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

One of the last things every drone pilot expects is to see that their drone battery, in this case, the DJI Mini 3 battery, won’t charge at all.

But before we panic, it’s all possible to fix it, and there are common reasons why the DJI Mini 3 Battery won’t charge. 

The most likely reasons why the DJI Mini 3 battery won’t charge are either the battery was in hibernation mode after not being used for a longer period, or the charger is faulty. However, it could also be inadequate long-term storage.

Let’s take a closer look at why your Mini 3 battery won’t charge and what can be done. 

DJI Mini 3 batteries – what do we know about them? #

The DJI Mini 3 series batteries come in two formats – intelligent batteries and intelligent batteries plus – both of them are compatible with DJI Mini 3 and Mini 3 Pro drones. 

Although the Mini 3 intelligent flight battery and battery plus have different capacities, they have 7.4v, meaning that they are 2-cell Lithium-ion batteries.

This means that the batteries, as most drone batteries, are very volatile.

If not taken care of, these can be easily damaged either by overcharging, operating outside recommended temperatures, or storing them inadequately.

We’ll get into that later. But for now, let’s try to identify the issues and take everything step by step.

DJI Mini 3 battery status #

If you short press the power button of your battery and a specific LED is blinking, according to DJI, we can correlate it to the following charge level:

Battery LEDsBattery Level4 full lightsOver 88%3 full lights, 4th blinkingBetween 75% and 88%3 full lightsBetween 63% and 75%2 full lights, 3rd one blinkingBetween 50% and 63%2 full lightsBetween 38% and 50%1 full light, 2nd blinkingBetween 25% and 38%1 full lightBetween 13% and 25%1st light blinkingUnder 13%

**But why do we need to look at this information? **

If you short press your DJI Mini 3 battery power button and it shows you the charge level, that means your DJI Mini 3 battery still has some juice in it, and we can continue identifying the issue and why it is not charging.

Now, if you try to charge the battery, let’s see if you get any of the following LED blinking patterns, which indicate problems:

LED Blinking PatternBattery ProblemLED 2 blinks twice per secondOvercurrent detectedLED 2 blinks three times per secondShort circuit detectedLED 3 blinks twice per secondOvercharge detectedLED 3 blinks three times per secondOver-voltage charger is detectedLED 4 blinks twice per secondCharging temperature is too lowLED 4 blinks three times per secondCharging temperature is too high

Okay. Do any of the LEDs blink as mentioned above? If yes, we can identify the issue as to why your Mini 3 battery won’t charge.

But before getting into details, let’s see two more possible results:

• The status LED blinks successfully, but quickly when charging – a fast charger is being used
• The status LED blinks successfully, but normal when charging – a normal charger is being used

In both of the above cases, the battery is receiving power and is charging (at least, up to a point).

In case of overcharging, overcurrent, and over-voltage, as identified from the battery blinking LEDs when trying to charge, there are a few steps we can take that may help you fix it.

• If you are using any low-quality 3rd party chargers, please stop using them. Try to charge the battery with a normal DJI (recommended) charger. If you use the hub to charge multiple batteries, try individually charging the affected batteries.

• There’s a possibility the BMS detected a voltage difference between the battery cells. In this case, try to discharge the battery and attempt to fully charge it a few times. But before that, ensure that the battery is receiving at least some current.

• If you have multiple batteries, try to charge all of them individually to see if other batteries are affected by the same error or not. If yes, the charger is likely faulty. If not, it is expected to be a problem with the battery.

LED 2 blinks three times per second – short circuit.

If the issue is a short circuit, the only thing we can do is inspect the battery pins and the charger pins to ensure there isn’t anything that is creating conductivity between the charging pins that could short-circuit them.

If everything is perfectly clean, there’s not much you can do in this case, and you should contact DJI support, as it could be something internally.

If the LED 4 is blinking either twice or three times per second, you are likely trying to charge the battery either in a too-cold environment or too-hot environment. 

The solution would be simple – to charge the battery in an adequate environment between 5 degrees and 40 degrees Celsius. 

This can also happen if it’s hot outside and you try to charge your DJI Mini 3 battery after a flight – the battery is already too hot and in a hot environment – where for safety reasons, the battery will not charge at all, blinking the last LED, 3 times per second.

However, in rare circumstances, the temperature sensor can be defective and stop you from charging the battery to protect it when there’s nothing to be protected as the charging temperature is adequate.

In this case, the only thing for you to do is contact DJI customer support.

Now let’s see some other issues causing your DJI Mini 3 battery to not charge, and how to fix them.

DJI Mini 3 battery won’t charge – Hibernation mode #

If you have kept your drone stored for a long period, there’s a good chance your DJI Mini 3 battery went into hibernation mode to ensure good cell protection for long-term storage. 

How to fix it: Place your battery to charge and leave it for at least a couple of hours connected (up to 24 hours) until it is charging. 

You can also attempt to power the battery (while not charging) to see if this helps to jump-start it. 

Your battery charger may be damaged (or the hub) #

Like any electronics, even a charger can stop working.

As mentioned before, you may normally get an error such as over-current, overcharging, and so on if the charger is low-quality, a quick charger, or it simply starts to fail.

Or it won’t charge your DJI Mini 3 battery at all.

How to fix it: The obvious fix is for you to try another charger for your DJI Mini 3 batteries. 

There could be bad firmware installed on the battery #

In rare circumstances, the firmware released could have some bugs, or you could have totally outdated firmware on your battery.

There is a simple fix in this situation – to update the firmware of the battery (hopefully, you still have some juice left in it) or contact DJI support to report the bug and find solutions.

But how would you notice this issue?

If everything is working okay and your battery is working and charging perfectly fine, and issues started to appear after a firmware update, it’s likely to be the update itself.

The battery could be damaged #

Did you recently crash your DJI Mini 3? Could this be the reason why your battery won’t charge? 

What to do in this case – there’s not much you can do if you notice your battery has visible damage upon inspection. You should ensure safe disposal if nothing can be done about the battery.

» MORE: How to Safely Dispose of LiPo Drone Batteries

Bad contacts between the battery and the charger #

Isn’t this the fix for the short circuit? What if there isn’t a short circuit, but your charger or battery contacts are somehow dirty, rusty, or simply not in contact with each other?  

The chances for this to happen are very slim, but not impossible. 

You should closely inspect the battery & the charger pins and see if there’s anything out of the ordinary. Try wiping everything down with a soft, clean cloth.

Inadequate long-term battery storage (damaged cells) #

Now, the most commonly known reason why the DJI Mini 3 battery won’t charge at all: it is completely dead.

It personally happened to me and so many other pilots where other drone batteries died after being stored for a longer period inadequately. But what does that mean? 

It means that I stored them empty. If you left your batteries empty for a few months, or even less, and now your battery won’t charge at all, well… welcome to the club. 

What can be done about that?

Nothing, to be honest. If the battery is not completely dead (just beware not to confuse it with hibernation mode), you may be able to restore some juice following some techniques.

Conclusion #

Sometimes, things happen, and for sure, a non-charging Mini 3 battery is no fun. We just need to identify the reason it is not charging and then decide what we can do.

If you are not able to identify the reason why the battery is not charging, or you did, and there’s not much you can do, please contact DJI customer support and ask for their advice on what could be done – maybe your battery is still covered by warranty.