Mini 2 not showing up on Macbook 2020 with M1 chip running Big Sur

[Nakita Mosquita]

The best cable to use is a Thunderbolt 3 40GBps capable active cable at under 0.5m in length. Unfortunately the Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3 standards are a mess and incorrect cables (especially with the M1 as I've found with my hub) can lead to connection errors.

Note I used the above cable to connect the Mini 2/Mavic 2 Pro and only the Mavic 2 Pro connected. For reference the M1 Macs support USB 4 with Thunderbolt 3. I don't use any dongles so I am on a pure USB-C to USB-C connector.

Thanks for your share. I can easily still connect the Mini 2 to my iMac and offload images / video to an external hard drive. While travelling, the ability to offload between my iphone and Macbook Air using air drop and or Quick transfer is easy. I have learned I don't want to olug up drives and computers with tons of images / videos that can quickly use up space on iphones and laptops. My MBA has only a 256 gb drive so the external 2 TB works for me. I don't like pulling the sd card out each time I want to transfer. I'm quite sure the handshake issue between the two recently products (the MBA and Mini 2) will resolve itself.

 

[Nakita Mosquita]

Response from DJI....sad...

Veronica （Support） 2021年1月26日 GMT+810:29 Hi Jay, Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support. If the drone does connect fine to your older Apple iMac, it shall be working with your new new 2020 MacBook Air. Could you please check the setting on your new 2020 MacBook Air. Like Anti virus or system safety setting that blocks everything which is not permitted for connection. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. Thanks for choosing DJI. Best Regards, Veronica DJI Technical Support Website: Support - DJI Youtube: http://s.dji.com/DJI-Tutorials

 

[Nakita Mosquita]

from DJI to-day....

Hi Jay,

Thanks for your feedback.

I have talked with our related department for the issue. The latest news I get for this is that 2020 MacBook Air is newly released, and we are testing its compatbility with our products. Please follow up on our website for the update. It is recommended to use your older Apple iMac at the moment.
Thank you for your understanding.
Stay safe and have a great day/night.

Thanks for choosing DJI.
Best Regards,
Veronica

 

[iamdev]

My Mavic Air 2 only connects to my MacBook-Pro if I use the cable that has Type-C on one end, and USB on the other end. "Controller charging cable"

Type-C to Type-C cable doesn't lets my drone show up.

 

[Howard70]

My Mavic Air 2 only connects to my MacBook-Pro if I use the cable that has Type-C on one end, and USB on the other end. "Controller charging cable"

Type-C to Type-C cable doesn't lets my drone show up.

Exactly the same for my situation! No problems once I accepted that restraint.

Howard

 

[Jim Flannery K0UNX]

Nothing like "having standards!"

 

[Howard70]

Nothing like "having standards!"

My standards seem to follow a trajectory best modeled as the inverse of my aging.....

 

[Jim Flannery K0UNX]

I liked that. But no, I meant the USB standards. Just in the last couple of years, we've gotten PD (Power Delivery) over USB as a standard. I hope that APPLE switches to this standard. The latest laptops and iPad Pro have USB-C. I want to see it on iPhones too, but they'll likely do away with any ports at all, in favor of wireless charging, so they can make them waterproof.

 

[BillyBobMiami]

Sept 23 2022 and my Macbook Air 2020 M1 does absolutely nothing when I connect it to the powered up DJI Mini 2 via USBC to USBC direct connection. No external drive appears and I cant transfer any files from the Drone MicroSD to the Laptop. Any suggestions?

 

[pkrik]

My new Mini 2 will not show up on my new Macbook (2020 with the Apple M1 chip) and running OS 11 / Big Sur. The mini shows up (mounts and opens Photos like it's supposed to) when plugged in to my older iMac. But will not show up on my new Macbook. I've tried two different sd cards....makes no difference. It's not the cable as the cable works when connecting to the iMac. Have searched the internet...the renaming of the sd card 'trick' did nothing. Help!

3 days later after some research and discussions with Apple.............Currently I can easily still connect the Mini 2 to my iMac (Catalina OS)and offload images / video to an external hard drive. While travelling, the ability to offload between my iphone and Macbook Air using air drop and or Quick transfer is easy and honestly doesn't seem to be that much slower. It does require battery power from the drone but I usually do my previews soon after a flight and trash material I don't want. I have learned I don't want to olug up drives and computers with tons of images / videos that can quickly use up space on iphones and laptops and eventually become so huge, I don't know where to start. My MBA has only a 256 gb drive so the external 2 TB works for me. I don't like pulling the sd card out each time I want to transfer. I'm quite sure the handshake issue between the two recently products (the MBA and Mini 2) will resolve itself.

I had the same issue and figured out the issue.

Option 1 - connect through a hub that has USB-C on it. I have a Thunderbolt hub that has USB-C ports on it; connecting the provided cable to the hub makes the drone show up on my M1 Mac. However...when I travel, I don't take the hub, so solution 2...

Option 2 - use an actual Thunderbolt 3 cable, not the USB-C cable DJI provides. I had a legit TB3 40 Gbps cable (they have USB-C connectors but will have a "3" or lightning bolt on each end of the cable). These cables look like a normal USB-C cable, but they aren't...and you'll know it when you go to buy them; they are far more expensive than a standard USB-C cable. Anyways, using the thunderbolt cable allowed me to plug the drone directly into my M1 Mac and have it show up as an external drive without doing anything special. And the transfers were decently fast.

And for those who question using the cable rather than a card reader, there are two advantages for me. First, my Thunderbolt port does have a card reader slot, but I don't like taking the card out of the Mini 3 Pro. And second, when I travel I like to carry less rather than more.

 

[pkrik]

Sept 23 2022 and my Macbook Air 2020 M1 does absolutely nothing when I connect it to the powered up DJI Mini 2 via USBC to USBC direct connection. No external drive appears and I cant transfer any files from the Drone MicroSD to the Laptop. Any suggestions?

I had the same issue and figured out the issue.

Option 1 - connect through a hub that has USB-C on it. I have a Thunderbolt hub that has USB-C ports on it; connecting the provided cable to the hub makes the drone show up on my M1 Mac. However...when I travel, I don't take the hub, so solution 2...

Option 2 - use an actual Thunderbolt 3 cable, not the USB-C cable DJI provides. I had a legit TB3 40 Gbps cable (they look like a standard USB-C cable but will have a "3" or lightning bolt on each end of the cable). These cables look like a normal USB-C cable, but they aren't...and you'll know it when you go to buy them; they are far more expensive than a standard USB-C cable. Anyways, using the thunderbolt cable allowed me to plug the drone directly into my M1 Mac and have it show up as an external drive without doing anything special. And the transfers were decently fast.

 

[Nakita Mosquita]

I have also found out that a USB(c) hub plugged in to my Macbook works to then connect to my drone is a solution. Thanks for the share!