(FIXED) Drone Won’t Calibrate (Why, How to Fix)

When I was researching drone problems I found that most drone owners face drone won’t calibrate issues, most of the time DJI drones. Maybe there are more DJI drones, whatever. So I was curious and decided to find out more about the issue. I went through more articles and forums and talked with some drone owners and decided to write this article on thedronestop.

Why won’t my drone calibrate?

Most times the drone won’t calibrate because of the low battery power, faulty components (faulty IMU/ Compass), electromagnetic interference to the calibration components, and firmware issues. Besides that, charged drone surface and calibration surface also could affect the calibration.

Reason 1: Calibrating Surface

When you are calibrating the drone you definitely have to use an entirely flat surface. If you are attempting to calibrate the drone on an uneven surface it will lead to calibration failure or faulty calibration results.

Reason 2: Outdated Firmware

Man, outdated firmware or inconsistent firmware will lead the drone to more and more issues. Especially If you are using a DJI drone. I was also used to being lazy to update my drone’s firmware back in the day and I started to notice some issues with the drone.

Reason 3: Low battery

Drones like DJI have more safety features to keep the drone safe and avoid risky actions. If you are trying to calibrate a drone with low battery power its system might reject the calibration process because of its built-in safety features keeping the drone from improper calibration. So make sure to charge the battery fully before calibrating the drone.

Reason 4: Faulty Components

There are more components that are essential for calibrating the drone. Such as an accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, and thermometer. If you are having this issue in a new drone or after crashing the drone and also you are experiencing unstable flight there is a chance that it may cause damaged components. For DJI drones, most of the time faulty IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) causes the issue.

Reason 5: Charged drone surface

When you are calibrating the drone you definitely have to keep metals and magnetic stuff away from the drone. But what if the drone’s surface got magnetized? I have heard some stories like that. Most drone storing bags have a lot of friction so when you carry the drone it’s rubbing against the drone and its surface gets charged. So it affects the calibration process.

Fix the Drone Won’t Calibrate Issue

Solution 1: Check whether you are calibrating the drone properly.

First and foremost, this is essential to check whether you are calibrating the drone properly. Cause some people also faced the issue because of improper calibration. It’s fine if you don’t know how to calibrate the drone. Let’s look at how to calibrate DJI drones cause other drones will have a similar process, too

Before calibrating the DJI drone

If you just flew the drone, give it a few minutes to cool before calibrating.

Charge the drone battery at least 50%
Put the drone on a flat surface and keep metal, magnetic stuff, and electronics away from the drone. If you have an iPhone, open your measure app or if you have an android download the bubble level app and make sure you place your drone on a level surface.

If you’re done with the above steps, let’s start the process.

Calibrate Drone IMU.

Place the drone on a flat surface.
First, remove the gimbal cover from the drone because when the drone restarts during the calibration process the camera would be damaged. It’s also good to remove the propellers from the drone but it’s not necessary.
If the drone is foldable, power on the aircraft while its arms are closed in.

dji mavic pro imu calibration — Credits: Camrann Coker

Enter the IMU calibration panel and start the calibration. (In DJI GO 4 app, click on the three dots at the top right corner. Then click on the drone icon go to Main Controller Settings > Advanced Settings > Sensors > IMU and hit the “Calibrate IMU” button.)

Once the above steps are done, the IMU calibration process would start. You need to place the drone in different poses to calibrate IMU.
Start with the drone on its belly and wait until the IMU is calibrated in that pose.

Next, move the aircraft onto its right side and wait until the IMU is calibrated in that position.

Then change the drone over to the left side and wait until the IMU is calibrated in that position.

Then Stand the drone on its back ends and wait until the IMU is calibrated in that position.

Then turn the drone upside down and wait until the calibration process goes to 100%.

Calibrate Drone compass.

Connect the remote controller to the smartphone.
Power on the drone and remote controller.

Enter the Compass calibration panel and start calibration. (In DJI GO 4 app, Tap on the three dots at the top left corner and click on the drone icon go to Main Controller Settings > Advanced Settings > Sensors > Compass and hit the “Calibrate Compass” button.)

dji mavic pro compass calibration — Credits: Digital Video Pro

Place the remote controller away where you can see the app screen.
Take the drone aircraft into your hands and hold it horizontally and about 4 feet away from you. DJI aircraft’s indicators should be light yellow right now. Then spin around 360 degrees until those indicators turn to solid green.

After that, hold the drone vertically and spin it again around 360 degrees until the indicators turn solid green.

Solution 2: Update/Refresh/Downgrade the drone’s firmware

As I mentioned before having outdated firmware or glitches on the present firmware would cause the issue. Because the firmware is the manager of the actions. It’s so easy to update firmware, you can find it in your user manual or can easily find it on the internet. I will mention some common steps to update drone firmware. Also, be sure to keep the same firmware version on the controller and the drone.

How to Update/Refresh/ Downgrade DJI drone.

Download and install the corresponding DJI Assistant 2 application to your DJI drone to the PC.

Open DJI Assistant 2 application.
Power on the drone and connect to the PC using the USB cable.
Once the DJI Assistant 2 detects the drone, Choose the drone.

Then log in to your DJI account connected to the drone.
Then you’ll enter the firmware update panel of the drone.

Click on the “Upgrade” or “Refresh” button in front of the latest firmware. If you are getting the issue after updating the firmware, tap on the “Downgrade” button in front of the recent firmware.

Click “Start Update”.

Wait until the firmware is completely downloaded and installed.

Follow the same steps connecting the remote controller and update/refresh/downgrade its firmware.

Solution 3: Demagnetize the drone surface.

I found that solution on youtube from someone who also faced the same issue and was able to solve it. As he mentioned he faced this issue because of getting charged the surface of the drone rubbing against the friction when you’re carrying. He also said that he had also seen guys put their drones in their bags close to a subwoofer in the back of their car or something like that and that’s also going to cause the issue.

The way he was able to solve the issue was by demagnetizing the drone. You can buy a demagnetizer online.
You need to drag the demagnetizer around the nose of the drone and move it further and further away. Do this several times and try calibrating the drone.

Solution 4: Replace the IMU/ Compass.

If you are still having issues with calibrating the IMU or compass, the calibration component must be faulty and needs to be replaced. Below is the DJI Mavic Pro IMU replacement for fixing the IMU calibration error.