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Want to buy the Mini but being blocked :(

tjpearson

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Hello everyone,
So this was going to be my first Drone and I fell in love with the DJI Mavic Mini, watched YouTube video after video and thought yes, that's the one for me, perfect for my photography passion. I was just about to click the Amazon button when started to discover problems users have loading the Fly App being very fussy and only seeming to work if you have a new up to date phone. Surely not I thought, so tried my trusted and still very potent Galaxy Note 4 32bit, Lenovo 8" tablet 32bit and finally Huawei 12" tablet 64bit, not any of my hardware would load the app, even after side install. This is not good and loathed if I'm being forced into buying a new phone just to fly this drone. The marketing is dire and surely there must be many people like me in this position so why do Mavic make such ridiculous limitations such as this. As for my final option I thought I'd ask on the forum before giving up with this to see if I'm being the idiot and is there an easy solution to this and if not what drone would others recommend sub £400 with good stills photography ability, answers would be very much appreciated.
tj
 
I glad to see you check before you bought it. I worked in tech support for years and you would not believe how many people would not check the specs. That was the first thing I check was downloading and testing to see if the app would work on my phone. New technology is changing and improving all of the time. What you think is good enough, will get to the point where it is "outdated" even if it still works. Sorry to say that you are not being blocked. The software require better hardware to run the app.
IMO you would like the Air 2 for your photography anyway but that is my opinion.
 
Thanks for the reply, yes probably saying being blocked was just frustration, I keep coming back to the Mini but worry that if I get some cheap tablet or phone from ebay that I find that fails me, do you know of any device that sells cheapish second hand that will work with the Mini ?
 
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Hello everyone,
So this was going to be my first Drone and I fell in love with the DJI Mavic Mini, watched YouTube video after video and thought yes, that's the one for me, perfect for my photography passion. I was just about to click the Amazon button when started to discover problems users have loading the Fly App being very fussy and only seeming to work if you have a new up to date phone. Surely not I thought, so tried my trusted and still very potent Galaxy Note 4 32bit, Lenovo 8" tablet 32bit and finally Huawei 12" tablet 64bit, not any of my hardware would load the app, even after side install. This is not good and loathed if I'm being forced into buying a new phone just to fly this drone. The marketing is dire and surely there must be many people like me in this position so why do Mavic make such ridiculous limitations such as this. As for my final option I thought I'd ask on the forum before giving up with this to see if I'm being the idiot and is there an easy solution to this and if not what drone would others recommend sub £400 with good stills photography ability, answers would be very much appreciated.
tj

Pretty sure from memory it needs a 64gb device to run on- how old is your Huawei tablet?

Might find a bit more info on here https://cultofdrone.com/dji-fly-compatible-device/

Technology is moving way too fast these days that great working bits of kit are out of date waaaay before their time :(
 
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I too checked and found my Note 4 was incompatible, darn!!!. Like wise all the other android devices that I have that happily run the Go App.
Further googling suggests it is something to do with the app requiring 64bit blah blah blah. You need to research why the tablet wont run it, some articles I read suggest some 64 bit phones did not have (in my vocabulary and understanding) 64bit 'switched on', and that that was to do with the phone's network provider (guessing that means a locked to the network phone too) could this apply to your tablet?
I got a 2nd hand Samsung S6, it does a grand job BUT, and it is a BIG BUT, the current it draws from the controller 'murders' the controller's battery, I generally recharge the controller after flying two full batteries, I might get a third full battery flight out of the controller but I doubt I'd get a fourth. My S6 is, I think, locked but presumably the original provider did not 'switch 64bit off'. ( It doesn't have a SIM in it.) One 'annoying' thing though is it does not have an mSD socket so the memory is internal and 'limited' and it's a sealed phone.

With this in mind I'd strongly suggest looking into a 2nd hand compatible Iphone as they draw MUCH less current from the controller. This is in fact pointed out, quite explicitly, in the manual but I, like I guess many other people, either missed that or didn't pay attention to it. Why the Android OS handles the USB connection so differently from the Apple OS is 'beyond me'.

PS Lurch003 posted whilst I was typing that, I am not copying 'him'?
 
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Ok thanks for the replies and I'll look into things a bit more, the Huawei tablet is only 12 months old but not that practical having a 12 inch tablet attached to the controller. I'm pretty thick with data and phone stuff as I'm more PC orientated but if I got some second hand phone would I also need to buy a data sim for it it or does it not work that way, sorry for being thick.
 
ooooooh that's good news, getting excited again you have all given me hope, there is just no other drone out there that rocks my boat like the Mini, watching comparison videos the Mini seems so stable in flight think be a great first drone for me.
Thanks again you have all been so helpful, nice forum.
 
I have an iPhone 8 that I use, but prefer to use a 1st gen iPad for the bigger screen. There are aftermarket devices available to hold a bigger screen that will fit into the MM controller.

Yes, I must agree...this is a very helpful group. I tried the DJI forum when I got my Ronin-S a year ago and didn’t find it do be anywhere near as helpful as this forum.
 
@t TJPreason, did you notice the thing about the charging and Iphones etc?
There are two other things I would point out.
Frstly, the Mini really does not handle wind well, as in its speeds are somewhat limited and in gusty conditions the buffeting can reach the camera. Others may disagree but this is my experience of it.
The speed thing is a serious consideration if you lose connection and the Mini attempts to RTH into a headwind, you should not fly downwind on the outbound leg of a flight but....these things do happen. The RTH is in or at P mode speeds so it can be beaten by a head wind fairly easily and blown away as a consequence. The RTH speed can be increased if you have control but if you lose connection you do not have control. I have not yet lost connection but I regularily see wind speed warnings and the effect of wind on its ground speed is noticable.
The second thing is, be aware of what 'desireable features' it does not possess. Elsewhere a lot of people seem to be asking for the addition of the likes of tracking, the ability to literally follow a subject.
You may have an advantage here in that you have not used a drone before and may therefore not miss any features that were or 'are available' to you on another drone but some people seem to want it to do more.
I must admit there are a few changes to the fly app that I would like to see but these are primarily changes to how information is either dispayed or accessed and or how certain parameters can be changed, e.g dark backgrounds for telemetry, typing in of limits rather then dragging buttons along a slide.
 
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ooooooh that's good news, getting excited again you have all given me hope, there is just no other drone out there that rocks my boat like the Mini, watching comparison videos the Mini seems so stable in flight think be a great first drone for me.
Thanks again you have all been so helpful, nice forum.

Once you start flying, you'll be yearning for that 12" screen!!!
No data required, WiFi only tablet is fine... Some guys put their phone into airplane mode anyway.
Good luck
 
I don't understand why people keep getting upset at DJI for moving to 64 bit only. We've had 64 bit phones available since 2013, and we have to change over eventually. Frankly, I think the fault lies more with the manufacturers of Android phones and tablets. A lot of them pressed on with 32 bit for far too long, with some installing 32 bit Android on equipment with 64 bit processors.
 
Last night I learned that my Samsung TabA will probably not run DJI FLY. I decided to get the Fly app from the app store and it did not show up. I then tried getting the APK from Apkmirror. I guess that did not work but it was bed time so I did not explore the why's or what's. I don't know if it is 64 bits or not. I guess I will check a bit later this morning.
 
Alan my answer would be.
Moving to 64bit maybe justifiable, I am not questioning that, but many people have perfectly functioning 32bit devices currently used for the likes of Go or Go4.
Why could DJI not acknowlege this and produce a 32bit version of Fly as well as the 64bit? If they wanted to make it 64bit only then why not sell the mini with a smart controller?
Could it be that people's objection is to the supplementry cost of a 'new' phone?
If I bought an brand spanking new phone with a decent display just to use with the fly app I am, taking into account the cost of the mini, approaching the cost of a good to "as new" second hand Mavic 2 Pro for which, incidentally, I can use my old 32 bit phone or even my Hudl2 tablet.
 
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There are a lot of inquiries about which tablets/phones work with the Fly app. Just because other DJI apps work on a phone/tablet doesn't automatically mean the Fly will load and run.

Here's some important info I think is correct that I posted in another thread. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, the the DJI Fly app does needs a 64 bit processor but that's not all. The processor needs to have ARM 8 (ARM64) and not all 64 bit chips have it. The other DJI apps don't need the ARM 8 to run but DJI Fly does and that's why many phone/tablets don't work with the mini, even if they have a 64 bit processor.

For instance, that's why the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8 has the be the SM-T290 North American model as it has the Qualcomm processor which has , you guessed it, the ARM 8. Again please correct me if I'm wrong or chime in if someone can explain it better.
 
Hello everyone,
So this was going to be my first Drone and I fell in love with the DJI Mavic Mini, watched YouTube video after video and thought yes, that's the one for me, perfect for my photography passion. I was just about to click the Amazon button when started to discover problems users have loading the Fly App being very fussy and only seeming to work if you have a new up to date phone. Surely not I thought, so tried my trusted and still very potent Galaxy Note 4 32bit, Lenovo 8" tablet 32bit and finally Huawei 12" tablet 64bit, not any of my hardware would load the app, even after side install. This is not good and loathed if I'm being forced into buying a new phone just to fly this drone. The marketing is dire and surely there must be many people like me in this position so why do Mavic make such ridiculous limitations such as this. As for my final option I thought I'd ask on the forum before giving up with this to see if I'm being the idiot and is there an easy solution to this and if not what drone would others recommend sub £400 with good stills photography ability, answers would be very much appreciated.
tj
Hi,

I always use China phones. They are cheap and also good. They are not on the DJI list also.
I have Phantom Std 3 and Mavic Pro. I have no problem at all using them to fly my drones.
Sometimes The loading of the app is not so straight forward. Try and it will eventually load.
I do not have the Mini but I could install it in my phone. Just for fun.
Try again dear. By the way, your Android or Iphone should be up to date. latest version, if possible. Do not use a five year old phone.
 
Sorry cheolk but my Samsung Note 4 (same phone as the OP) can't even find the App in google play store. My S5 finds the App and either will not download it or will not install it or can not open it. I don't remember which, so "try, try and try again" does not work in this case.
 
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I remember people said hard to find the app.
Why don't you go the browser [not playstore] and type in DJI fly. Is this the name?
load in from there.
 
I tried my Huawei 12" tablet 64bit ARM 8 (ARM64) as this fits all the criteria, the app has to be downloaded and then attempts to install but fails at last stage every time with the message the app has not installed. Its not a case of stubbornly not moving with the times as my Note 4 allows me to do things far more easily than friends with new phones, newer is not always better in my opinion. I also have a wife who fails to appreciate the cost of my possible new found hobby and I just can't get my head round the fact that I could buy this thing and three pieces of hardware refuse to cooperate, so I have now decided to go for a used Mavic Spark, got the DJI GO 4 installed and running on all three devices without a hitch. All I'm saying is as a consumer it's a sad state of affairs that buying older will give me more confidence that everything will work more easily.
 

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