DJI Mini 2 SE. What a drone! If you’re aiming for a budget-friendly beginner drone, there’s no better one around this price point.
But at a low price, drones may come with some downsides. They simply don’t have the best technology and high-quality parts, like more expensive and professional drones.
Any drone can have issues, and so can the DJI Mini 2 SE.
This article will underline several issues the DJI Mini 2 SE can have. Although uncommon, it’s possible to come across these issues.
Therefore, if your brand-new or used DJI Mini 2 SE has any of the following issues, let’s see if we can find a solution together.
Why does my DJI Mini 2 SE have issues?
The point is, it shouldn’t. If you purchase a new DJI Mini 2 SE, although it’s cheap for a DJI drone, you expect it to work with no problems.
Drone technology is more reliable than ever before. It advanced quickly, and compared to older drones, the chances of having unresolvable issues with your Mini 2 SE are slim.
But not non-existant. From manufacturing problems and overlooked quality control to inadequate transportation and misuse of the drone, issues can appear in your Mini 2 SE, like with any drone.
However, once more, mentioning that the DJI Mini 2 SE is a budget-friendly drone, in fact, one of the cheapest ones released by DJI, its parts are not of the highest quality.
If you start having issues with the Mini 2 SE, the logical approach is to contact DJI Customer Support. But it doesn’t hurt to have a look over current and possible issues and see if there are any fixes you can do at home (without voiding the warranty).
That means there are two practices here.
- Your drone is brand-new and already has problems, which can reflect a manufacturing flaw (most possible).
- You have used your Mini 2 SE for a while and started having issues (such as after a crash).
In the first scenario, one of the best approaches would be to send it back and get a replacement from where you purchased it.
But in the second scenario, you either have to look at the issues yourself, find a fix, or have a little chat with DJI customer support.
Of course, there’s yet a 3rd option that has nothing to do with manufacturing, quality control, or any misuse of the drone but with problems resulting from DJI firmware. In that case, you have to wait for the issue to be fixed.
Let’s look at some of the most common issues.
» MORE: DJI Avata Issues: 10 Things You Should Know (Must-Read)
1. QuickShots mode may not work properly
One of the most common issues found behind the DJI Mini 2 SE is related to the QuickShots mode.
When using different functions such as Circle, Helix, or Boomerang, the DJI Mini 2 SE may fail to perform the action accurately or entirely fail to do so.
This may result in a number of problematic events, such as the drone acting erratically when flying, with the risk of hitting something as it does not follow the pre-established path, QuickShots functions interrupted mid-flight, or simply getting a poor video out of something that was supposed to be a great approach to overshow a zone.
The QuickShots issues may happen mostly with the DJI Mini 2 SE, but the problem is sometimes widespread to other DJI drones, even more expensive ones.
Possible fixes: There are no quick fixes behind this, and most of the time, we have to wait for DJI to release new firmware updates for the Mini 2 SE to improve it.
As a note, if you notice your DJI Mini 2 SE acting weirdly when you use the QuickShots mode, I recommend stopping it entirely until DJI solves the issues. Also, ensure you have updated your drone to the latest firmware versions.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Intelligent Functions (All You Need to Know)
2. DJI Mini 2 SE battery does not charge
Nowadays, most of the new drones you buy should come with at least one battery that should be in standby mode in order to preserve energy over a long period.
This is required to avoid battery failure. But as we have often seen this issue, even with newer drones and the Mini 2 SE, there’s a very slight possibility your battery simply failed.
Before contacting customer support, ensure that the battery sits to charge for at least a couple of hours, at which point it should come out of standby mode. If nothing happens, your battery could have failed straight from the beginning.
That’s not your fault. DJI should take care of this as your drone is brand-new unless you bought it second-hand and the seller was aware of the issue.
Lipo batteries are no joke. Thankfully, DJI managed to put a lot of safety features behind these batteries for ease of charging to avoid causing a fire and failing when stored over long periods.
So, if you have tried everything and still nothing is working to “awake” your DJI Mini 2 SE battery, you get strange blinking lights (errors), or the battery does not hold well, that could be the reason.
I recommend you have a quick read of these articles and see if there’s any help for you before contacting DJI customer support.
3. The DJI Mini 2 SE won’t turn on
It’s challenging to get started with the reasons why your Mini 2 SE may not turn on. I mean, there can be many, but mostly, there could be straightforward approaches to fix the issue.
So, let’s see why your Mini 2 SE does not turn on.
- The battery could be in hibernation mode. Your drone won’t turn on until you fully charge the battery and take it out of hibernation mode.
- The battery simply failed. This happens with drones more often than we would like to admit.
- You’re trying to fly the drone outside of the recommended temperature range. Even if the drone starts, maybe it won’t let you take off.
- Does the battery make contact with the drone? Are the pins clean and impurity-free?
- Have you recently crashed the drone?
These are only a few questions to cover as per the reason why your DJI Mini 2 SE fails to turn on (or turns on but fails to take off).
Now, we have a dedicated article covering these issues and more if you’re looking for a more in-depth read.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Won’t Turn On (Here’s What to Do)
4. DJI Mini 2 SE does not hover well
Yet another small issue that sometimes you can come across with your DJI Mini 2 SE is the hovering stability.
DJI has advanced technologically quite a lot in the past couple of years, and drone technology now allows a drone to hover quite accurately.
Thanks to this, even the budget-friendly Mini 2 SE should take advantage of the GPS module and downward vision sensors for hovering capabilities.
But this may sometimes act erratically, and the drone does not hover well.
There could be many reasons behind this, from a reflective surface underneath the drone causing trouble for the vision sensors and low or no GPS. Even the wind can influence the stability of the drone.
Before panicking if your brand-new Mini 2 SE starts drifting, let’s look over some possible fixes. Here are a few articles you can look into.
5. Motor starting failure or the drone won’t fly
Motor failure is infrequent in drones, even with the DJI Mini 2 SE. All drones, before release, have to go through rigorous quality control. But these motors can fail after a crash or during transportation, just like other parts of the drone.
As we have said, that’s rare. And if one of the Mini 2 SE motors fails to turn on while the other ones spin okay when turning on the drone, without any doubt, you will have to contact customer support.
There’s no quick fix for this.
But never try to launch the drone if you see any of the motors act strangely or make a bizarre sound.
Another reason your drone will refuse to take off is because you’re in a geo-restricted area. I know that this probably is not the answer to look for, but are you sure your zone is free of any flight restrictions?
This can happen because DJI has sophisticated geo-location software that will prevent any drone from taking off in restricted zones.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE – Unlock GEO Zones (Step-by-Step Guide)
6. The controller failed to link with the DJI Mini 2 SE.
It can be a little perplexing to see that the controller is not linked when you receive your brand-new Mini 2 SE. It should be from the factory, but sometimes it is not.
Guess what? You’ll have to do an entire binding process and connect your DJI RC-N1 with your new Mini 2 SE.
That shouldn’t be an issue; most of the time, it should work flawlessly. Until it doesn’t.
I mean, hey, I don’t want to scare. But I have seen a handful of new pilots with the Mini 2 SE, which wasn’t linked to the controller it came with.
So, if this happens to you, I recommend you try to do it yourself before contacting DJI. Contact them if you fail to do so.
Here’s an article you can look into to help you with the process.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Controller (All You Need to Know)
7. Cannot record videos or take photos
This may not be related to the drone itself, but to the SD card you have put into your DJI Mini 2 SE.
The drone can record in 2.7k at 30 frames per second at 12 Megapixel resolution. While the SD card requirements are not too high for this drone to record or take photos, still consider getting a decent MicroSD card for it.
Otherwise, you can have this issue.
We wrote an entire article about recommended SD cards that will work flawlessly with your DJI Mini 2 SE if this is why you cannot record videos or take photos with it.
There should not be any other reasons why you can’t do this function under normal circumstances.
» MORE: Best SD Cards for DJI Mini 2 SE
8. Bad flight range
DJI advertises that the Mini 2 SE can fly for up to 6.2 miles or 10km in the USA (FCC) and 3.7 miles or 6km in Europe, China, and Japan (CE, SRRC, and MIC).
All this is done with the older OcuSync 2.0 transmission system.
I mean, we don’t have any of the newer transmission modules like the DJI O3, O3+, or O4. We’ve got the old one.
This could influence the flight range as compared to the Mini 3 Pro or Mini 4 Pro, for instance.
But still, your drone should get a decent amount of flight range, at least more than enough to fly out of sight (which we don’t recommend doing).
Why can’t your brand-new DJI Mini 2 SE fly far?
Let’s see what could be the reasons:
- High-interference area: Flying your drone downtown or in zones with many WiFi devices, cell towers, and other electronic devices can create a high amount of interference that will drastically affect your flight range. So, when you tried to fly your drone but couldn’t get that far, where did this happen?
- Not flying in line of sight: When flying your DJI Mini 2 SE or any drone for that matter, you have to fly in line of sight to get the best signal for your drone, and your remote controller antennas need to face the direction of the drone; otherwise you can have significant range issues.
- The drone is in beginner mode: This is not an issue with the DJI Mini 2 SE, but if you bought it as new, it might have the beginner mode enabled, which will restrict your flight to a 30-meter radius around the home point. You can easily disable it from the menu on the main control settings.
- You’re flying near metal structures: Flying your Mini 2 SE or any drone near a dome or any large metallic structures can have a significant impact on receiving a decent signal; flying your drone far or even the GPS, IMU, and gyroscope can go haywire. We don’t recommend flying any drones around these locations, but that could be a reason why you get a poor range with your DJI Mini 2 SE.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Range Explained (Everything You Need To Know)
9. I am getting an error on my DJI Mini 2 SE
What could possibly be worse than when you want to take off your DJI Mini 2 SE and you get an error on your phone screen? Or you’re spammed with many error codes.
That can’t be good, can it?
From failing to take off in a geo-restricted area to calibration errors, IMU, gimbal errors, downward vision sensor errors, low GPS signals, and no GPS or module detection – we’re only scratching the surface.
Hold on. Getting such errors is kind of rare and can reflect on a possible issue you have with your DJI Mini 2 SE.
When you get an error, you should have a code (which is mostly universal) with a short description of it.
Now we know what we have to look into.
For instance, you can get a Navigation Error 30105 with a Weak GPS signal, which can happen after a crash. Or a Code 180030, which is the downward vision system error.
This can result in a lengthy process of troubleshooting the error and seeing if there are any easy fixes. Sometimes, we can solve this by calibrating the drone, unlocking the geo-zone on your Mini 2 SE (if you can’t take off where you are).
If you can’t do much, you’ll have to appeal to DJI customer support.
In any case, here are some articles you can further look into if you start getting any error codes when flying the Mini 2 SE or you want to take off.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 Errors: What They Mean (And How to Fix Them)
Conclusion
This article should not stop you from purchasing your DJI Mini 2 SE. Don’t get me wrong. Contrary to all these “possible” issues, the DJI Mini 2 SE is a fantastic drone. In fact, it’s one of the best you can get around this price range.
So, issues can come with any drone on the market, not only this one. Because it’s a budget drone, it can be more susceptible to minor issues.
We have had a fair share of dealing with drone issues over the years, and with many drones we’ve had.
Not the Mini 2 SE, though; I mean, nothing that is worth mentioning anyway.
We have covered these possible issues with the DJI Mini 2 SE not because we personally have experienced them but because some other people appear to have had them.
What we have listed here is not a complete list and never could be because some people can have some unheard of issues nobody came across with their drones before. But these are the most common issues you might come across with your DJI Mini 2 SE.
Overall, having problems with your Mini 2 SE is rare. So, if there’s something wrong with your Mini 2 SE, once again, don’t despair. There should be easy fixes most of the time.
