Second hand drone, can't unbind drone

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Regarding the research, I actually disagree, I did search for what you wrote too, in every similar search the whole first page is covered and I went over quite a lot of websites and all of them said the same, and none said anything about binding, I even checked that again after I figured out that I screwed up to make sure I'm not that stupid, but honestly NONE said anything about it. It only starts to show up when you look up for "unbound, unbind, binding" and similar keywords.

Just for reference try a google for
"dji bound to another account",
a subset of which is
another google "dji bound to another account site:mavicpilots.com"

Anyhow, finger crossed that Msinger is correct.


Just for the record, will the drone start it's motors and or fly?
Do you see any indication that the number of of flights will be limited?

 

[msacco]

That seems to be the case.

I guess you should return the drone to the seller since they sold you something you cannot use.

The thing is it wasn't really his fault...it was a cause of a mistake due to both of us being unaware.
He by barely using the drone and not being a very technical guy, and me just getting my first drone.

When I purchased the drone from him, both RC and drone were already connected to his account, he did not sign out before the purchase.
After getting the drone, I saw no reason for me to keep using his account, so I just wanted to sign out and create my own account, which then got me screwed(and once again, I think a warning should be displayed when trying to sign out of an account that's bound to a drone....).

So it wasn't really his fault, he sold me a perfectly fine drone, even though as far as I could research, it is the seller's responsibility to unbind it before selling, but as I said, he used it for just a few minutes and not very technical, so I don't expect him to know or understand that.

It could be just my fault as his, so I don't feel like I have an claim here against him.
It's an unfortunate situation, which I just hope DJI could help me resolve...

 

[msacco]

Just for reference try a google for
"dji bound to another account",
a subset of which is
another google "dji bound to another account site:mavicpilots.com"

Anyhow, finger crossed that Msinger is correct.


Just for the record, will the drone start it's motors and or fly?
Do you see any indication that the number of of flights will be limited?

Well as I said, when you actually search for that obviously you'll find it, but before I purchased the drone I had no clue about it, and only searched for second hand drone related tips and things to check for(blogs, threads, youtube), and really none said anything about it as far as I could see.

The drone does seem to start, but I only took it for a single short flight. I didn't see any indication of a limited number of flights(where should I if that were the case?), I do believe I could use the drone just fine without issues as far as I could see, but I just really want to have this thing resolved and have a 'clean' feeling of a new purchase and have this thing behind me, even though it might not make a difference necessarily, it just really bugs me...In the worst case, well I'll just use it as is, but it just feels less right, not sure if that makes any sense.

 

[retiredNH]

I'm sorry but this business of the seller setting up an account then forgetting the account name or password sounds so suspicious to me, especially in relation to a purchase of close to a grand.

Seems like someone is blowing smoke here...

 

[msacco]

I'm sorry but this business of the seller setting up an account then forgetting the account name or password sounds so suspicious to me, especially in relation to a purchase of close to a grand.

Seems like someone is blowing smoke here...

Did you read though?
The RC was connected to the account when he sold the drone to me, which means the only thing I had to do was unbind it(if only I would've known), you can say it's the sellers responsibility to do it, but as I said, he used it for just a few minutes and he's not technical at all, he had no idea about it, just like I didn't.
It's an unfortunate set of events, and the seller also talked with DJI on the phone for long time to try and help me with this, but it seems like DJI doesn't really care too much.

The only option I have to do is probably suck it up at this point. It sucks, but there's nothing me or the seller can do, and it's both of us at fault. I do think it's DJI's fault too due to lack of warning when signing out.

 

[AgentDuke]

I've seen similar cases like this in the DJI forum. It looks like DJI support waits a few days for the owner to respond. If they don't hear back, they unbind the drone on the owner's behalf.

DJI will NEVER, EVER unbind the drone on that user’s behalf - especially for a non-response. DJI simply does not care. Oh, that person needs to do is ignore you, and that drone is forever bricked from full capacity/operations. Can’t switch or add remotes. Can’t bind a RC-PRO co troller aftermarket or whatever. You can purchase care refresh, but I have heard they won’t honor it if you’re not the bound user. They’ll let you buy it but won’t honor it.

This is all from a support case over a month old. My previous user bound it and flew it for *TWO MINUTES* and less than 75’. But DJI won’t unbind it even though the previous account owner has never responded.

Also - DJI never validates the user’s email. So a user can create a false email, bind it, and forever brick that drone. Nobody will ever hear from them again.

Sell it. Return it. Because DJI won’t help you.

 

[Richard1970]

The previous seller should check his emails with the created Gmail account all information when he bound the drone will be there
I can't understand why he created a new Gmail account just for the drone then mysteriously forgot the Gmail account and password
I would give it them back get a refund and buy another

 

[msacco]

DJI will NEVER, EVER unbind the drone on that user’s behalf - especially for a non-response. DJI simply does not care. Oh, that person needs to do is ignore you, and that drone is forever bricked from full capacity/operations. Can’t switch or add remotes. Can’t bind a RC-PRO co troller aftermarket or whatever. You can purchase care refresh, but I have heard they won’t honor it if you’re not the bound user. They’ll let you buy it but won’t honor it.

This is all from a support case over a month old. My previous user bound it and flew it for *TWO MINUTES* and less than 75’. But DJI won’t unbind it even though the previous account owner has never responded.

Also - DJI never validates the user’s email. So a user can create a false email, bind it, and forever brick that drone. Nobody will ever hear from them again.

Sell it. Return it. Because DJI won’t help you.

Technically the last part of the conversation with their support was them asking me to provide the receipt of the drone.
Since both me and DJI called the seller so many times, he just started ignoring me, so I don't actually know if they could or would've done anything, but yeah...basically their support is a piece of crap. They talked to the seller multiple times via phone, but nothing helped.

I can't return it as I've mentioned here dozen of times already, when I purchased the drone the RC was connected to the account.
I can't sell it, because I'm not a piece of ****.
DJI doesn't help. I'm not entirely sure if it matters as I seems to be able to fly the drone with no issues, but it's just frustrating.

 

[msacco]

The previous seller should check his emails with the created Gmail account all information when he bound the drone will be there
I can't understand why he created a new Gmail account just for the drone then mysteriously forgot the Gmail account and password
I would give it them back get a refund and buy another

Basically, a friend who is more technical created the account and set up the drone for them as they didn't knew how to do that, that's all.

Can't give it back to them, mentioned too many times already why.

 

[Richard1970]

That's garbage the friend who set up the account should know how to unbind I smell a rat you should have demanded a refund as soon as the problem was flagged up

 

[msacco]

That's garbage the friend who set up the account should know how to unbind I smell a rat you should have demanded a refund as soon as the problem was flagged up

Seriously, do you guys not READ?
The RC was connected to the account that was bind to the drone.
Everything was sold working fine and well.

 

[AgentDuke]

Seriously, do you guys not READ?
The RC was connected to the account that was bind to the drone.
Everything was sold working fine and well.

The car may work - but you don’t get a new license plate, because you can’t register it in your name. You can’t easily resell it. And if only the steering wheel wears out (remote) you can only sell the car for parts. Forget driving it again.

The rant is basically against DJI and their policies on this - not that seller.

 

[msacco]

The car may work - but you don’t get a new license plate, because you can’t register it in your name. You can’t easily resell it. And if only the steering wheel wears out (remote) you can only sell the car for parts. Forget driving it again.

The rant is basically against DJI and their policies on this - not that seller.

Well I obviously agree with that rant, but some of the comments here are just incredibly stupid.
It was sold by a private person, not amazon, ebay, or anything like that, and he sold me a perfectly working drone, so I have no argument here against anyone pretty much.

It was his mistake for not unbinding the drone, and it was my mistake for not knowing that. You could argue that the seller should do that, or that the buyer shouldn't be stupid, but sadly that already happened.

As I've said before, I REALLY hate DJI for not writing anything. It's so easy!!!
"if the user is trying to sign out of an account that's bound to a drone, display a huge warning to make sure the user really wants to do that", it's really that simple.

On android phones for example, sometimes when you want to perform some action to grand permissions it forces you to wait 10 seconds and displays a confirmation with a message, I'm sure that would prevent such cases by 90% of the times, if there was any indication for that, I would've never done it obviously, but sadly I've never seen anything about that when I searched for things to do when buying a second hand drone.

So yeah, there's nothing that I can do really, I don't plan on selling it, so that's ok for now, in a few years...well that's the loss I'll have to suffer.
Someone did offer a fix for me by replacing the motherboard for around $350, so perhaps SOME loss could be saved, but....yeah I just really gave up on trying anything, it works with no issues, so I'll just think of today and cry when tomorrow arrives. **** DJI.

 

[AgentDuke]

Well I obviously agree with that rant, but some of the comments here are just incredibly stupid.
It was sold by a private person, not amazon, ebay, or anything like that, and he sold me a perfectly working drone, so I have no argument here against anyone pretty much.

It was his mistake for not unbinding the drone, and it was my mistake for not knowing that. You could argue that the seller should do that, or that the buyer shouldn't be stupid, but sadly that already happened.

As I've said before, I REALLY hate DJI for not writing anything. It's so easy!!!
"if the user is trying to sign out of an account that's bound to a drone, display a huge warning to make sure the user really wants to do that", it's really that simple.

On android phones for example, sometimes when you want to perform some action to grand permissions it forces you to wait 10 seconds and displays a confirmation with a message, I'm sure that would prevent such cases by 90% of the times, if there was any indication for that, I would've never done it obviously, but sadly I've never seen anything about that when I searched for things to do when buying a second hand drone.

So yeah, there's nothing that I can do really, I don't plan on selling it, so that's ok for now, in a few years...well that's the loss I'll have to suffer.
Someone did offer a fix for me by replacing the motherboard for around $350, so perhaps SOME loss could be saved, but....yeah I just really gave up on trying anything, it works with no issues, so I'll just think of today and cry when tomorrow arrives. **** DJI.

The reason DJI won’t do any of that is because they simply don’t care.

If they did, they’d start with validating email addresses when accts are created. Nope - they don’t even do that.

So if a user creates an account and login with a false email address, and binds the drone to it, that drone is bricked. I have about six DJI drones, but this experience has changed my views and my support for them.

 

[mobilehomer]

Sorry, dude, but you got ripped off. The drone was stolen. Of course it worked perfectly, it was still bound to the original account. When you signed out of that account it was locked out for any other account. DJI will not unlock it, if they would, they would be unlocking a lot of stolen drones. It is protection of a sort for the original owner.

 

[Richard1970]

When I log out and then back in I can use either my email address or phone number then put password in ,you can click forgot password which would allow you to change password
If you can ask you friend to do that see if you can unbind the account

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

As I've said before, I REALLY hate DJI for not writing anything. It's so easy!!!
"if the user is trying to sign out of an account that's bound to a drone, display a huge warning to make sure the user really wants to do that", it's really that simple.

I take your story to be true and I am aware that you have acknowledged that mistakes have been made but with regards to the above comment I have to say.

To me it seems a reasonable expectation that someone logging out of the account is going to be the owner of the account and that they know the details that allow them to log in again.
As such I see no real reason that it should be considered necessary to warn the person logging out that there is a risk since, normally, there should be no risk.

I would also consider it ABNORMAL for a screen device to be given to a new owner whilst it is still logged into the original owner's DJI account.
I see no reason why DJI should consider that a likely event, most folks are paranoid about security and would, I think, at least log out. There have been several threads from people asking what information-protection-steps they can, and should, take when selling a drone.
I bought a drone that came with the tablet that the previous owner had used with the drone, they factory reset the tablet.

Certainly I can see a case for saying that it should be highlighted to original owners and binders that there is a need to undo the bindings before selling a drone or returning a drone to a retailer but that may already be done.

 

[msinger]

When I log out and then back in I can use either my email address or phone number then put password in ,you can click forgot password which would allow you to change password
If you can ask you friend to do that see if you can unbind the account

The original owner claims he doesn't remember which Gmail email address he used for his DJI account. Without that, he won't be able to access his account.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

When I log out and then back in I can use either my email address or phone number then put password in ,you can click forgot password which would allow you to change password
If you can ask you friend to do that see if you can unbind the account

That's a very good point but what format does the phone number take?
I just tried my mobile number (which DJI might have) using the format that I would use to dial another phone in the UK and it came up "invalid number".

 

[msinger]

Basically, a friend who is more technical created the account and set up the drone for them as they didn't knew how to do that, that's all.

Not sure if you explored this option yet, but creating a Gmail account requires a valid phone number. And if someone forgets the Gmail email address, the account information can be retrieved by entering that phone number here.

When that Gmail account was created, it would have been created with a phone number owned (or at least accessible) by the seller or technical friend. Between the two of them, they should be able to easily get access to that Gmail account.