Go4 crash on SC leads to disconnect; happy ending

[Paci Fista]

Currently in Africa, near the Indian Ocean. Yesterday my Mavic 2 Pro suddenly lost contact with my SmartController. It was well within range, no obstacles or warning signs of a disconnect. Suddenly the drone is no longer there on the screen, the visual goes to BW... The RTH does not kick in, it is over open water... I try hitting the RTH button and that gives me an Android message 'Go4 stopped working, wait or close the app ?'. I wait, several times. Strangely enough, the green LED ('connected') stays on throughout. Eventually I assume the drone has been brought down by a birdstrike (a flock of swifts was nearby) or by a catapult from the illegal moonshine brewer installations I was observing in the mangrove fields (see pic below). So I choose to 'close the app'. Just as I am turning around to reluctantly go back inside the house, the Go4 starts up again and - lo and behold - the icons all lit up, the visual comes back: the drone has been hovering at the same spot the whole time ! With a battery around 50 % I quickly bring it back and count my blessings.
My noob conclusion is that an android stack overload disabled the Go4 app, disabling the app until I closed it and it started working properly again. An indicator would be that the internal storage only has 1 Gb of the 12 Gb remaining. Does Android free memory if you have been playing around with the editor app, projecting on the HDMI and such ?
So, my questions to the forum:
1. is this a frequent occurrence ?
2. what is a proper procedure to make sure the SC android O/S has enough RAM and internal storage available. To be done every few weeks or before each flight ?
3. is it correct to assume that if there is a 'disconnect', but the connection LED is green, one should restart the Go4 app and it solves the problem ?
4. I happened to be hovering at the time of the app crash. If the drone had been moving, would it have continued moving ?
5. I attach the flight records from the SC, they seem to be encrypted. Anyone interested to see what happened and how long the disconnect lasted ? (seemed like hours)
6. for the (ex) military in the forum, what do you advise as a safe altitude for e.g. stone-throwing or catapult projectiles ?

Thank you for your interest and assistance. Below is what I thought to be the last picture from my beloved bird:

 

[new2mavic]

3. is it correct to assume that if there is a 'disconnect', but the connection LED is green, one should restart the Go4 app and it solves the problem ?

SC is basically a RC + smart phone ( with relatively low processing power unfortunately ). There are two types of "disconnect". (1) between the RC and the craft, ie, the radio connection is broken and (2) between the RC and the smart phone. In case (1), the craft will do what it is programmed to in case the control signal is lost. Typically RTH will be initiated.

Your case is (2). You can still control the craft by moving the sticks. What you have lost are just the video feed and other controls that's only available on the GO app interface. Yes, you can re-start the GO app and bring things back to normal while the craft is in flight.

4. I happened to be hovering at the time of the app crash. If the drone had been moving, would it have continued moving ?

The craft will just behave as if everythings are connected. If it's in non-intelligent flight modes and you release all the sticks, the craft will just hover there. If you keep the stick input, e.g, throttle up, it will continue to ascend. If it is in some intelligent flight modes, it will continue to do what it is supposed to in that flight mode, e.g. tracking an object.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

Would having a 1tb SD card in the SC help? I just ordered one for the SC, hoping it helps out on the storage issues the OP said

 

[Paci Fista]

Would having a 1tb SD card in the SC help? I just ordered one for the SC, hoping it helps out on the storage issues the OP said

I have a 128 Gb card in there, see below. There seems to be an issue inside the Internal shared storage of the SC. Some applications apparently need to have their files there and not on the (removable) SD card. I poked around a bit and could free up some space (cached jpg and mp4 mostly) but there were notably some large (> 1 Gb) .sig files to do with DJI encryption.

 

[E90RAW]

Currently in Africa, near the Indian Ocean. Yesterday my Mavic 2 Pro suddenly lost contact with my SmartController. It was well within range, no obstacles or warning signs of a disconnect. Suddenly the drone is no longer there on the screen, the visual goes to BW... The RTH does not kick in, it is over open water... I try hitting the RTH button and that gives me an Android message 'Go4 stopped working, wait or close the app ?'. I wait, several times. Strangely enough, the green LED ('connected') stays on throughout. Eventually I assume the drone has been brought down by a birdstrike (a flock of swifts was nearby) or by a catapult from the illegal moonshine brewer installations I was observing in the mangrove fields (see pic below). So I choose to 'close the app'. Just as I am turning around to reluctantly go back inside the house, the Go4 starts up again and - lo and behold - the icons all lit up, the visual comes back: the drone has been hovering at the same spot the whole time ! With a battery around 50 % I quickly bring it back and count my blessings.
My noob conclusion is that an android stack overload disabled the Go4 app, disabling the app until I closed it and it started working properly again. An indicator would be that the internal storage only has 1 Gb of the 12 Gb remaining. Does Android free memory if you have been playing around with the editor app, projecting on the HDMI and such ?
So, my questions to the forum:
1. is this a frequent occurrence ?
2. what is a proper procedure to make sure the SC android O/S has enough RAM and internal storage available. To be done every few weeks or before each flight ?
3. is it correct to assume that if there is a 'disconnect', but the connection LED is green, one should restart the Go4 app and it solves the problem ?
4. I happened to be hovering at the time of the app crash. If the drone had been moving, would it have continued moving ?
5. I attach the flight records from the SC, they seem to be encrypted. Anyone interested to see what happened and how long the disconnect lasted ? (seemed like hours)
6. for the (ex) military in the forum, what do you advise as a safe altitude for e.g. stone-throwing or catapult projectiles ?

Thank you for your interest and assistance. Below is what I thought to be the last picture from my beloved bird:View attachment 95694

Have had the same thing occur 2-3 times. I have two SC but it has only occurred with the first one I purchased. I just hit the back button and re enter the device and all is good in the world. My SD card (128) may have been full looking back, but not entirely sure about that. Wish I could add more to this discussion.