Let us identify. Let us set. Let Us Drone. If you've read part one of this three-part series, then you're ready to jump into the camera view, which is where we spend about 95% of our time when out flying. 

I remember how overwhelmed I was when I first saw how many icons there were on the camera view screen. In this post, we'll dive into what those icons mean and we'll take a look at every setting on the drone. I'll do my best to explain each setting why I have certain things set the way they are.

Parts 1, 2, and 3

Part 1: In part one, we talked about how to get the app initially setup, along with a description of Skypixel, the equipment tab, “Me” tab, and the editor. You can read part 1 here

Part 2: You are currently reading part two of three. Part two takes a look at all of the drones settings and every icon on the camera view screen. 

Part 3: Part three dives into the camera settings and how to get that perfect picture or video. You can read part 3 here

Note: I will be using a Phantom 4 Advanced for this walkthrough. Some DJI drones have settings and options that others do not. Keep that in mind when following along as your GO 4 app may look slightly different here and there. 

Getting ready to fly

Okay, now that we've gone through the basic setup of the app, we're ready to connect the remote controller (RC) to the aircraft (AC). 

Connect your phone or tablet to the controller using one of these cables that I use and highly recommend. Open up the DJI GO 4 app and power on the RC. You will see an “RC connected” message at the bottom of the screen with a green light next to it. To the right will be an “enter device” prompt, which is the app telling you to power on the drone. Go ahead and do that and you'll notice that the message now says “connected” with a green light next to it. You can now tap on “go fly”. 

go fly, enter device dji go

Tapping on “go fly” will take you to the camera view of the DJI GO 4 app, which is where we go when we're ready to get that bird up in the air. This is also where we can make changes to the camera, gimbal, AC, RC, general settings, and more.

I want to mention that the remainder of this walkthrough will be done with my AC powered on as well as the RC with my phone connected to it. Some settings can only be changed if the everything is powered up, so I'd recommend you do the same if you intend to make any setting adjustments. 

Aircraft status

When you first enter the camera view where you'll launch from, an aircraft status screen will pop up. This screen will give you general information about the status of your AC. Let's go ahead and take a look at it below. 

DJI GO 4 aircraft status

As you can see in the picture, the aircraft status screen is an overall glance at the drone and its systems. This is where messages will be displayed if there is an error with the IMU, compass, or some other integral component of the operating system. 

 You will notice at the top of the image above it says “Normal (Latest Firmware)” to the right of the “Overall Status”. This is what you want to see before hitting that “x” in the corner to proceed to the camera view. 

If you see a red triangle like in the pic below, the app is trying to tell you something important. Tap on that triangle to view the message and follow any prompts the app advises you to take. 

DJI GO 4 ac status warning

Not many settings can be changes in this AC status menu, but we do have a couple of options here. First up is the max flight altitude. You can quickly adjust it from this screen by tapping on the box and inputting your desired number. As you may already know, the FAA doesn't want us drone users to fly above 400 feet (121.92 meters), so keep that in mind when setting your max flight altitude. 

Next up is the C1 and C2 button customization. DJI lets you choose from a selection of options for these “hot keys”. As you can see above, I have C1 set to “camera forward/down” and C2 set to “narrow sensing (hold)”. Simply tap on the blue writing to change your button preferences. 

The last thing we can do on the AC status screen is to format the SD card. This will essentially erase everything that is currently on the SD card, so be sure that media has been backed up before tapping on that format button. I wrote an article all about when and how to format the SD card, which I strongly recommend that you check out here

Camera view icons

DJI GO 4 camera view icons

1- Tap here to takeoff. In addition to pressing up on the left stick, you have the option to “slide to takeoff” and the drone will climb to an altitude of about 4 feet before hovering in place

2- This will prompt the RTH and land sequence. Remember that the drone will return to the location where the home point was initially recorded (or last updated). 

3- This is the intelligent flight mode menu. Remember that you need to be in P-mode to use these. 

4- The current view is the attitude indicator. The center red icon is the drone and which way it is facing. The little “N” on the left lets you know which way north is and the blue horizontal line gives you the current pitch and roll of the drone. If I'm out flying and I get disoriented, I often glance down at the attitude indicator and align the red triangle with the center “H” (my location) in order to bring the drone my direction.

DJI GO 4 map view

Tapping on the attitude indicator will bring up the map view, pictured above. The blue dot is where you are standing with the RC, the red triangle is where the AC is and the yellow circle with the “H” is where the current home point location is recorded.

5- The “D” stands for distance, and that is how far the drone is from you, and “H” stands for height, which is the altitude of the drone at any given time. You can choose between feet and meters in the settings section, which we'll discuss below. Lastly, this information is gathered using the onboard GPS

6- “H.S” stands for horizontal speed, which is how fast the drone is traveling parallel with the ground. “V.S” stands for vertical speed, which is how fast the drone is ascending or descending. 

7- VPS stands for vision positioning system. The tiny camera(s) on the bottom of the drone provide you with altitude telemetry if you are low enough for the VPS to work (typically below 30ft). The altitude readings displayed here are strictly obtained by the VPS, whereas the altitude readings in section 5 are gathered via GPS

8- Here is the box that lets you know what the camera is attempting to focus on. Tap on the screen to change the desired focus point. 

9- This is your forward obstacle avoidance sensors letting you know how far an object is in front of you. You can see the green and yellow bars in the image above, and as you get closer to an object the bars will turn red and the app will start beeping at you to let you know something is on your path. 

10- This is a quick look at your current camera settings. We'll dive deeper into the camera settings in part three of this series. 

11- This lets you know the video quality you will be recording at and how much remaining capacity is left on the SD card while recording with your current setup.

12- You can choose between having a green focus box in the middle of the screen and a yellow exposure circle. With the focus box, you can tap on a particular area of the screen to get said area in focus. With the exposure circle, you can tap on a particular spot of the screen, and the exposure value of that area is what the drone will set to neutral. This is beneficial if you have a lot of uneven lighting in your frame and you want to select the EV of a certain spot. 

13- You can choose between auto-focus and manual focus. Simply tap on the area of the screen where you want to camera to focus on. I generally leave this on auto unless I'm attempting to keep something in focus for a long period of time while recording and I don't want the image to get blurry as the camera attempts to re-focus periodically. Switching to manual focus would keep the current object in focus for as long as I'm recording. 

14- This is the automatic exposure lock. This locks your current exposure value so there isn't the automatic variance when switching from low light to bright environments. 

15- This is how you switch between shooting video and taking pictures. 

16- The little dot on the vertical dotted line is the current tilt angle of the gimbal. If you get disoriented you can glance down to quickly see where exactly the gimbal has the camera facing. 

17- Press here to start and stop video, and to capture pictures. You can also use the physical buttons on the RC to do this as well which is what I generally do as I don't have to remove my hand from the controller. 

18- This is where you can access the video and camera settings. 

19- Go here to see the images and videos you have taken. 

Top status bar

Once you exit the AC status menu you will be taken to the camera view of GO 4. I'm going to break up this section into different parts and explain along the way why I have certain settings the way they are. 

I'll begin by pointing out the icons on the top status bar and from left to right I'll give a brief description of each. Also included is a picture of what it looks like when you click on the respective icon. 

Starting with the top left, we have the letters “DJI”. Tapping on that will take you out of the camera view and back to the equipment tab. 

DJI GO 4 equipment tab

To the right of that, we come to where it says “Ready to Go (GPS)”. Tapping on this will take us to the aircraft status screen that we were greeted with when initially entering the camera view. 

I should note that the green color shading this box is the color you want to see before taking off. If you see yellow or red, something is amiss and needs your attention. A short description of the issue is sometimes displayed where you currently see “Ready to Go (GPS)”, but you can tap on that box to see detailed instructions on what the app is prompting you to do from the AC status menu. 

DJI GO 4 ac status

Main controller settings

Continuing on to the right we come to where it says “GPS”. This is the area where you can quickly see what flight mode you are in (P-mode, ATTI, OPTI, or Sport mode). Tap here to bring up the main controller (MC) settings. 

DJI GO 4 main controller settings

DJI GO 4 main controller settings

Remote Identification- DJI has created a way for people to look up the frequency that your RC is emitting to see your flight telemetry and information about you and/or your flight. DJI compares this to a car license plate.

There is a spot for you to identify yourself, or just your drone type if you prefer the more private route. You can also include a description of your current flight (has to be less than 90 characters). There is an option to completely turn this off if you'd like. Billy Kyle is a YouTuber that discusses this in a video here.

Home Point Settings- Correctly setting your home point is very important. You're going to have a bad day if your drone disconnects from the RC but you didn't wait for the GPS to acquire your home point before launching. The drone will return to wherever the home point location was set (if “RTH” was set under the signal lost setting), and you want that location to be where you're standing.

If you look to the right of “home point settings” you'll notice two boxes. Tapping the first box will set the home point to where the drone is currently located. Tapping the second box with the little guy in it will set the home point to the RC location. An example of a time where it would be smart to set the home point to the RC is if you launched the drone from a boat that had since drifted a ways away

DJI GO 4 main controller settings

Multiple Flight Modes- Each DJI drone has regular flight modes and intelligent flight modes. This setting is giving you the option to switch between regular flight modes. I should mention that not all of DJI's drones have the option of manually selecting ATTI mode, but you can see that I have it as an option because I'm using a P4 Advanced for this tutorial.

I wrote an in-depth article about P-mode, ATTI mode, and Sport mode here that I highly recommend the newer drone user to check out. 

Return-to-Home Altitude- If the RTH process is initiated, either by you manually pressing the button or because the AC lost signal, the drone will ascend to the altitude you set here before it flies back to your location.

If you are flying in an area with a lot of tall trees or structures, set the RTH altitude higher than the tallest object. Alternatively, if you are flying in the desert and the RTH altitude is set to 400 feet, that is overkill and a waste of precious battery life. 

DJI GO 4 mc settings

Beginner Mode- When you are just learning how to fly a drone, practicing in beginner mode is a good idea. As you can see in the description, your speed will be restricted and you will only be able to fly up to 30 meters from the home point. This is a good way to minimize the risk associated with being a new pilot. 

Set Max Flight Altitude- I talked about how you can set the max flight altitude in the AC status menu, well you can also do that here. Remember to keep it under 400 feet so when you have that left stick pinned against the top of the controller while you're looking at the amazing view from the video feed the drone will stop ascending on its own. 

Enable Max Distance- If you are concerned about flying out a little further than you'd like, set the max distance and you'll receive an auditory and visual notification letting you know that you've reached the preset distance. 

Main controller advanced settings

DJI GO 4 mc advanced settings

Exp, Sensitivity, and Gain- The is where you can tune the left and right stick on the remote controller to your liking. Getting into the details about this is beyond the scope of this post, but you can practice configuring these while in an open area. I personally don't touch these settings. 

Reset Gain & Expo Tuning- If you messed with the above settings so much that the drone is acting all kinds of strange, well, just hit this reset button to bring you back to factory settings. 

DJI GO 4 mc advanced settings

Sensors- This is an important one and I wish that it wasn't buried under the advanced settings tab. This is where you can see the status of the IMU and compass on the drone

There are indicators that let you know if the IMU or compass is receiving any interference and whether or not they need to be calibrated. Check out my post about when and how to calibrate the IMU and compass for each DJI drone. 

Remote Controller Signal Lost- If the aircraft disconnects because of poor signal, the drone will commence the sequence that has been preset under this setting. DJI has given us three options: Return-to Home (RTH), Landing, and Hover

I will say that 99% of the time I have mine set to RTH. So, what is an occasion where you'd rather have the landing or hover option selected? When my wife and I did a road trip across the county I was able to fly my drone quite a bit. While going through the middle of nowhere (I think in Wyoming) I flew from the passenger seat of our car while my wife drove. 

If I would have lost signal while we were moving like that and the signal lost setting was set to RTH, the drone would have flown a couple of miles the opposite direction of the way we were driving. There are some other instances that call for landing or hover, but moving locations after you launch is one of them. 

Turn on Head LED's- This gives you the option of turning off the lights on the front of the drone. I generally leave them on but a time where you may want them off is if you're recording video in a low light environment and the AC's lights are in the frame. 

DJI GO 4 mc advanced settings

Stop Motor Method- DJI gives you the option to shut off the motors in mid-flight in the event of an emergency. CSC stands for “combination stick command” and as you can see in the image above, pressing the RTH button and down-and-in on the left stick simultaneously is how you would stop the motors on the P4 Advanced.

Know that the commands and behaviors vary from drone to drone so look up this topic in your manual to see how your particular drone will behave. 

Amount of satellites

To the right of where the current flight mode is displayed, we can see how many satellites we currently have. Basically, the more satellites we have the better the GPS signal, which means there's less of a chance we'll lose GPS while flying. Losing GPS while flying will cause the drone to enter OPTI mode (Vision Position Sensing but no GPS) or ATTI mode (no VPS or GPS). 

I once read a DJI rep say that the drone needs more than 6 satellites to mark the home point, which is a must before launching. 

DJI GO 4 satellite count

Visual navigation settings

Next, we come to the visual navigation settings. This is where you can enable obstacle avoidance, display a radar chart, enable VPS, and more.

DJI GO 4 visual navigation settings
DJI GO 4 visual navigation settings

Enable Visual Obstacle Avoidance- As you can see in the description, visual obstacle avoidance keeps the drone from running into objects by using its vision sensors. I rarely ever turn these off. A time when you may want to switch them off is if you are flying in P-mode close to the ground and you want to go faster.

Have you ever flown low to the ground in P-mode and thought “why is my drone flying at a snail's pace”? The vision sensors are slowing the drone down in this situation, so disabling them will allow the drone to fly at a quicker speed. 

Enable Horizontal Obstacle Avoidance in TapFly- If you are in TapFly mode and the drone approaches a giant tree, instead of just stopping in its tracks, the drone should fly around the tree to its right or left. 

DJI GO 4 visual navigation settings

Enable Backward Flying- If you are following using ActiveTrack to follow a friend and he/she moves toward the drone, having this box checked will allow the drone to fly backward. 

Sounds cool, right? Well, you don't have to look far to find videos of peoples drones flying backward into all kinds of objects because they were using ActiveTrack. Some DJI drones have rear obstacle avoidance, so the risk for those is not near as high as those without the fancy rear sensors. All I can say is use caution if you enable backward flying!

Enable Obstacle Avoidance in ActiveTrack-  Having this box checked will allow the drone to fly horizontally around objects in ActiveTrack. If the drone doesn't think it can make it around the obstacle, it will simply stop and hover. 

Display Radar Chart- This will allow lines in the shape of a partial circle be displayed on the screen when you are approaching an object. The lines will turn red as you get closer to the object. I recommend that you leave this on.

Visual navigation advanced settings

DJI GO 4 visual navigation advanced settings

Enable Vision Positioning- Downward vision sensors are a part of what allows your drone to hover so stable above the ground. So why ever turn them off?

Flying over water is an example of a time where it may be wise to disable the vision positioning as the downward sensors can get incorrect readings by translucent water or with water that is not calm. Check out my post about whether or not you should disable the VPS when flying over water

Landing Protection- Have you notice that when you descend, the drone pauses when it gets a couple of feet off of the ground? This is the landing protection. If you let off the left stick and then press down again, the drone will then proceed to land. 

So why turn landing protection off? If you have ever tried to catch the Mavic and it bounces up and away from you, this is landing protection in action. Disabling landing protection will allow you to retrieve the drone from the air without it flying up when your hand gets close. I'd advise leaving this enabled in most circumstances though.

Precision Landing- During an RTH evolution, the drone will attempt to land in the exact location the home point was initially recorded by using the image data obtained upon takeoff. Below is a screenshot of the P4 Pro manual that describes how it works. 

I should mention that the newly released Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom do not have precision landing. I'm not sure why DJI removed this feature from them, but I look forward to conducting my own tests when I can afford to purchase one of the new Mavics!

DJI GO 4 visual navigation advanced settings

RTH Obstacle Check- During an RTH process, the drone will automatically climb and fly over obstacles in its path, even if obstacle avoidance is disabled. 

RTH Remote Obstacle Avoidance- Having this enabled gives the drone permission to alter its course on an RTH flight to avoid obstacles. There have been reports of the setting sun confusing the drone's sensors, causing the OA to be triggered. I haven't (yet) experienced that problem, and I always leave RTH obstacle check and RTH remote obstacle avoidance on. 

One thing that I feel is very important to mention is that the above two settings apply specifically to the RTH process. These preset instructions are crucial, because, what happens when you're flying in Sport mode (where obstacle avoidance is disabled) and the drone disconnects from the remote controller, causing an RTH sequence?

Well, having “RTH obstacle check” and “RTH remote obstacle avoidance” toggled on will allow the drone to use obstacle avoidance, even if it is flying home in Sport mode.  

Remote controller settings

We now come to that tiny little icon of a remote controller (RC). If you guessed that tapping on this would take you to the RC settings, well then you're a natural born Sherlock.

DJI GO 4 remote controller settings
DJI GO 4 remote controller settings

Remote Controller Calibration- I once had a notification that said my RC needed to be calibrated. I had no idea how it got de-calibrated (<—is that a word?), but lo and behold I made it to this screen and proceeded to calibrate the RC. The on-screen prompts made it a quick and painless process that took just a minute.

Stick Mode- If you've ever played video games, you are probably used to having the option to customize the controls. Refer to the image below to see what stick options DJI gives us. You can customize your own as well.  

DJI GO 4 remote controller settings

Button Customization- There's nothing like a good ol‘ tactile button to press. When you want a task to be executed quickly and reliably every time, it's better to rely on a button than an on-screen tiny icon that may or may not have sensed your sweaty finger. Enter button customizations for C1 and C2. Here are the options we have for our “hot keys”. 

DJI GO 4 remote controller settings

Linking Remote Controller- Maybe you sent in your Mavic Pro for repairs and they ended up sending you a refurbished on. This is where you would go to link your RC to the new drone. Follow the on-screen instructions to do so.

Remote controller advanced settings

DJI GO 4 remote controller advanced settings

Remote Controller Type- Although I own the Phantom 4 Advanced, I can use its controller to fly the Phantom 4 Pro or the Phantom 4. You can select from compatible options here. 

Image transmission settings

To the right of that we see the letters “HD”. Tap that to pull up the image transmission settings. We can choose between auto and custom for the channel modes. 

DJI GO 4 image transmission settings
DJI GO 4 image transmission settings

If you chose “auto”, the RC will connect to the strongest channel and will switch accordingly as others with stronger signals become available. The channel in blue is the one currently being used. 

Choosing “custom” will give you the option to manually chose your channel. As you can see in the image below, a drop-down tab will appear and you can select the most “stable” channel available.  

DJI GO 4 image transmission settings

In addition to selecting the channel in custom, you can also choose the quality of the transmission video being displayed on your screen. The lower the number the smoother the video, but it won't be as of high quality. 10 Mbps will give you better quality video than 4 Mbps, but it may also cause a lot of lag with the video transmission

DJI GO 4 image transmission settings

I'd recommend leaving the channel mode selector to “auto” as the best available channel will always be selected automatically. If you see a channel that is very stable and you manually select it, you may have to come back to this setting and change channels if you move locations. 

Aircraft battery

Next we have that little battery icon, with a number next to it that is displaying the current battery level of the drone. 

Click on the icon to bring up detailed information about the battery and to make changes to settings. 

DJI GO 4 aircraft battery settings
DJI GO 4 aircraft battery settings

The Phantom 4 Advanced battery is a 4 cell battery, which explains the four cylindrical icons at the top. To the right you can see the current voltage and temperature of the battery. 

Critically Low Battery Warning- As you can see, I have the bar set to 10%, which is as low as it can be set to. What does this mean and what will happen? When the drone's battery is depleted to 10%, you will get a notification and the drone will commence its auto-land sequence. You should have already landed before the drone reached 10%, but if not, you better be in a safe place as the auto-land cannot be canceled at this point.

Lastly, although I have this set to 10%, the drone knows where it is at and how much battery it needs to descend safely. This means that the drone may commence its auto-land while I'm at 15% if I'm flying a few hundred feet up because the drone knows it needs more juice to descend from the higher altitude

Low Battery Warning- DJI drones have this set to 30% by default, and I find it to be a good number. When the battery level reaches 30%, your phone/tablet will audibly tell you that the battery is low and a beeping will commence. 

Smart Return-to-Home- Have you ever wondered what that horizontal line is that runs across the screen in camera view? That is the bar that lets you know how much more flight time you have until the RTH sequence is automatically initiated. The drone knows how much battery it needs to return back to your location. You can cancel the RTH sequence, but use caution if you choose to fly longer. I always leave this option on. 

Flight Time- This gives the flight time of your current flight. 

Time to Discharge- This one is pretty important. One of the things that can shorten the life of a LiPo battery is to always have it fully charged. To extend battery life, DJI created a feature that will automatically begin to discharge the battery after a period of non-use. 

The default time is set to 10 days, but you can change this to match your flying schedule. If you hardly ever fly, I'd recommend setting your time to discharge to 2-3 days as there's no reason to let the battery remain at 100% for 10+ days if it's not going to be used

The battery will be discharged to about 50-65% over the course of three days, which is the optimal level for LiPo battery storage. I'd recommend that you just charge the batteries halfway before storing them so you don't have to worry about “time to discharge” schedules. 

DJI GO 4 aircraft battery settings

Show Voltage on Main Screen- If you'd like to see the current battery voltage on the main screen, toggle this option on. I have this turned off but it would be helpful if you suspect that you may have a worn out or faulty battery. 

Details- Under the details section you can find information like how many times the battery has been charged, what its serial number is and what its production date is. 

Gimbal Settings

Here we can make some adjustments to how our gimbal operates and alter settings on speed and sensitivity. 

DJI GO 4 gimbal settings

Gimbal Mode- As you can see, we have the choice to put the gimbal in “follow” mode or “FPV” (first person view) mode. For taking pictures/videos and for generally flying, follow mode is recommended as the gimbal will stay parallel with the ground. FPV mode synchronizes the gimbal with the aircraft, giving you that first-person view experience.  

Adjust Gimbal- You can manually adjust the angle of the gimbal here. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. 

Gimbal Auto Calibration- If you notice the gimbal acting funny or if it's not aligned right, I'd recommend coming here to calibrate it before engaging in an email war with DJI. 

DJI GO 4 gimbal advanced settings

Configuration 1, 2, and 3- If there is more than one user for the drone, each can set up and save their gimbal settings. Or if one user uses the drone for multiple purposes, he/she can have the gimbal set up for each application. 

Gimbal Pitch Speed- This is where you control the speed at which the gimbal will tilt up and down. If you are using the drone to take video, I'd recommend setting this value at about 10. 

Enable Upwards Gimbal Tilt Limit to 30 Degrees- The tilt is limited to 30 degrees by default because the props get in the picture if you tilt any higher. One way of having a tilt angle of more than 30 degrees without capturing the props is to fly backward. 

Gimbal Pitch Smoothness- When you tilt the gimbal up and cease the command, the abruptness of the stop is determined by the gimbal pitch smoothness. For cinematic videos, I'd recommend having the smoothness set to 20-25, which will in effect have the gimbal “coast” to a stop. 

Enable Synchronized Gimbal Pan Follow- You know how when the drone is on the ground and you yaw left or right, the gimbal moves slightly? That is because this synchronized gimbal pan follow is enabled by default and it is designed to create smoother yaw movements. Some prefer to turn it off, but I leave it on as I'm comfortable with the default setting. 

Reset- Tap this to set the gimbal back to factory settings. 

General settings

Last on the top status bar is the three little dots on the very right. Tap on those three dots to bring up the general settings menu. This is also where we can access all of the settings that each of those icons on the status bar takes us to.

DJI GO 4 general settings

I'll go ahead and walk us through each of the general settings line by line and talk about why I have chosen my current settings.

DJI GO 4 general settings

Measurement Unit- DJI gives you the option to choose from imperial (mph), metric (m/s), and metric (km/h). Living here in the United States I prefer to leave this in imperial, but some of the information provided in DJI's manuals are in meters per second (m/s), so the option to toggle between them has come in handy on occasion.

Long Press Action- You have the option to choose between gimbal control and gimbal focus when you long press the screen while in camera view. I don't use this much as I'm used to using the tactile gimbal wheel on the RC, but some may find this hand.

Select Live Broadcast Platform- If you would like to live stream your drones video feed, you can select from one of the following platforms to do so: YouTube, Facebook, WeiBo, QQ Zone, and Custom. I've live streamed to YouTube with success, albeit with quite a bit of video delay. To live stream to one of the listed platforms, select your desired one and follow the in-app prompts.

DJI GO 4 general settings

Show Flight Route- If you have this selected, you will see a trail of where you have flown on that current flight in the map view down at the bottom lefthand corner of the screen. 

Calibrate Map Coordinates (For China Mainland)- After conducting research about this, I'm sorry to report that I do not have a definitive answer on this one. The general consensus is that you do not need to have this on if you do not live in mainland China. It has something to do with the type of maps used there being different. 

Cache Map in the Background- This one is very important if you are flying in a remote area where you don't have cell reception or you're using a Wi-Fi device (i.e. iPad Mini) to fly the drone. The little map on the bottom of the screen will only display street names, landmarks, etc. if there is an internet connection. If you are still at home but plan to fly in an area that has poor reception, you can cache the map for that area before you leave

To do this, toggle “cache map in the background”, return to the camera view and select the map view. Scroll to the place where you plan to fly and zoom in/out until the desired data has been loaded on the screen. This action has cached (saved) the map automatically so when you are out there without reception, the map will still be displayed. 

So why do I not have this selected on my iPhone? Well, because I generally use my iPhone which is almost always connected to the internet (I live in a big city with plenty of reception), so I don't want to cache the maps as it takes up more space and can slow down the app. I recommend reading this post on how to stop the video lag in the DJI GO 4 app. 

Clear Flight Route- If you have “Show Flight Route” selected above, all of those lines can get a bit messy on your little map. Clearing the flight route erases those lines and allows you to start afresh. 

Unlocking License- I have talked briefly about the geofenced areas that DJI has placed around certain landmarks and airspace. Certain exceptions apply to the no-fly zone restrictions, and you have to request permission from DJI to enter the geofenced airspace. You can learn more about the request process here. Special temporary licenses that DJI grants you can be found under this “Unlocking License” section. 

DJI GO 4 general settings

Cache During Video Shooting- If you have this option checked, a lower resolution video will be saved to the GO 4 app. This is handy if you want to quickly see if what you just shot video of is adequate. I'll discuss how to view that video in a section below. The downside of having this on is that it can play a part in slowing down the app. 

Record Audio with Video Cache- Although the drone itself does not record audio, the phone/tablet that you are using will and that audio will be played with the lower resolution cached video that is stored on the app (if you have cache video on). I should note that when you transfer the video from the SD card to your computer, the sound will not be there. I wrote an article here about recording audio with DJI drones, along with a few workarounds. 

Maximum Video Cache Capacity- Because storing video cache to the app takes up significant space, often resulting in a slow or laggy video transmission, you can select the maximum amount of video cache you'd like the app to save. 

Clear Cache Automatically- If you run out of space on your device, having this option enabled will automatically delete the oldest files so your new ones will be saved. I recommend periodically browsing through the old cache files on the app so you can delete the ones you don't want instead of the app automatically deleting an old file you intended to save. 

Clear Cache Video- This is where you can delete all of the cached video  currently on your app. Remember that this won't delete the original video files, as those are stored on the SD card. When my DJI GO 4 app is running slow, this is one of the first things I do in an effort to speed it up. 

DJI GO 4 general settings

Warnings- Any warnings the app gives you will be saved here. This comes in handy if you are out flying and something pops up on your screen but you're too busy trying to not crash you Mavic into a tree to see what the notification said. Refer back to this section when you are in a safe place to check the warnings. 

Clear All Warnings- Well, not much to say here as it's pretty self-explanatory. I'd suggest clearing them every so often as having warnings from two years ago just takes up unnecessary space. 

Device Name- When you set up your device, the app asked you to name the drone. This is where that name is displayed and where you can change it if you'd like. 

DJI GO 4 general settings

Full Screen- The camera view screen can become cluttered with all of the icons scattered about, and DJI lets us temporarily hide all of those by either swiping up with one or two fingers on the screen. To get everything back, simply swipe down. This section lets you choose your finger amount preference.  

About- This is where you can find out what firmware version your AC and RC are running and if any updates are available. You can also find the flight controller and RC's serial number here. 

Trevor's Take 

What a long read! Congrats on making it to the end of a 6,500 word blog post…no it doesn't count if you scrolled to the last paragraph and happen to see this ;). We talked about how to get the GO 4 app setup in part one of this series, and you should have a good grasp on every drone setting and what those little icons mean now that you have just finished part two. Part three is all about those camera settings we have to capture that perfect picture or video. See you there!

Click here to read Part 1 of the DJI GO 4 guide. 

Click here to read Part 3 of the DJI GO 4 guide. 

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