Several times I noticed red square sign instead of compass during flights. I didn't find anything about it in the manual. I don't have a screenshot but it looked like sd-card sign, or something else square like.

Yes, the manual is lacking in many areas.  The indicator is called Aircraft Orientation.  It is drawn using the compass and GPS information from the MM and the phone.  If it lacks some of that information it displays RED with an icon representing a phone, suggesting DJI Fly does not have reliable information in order to present the normal indication.

Got it. That’s a lot for an explanation !!!  

Turn on your phone compass and check that the Fly app can access compass data.

When you're done, you should perform a compass calibration (with phone inserted into the RC clamps) in order to have reliable indications.

Like emaneg said, make sure phone is inserted in RC clamps to get the most accurate calibration.  Some phones have less shielding than others which definitely can effect the calibration.

Hi, thank you for reaching out and we do apologize for the inconvenience. Can you please try to send us a screenshot if you notice again the said sign for us to further identify the issue. Please keep us posted. Thank you!

I got that yesterday while flying.  Had it the entire time of the flight.  I did not notice any issues flying, but had no indication of the relative direction from.me to the drone, of course.

This was with a Samsung Note 8, which has been calibrated with the RC several times.  In this case, I had the phone in one of those mounts that keeps the phone farther away from the RC, and which can also accommodate tablets and the like.  So its position relative to the RC was different.

However, I got no pre-launch warnings, and the app said all was well to take off.  Doing the pre-flight check-out, everything worked fine, and the drone flew well during the flight.  I just couldn't see the "direction finder" display.  Instead, there was a small red rectangle shown in its place the whole time.

It's pretty hard to safely do a screen shot while flying.  And I didn't think to do that at the time anyway.  If I see it again, I could try.

Time for yet another compass cal, I guess.

emaneg Posted at 12-28 03:11
Turn on your phone compass and check that the Fly app can access compass data.

When you're done, you should perform a compass calibration (with phone inserted into the RC clamps) in order to have reliable indications.

How does one check that the fly app has access to the phone's compass data?

And wouldn't it be nice if the app checked this for us before every flight, and gave us a warning, and perhaps an opportunity to switch whatever needs to be switched on like apps that need location data often do.  

I thought that the red square box instead of compass had also to do with a lack of satellites?? As it happened to me once. I flue the next day, same location and no probs. 11-12sats on the first occasion, 15 the next day

Sigmo Posted at 12-28 08:44
I got that yesterday while flying.  Had it the entire time of the flight.  I did not notice any issues flying, but had no indication of the relative direction from.me to the drone, of course.

This was with a Samsung Note 8, which has been calibrated with the RC several times.  In this case, I had the phone in one of those mounts that keeps the phone farther away from the RC, and which can also accommodate tablets and the like.  So its position relative to the RC was different.

I have iPhone max pro and also use it in special tablet holder.

Ingo Sundowner Posted at 12-28 09:09
I thought that the red square box instead of compass had also to do with a lack of satellites?? As it happened to me once. I flue the next day, same location and no probs. 11-12sats on the first occasion, 15 the next day

I don't think these two things are related.  When I had the red box yesterday, I also had at least 14 satellites locked in for the entire flight.

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-28 08:31
Hi, thank you for reaching out and we do apologize for the inconvenience. Can you please try to send us a screenshot if you notice again the said sign for us to further identify the issue. Please keep us posted. Thank you!

Asking for  a screen shot is not the right way IMHO, this compass issue has been asked and discussed everywhere in the forum, plenty of uses have already uploaded screen shots and videos...

I have the same issue on my ipadmini2 most of the time when i fly more than 50 meters away , usually have more than 11 satelites locked. The wifi signal strength is all bars and the home point was updated before take off.
















Confirmed DJI fan boy, Phantom 2(modified), Spark (no.3), Mavic Pro (no.2), Tello, Mavic Mini and Osmo Pocket

After doing some tests yesterday I managed to get correct reading of the compass.

Basically, with iOS Compass APP opened, the DI FLY APP did get the correct orientation, but as soon as I move the RC the arrow would go from Front to indicate the AC is behind me (which is wrong). Since the compass keep telling the AC is behind no matter what, I swapped my phone 180 degrees... and it works...

Now the USB connector of the phone is at the right, the orientation shows correctly as long I keep my body in the same position, that means let say I take off with my body facing north, I have to keep my body in that direction for the whole flight duration or the orientation is wrong.
Hope it helps!

I've never seen mine show anything else:


I have given it access to Location:



Can't find any place in my Samsung Galaxy S10+ for compass permissions.

I just read InspektorGadjet's post about keeping the same body orientation. I'm pretty wiggly and don't stay in one place, so I probably have moved all around. I'll try that. I'll also try it with the opposite phone position.

Oh, and I have an Air 2. Google found me this thread.

It hapened briefly to me today. For a minute or 2 I could not see the drone orientation. weird. then it appeared again. I noticed when that hapened I was orienting the remote in a wrong direction instead of pointing it to the drone. Not sure if it is the cause or not.

My Mavic Mini has had the same problem but only after I had it refreshed to a another one. The other mini I had had no problems. The refreshed one also has video link issues. It looses signal in a third of the distance as the other one. I am also flying in the same location.