What happens when Skydio 2/2+ loses signal?
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Establishing return behaviors for your drone is a critical pre-flight safety precaution that ensures a safe return flight and landing. When a return is triggered, either manually or autonomously, Skydio will ascend to the user-specified height before beginning the return flight. You can customize this return height, and other return settings to ensure that no obstacles, people, or animals will be in the return pathway of your drone.
Obstacle avoidance remains present when Skydio 2/2+ loses communication with the phone, Beacon, or Controller. If you do lose signal, remain calm and let Skydio navigate home by itself.
| You can monitor the strength of the signal connection between the controlling device and your Skydio 2/2+. Select the Connection Status icon to display the connected drone status, signal strength, GPS quality, and satellite count. |
Lost Connection return behaviors
If you lose connection, Skydio will first follow the Lost Connection settings you have selected prior to your flight:
- Wait Before Return - Specify the amount of time that you want Skydio to wait before it initiates a return flight, allowing time to reconnect.
- Land Once Returned - When enabled, Skydio will return, hover for a specified amount of time, then land.
- Wait Before Land - Specify the amount of time between 0 to 300 seconds (the default is 240 seconds) that you want Skydio to wait before landing. This setting is only enabled when Land Once Return is toggled on.
After following your Lost Connection settings, Skydio will then follow the Return Behavior settings you have selected. Adjust settings such as the speed, orientation, and height of your drone during the return trip.
For more information on Return Behavior, check out our article, Understanding Skydio 2/2+ Return Behaviors.
When following a subject
Skydio 2/2+ uses visual tracking, in combination with GPS and WiFi, to establish its position and keep track of its subject. Occasionally those signals can be obscured by the environment, especially when a subject is moving quickly.
If Home Point is set:
If you set a Home Point on the map within the Skydio app and are tracking a subject, Skydio will continue to follow the subject for 20 seconds, or until the drone needs to return home due to a low battery (whichever occurs first). After tracking has stopped, Skydio will wait the specified Wait Before Return time (minus 20 seconds) before returning to the Home Point.
[info] Example: Prior to starting your flight, you set Wait Before Return to 30 seconds. During flight, you are tracking a subject when Skydio loses connection to the Controller. Based on these circumstances, the drone will continue tracking the subject for 20 seconds, wait an additional 10 seconds, then Return to Home. [/info]
If NO Home Point is set:
If you did not set a Home Point and are tracking a subject, Skydio will continue to track for 20 seconds. After that time, Skydio will wait the specified Wait Before Return time (minus 20 seconds) before returning to the last location it was actively tracking a subject while connected.
When NOT following a subject
If Home Point is set:
Skydio will return to the Home Point you have set.
If NO Home Point is set:
If you do not have a Home Point set and you lose connection, Skydio 2/2+ will go to the last location that a subject was tracked since launch. If there was no subject tracked in this flight, Skydio will return to the Launch Point.
[info] Example: You start your flight in the Motion Track Skill so you can track yourself while biking along a trail. During that same flight, you switch to the Manual Skill and pilot the drone to capture cinematic footage. You lose connection to your drone and you did not set a Home Point for this flight. Based on these circumstances, Skydio will hover and wait the amount of time set in the Wait Before Return setting, then it will return to the last location it tracked you. [/info]
Be sure to check out our related articles on GPS for more details.
Recovering a lost drone
In the event that your Skydio 2/2+ is lost, you may view its last known location by selecting your vehicle within the Info tab (Info > Devices) and selecting “Find <vehicle name>”.
If you have questions or need additional support—feel free to reach out! Skydio Support
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