I signed up for DJI Care Refresh about a week after buying my camera, so I never actually had this problem.

But while I was reading the rules I found something worth writing down. If you miss the window, that’s not the end of it — there’s an official way back. DJI just doesn’t make it easy to find, and the part everyone actually wants to know is buried in a PDF.

So here it is in one place. I’ll be clear about which parts I did myself and which parts I only read.

My Osmo Action 5 Pro — the handheld rules below are the ones I looked up for this camera
My Osmo Action 5 Pro — the handheld rules below are the ones I looked up for this camera

The window is shorter than you’d guess

Two different deadlines, which is where the confusion starts:

Forty-eight hours. That’s it.

And the clock starts at activation, not purchase. That matters more than it sounds. If you bought something used, the previous owner already activated it — probably months ago. Your window closed before the box got to you.

Missed it? There’s an official path

You’ve got two options, and DJI spells both out:

  1. Video verification — record a video of the device, submit it
  2. Send the device to DJI for inspection or repair

Either way, once you pass and get the purchase notification, you have 72 hours to buy and bind the plan.

Used gear counts. DJI’s own FAQ says that if a second-hand device doesn’t meet the normal criteria, video verification or sending it in is how you do it. So this isn’t a loophole someone found — it’s the documented route.

What the video actually has to show

This is the part that isn’t on the FAQ page. It lives in separate PDFs — one for handheld gear, one for drones — linked from DJI’s Video Verification Guide. Here is the handheld one, if you would rather read it straight from the source.

For the Osmo Action series, the ground rules are: camera and the DJI Mimo app visible in the same shot, filmed somewhere bright and open, and no editing, cutting, or splicing. One continuous take.

Then, in order, you’re showing five things:

  1. The condition — every side of the camera, screens with no cracks, no bad scratches, lens module intact
  2. That it powers on — card in, status light on, screen working (swipe down to prove the touchscreen responds)
  3. The serial number — Settings → Device Info
  4. That it connects — pair with DJI Mimo, show that the view and controls work
  5. That it records — take a photo, take a video, play both back, and check the sound

Drones are a different process. DJI suggests screen recording rather than filming with a second device, and adds a few things: show the current date and time, show the serial in DJI Fly’s About page, run a gimbal calibration, scroll the status list to prove there are no warnings, and record at least three seconds of video and play it back.

Once you see why, the list stops feeling random

It’s insurance. They’re checking that you haven’t already broken it.

Every step is really one question — is this thing still intact and working? The screens, the lens, the touchscreen, the recording, the playback with sound. That’s why you can’t edit the video, and why they want the app and the camera in the same frame. It has to be one unbroken take of this specific device working right now.

Makes the whole thing much less annoying once it clicks.

Submitting it

It’s not a file upload. You put the video on YouTube or Google Drive and submit the link through DJI’s verification portal.

DJI says approval comes back within two business days, and then you’ve got that 72-hour window to actually buy.

One extra step if it’s a used drone

Before any of this, the previous owner has to unbind the drone from their DJI account. Then you bind it to yours, then to your controller. If they haven’t done it, you’ll run into flight restrictions and nothing else will go smoothly.

Worth sorting out with the seller before money changes hands.

What signing up was actually like

This part I did do.

I registered in the DJI app, and it works like a normal order — it asks for your name and address even though nothing gets shipped to you. Coverage just switches on. I assume the form is the same one they use for physical products.

The one thing that saved me time: don’t go hunting for the serial number on the device. You already used an app to activate the camera, and the serial is sitting right there in your device list. I copied it from there and pasted it in.

Mine cost ₩45,000 for two years (about $33). I’d been pricing third-party cases at roughly the same money, which is what pushed me to this instead. More on that in the post about buying the camera.

Checked against DJI’s own documentation on 1 September 2026. Policies change, so if you’re reading this much later, treat it as a starting point and confirm on DJI’s site. Sources: DJI’s Care Refresh FAQ, the Video Verification Guide, and DJI’s video verification step PDFs for handheld devices and camera drones, linked from that guide. Everything above is my own summary of those documents, not a copy of them.