Hi all. Is there any pitfalls to buying used Dji drones? Anything spcific that could effect its use.
When new and in order to activate a DJI drone, the owner must bind the aircraft to his/her account in order to allow the drone to fly.
When buy-in a second hand DJI drone you must ensure that the seller has unbound the aircraft from their account. DJI cannot/will not unbind it for you as it is supposed to be a an anti-theft measure.
If the aircraft is left bound to the seller’s account, it will not stop you flying but all the flight records etc are logged to the sellers account and you will not be able to access them. Also, when you come to sell the drone, a prospective buyer may well be put off as you are unable to un-bind the drone which in turn puts doubt over its legal acquisition.
The other main thing to check is the drone flight logs to see if it has ever been crashed, the flight time on the drone and the number of charge cycles on the battery/batteries.
I’m sure others will be along with more things to check but these would be the first items I would check and of course would want to see/test it actually flying.
Personally I wouldn’t buy via the likes of eBay, unless the vendor is close enough to make seeing them demonstrate it flying a realistic proposition.
For a more easily trusted transaction, there is our own #for-sale-wanted section, and it’s easy to see how long the vendor has been a member, and their posting history that can provide additional information about their experience with the drone, and photos/videos from it.
To list an item for sale also means they have a subscription membership, and therefore not a casual passer-by.
Additionally, there is mpb.com (and a few similar) that sell secondhand equipment, with their own warranty and proven track record.
Thank you Jhdee andOzoneVibe for your prompt and very helpfull replys, I could have made a huge mistake today. I have been interested in a couple of local advertised drones and armed with your info I am in a better position to safeguard myself.One more question once unbound can the new owner re activate? Brilliant site this ‘init’ 
To answer your last two questions, yes and yes!
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Also, in response to your last sentence, yes! 
#SlightBias
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There’s a member on here (Footloose), selling a Mavic Air 2, virtually unused, very good DJI drone, for £300. As of a few minutes ago, it was still for sale.
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Thanks Hotrodspike but not interested in dealing in this case. got my reason but thanks again 
OK mate, no probs.
Found genuine seller of DJI Mavic Pro fly more combo. Having test flights and viewing logs, Then it will be unbound and factory reset in my presense. Thanks for all the help.
Now the Happy owner of Dji Mavic Pro combo. Now the fun starts with a big learning curve get the brain in gear 
Congrats on your purchase, an excellent choice.
Many, many Mavic Pro owners on here, with many many years of experience
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Hell it took hours to find the app and install it on my phone but got there in the end, Now just got to set it all up and get going 
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I have not used my Mavic Pro yet, still researching. Does anyone fly their mavic without go4. Will it fly with just the drone and controller linked?
I fly my Mavic Pro using the Litchi app.
But it’ll fly quite happily with no app at all - you just won’t have a camera view 
Thanks Ping Spike, Will it still record though? I am probably overthinking my approach to this drone but I am trying to do things right and safe. I seem to struggle with Dji communications.
It’ll record to the SD card if you hit the record button on the controller.
You just won’t have any idea what you’re recording, what the angle of the camera is, etc.
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