are flying. You only have to do this once, checking occasionally that new apps or updates haven't changed this setting.
Before each flight session:
# In Android control panel go to Storage, select the internal storage, and clean/delete cache. * Do this before caching your satellite view (if using) in DJI GO4 if on a WiFi only tablet.
# Always run in airplane mode. Explicitly turn off WiFi & cell data as well.
# Get an App task killer like AVG, always kill as many/all apps before starting DJI Go.(make sure you don't set off a scan while doing this)
# Close every open App.(this is different to killing apps)
# Turn on GPS after doing above.
# once your phone is clean of other apps and empty cache, start up RC then DJI GO.

Good luck

I also have an ipad mini and Samsung S2. I much prefer the S2 for a myriad of reasons. Ipad is OK for GO4, but it feels like I am hamstrung doing anything but simple stuff, it's like trying to ride a horse with one hand tied behind your back. For all other things Android leaves iOS for dead.

EDIT: I've realised the above "battery optimise" info is done a different way on my Samsung S2. I use the below steps running a couple of hundred apps on it and it seems solid with GO4.
#in the Samsung "smart manager" app you can do most of the previous steps - clean cache, kill apps etc.
# PLUS in the app go into the 'battery' tab (click on it)
# option "app optimisation"
# option "detail"
# "more", "edit" select all, and set to "Always power optimising".
# select GO4 (Litchi, DroneHarmony and other important apps) and set it back to either Never, or the Automatically. I use Never for GO4, Litchi, a few others I set to Auto.....
My belief is it kills other apps as they start up in the bg while running GO4, which may be why GO4 disconnects mid flight. Try it, you've got nothing to lose. Other phones may have different ways of doing the above.
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