iphone lightning to micro USB cable not working

JimmieC · Feb 14, 2018

After 3 weeks in the post (long story) I finally recieved my Mavic air yesterday. Beautiful piece of machinery.

Anyway as the title says, I've been unable to get the lightning to microusb to work between my iphone and the remote control. This is both on an iphone X and and aniphone 6, both running the latest ios version. I can connect my iphone to the remote using a standard lightning cable connecting it to the standard USB at the bottom of the remote, but I'd much rather use cable DJI provided.

I've updated the firmware on both the drone and the remote to the latest versions. I can connect an old android device to the remote using the supplied micro usb to usb cable so I am fairly confident that it is an issue with the lightning to micro usb cable.

I rang DJI customer support for help. They told me that there is no way to connect the phone directly to the remote and that I had to use WIFI to connect to the remote. I explained this was not true and they were confused with the spark which can connect to the remote via WIFI, but there was no way for a phone to connect to the remote via WFI. The operator refused to believe me and didn't seem to believe me that the air came with cables (Very frustrating) to connect between the phone and the remote.

Anyway she took my email address and said she will email me back.

Has anyone else has this problem?

Air Beetle · Feb 14, 2018

Ergonomically, I prefer the bottom port. I can use an official Apple cable that I trust. If your cable is too long just tie up the slack with a tie wrap

Mem · Feb 14, 2018

Make sure the side port is unplugged. Had the same issue with Mavic. The underside usb will not work if the side usb has anything plugged in

ac0j · Feb 14, 2018

Make sure the lightning end is positioned so it fully inserts into the phone.

JimmieC · Feb 15, 2018

Thanks for the replies. Doesn’t seem to be a common problem then. Hopefully DJI send a replacement cable (I’m not impressed with their customer service so far). In the mean time I think I’ll get a cable tie for my iPhone cable as suggested.

Ifti · Feb 15, 2018

I had this with my Mavic Pro.
In the end I unplugged the side MicroUSB cable and use the bottom full size USB port on the controller to connect to the iPhone. Works every time.

msinger · Feb 15, 2018

If you'd rather not work through support, you can pick up this Anbee cable for $8.99 on Amazon. You can also find an OEM DJI cable here.

Air Beetle · Feb 15, 2018

You don't need to buy anything. Use your phone charge cable.

curtismyhero · Feb 16, 2018

I had the exact same problem with my mavic air microusb -> lightning cable. I discovered that it was a bad cable by testing the lightning port cable I received with my Mavic Pro. To date, DJI has refused this to be an issue and will not send a replacement. Funny enough I ordered a replacement through amazon and it was lost....and while I was refunded it made me just give up for the time being. Being that I won't be flying both drones at once for the time being, I"m okay, but I will eventually need to grab another. Long winded way of saying that based on your post, I have a feeling that a bad batch must of been in the shuffle.

JimmieC · Feb 17, 2018

Thanks, reassuring to hear that I'm not the only one with this issue.

I contacted DJI through phone and online support, both times they said they would get back to me by email, but never did. I then emailed them and they replied almost right away and said the have forwarded my request for a replacement cable to their repair team. So I'll see what happens from here. Whilst I can use a normal lightning to USB cable to connect to the remote, it would be tidier to have the official cable and I think on principle they should send me a working one. I appreciate the link to the cable on Amazon, but that would cost around $Aus50 by the time I got it to Australia (of course I know you had no way of know where i live, so I still appreciate the link).