They stole my brand new Mavic :(

DroneBoyInc. · Dec 17, 2016

Hi everyone,

Had my Mavic just over 2 weeks now and it was stolen out of my truck last night in South Auckland, New Zealand.

Does anyone know if there is a way to track it? Is my account linked to my phone or the drone as well?

I'm absolutely gutted.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

whareable · Dec 17, 2016

I would contact DJI and see if they can somehow help

Loz · Dec 17, 2016

DroneBoyInc. said:
Hi everyone,

Had my Mavic just over 2 weeks now and it was stolen out of my truck last night in South Auckland, New Zealand.

Does anyone know if there is a way to track it? Is my account linked to my phone or the drone as well?

I'm absolutely gutted.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Sorry to hear this awful news, I hope they catch the thieves - won't the serial number be registered to either your name or the dealer you bought it from?

DroneBoyInc. · Dec 17, 2016

Loz said:
Sorry to hear this awful news, I hope they catch the thieves - won't the serial number be registered to either your name or the dealer you bought it from?

Thanks Loz, It really is an awful feeling, they got the whole lot apart from the box, id been flying it a few hours before and forgot to take it off the back seat that night.

Yeah I have the serial and I bought it from apple, I've dropped an email to DJI, Im hoping they can track it do something with it to help me recover it.

Andrejs · Dec 17, 2016

I suggest to try write them in online chat.
DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography
And there section: Online support

Hope you catch them!

Hilly · Dec 19, 2016

Oh that sucks mate. I hope you can get it back. What did DJI come back with, interested to know?

DroneBoyInc. · Dec 19, 2016

Hopefully, they're quite rare here where I am in New Zealand so hopefully will see it pop up somewhere !

Here's the reply they gave me.

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Logger · Dec 19, 2016

A bit of Chinglish there. I think she meant DJI have no means (not right) to locate the the drone itself. If who ever nicked it tires to fly it with DJIGo having installed it on their phone, there is a good chance their flights and location could end up in your DJIGo logbook if it syncs. I would be checking your Flight Records frequently to see if anything changes.

MavicKhan · Dec 19, 2016

I am so sorry to hear about this...I can imagine how sad you must be.

Was it at your around your areas of residence/work? Have you filled a complaint with the police?

It is unfortunate that DJI does not have some kind of optional device tracking, the same both Samsung and Apple do for their smartphones.

...now, that I think of it, although there was a step to input a name for my Mavic during the setup process in DJI Go, there were no further registration steps.

Was you registered with them? If so, how?

MK

chippie · Dec 19, 2016

Gutted for you!

At least DJI did say they can check against the s/n if the user uploads the files. I do not think it will appear in your logs as it will be a different login. I would contact DJI every couple of days and ask.

Hope this has a happy ending for you! Keep us in the loop.

Andrejs · Dec 19, 2016

I think this will be sold somewhere (ebay etc.) and after new guy will start using it and upload some data DJI must see activity after S/N.

JohnC · Dec 19, 2016

Its a long shot, but if you set up a Healthy Drones account and Sync your flights to it, it will also give you the hardware serial number of the drone, It might then be possible to ask Healthy Drones to keep an eye out for the hardware serial number in case the new 'owner' should start uploading files to the HD site, depends on how easy it would be for HD to code in your serial number, could be another feature they could add to the service

'Find my Drone' for missing or stolen drones.

Unfortunately the new 'owner' when they set up the aircraft all the previous flights don't sync, only the drone name will stay the same & whatever drone parameters that you had set.

I cant help thinking that its probably been stolen and will be used for some criminal activity, in the UK they were being used to fly phones and drugs into prisons!

Good luck!

J-Dub · Dec 19, 2016

Thieves Suck! Is there a way to hide a GPS tracker on the Mavic? Or does it need to be out in the open for signals???

Magicman · Dec 19, 2016

MavicKhan said:
It is unfortunate that DJI does not have some kind of optional device tracking, the same both Samsung and Apple do for their smartphones.

I was thinking the same thing, or maybe have the option to mate it to your phone so it can't fly without it or lock the Mavic to your account similar to what you can do with an Iphone. Won't necessarily stop them from being stolen but it would essentially make them useless to anyone else.

chippie · Dec 19, 2016

I agree it would be good if you could lock it to your account and if someone tried to enable it, it would recorded the location with DJI and you get an e-mail. Still have the issue then of persuading the police to follow up but if it is a case of burglary then they very well may do.

cjb_mavic · Dec 19, 2017

Sorry for your loss.. I recently went through the same situation. DJI will do nothing in this scenario, with or without future drone flight information. I attempted many, many, many times to get DJI to help me get my Mavic Pro back but was told that even with the serial number and future flight logs, they weren't in a position to help. Given that the perpetrator or whoever uses the drone next, will not have your phone to log in to the DJI app, they'll have to create a new account, which then places all flight logs under that account and DJI will not share this information with you. Why can't DJI see that one serial number is registered to two users and actually help? Not sure, maybe serial numbers don't have a direct link with user accounts.. or this information is stored upon registration within the app.

I've been told that renters insurance would have covered the stolen drone (odd but after researching, I found this to be true). I suppose you could take this route, purchase drone insurance, or go all out and buy some sort of tracker..

I just purchased a new Mavic and renters insurance.. and plan to never hide my keys beneath my car while surfing again

Youser · Dec 19, 2017

Sorry for your loss.

If the drone is sold to someone unknowning that it's stolen, they haven't really done anything wrong.

I'd be gutted if I bought a used Mavic and then it was blocked and unable to fly.

If DJI started to block drones, it'd kill the 'used drone' market.

For data protection, they wouldn't share anyone else's flight logs even if it's from the same serial number.

If you do get another drone, I'd look at insurance options that will cover lost/stolen.

microlinux · Dec 19, 2017

No third party is going to provide information without a subpoena in these situations, unfortunately.

Brojon · Dec 19, 2017

JohnC said:
Its a long shot, but if you set up a Healthy Drones account and Sync your flights to it, it will also give you the hardware serial number of the drone, It might then be possible to ask Healthy Drones to keep an eye out for the hardware serial number in case the new 'owner' should start uploading files to the HD site, depends on how easy it would be for HD to code in your serial number, could be another feature they could add to the service 'Find my Drone' for missing or stolen drones.

Unfortunately the new 'owner' when they set up the aircraft all the previous flights don't sync, only the drone name will stay the same & whatever drone parameters that you had set.

I cant help thinking that its probably been stolen and will be used for some criminal activity, in the UK they were being used to fly phones and drugs into prisons!

Good luck!

That only works if you fly with Litchi.