How to Add Photos and Videos to Favourites on DJI Drone
Peter Leslie
22 May 2026
If you want to ring-fence the keepers from a flight so they do not get buried under a long grid of practice loops, the path on a DJI drone is one tap on the heart icon inside the Album in DJI Fly. Open the Album from the camera view, tap into the clip, hit the heart, and that file now sits in the Favourites tab alongside everything else you have flagged on the drone.
Drones this applies to
DJI Neo 2, DJI Mini 5 Pro, DJI Avata 2, DJI Air 3 Pro, DJI Mavic 4 Pro. The same procedure works on any drone running DJI Fly v1.21.2 or later — only the file types listed inside each Album tab vary very slightly between models (the FPV drones add the goggles-recorded clips alongside the drone-side files).
Quick guide
To add photos and videos to Favourites on DJI Drone, go to DJI Fly → Go Fly → camera view → thumbnail below the shutter → Album → open the clip → heart icon. For a batch, tap Select in the top-right of the Album grid, tick the files, then tap the heart icon in the bottom toolbar.
Step-by-step: How to Add Photos and Videos to Favourites on DJI Drone
Follow these top to bottom the first time, and the path is muscle memory the second time. The labels and order are identical on every drone in the callout above — the screenshots are taken on a DJI Neo 2.
Tap the thumbnail icon below the shutter to open the Album on the DJI drone
With the drone powered on and the remote controller paired with the phone, open DJI Fly and tap Go Fly to enter the camera view. Look at the right-hand control column for the small square thumbnail icon sat directly below the round shutter button, then tap it once to leave the live feed and open the Album.
Scroll the Album grid to find the photo or video you want to favourite
The Album opens on the last tab that was used. Tap All if you are not sure which media type you are after, then scroll the grid until the clip you want to keep is in view. Photos and videos both accept the heart action, so the path from here is identical either way.
Tap the thumbnail to open the file full screen inside the DJI Fly Album
Tap the thumbnail in the Album grid to open the file full screen. A photo loads straight away; a video shows the playback overlay with the play button in the centre and a row of action icons along the bottom edge of the screen.
Tap the heart icon on the playback overlay to favourite the open file
Find the heart icon along the action row at the bottom of the full-screen view. Tap it once and the outline fills in to confirm the file has been added to Favourites. Tapping it a second time empties the heart and pulls the file back out of the Favourites tab.
Tap Select in the top-right of the Album grid to favourite a batch in one sweep
Back out to the Album grid with the back arrow in the top-left, then tap the Select link in the top-right corner. Empty tick circles appear on every thumbnail, and a new toolbar slides in along the bottom of the screen with the bulk actions for the selection — including the heart icon used for batch favouriting on the drone.
Tick the photos and videos to flag and tap the heart icon in the bottom toolbar
Tap each thumbnail you want to flag. The tick circle fills in and a counter along the bottom toolbar updates with the running total. With every file you want ticked, tap the heart icon in the bottom toolbar — the flag is written against the whole selection in one go, and the counter drops back to zero.
Switch the Album to the Favourites tab to confirm the flag landed
Tap the Favourites tab along the top of the Album. Every file that now carries a filled heart sits in this view, and the rest of the gallery is filtered out. If a file you expected is missing, reopen it from the All tab and tap the heart again — a stray empty heart is usually the cause.
Peter's tip
I favourite the keepers on the spot the moment I land, not later at the desk. While the drone is still warm I scroll the Album in DJI Fly, hit the heart on the three or four clips I know are usable, and the Favourites tab then becomes my QuickTransfer shortlist for the drive home. The client preview is faster, the wipe later in the week is safer, and nothing usable ever gets buried under fifty practice loops.
Frequently asked questions
Does favouriting a file on a DJI drone stop it being deleted in a Batch Select wipe?
No. The heart icon is a tag, not a write-lock — a Batch Select inside the All tab still ticks every file including the favourited ones, and Delete will wipe them along with the rest. If the point of favouriting is to ring-fence the keepers, run the wipe from a tab other than Favourites and double-check the file count in the confirmation dialog before tapping Delete.
Can I unfavourite a photo or video on a DJI drone once it is marked?
Yes. Open the file full screen and tap the heart icon a second time, and the fill clears. The clip drops back out of the Favourites tab the moment the heart empties — there is no confirmation dialog because nothing is being deleted, only re-tagged.
Does favouriting on the drone also favourite the copy that already transferred to my phone?
No. The favourite flag lives on the file inside the drone on-board storage and on the matching copy DJI Fly is showing you from the drone side of the Album. The phone Album under DJI Fly's own folder is a separate library, and the iOS or Android Photos app keeps its own favourite system that does not sync with DJI Fly.
Can I favourite a clip while it is still uploading via QuickTransfer?
Yes. Favouriting only writes a tag against the file, so it works while QuickTransfer is in flight in the background. The transfer keeps running and the heart flag is preserved on the drone-side copy. Just hold the phone close enough to the drone to keep the QuickTransfer link stable while the tag writes.
Why is the heart icon missing inside the Album on my DJI drone?
Update DJI Fly to the latest version and reopen the Album. The Favourites system ships with a recent DJI Fly release, and older installs only show the Photos, Videos, and All tabs without the heart action. If the update is in place and the icon is still missing, force-close DJI Fly, reopen it, and confirm the Album is showing the drone storage rather than the phone storage — Favourites only appears on the drone side.
How many photos and videos can I favourite on a DJI drone?
There is no separate cap on Favourites — the heart flag is a tag against an existing file, so the limit is simply the on-board storage capacity of the drone. If the file fits on the drone, it can be favourited. The Favourites tab will scroll through as many flagged files as the storage is holding.
Is the Favourites system the same across every current DJI drone?
Yes. The heart icon, the Favourites tab, and the Select toolbar are part of DJI Fly rather than per-drone firmware, so the click path is identical on a DJI Neo 2, DJI Mini 5 Pro, DJI Avata 2, DJI Air 3 Pro or DJI Mavic 4 Pro. The only difference between models is the file types listed inside the tab — for example, FPV drones add goggles-recorded clips alongside the drone-side files.
Does favouriting a file count against any sync or upload quota?
No. The heart icon writes a local tag against the file on the drone on-board storage, with no upload step and no DJI cloud component. There is no quota and no network call involved — the action is instant and works offline once the drone is paired with the phone.
Favouriting on DJI Drone is a flight-day habit that pays back at the desk — flag the keepers in the air, filter the Album to Favourites at home, and the edit pile is already shortlisted before the SD card even comes off the drone.
If you are weighing up whether to favourite on the drone side or to let the phone Photos library do the same job after a QuickTransfer, drop the workflow details to peter@hiredronepilot.uk and I will come back to you directly. The video version of this walkthrough is on YouTube and the comments are open.
References
Primary source material for this article is the official DJI user documentation for each drone in the callout and DJI Fly. External links open in a new tab.
- DJI Fly — App download and release notes · The app that hosts the Album, the Select toolbar, and the heart icon for Favourites across every current DJI drone. Release notes record any layout changes between app versions.
- DJI — UK consumer drone product line-up · Per-drone product pages and downloads, where the Album view behaviour and the QuickTransfer pairing flow are documented in each drone user manual.
- UK Civil Aviation Authority — The Drone and Model Aircraft Code (CAP2320) · The visual-line-of-sight and operator-responsibility framework that sits behind every UK flight a favourited clip in the Album was captured on.
Peter Leslie
Founder & GVC Drone Pilot
Peter is the founder of HireDronePilot. With thousands of logged commercial flight hours, he writes about drone technology, commercial surveying tactics, and UK aviation compliance.
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