More discussion--bound drone

[mavic3usa]

DJI has no need to get involved with Account binding. It is Simple to Do and if you are the owner you have this information readily available. Pretty Airtight.

You are using the word "owner" loosely. DJI does not establish ownership of these drones. Logging in and binding is not "ownership." Legally, this is personal property and for the most part, a bill of sale or simple possession is enough to prove the drone is yours especially in the absence of anything to refute it. There is no title involved with this drone and there is no legal transaction in order to transfer it. For DJI to establish a different level of "ownership" and then set parameters based on it is nonsense and will likely one day ultimately leave them (or the seller) liable from a civil perspective unless they come up with a more robust remedy.

Ask the cellphone carriers what happened when they used to lock down phones and "never" unlock them. Please don't use the Apple model because they got it right. DJI should take a page.

 

[Cafguy]

You are using the word "owner" loosely. DJI does not establish ownership of these drones. Logging in and binding is not "ownership." Legally, this is personal property and for the most part, a bill of sale or simple possession is enough to prove the drone is yours especially in the absence of anything to refute it. There is no title involved with this drone and there is no legal transaction in order to transfer it. For DJI to establish a different level of "ownership" and then set parameters based on it is nonsense and will likely one day ultimately leave them liable from a civil perspective unless they come up with a more robust remedy.

True I meant to say someone Who has the Drone and the Account information. lol I suppose with that info If DJI even cared they would count you as the owner. I think its sort of like buying a mower and then calling the maker to fill out your warranty card......You gotta pen, and the numbers are on the box except for the one you should have written down somewhere. Its one of DJI's many ways of saying Thank you for your purchase but read the manual and don't call us for every little thing.
I would say DJI took care of this by telling you that the Drone is bound to your account info in the terms of sale.

 

[flflyer]

True I meant to say someone Who has the Drone and the Account information. lol I suppose with that info If DJI even cared they would count you as the owner. I think its sort of like buying a mower and then calling the maker to fill out your warranty card......You gotta pen, and the numbers are on the box except for the one you should have written down somewhere. Its one of DJI's many ways of saying Thank you for your purchase but read the manual and don't call us for every little thing.
I would say DJI took care of this by telling you that the Drone is bound to your account info in the terms of sale.

Nothing that I have ever bought or sold does not have a provision to transfer ownership controlled by the manufacturer. it protects nobody but DJI. All I am saying that after the person, in possession of the drone notifies DJI that they have tried, but for whatever reason is unable to contact the person who bound the drone, DJI has verified, by serial number that they have not paid any claims for flyaway or whatever, and DJI has tried, with the information only they have, without any response from the person who bound the drone, they should wait a reasonable period of time and then unbind the drone so it can be used by the person in possession.

 

[old man mavic]

DJI dont care who ownes the drone,once it is purchased ,they only care about who it is registered too,
and that is simply because, then they have the ability, to prevent the drone from being flown by anyone but the registered keeper who activated it on first startup ,it is up to the purchaser of a used drone to check,that the drone has been unbound not DJI

 

[flflyer]

DJI dont care who ownes the drone,once it is purchased ,they only care about who it is registered too,
and that is simply because, then they have the ability, to prevent the drone from being flown by anyone but the registered keeper who activated it on first startup ,it is up to the purchaser of a used drone to check,that the drone has been unbound not DJI

But they do care and for no good reason. It is none of their business who bought or sold the aircraft after the warranty or DjI Care Refresh has ended. If a person dies or otherwise cannot release the bound drone it is dead for no good reason. This not registration but rather 100% control that DJI has built into their drones. Make a provision for changing or releasing the drone to a new owner, assuming no claims have been made by the registered owner.

 

[mavic3usa]

I predict the DJI binding process will go away and is replaced with something more suitable and workable. Perhaps someone thought it was a good idea when it was first implemented to protect the company but DJI is usually a smart company and learns to pivot.

Same with the auto-logoff fiasco; they'll figure it out. Hope they do so before they launch their next smart controller, you know "smart" as in able to be connected and binded with *multiple* drones.

 

[flflyer]

I predict the DJI binding process will go away and is replaced with something more suitable and workable. Perhaps someone thought it was a good idea when it was first implemented to protect the company but DJI is usually a smart company and learns to pivot.

Same with the auto-logoff fiasco; they'll figure it out. Hope they do so before they launch their next smart controller, you know "smart" as in able to be connected and binded with *multiple* drones.

Now this makes more sense. DJI should not make it so you cannot transfer your drone to someone without them releasing it. People die, people change emails, people do a variety of thing that make this a bad system for DJI drone owners.

 

[Cafguy]

Perhaps they could ask you to provide a word that you have agreed on before hand? perhaps once that word is established you or a loved one could write it down and keep it somewhere handy. Then only you know whats going on with your Drone??
and then if you ever sold it you could give that word to the next guy and with your word The new guy could go into the settings and change the word..................................................................Nevermind.

 

[flflyer]

Perhaps they could ask you to provide a word that you have agreed on before hand? perhaps once that word is established you or a loved one could write it down and keep it somewhere handy. Then only you know whats going on with your Drone??
and then if you ever sold it you could give that word to the next guy and with your word The new guy could go into the settings and change the word..................................................................Nevermind.

The point is, this is not needed by the person who registered it or DJI if no claims for flyaway or any other warranty in which the the drone was replaced by DJI but not returned to them. It makes no sense to kill an otherwise good drone for some paperwork restriction.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Only number 2 is a valid reason. DJI knows from the serial number if they have replaced the drone due to a flyway or for any other reason. Once they have determined that a warranty claim has not been paid on the drone and a reasonable time has passed since someone reported the problem to them, coupled with DJI trying to contact the person the drone is bound to, they should release it to the person who proves they are the new owner.

Glad you think so but from experimentation reason 1) is a valid reason. However please continue to believe as you want.

 

[flflyer]

Glad you think so but from experimentation reason 1) is a valid reason. However please continue to believe as you want.

How did you discover "from experimentation" that #1 is a valid reason? If someone is going to steal your drone they, more than likely, have stolen your controller also, so no problem for them to fly. At this point do you call DJI and have it disabled or what? I did not see any provision for doing this by DJI. So, it offers you no protection. DJI has now locked the drone so that, unless you recover the drone, and again call DJI to unlock it, so you can fly the drone again. Maybe DJI deleted the number after they killed the drone and then even you could not reactivate it. So story, to the point, it is not something DJI should be involved in.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

How did you discover "from experimentation" that #1 is a valid reason? If someone is going to steal your drone they, more than likely, have stolen your controller also, so no problem for them to fly. At this point do you call DJI and have it disabled or what? I did not see any provision for doing this by DJI. So, it offers you no protection. DJI has now locked the drone so that, unless you recover the drone, and again call DJI to unlock it, so you can fly the drone again. Maybe DJI deleted the number after they killed the drone and then even you could not reactivate it. So story, to the point, it is not something DJI should be involved in.

It's not difficuly to imagine what is required.
I simply used a different DJI account to attempt to fly the drone....as a thief would have to do either immediately whe the drone is flown via a phone or, if the drone was stolen with a logged in smart controller, the thief may/will if the app time-out logs out.
I also tried a different controller ...... as a thief might do, and was unable to fly the drone although I am, annoyingly, currently unable to replicate the latter grounding..
However if you google the subject I think you will find anecdotal evidence of a bound drone being grounded when an attempt is made to fly the drone using a different DJI account.

 

[mavic3usa]

wow, you guys talk about this binding process as if the thief is in any way impacted by it. the only people getting hurt by the dji binding process are honest, innocent aftermarket buyers who are not smart enough to figure out the dji super secret binding process. not a single thief has been deterred from selling a broken drone to an unsuspecting victim. this is not true theft deterrent, this is fake and i'm not sure why we are still talking about it as such when we all know the binding process is implemented (with massive side effects) solely in conjunction with dji care refresh and the fly away service. what is the point of this? none of us are thieves but really?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

dji super secret binding process.

Come off it, it is in no way super secret, there are loads of threads started by people who have been caught out by it. Which, incidentally, makes it fairly easy to discover if a potential buyer does a reasonable amount of research, as is sensible to do, before they buy the drone.

Case in point, early fly app users were caught out by the need for a 64 bit phone.
Because of threads about the subject I realised I needed a 'new' phone and it arrived before the Mavic Mini did.

 

[mavic3usa]

Come off it, it is in no way super secret, there are loads of threads started by people who have been caught out by it. Which, incidentally, makes it fairly easy to discover if a potential buyer does a reasonable amount of research, as is sensible to do, before they buy the drone.

Case in point, early fly app users were caught out by the need for a 64 bit phone.
Because of threads about the subject I realised I needed a 'new' phone and it arrived before the Mavic Mini did.

By super secret I mean DJI won't give anyone a straight answer to what they need to do to overcome the process. All they tell you is we will reach out and if you never hear from us again, too bad....who does that? There is no other product on the market (which has no personal information) that does this....none. No other drone manufacturer does it either...because it's silly. Send me the link to the non-forum official DJI instructions for what you need to do if you receive a drone which has been locked down; something other than 1-800-CALL-DJI.

DJI does their best to let you know what type of equipment you need to be compatible; I'm not sure how much better than they explain it. And you will find out right away *before* you make your purchase. People instintively know when you buy advanced electronics, you need to know about phone/computer/app specs if you plan to introduce something from the *outside.* Little did they know the biggest trap lies on the *inside.* In most cases, it's impossible to find out if your drone is improperly binded beforehand. If the process was so robust then why doesn't the binding automatically unlock the day the flyaway service is terminated? Why does a drone remain locked "forever?" DJI is not doing their best to explain it, if they plan to keep it then this can be *much* improved. They shouldn't depend on other DJI pilots to explain it away by calling it a "theft deterrent device."

If you don't take out DJI care refresh (probably more than 75% of buyers) then this process means nothing to you. Why anyone would think this is a well-known process because you can find it widely complained about *after* the disaster on DJI specific internet boards makes no sense. That last thing the aftermarket drone business needs is dealing with lockout problems which have nothing to do with anything flying, droning, piloting, and photographing. Research alone is not enough to cure this stupidity, just ask those in the threads how much research they performed on drones before they came crawling to the forums looking for a miracle only to be told they have a paperweight. Although I have heard small signs that DJI may have relaxed their policy a bit...but who knows for sure; there's no public process.

The photography camera groups with their Sony and Canon and Nikon cameras would never put up with this; getting a nice camera body at a good price only to find out it's all been disabled? That's because the people who run those companies are smarter than DJI on this topic. DJI did this for themselves and they didn't bother to explain it. Put a "I sold my drone" button on the drone so you tap it once, put in your password, all done. Problem solved. Then the word can go out when you buy a DJI drone, have the seller tap the button which they probably wouldn't mind because nearly almost all of this activity is non-nefarious. It becomes a problem because it's poorly documented, poorly explained, and not well known that you just can't throw the equipment in a box, ship it off, and never worry about it again.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

By super secret I mean DJI won't give anyone a straight answer to what they need to do to overcome the process.

Perhaps you should type what you mean and not bury it in statements that read as something entirely different.

I am aware that DJI are loathe to give straight answers to many questions but what more can they say other than the original owne/binder is, in general, the only person that can unbind the drone and that statement has been made many, many times.