DroneDeploy Pre-v4.2 Lag/Freeze/Crash (Latest Interface)

I know your numbers say what they say, but since this thread is in the top 10 of most viewed and not counting the other threads with similar issues that should be part of this one I would say that there is a significant issue. It also appears to have happened with the latest UI so how many of you metrics report that since it is barely a month old? I am on brand new hardware so making it “zippier” isn’t going to cut it for the majority that stay a version or two back.

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Thanks Andrew, but can you tell me with certainty that I will reach the field next week and be able to fly my mission without a hiccup? I’m not a test rat. I’m paying good money for something that should work.

For the past couple of years, there have been many quirks and bugs with the software that I have learnt to get over or deal with, many that still exist today, but never before has it been unusable and performed like many (including myself) are reporting here. Personally, I would prefer to know that after a 6 hour drive, I can indeed fly a mission rather than turn up and it fail. This is our livelihood you’re experimenting with.

Is there any reason why the last stable version cannot be made available to us all, allowing us to have confidence that we can carry out our projects? Call it ‘Classic’ or something.

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Making things “Zippier” isn’t the big issue. The app is just flat out not working and puts me at risk of loosing my drone when using it for even short missions but also makes it completely impossible to complete multi-battery missions. It is not an intermittent issue for me, it is every single time I attempt to fly with DD. As earlier, I have no issues with flying with the DJIGo app and am flying with all other apps closed and wifi and bluetooth turned off. I have even tried in airplane mode and it still can not complete a flight without loosing contact.

@dhall2276 Likely that the problem is you’re using an underpowered device - you are using an old iPad Mini 4 right? The performance improvements we’re adding now will help you.

Appreciate your patience. We have some serious upgrades coming soon.

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Hi Andrew,

We are having extreme lag/crashing problems running the latest DD too. We get the same problems running DD on two different IPAD mini 4’s running IOS 13 on P4P. One is only a few months old, the other is around 2 years so should be able to run it ok. Older version DD 3.6 worked fine. I don’t think the problem is isolated to 1% of users. A lot of guys don’t know about this forum or how to report faults so not capturing many others who are having the problem. As with others the flight path is way behind where the drone actually is (as well as indicated height) and camera visuals cutting out and laggy. We really need this issue fixed or the old version made available as the current version is unusable.

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@Andrew_Fraser Andrew, why is there such resistance to making the pre 4.x version available? We just want a version that works and if the pre-4.x version worked for everyone, why not just make it available instead of telling everyone that it’s just “them”.
I understand you (DD) are looking into it. But that doesn’t actually help any of these folks right now. You get that, right? Android can pretty easily be rolled back, but ios is a bear.

@Dave I appreciate that you are very focused on improved app performance right now and I understand why that seems like a reasonable solution. But there’s much more to app updates. App updates also include everything from security vulnerability updates to DJI SDK updates for compatibility with the latest drone firmwares to server technology updates. Using old versions of the app is almost certainly more dangerous and less useful than using anything current.

All this said, we’ve just made some serious memory management upgrades for older devices which should be available next week :slight_smile:

I think @MichaelL said he is using brand new hardware that exhibits the issue?

I will drop it as it is clear a stable legacy version re-release is not in the cards. But please consider dropping the reasoning stated for not making it happen.

Are there security vulnerabilities in the older version that are patched in the newer? Could be. Are there vulnerabilities in the current version that DD is not yet aware of? Again, probably. Will the older version work with the craft fw in use by a given user? Most likely because it was working before they updated in the first place. Will the older version work with DD’s servers? Most probably, yes. We don’t see anyone posting that their older version has stopped working.

Sorry to be a pita, but that reasoning just doesn’t hold up. If a version of the flight app was known by DD to be particularly harmful in some way, you folks would be on here warning the userbase, correct?

Okay, I’m done. No disrespect to you. We know you’re just doing your job. I hope the next update is the resolution. :slightly_smiling_face:

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That’s correct.

Anyone ever heard of TestFlight? Seems pretty easy to invite those affected…

We’ve released version 4.2 available on the App Store now. In addition to performance improvements we think you’ll be excited to find our new Terrain Awareness flight mode. Happy flying!

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Loaded it this morning and we’ll let you know! Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU HAVE UPDATED TO VERSION 4.2 PLEASE MOVE TO THE THREAD BELOW.

All,
Due to DroneDeploy app v4.2 being released I have started a new thread. We will let this thread go until there are no comments for 1 week, which may keep it open indefinitely.

https://forum.dronedeploy.com/t/dronedeploy-version-4-2-bugs/14664/2

Yes been having this issue since late last year. Video feed keeps working, but flight map progress either lags or quits updating all together, and sometimes nothing but the video feed and return to home button works, and I have no idea how much battery I have left. Almost always when it returns to home it continues to act like its taking photos while it catches up to where it started lagging in the flight.

Hasn’t been an issue as far as recording the photos properly and flying the route properly, but not knowing the battery level can be a serious issue when its on the other side of a large site. I have had to set the remaining battery percentage high enough for my automatic return to home in the DJI app so that it hopefully always has enough left to get back. If there were strong headwinds it could really be a problem.

My work around for multi-battery flights has been to manually set the waypoint to it last point before continuing the mission with a fresh battery.

About the time all this first started happening last year (I’m guessing when the DD update occured) I had some other issues on one flight. The map was not updating to my current location and it was showing the drone headed to the first waypoint from miles away. At first the drone only went about halfway up to its intended altitude and I had to return to home before it started the route. Right after that, it began the route and just kept going. I had to switch to manual mode and bring it back before it flew away.

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To let those interested know, I am now in direct contact with Kaitlin at Drone Deploy. I can’t continue my subscription with the DroneDeploy app in the state it’s in. My iPad Pro can cope with the processing the bloated V4 app is demanding, but zaps the battery in 45 minutes or so, whereas I could previously get 3 hours on V3, comfortably.

If any of you are unhappy with the current state of play in terms of the ongoing bugginess and performance related issues, I urge you to address an email to Kaitlin at support@dronedeploy.com . The last reliable version of the software was V3.something I think. Something like that. Since the release of V4, we have had nothing but problems.

Thank you.

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