phantom 4 return to home not working

dji phantom 4 return to home not working (Explained)

When flying the DJI Phantom 4, returning to home may not work as intended. This can be a frustrating issue, as it means that the drone is unable to find its way back to the user.

In some cases, this may simply be due to lost connection with the drone, while in other cases it may be due to an issue with the drone’s sensors.

If returning home does not work as intended, there are several things that users can do in order to try and rectify the situation.

– First and foremost, it is important to check that all of the drone’s sensors are operational and properly calibrated.

– Additionally, users should make sure that their wireless network is up and running properly and that their batteries are fully charged.

– If none of these solutions resolve the problem, then it may be necessary to take the drone into a DJI Service Center for further inspection or repair.

If you’re having trouble returning your Dji Phantom 4 to home after takeoff, check out these troubleshooting tips.

How Do I Set Home On DJI Phantom 4?

1. Choose your location and altitude preference 

2. Choose your camera settings 

3. Choose your drone flight mode 

4. Activate the Home Mode

How Does DJI Return to Home Work?

DJI Phantom 4 drones have a return to home feature that allows the drone to fly back to the user’s location if it loses connection with the controller.

– To use this feature, first ensure that your drone is in Autonomous Mode and be sure that your controller is connected to the drone.

– Once these are set up, press and hold the Return Home button on your controller until you see a green light on the drone and on your screen. The drone will then fly back to where you are located.

How Do I Reset My Phantom 4 Drone?

1. Hold down the power button and the home button at the same time for about 10 seconds until the drone powers off.

2. Press and hold the power button and the home button for about 10 seconds until the drone powers off.

3. Remove the batteries and wait 10 minutes before reinserting them.

4. Turn off your drone by pressing and holding both power buttons at once for about 3 seconds.

What Is DJI Home Point?

DJI’s Phantom 4 is a popular drone with advanced features. One of these features is the Home Point system, which allows the drone to return to its home point even if it loses communication with the controller. This feature can be helpful in situations where you lose control of the drone or if you need to return it to its original location.

However, some users have reported that the Home Point system does not work properly, causing the drone to return to an incorrect location. If you are experiencing this issue, please contact DJI support for assistance.

How Does Drone Auto Return Work?

Drones can be a lot of fun, but they can also be useful tools. One of the most common uses for drones is to take pictures or video. One of the most popular types of drone is the DJI Phantom 4.

One feature that makes the Phantom 4 stand out is its auto return to home function. This function allows the drone to return to its original location if it loses connection with the controller.

The auto return to home function works by using a GPS system in the drone. If it loses connection with the controller, the drone will fly back to its original location and land. This feature is great for beginners because it helps them learn how to control their drone without having to worry about losing it.

How Do You Land A DJI Phantom 4?

1. Charge the Phantom 4 battery to 100% before takeoff

2. Set the drone to autonomous flight mode

3. Fly the Phantom 4 close to the ground to avoid obstacles

4. Use the DJI GO app to control the drone

How Do I Reset My Phantom?

If your Phantom 4 is not returning to home after a few tries, there could be a problem with the unit. Follow these steps to reset your Phantom 4:

1. Make sure the drone is charged and ready to fly

2. Launch the DJI GO app and connect to your Phantom 4

3. Tap on the “Displays” icon in the top left corner of the app

4. Tap on “Home” in the upper right corner of the displays window

5. Tap on “Reset” in the bottom left corner of the displays window

If these steps don’t work, there may be a damage to your drone that needs to be repaired by a DJI technician.

How Do I Turn Off Max Altitude On Phantom 4?

If you’re experiencing trouble with your Phantom 4 returning to home, it may be due to the Max Altitude setting. To turn off Max Altitude, follow these steps:

1. From the main screen, select Home > Settings > System.

2. Under “General,” find and select “Max altitude.”

3. Tap the button next to “Max altitude” to turn it off.

How Do I Set My Home Point in Litchi?

1. Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. On the “General” tab, tap “Location Services.”

3. Under “System Services,” tap “Home Screen.”

4. Under “Default Home Point,” tap the icon that looks like a house with a green roof.

5. Move your iPhone or iPad to a different location and confirm that the home point has changed.

How Accurate Is Drone Return to Home?

Drones are becoming more popular as a mode of transportation and communication. They offer an interesting option for those who want to take photos or videos from a high altitude, but they also have some limitations. One limitation is that drones cannot always find their way back to their home base, which can be problematic if the drone is lost or if it has technical problems.

There are several factors that can affect how accurate a drone is when it returns to its home base.

– The first is the GPS signal that the drone uses to navigate. If there is interference or other obstacles in the way, the drone may not be able to find its way back.

– Additionally, the quality of the GPS signal can be affected by weather conditions and other factors outside of the control of the drone operator.

– Another factor that can affect how accurate a drone is when it returns to its home base is how well it knows its surroundings. If a drone has been flown frequently in specific areas, it may be able to navigate back using only those coordinates. If a drone has never been flown in that area before, however, it may have difficulty finding its way back based on information stored on its memory card or onboard

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How to use DJI’s Return to Home (RTH) Safely

DJI’s Return to home is a useful safety feature of DJI’s drones, however, sometimes the way it works is misunderstood, which unfortunately has led to avoidable crashes for some pilots. So we’re going to take an in-depth look at what it is and how it works. It’s a feature that is seriously worth paying attention to because one day it might save your drone and your wallet from breaking.

There are the 3 types of DJI’s Return to Home

Low Battery RTH:

As its name suggests, this RTH is triggered when the Intelligent Flight Battery is depleted to the point that it may affect the return of the aircraft. When this happens, a prompt will appear on your screen in the DJI GO/4 app, and the drone will automatically begin to ascend to the set RTH height and return if no action is taken after a 10-second countdown. If the battery power is critically low, then the drone will automatically land itself, and this can’t be canceled by the pilot. This type of RTH is one that is best avoided, just like pilots of airplanes never want to be in a situation where their fuel light starts blinking.

Failsafe RTH:

Failsafe RTH happens when your drone loses signal for 3 seconds when using the remote controller or 20 seconds if using Wi-Fi. When it kicks in it will do one of three things depending on how you have set it up. Firstly, if you have it set to RTH then it will ascend to the set RTH height and start to fly back to you, and once you get the signal back, then you can cancel it. Secondly, if you have it set to Hover then your drone will just hover in its current position, so you can walk towards it and re-establish your signal. However, if you fail to re-establish your signal and the Battery RTH is triggered then the drone will either return home or land depending on your Battery RTH settings. Thirdly, it can be set to land, so it’ll just land in its current position.

This is a user triggered RTH when you tap the RTH button on your remote or in the app. Once the button has been tapped the drone will start its flight back to its home point. It can be stopped anytime by pressing the Flight Pause Button on the remote controller or by pressing the Stop icon in the app. If you’re flying the Phantom 4 Pro or Advanced , then the drone will retrace its flight path for 30 seconds before it starts to ascend and fly straight back to you. Something worth remembering is that if your drone is less than 20 meters away from you when you press the RTH button then it will land just where it is, however, if the landing zone is hazardous then it will try to find somewhere safe to land or just hover at a low height until the pilot takes control and lands it manually.

RTH Settings in DJI GO/4

Now that we have looked at the different types of DJI’s Return To Home, let’s take a look at the settings in DJI Go/4 that affect RTH.

Check out the DJI GO 4 Manual to learn more.

Enable Vision Positioning needs to be enabled for Landing Protection and Precision Landing to work. The only real reason to turn this off is if you plan on flying over a reflective surface like water as the light being reflected back messes up the VPS.

Landing protection is another useful setting as the drone will scan the ground before it lands to make sure it is suitable. If it isn’t suitable, the drone will try to find a suitable landing area.

Precision landing is when the drone briefly pauses after take-off and takes a photo of its landing zone so it can be more accurate when it comes back as it matches the picture to what the sensor sees below it.

RTH Obstacle Check setting means your drone will check for obstacles during its RTH and if it detects one, then the drone will ascend to avoid it. If you have this setting enabled it means your aircraft will still check even if you have disabled Obstacle Avoidance for the drone.

All these settings are turned on by default, and it is a good idea to keep them turned on all of the time. It is worth checking from time to time that you haven’t accidentally turned any of them off. The Spark is, however, an exception to the above as it does not have these settings, but instead only has one setting “Sensor State”, which can just turn the sensors on or off.

How to use DJI’s Return to Home Safely

First, you need to record your Home Point with at least 10 satellite GPS connections. Your Home Point can be your drone’s location before taking off, or it can be where ever your remote controller is, check that it’s correct. Finally, make sure you set your return home altitude so that it’s higher than anything in the area. Usually setting it to 100 meters is adequate unless you’re flying in a city or there are any particular large structures around. Now your RTH should be safe to use, but as always if you want to have total control it’s better to land your aircraft by yourself.

Again it’s worth noting that the Spark is a little bit different with how DJI’s Return to Home operates. When the Spark’s RTH is triggered, if the drone is between 3 meters to 20 meters from its home point then the drone will just land automatically with the RTH at Current Altitude option disabled (the default setting in DJI GO 4). If the option is enabled, then the Spark will not ascend if already at the height of 2.5m or more, but if below 2.5m then it will ascend to 2.5m during its RTH. Finally, if the Spark is more than 20m meters away, then it’ll ascend to the set RTH height before heading back home.

One last thing you need to be aware of during the Spark’s RTH is that if it is farther than 100 meters away then the aircraft will return home at a speed of 10m/s and it can’t avoid obstacles. If RTH is used less than 100 meters away, then Obstacle Avoidance will be enabled, and the Spark will avoid obstacles if the lighting conditions are adequate.

DJI’s Return to Home is an effective backup tool that can save your drone in the case of signal loss or low battery, but you need to make sure it’s set up right for it to be an asset.

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Return to Home not working - including log

Yes, you fear correctly. The instructions for retrieving the P4 .DAT are here. Retrieving a V3 .DAT File from the AC

You could also try calibrating the forward vision system. Not that I think it needs calibrating but that would insure that it’s working OK. This problem is very similar to the situation where the P4 is facing into the sun which causes the forward vision system to think there is an obstacle. The rthOAenabled is set to false so this shouldn’t matter but it’s worth checking. Did you set OA on RTH to false?

I am having the exact same issue! I hadn’t used my P4 since last summer. When I first started using it I was getting messages to update the firmware and software. But I delayed doing that as I was out in the field at the time. Everything worked great on the drone. I flew it around quite a bit and had no problems whatsoever A few weeks later I went out and this time decided to go ahead and accept the updates. After going through all of them I started having problems right away. Particularly, specifically with return to home. But I also had issues with changing direction, specifically going forward. It would reverse and go side to side just fine. But for some reason it would slow down going forward to a crawl. If I hit return to home it would go straight up until I eventually stopped it. then other times it would just come straight down until I stopped it. I turned off obstacle avoidance in other intelligent guidance functions but left vision control and GPS enabled. Made no difference with a exception of going forwards seem to be cured by turning off intelligent controls with those two exceptions. But the return to home feature still does not work. I have to manually guide it back to me and bring it down for a landing. I’m not happy about this since It reduces my ability to have faith in the software. Plus I want to know the drone will return to me if something goes on where it needs to return home. Clearly this occurred after I updated the firmware. I have exhausted everything I can think of in terms of calibration performing both calibration on the drone itself and on the remote control. Any answers out there?

I’m having the exact issue. Would love an answer. I’ve reached out to DJI but haven’t heard back from them yet.

After working with a few people on this issue, I found reverting the Phantom firmware to the previous version (or any version prior to 2.00.0700) resolves this issue. That can be done from the DJI Assistant 2 application (download it here ).

I also had similar problem. Using latest FW on P4, I think is 2.00.0810. So I should downgrade to 2.00.0700 or even older?

The people I talked to were all running 2.00.0810. Since lots of people are currently running 2.00.0810, I can only assume there is a certain setting or combination of settings that causes this to occur.

Another possibility is that DJI fixed the problem and re-released 2.00.0810 with a patch. If you want to verify, you could downgrade to 2.00.0700 and then upgrade back to 2.00.0810.

So… I downgraded to 2.00.0700, did factory reset and looks like everythink is working. And actually have some features that I was unable to see previously. Like precision landing option or remote indentification… Maybe those where removed in latest FW?

Hello to all, I can’t get my dji pro 3 to take an update. everything seems to work except for camera video. when trying to update the firmware it starts okay the Gimbal has the alternating red and green light then after about 30 seconds it turns to red. maybe if I do the factory reset then upgrade it would help. what are the steps to do the factory reset? this will be something more I could try. Thanks

@dji-rey You may want to start a new thread on your issue. This is a different topic. That, said can you supply the AB installation log?

I have the same issue, how was this fixed?

I am having the exact same issue with my P4, but did find a way to sort of fix the problem.

I turned off OA on RTH, but left overall OA on. RTH now works, though I would still like to fix the problem completely.

What is OA? I solved the issue by downgrading firmware… Never updating firmware ever again until I die haha

OA stands for Obstacle Avoidance

I am having same issue with P4/. Updated P4 , RC all good. So I have set RTH to 30 + height. I also put it in course lock. So course lock works perfect then I hit RTH P4 goes far above preset height to max. No return. Then also I don’t know if bc I hit RTH it was supposed to be taken out of course lock. I’m finding forward is to a crawl as well. All similar to what everybody is posting here. Any help greatly appreciated. I’m worried about flying it at all with all these issues. Thanks …

Normal for RTH…

I did all the test I could and realized that fairly recently I had purchased NEW 2’ USB to Apple cable to go from my Phantom4 remote to my iPad or phone. So I swapped out the newly purchased cable and then used the factory cable it came with. Problems solved !!! There must be something not exactly correct with the 3td partly cable. So I’m very happy now . But with this looking on DJI website does ANYBODY know where from DJI we can order extra cables that come directly from them ? Thanks everybody.

I had the same issue and i have been pulling my hair out for ages. I would have return to home sometimes work others it would just keep ascending… and i mean acceding like see ya mate.

The other issue i had was max 10kph with OA turned off and normal movement in sports mode.

Since i downgraded to 2.00.0700 everything is fine. RTH always works, and my drone is super fast again and i can actually have OA turned on with normal speed.

Has DJI got a fix or even acknowledged that there is an issue here? I have tried every combination of setting with the latest firmware but for whatever reason it seeps to play hell with its sensors.

Seems like with the latest version, the altitude sensor is always reporting false data and the front sensors always think there is an object within range so it slows right down.

Also i am Running a DJI4 Standard.

An update to this, re-calibrating the sensors via the PC APP (DJI Assistant 2) solved the issues

Hello , Now that some time has passed. Has this fixed your issue of RTH no working ? I am also experiencing the RTH Just putting P4 up to height and hovering , never returning

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Air Conditioner Not Cooling? 7 Potential Causes (and Fixes)

If your AC isn't cooling, skip the call to the handyman and fix it yourself with our troubleshooting tips.

We've all been there: The first summer heat wave comes to town and your air conditioner stops cooling, leaving you stranded in the heat. Air conditioners work hard year after year, requiring a little upkeep and maintenance to run their best. If your air conditioner's not cooling properly, there are a number of potential reasons. Some are simple, while others may require a service call from a certified HVAC technician. Below, we've outlined 7 potential reasons for your conditioner not cooling and how to remedy them.

Getty Images / Johnrob

Warning Signs of a Malfunctioning Air Conditioner

To avoid your air conditioning going out as soon as a heat wave arrives, keep tabs on your system to ensure it's running optimally before summer approaches. Here are some signs that may indicate that your air conditioning unit is struggling , so you can catch the problem before the unit goes out:

• Short, frequent cycling
• Blowing warm air
• Emitting odors
• Increased humidity
• Higher utility bills
• Excess condensate around the unit
• Frost around the unit
• Slow starting
• Abnormal sounds upon starting, running, or turning off
• Low airflow

7 Reasons Air Conditioners Stop Cooling

1. improperly set thermostat.

Whether you use a smart thermostat or a basic thermostat, your air conditioner's cooling issues could solely be a result of an improperly set thermostat. Adjust your thermostat to run the AC at your desired temperature. Switch the fan setting to "On" to check that the fan is working. When in doubt, reference your thermostat's owner's manual to ensure you're using it properly.

2. Broken Thermostat

If you find that your thermostat is set properly but not communicating with your HVAC unit, the thermostat itself could be broken. This is more probable if you're dealing with an older thermostat.

Luckily, replacing thermostats is a simple process that most homeowners can tackle themselves. While you're at it, consider installing a smart thermostat for more control over your home's heating and cooling.

Whenever replacing electrical components, always turn off the breaker associated with the electrical component and double-check using an electrical tester before proceeding.

3. Dirty Return Filter

Your HVAC unit's return filter is responsible for trapping all of the hair, dirt, dust, and other particles that move through your system, preventing them from reaching the evaporator coils and causing severe issues. The return filter is designed to be replaced regularly.

Every home has different recommended intervals for replacing return filters, dependent on several factors. For instance, homes with pets could need a new filter monthly. If your filter is dirty, swap it for a new one to help your air conditioner cool more effectively.

4. Dirty Condenser Coil

The condenser coil, located on the outside unit, is responsible for removing the heat from your house. If the coils get blocked by dirt and debris, they can't operate as needed, which results in inefficient heat dissipation. Clean your condenser coils to get your air conditioning properly cooling again.

5. Frozen Evaporator Coil

The evaporator coil, located on the inside unit, is responsible for cooling the air that is then blown into your home. These coils have a tendency to freeze up, which can reduce or totally compromise their function.

To determine if your coils are frozen, look for excess condensate around the interior unit, frost forming around the coil cabinet, or even ice around the exterior tubing. To defrost the coils, turn off your unit. Depending on the size and location of your unit, it could take at least 24 hours to totally defrost.

If your evaporator coils freeze again soon after you defrost them, contact an HVAC technician to examine the unit and determine the underlying cause.

6. Low Refrigerant

Without refrigerant, your air conditioning system can't cool the air. Even a small refrigerant leak can drastically impact your air conditioner's ability to cool. Refrigerant works by flowing through the air conditioner's coils, where it repeatedly changes from liquid to gas and back again. The process removes the heat and blows it away with the outside unit's fan. When the system is low on refrigerant due to a leak, it can no longer transfer the heat.

Adding refrigerant to your home's AC unit is a job that's better left to the professionals.

7. Undersized Unit

Not all air conditioners are the same size, just as not all houses are the same size. If your air conditioner seems to work well at the beginning and end of summer but struggles during the hotter months, it could be that the unit itself is undersized for your home.

This could be a result of improper sizing upon initial installation or because you built an addition and didn't supplement or upgrade your unit. If this is the case, you'll need to upgrade to a properly sized unit.

In some cases, you can supplement an undersized air conditioner with ductless units installed in hotter areas of the home, which can be a more cost-effective solution.

When to Call a Professional

If these simple fixes don't get your conditioning cooling again, contact a professional to take a look. Air conditioners rely on several integral components to remove the heat from your house and cool the air. Even the smallest parts can impact the air conditioner's ability to cool your home, making it incredibly difficult for the untrained eye to narrow down the potential issues.

Keep tabs on your unit and try to call before you get stranded with no AC. Calling an HVAC technician during a heat wave often leads to longer wait times and even higher rates.

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Understanding Your DJI Drone’s Return To Home (RTH) Function

All advanced drones come with a equally advanced brain with built in safety features like Return to Home.  Unfortunately, not every reads the entire manual and takes to the air without understanding  exactly how these functions really work.

Take the DJI Return to Home function built into drones like the Spark , Mavic Series and Phantom Series .

At first glance it looks like it’s just a button on the controller that you tap when you want your drone to come home.  But it’s truly much more sophisticated than that.

Most DJI drones, like the ones name above have three types of DJI’s Return to Home.

Low Battery RTH

As its name suggests, this RTH is triggered when the Intelligent Flight Battery is depleted to the point that it may affect the return of the aircraft. When this happens, a prompt will appear on your screen in the DJI GO/4 app, and the drone will automatically begin to ascend to the set RTH height and return if no action is taken after a 10-second countdown. If the battery power is critically low, then the drone will automatically land itself, and this can’t be canceled by the pilot. This type of RTH is one that is best avoided, just like pilots of airplanes never want to be in a situation where their fuel light starts blinking.

Failsafe RTH:

Failsafe RTH happens when your drone loses signal for 3 seconds when using the remote controller or 20 seconds if using Wi-Fi. When it kicks in it will do one of three things depending on how you have set it up. Firstly, if you have it set to RTH then it will ascend to the set RTH height and start to fly back to you, and once you get the signal back, then you can cancel it. Secondly, if you have it set to Hover then your drone will just hover in its current position, so you can walk towards it and re-establish your signal. However, if you fail to re-establish your signal and the Battery RTH is triggered then the drone will either return home or land depending on your Battery RTH settings. Thirdly, it can be set to land, so it’ll just land in its current position.

This is a user triggered RTH when you tap the RTH button on your remote or in the app. Once the button has been tapped the drone will start its flight back to its home point. It can be stopped anytime by pressing the Flight Pause Button on the remote controller or by pressing the Stop icon in the app. If you’re flying the Phantom 4 Pro or Advanced, then the drone will retrace its flight path for 30 seconds before it starts to ascend and fly straight back to you. Something worth remembering is that if your drone is less than 20 meters away from you when you press the RTH button then it will land just where it is, however, if the landing zone is hazardous then it will try to find somewhere safe to land or just hover at a low height until the pilot takes control and lands it manually.

RTH Settings in DJI GO 4

Now that we have looked at the different types of DJI’s Return To Home, let’s take a look at the settings in DJI Go/4 that affect RTH.

Check out the  DJI GO 4 Manual  to learn more.

Enable Vision Positioning  needs to be enabled for Landing Protection and Precision Landing to work. The only real reason to turn this off is if you plan on flying over a reflective surface like water as the light being reflected back messes up the VPS.

Landing protection  is another useful setting as the drone will scan the ground before it lands to make sure it is suitable. If it isn’t suitable, the drone will try to find a suitable landing area.

Precision landing  is when the drone briefly pauses after take-off and takes a photo of its landing zone so it can be more accurate when it comes back as it matches the picture to what the sensor sees below it.

RTH Obstacle Check  setting means your drone will check for obstacles during its RTH and if it detects one, then the drone will ascend to avoid it. If you have this setting enabled it means your aircraft will still check even if you have disabled Obstacle Avoidance for the drone.

All these settings are turned on by default, and it is a good idea to keep them turned on all of the time. It is worth checking from time to time that you haven’t accidentally turned any of them off. The  Spark  is, however, an exception to the above as it does not have these settings, but instead only has one setting “Sensor State”, which can just turn the sensors on or off.

How to use DJI’s Return to Home Safely

First, you need to record your Home Point with at least 10 satellite GPS connections. Your Home Point can be your drone’s location before taking off, or it can be where ever your remote controller is, check that it’s correct. Finally, make sure you set your return home altitude so that it’s higher than anything in the area. Usually setting it to 100 meters is adequate unless you’re flying in a city or there are any particular large structures around. Now your RTH should be safe to use, but as always if you want to have total control it’s better to land your aircraft by yourself.

Again it’s worth noting that the  Spark  is a little bit different with how DJI’s Return to Home operates. When the Spark ’s RTH is triggered, if the drone is between 3 meters to 20 meters from its home point then the drone will just land automatically with the RTH at Current Altitude option disabled (the default setting in DJI GO 4). If the option is enabled, then the Spark will not ascend if already at the height of 2.5m or more, but if below 2.5m then it will ascend to 2.5m during its RTH. Finally, if the Spark is more than 20m meters away, then it’ll ascend to the set RTH height before heading back home.

One last thing you need to be aware of during the Spark’s RTH is that if it is farther than 100 meters away then the aircraft will return home at a speed of 10m/s and it can’t avoid obstacles. If RTH is used less than 100 meters away, then Obstacle Avoidance will be enabled, and the Spark will avoid obstacles if the lighting conditions are adequate.

DJI’s Return to Home is an effective backup tool that can save your drone in the case of signal loss or low battery, but you need to make sure it’s set up right for it to be an asset.

Dave Johnstone

Dave Johnstone is Managing Editor at DroneReviewsAndNews where he writes and reports on all drone news. In addition to be a Transport Canada Advanced drone pilot, he is also a contributor at HasselbladNews.com and founder of Commercialdronepilots.ca You can reach him at [email protected] or @dronenewsguy

3 thoughts on “ Understanding Your DJI Drone’s Return To Home (RTH) Function ”

You forgot one hugely important detail. If the home point is less than 20m from the drone’s location when RTH is triggered or invoked, and the drone happens to be over water at that point in time, it will LAND IN THE WATER. So bye bye drone! Note that loss of signal is one way to trigger RTH, and is something that the operator has no control over. The best solution is for DJI to get rid of that 20m threshold and just make the drone try to land on the home point regardless of distance from home, when RTH is triggered. 20 meters is a freaking big radius, and approximately covers an area of half of a football field. It is unreasonable to make dji customers avoid flying over any water that is within that distance from the home point, it pretty much precludes using the drone at the beach, from a pier, or near any rivers!

Excellent point, Paul! Thanks for point it out. We’ll definitely make sure this gets added to the artice…you’re right–> it’s a very important detail!

If I don’t have an obstacle avoidance feature,is RTH still safe to use?

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6 Ways to Get an Off-Screen Window Back on Screen on Windows

While using Microsoft Windows, I had a window that had somehow fallen completely off of my screen. Right-clicking the window in the Taskbar and selecting Maximize brought it back. But there was no way I could get the window restored to where I could move it around my screen with my mouse. If you’re a Windows user, you know you’ve experienced this before. Here’s how to get an off-screen window back on screen on all versions of Windows.

There are a few ways to fix the issue with a window opening off-screen. You can temporarily change your computer’s resolution, switch to the desktop view, or move the window via the arrow keys on your keyboard. We’ll highlight all of this so you can pick the simplest way to move a window that is off-screen for you.

How to Bring a Window to Your Main Screen

Here are all the solutions you can try if your window is stuck off-screen and is not showing on-screen on your laptop or monitor.

1. Change Your Screen’s Resolution Temporarily

For windows 11, 10, and 8.

Step 1: Start the problematic application. Then, right-click in a blank area of the Desktop. Choose Display settings.

Step 2: Select ‘Advanced display settings’ at the bottom of the window.

Step 3: Temporarily change the Resolution to another value. Then, click on Apply.

You should be able to view the window on your screen now.

Step 4: Change the resolution back to the previous value, then select OK.

For Windows 7

Step 1: Start the problematic application. Then, right-click in a blank area of the Desktop. Choose Screen Resolution.

Step 2: Temporarily change the Resolution to another value. Then, click on Apply.

Step 3: Change the resolution back to the previous value, then select OK.

2. Use the Show Desktop Toggle

Hold down the Windows Key, then press D.

Repeat these steps to see if it makes the window you are looking for reappear. Alternatively, you can right-click a blank area of the taskbar and then choose Show the desktop. Repeat this process till you see the window.

3. Use the Move Option

Keyboard shortcut.

Step 1: Select the program in the taskbar.

Step 2: Hold the Windows Key while pressing Left Arrow or Right Arrow repeatedly to move the window back into view.

Taskbar Menu

In Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Vista, hold down the Shift key while right-clicking the program in the taskbar. Then, select Move.

If you’re using Windows XP, right-click the item in the taskbar and select   Move. Sometimes, you may have to select Restore, then go back and select Move.

4. Cascade Windows

Right-click a blank area of the taskbar. Then select Cascade windows.

This will bring up a view of all your open programs and applications on Windows. Look for the program you want and then click on it. The window will open up on your screen. In fact, this is also a good way to quickly switch between open applications and bring the required window to the main screen.

5. Maximize All Windows

Sometimes, a single app will get stuck in a state where it cannot redraw into the Window. You can usually alleviate this by maximizing that particular app or program. While maximizing is generally done using the center button at the corner of a window, here’s how you can do it if you don’t see the window at all.

Step 1: Hold Shift and right-click on the program icon in the taskbar.

Step 2: Then choose Maximize.

6. Use the Keyboard Shortcut for Window Switching

Windows makes it easy to switch between all open windows just using your keyboard. If none of the above solutions helped, you can attempt to switch to the hidden window using keyboard shortcuts.

Open any other window of your choice and press the Alt + Tab keys. This brings up the window switcher. Keep pressing the keys until the required window is highlighted. When it’s on the required window, let go of the keys. The selected window should now open up on your display.

Hide and Seek

When you’re working on your computer, chances are that you open a lot of applications and multiple instances of the same program. While that shouldn’t pose any problems, some apps or windows go off-screen and are hard to access.

Don’t worry, though, as all you have to do is follow the abovementioned steps to get an off-screen window back on screen. The steps above should also prevent an app from opening off-screen henceforth.

Last updated on 10 October, 2023

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Mitch Bartlett