DJI Mini 3 Pro Battery Won’t Charge (Here’s How to Fix It)

When you live by the battery, you’re only living for 30 minutes or so at a time. Those minutes though, are amazing. When those minutes are gone, it’s time for a recharge.

Battery maintenance is critical to making any drone system last its longest possible lifespan.

The Mini 3 is like any drone with a battery; it provides a certain amount of flight time, and then you’re grounded till those batteries recharge.

Nothing is more frustrating than when your battery gets the hiccups and won’t charge.

There can be several reasons for a battery to not want to charge. After all, though those batteries may be intelligent, they’re not smart.

» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Pro Battery – All You Need to Know

All too commonly found is the issue of low amperage or insufficient voltage. Granted, this problem is found more often than not while trying to recharge in the field.

There are a few other issues, though, that may stop your battery from charging. These include outdated battery firmware, battery cells that may be damaged, or a bad charger itself.

Even DJI chargers can just quit working. It happens.

A factor most overlook is temperature – not just the environmental temperature but the battery’s temperature.

And then there is the most infamous of all the causes, hibernation mode.

If you are having issues with one of your DJI Mini 3 batteries charging, below you’ll find some solutions.

Solutions for a battery that won’t charge #

1. Plug the charger into a power outlet with the required voltage and current.  #

The DJI Mini 3 Pro battery chargers require an input voltage that is around 100 – 240 V.

As pointed out above, this issue with charging occurs more often when you are attempting to charge from your car or a power inverter.

An easy way to check this would be to use a known 110-volt outlet, as many inverters have a hard time with charging drone batteries from a 12v system.

2. Check whether the charger is faulty or broken. #

If you’re using the Mini 3 two-way hub, you will want to check for any lights on the charger when plugged in.

If you’re using the 30w USB-C charger, attempting to charge an alternate device such as your phone will help in determining if the charger has fouled out.

With the 30w charger, it could be a bad charger or a bad cord.

3. If the battery is warm to the touch or was just removed from the aircraft, it may be too hot to charge. #

Here you can just place the battery off to the side and leave it for a few minutes.

It’s best if you have a cooler area where you can place the battery, as opposed to leaving it out in direct sunlight. 

Once it cools down, it should be chargeable again.

4. Update DJI Mini 3 Pro Firmware while keeping the faulty battery inside the aircraft. #

Although when initiating the Fly App, the DJI Mini 3 should verify if you have the latest firmware, it is possible that you may have missed one.

Double checking what updates you are running can quickly verify if the issue may be firmware related. If that’s the case, updating the firmware should fix it.

» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Battery Won’t Charge (Here’s How to Fix It)

5. Your battery may be in Hibernation mode.  #

This one gets new pilots and old seasoned ones alike.

DJI uses an intelligent flight battery system. This system is there to assist you in maintaining your battery.

One of those features is to place an unused battery into hibernation mode after a certain period of time.

When this happens, it can seem like a dead battery. If you encounter this, plug the battery into the charger and leave it for a couple of hours. This should wake the battery from its slumber and begin charging it.

If it doesn’t start to charge, the battery is probably dead and will need to be replaced.

6. Replace the battery if it’s damaged, swollen, or it’s reached 300-500 full charging cycles. #

Yes, there can be a serious issue with your battery, and it can get damaged if dropped or left in the heat for too long.

If one of your batteries shows any signs of swelling, first and foremost, do not trust it for flight. Secondly, the battery is most likely bad and will need to be replaced.

The other side is if you have 300 to 500 charging cycles, congratulations, you took great care of your battery and got a good life from it.

Most DJI batteries have an expected lifespan of 300 charge cycles, and if you have a battery showing any of the above issues after reaching that number of charge cycles, you have gotten a full life out of it.

But replacement will be in the near future, and you should be prepared for that eventuality.

Above we covered some potential battery issues and their solutions. We would be rather remiss though, if we didn’t bring up the following.

Your DJI Mini 3 battery is most likely still covered under its warranty. DJI warrants all of their batteries for a 6-month period after purchase.

With the DJI Mini 3 having a release date of May 10, 2022, that would mean even the pilots who bought their DJI Mini 3 on the release date would still have till November 10, 2022, before their battery warranty would expire.

Note: When it comes to the DJI battery warranty, be sure to have your receipt – it will be required.

There are also other limitations to the battery warranty that you will want to read first, as it really only covers defects.

Charging Your DJI Mini 3 Battery #

The DJI Mini 3 has two different batteries available. When we discuss battery charging, we have to keep in mind that we are dealing with two different batteries.

When it comes to charging your batteries, if you have the Standard Battery, the charging time should be right around 64 mins, from a low battery level of under 10% to a full charge.

If you have the Plus battery, the recharge time should be about 101 mins from a low charge to a full charge. This is when paired with the DJI 30W charger.

One of the reasons we want to know the above is if you have a damaged battery that shows no outward signs of damage, knowing if your battery is exceeding its charge time may provide you with an early warning of an interior issue.

A battery that is experiencing a dying cell would require a longer period to charge than normal. Now, this can be a hard one to gauge as most pilots will not run a battery too low as that alone can possibly damage the battery.

DJI recommends not running a battery lower than 10 percent unless necessary, as you don’t want to over-discharge your battery.

In-App Battery Warnings! #

There are three common warnings you may receive while flying related to your battery.

The first would be “Overcurrent During Discharge.” This means that the discharge current exceeds the maximum discharge capacity of the battery.

Try not to fly the aircraft to its limits. If you receive this warning, it is usually caused by a bad connection to the battery and the aircraft.

Gently guide the aircraft back to the landing area and land.

It seems counter-intuitive, I know. The nature of the issue could be either a bad connection or a cell failure. You should have time to recover the aircraft, though.

Flying roughly may make exacerbate the condition, so nice and steady will save the day. If you question for even one moment that you may not make the launch area, land in the nearest safe space.

Another in-app warning you may receive is “High Discharging Temperature.” This means the battery temperature is too high.

The aircraft will decrease its power automatically to ensure the battery performance.

Once again, don’t panic! Recovery should not be an issue, even if you are getting a warning. The battery and aircraft will take their own measures to protect themselves, allowing you a chance to make it to a safe landing area.

Once you have the aircraft on the ground, follow the normal shut-off procedure and pull the battery from the craft.

Here again, landing the aircraft is the most important. If you think that you may be too far away from your launch area, find and land in the nearest safe area.

The third most common in-app battery warning you may receive would be “Low Discharging Temperature.” The battery temperature is too low. Please land the aircraft.

Abnormal or damaged battery cells stop using the battery. This warning is very serious, and attempting to make it back to the original landing area should not even be attempted.

If you receive this warning, there is a critical issue with the battery, so land immediately.

Do not attempt anything other than finding a good landing site, as with this warning, you may not have time for any other action.

Getting back to the ground should be your only concern if you ever receive this warning.

Fly Safe, Fly Always, Always Fly Safe!