How to Change the Signal Lost Action on DJI Drone
Peter Leslie
22 May 2026
If a DJI drone dropped controller signal mid-flight and did something you did not expect — climbed to RTH altitude when you wanted it to hold, or sat there hovering when you wanted it to come home — the setting you are looking for is Signal Lost Action inside DJI Fly. It lives in the same place on every current DJI drone, behind one extra tap into Advanced Safety, and it has three choices.
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 wording around the failsafe delay and the available sub-options varies very slightly between models.
Quick guide
To change the Signal Lost Action on DJI Drone, go to DJI Fly → Settings → Safety → Advanced Safety → Signal Lost Action. Pick Return to Home for open flying, Descend for a forced landing where you sit, or Hover to hold the position until you walk closer and recover signal.
Step-by-step: How to Change the Signal Lost Action 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.
Open the DJI Fly Settings menu from the camera view
With the drone connected and DJI Fly on the camera view, tap the Settings icon in the top right of the screen. The settings panel slides in from the right with the category tabs down the left.
Tap the Safety category in the Settings panel
Safety is the second tab down the left of the settings panel, below Control. Tap it and the right-hand pane updates to show every safety-related option for the connected drone — altitude limits, distance limits, RTH, compass, IMU, and the Advanced Safety entry further down.
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Safety page
Scroll past Max Altitude, Max Distance, RTH Settings, the Compass row, and the IMU row. The Advanced Safety entry sits at the very bottom of the Safety page — you have to scroll the whole way down for it on every current drone.
Tap the Advanced Safety row to open the sub-page
Tap Advanced Safety and DJI Fly drops you onto a dedicated page with the failsafe options. The first row at the top of that page is Signal Lost Action — that is the one you are after.
Choose Return to Home, Descend, or Hover under Signal Lost Action
Three options sit in a row across the top of the sub-page. Return to Home flies the drone back to the recorded Home Point at the Auto RTH Altitude. Descend drops it straight down from wherever it sits. Hover holds the position until the battery gets low. Tap the option that suits the flight you are about to do.
Close the Settings panel to confirm the new failsafe
The selection saves the moment you tap it — there is no separate confirm button. Close the Settings panel to return to the camera view, and the drone will use the new behaviour the next time controller signal drops for longer than the failsafe window.
Peter's tip
I leave the selector on Return to Home for every outdoor flight where there is sky above the drone and a clean line back to the launch point. The one place I always change it to Hover is when I am flying close to a barn or under a tree canopy — a straight-line climb in that environment is how you snap a propeller off the side of something.
Return to Home vs Descend vs Hover
Three options, three very different outcomes. Use this table to pick before the flight, not during one.
| Action | When it works | Where it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Return to Home | Open outdoor flying with sky above the drone and a clean line back to the launch point. The default for most flights. | Close-quarters flying near trees, masts, or buildings — the sudden climb to RTH altitude can clip anything above the drone before it reaches the safe height. |
| Descend | A known open field where the patch directly beneath the drone is clear. Forces a controlled landing on the spot rather than a flight back. | Anything you cannot see beneath the drone — water, traffic, crops, livestock, a fence line. The drone does not pick a clearer spot; it just goes straight down. |
| Hover | Indoor flying, FPV in trees, or any environment where holding the position lets you walk closer and recover signal manually. | Long signal outages — the drone holds until the battery gets low, then falls back to a low-battery descent wherever it happens to be sat. |
Frequently asked questions
What is the default Signal Lost Action on a DJI drone?
Return to Home. Every current DJI drone ships with Signal Lost Action set to Return to Home, which sends the drone back to the recorded Home Point at the Auto RTH Altitude once controller signal has been lost for longer than the failsafe delay. Change the selector only when Return to Home is the wrong answer for the flight — close-quarters FPV, indoor practice, or any environment where a straight-line climb back would be dangerous.
How long does a DJI drone wait before the Signal Lost Action triggers?
Roughly six seconds on every current DJI drone running DJI Fly. A brief drop-out that recovers inside the window does not trigger anything — the drone keeps doing whatever it was doing when the signal went. Only a sustained loss of the controller link past the failsafe window kicks the chosen action in.
When should I switch the Signal Lost Action off Return to Home?
Whenever a straight-line climb to RTH altitude would be more dangerous than holding position. Flying indoors, threading through trees in FPV, filming inside a barn, or flying close to a structure where a sudden climb would clip something. In those scenarios Hover is the sane choice — the drone holds where it is, and you walk closer to recover the signal.
What does Descend actually do?
It lands the drone where it currently sits, straight down. The drone does not try to navigate back to the Home Point and does not pick a clearer spot beneath it — it just descends until it touches something. Useful over a known open field, dangerous over water, traffic, crops, or anywhere you cannot see beneath the drone.
Is Hover safe to use as the Signal Lost Action?
Only for as long as the battery lasts. Hover holds the position in place but the drone is still drawing power, so once the battery gets low the drone falls back to a low-battery procedure and descends on its own. Treat Hover as a stalling tactic that gives you time to walk closer and reconnect, not as a long-term solution.
Does the Signal Lost Action override an active Return to Home?
No. Once the drone is already in RTH and signal is lost during the return, the procedure continues regardless of what the selector says. The Signal Lost Action only decides what happens when signal drops during normal flight, not what happens once Return to Home is already in motion.
Can I change the Signal Lost Action mid-flight?
Yes, as long as the remote controller is still talking to the drone. Open Settings, tap Safety, scroll to Advanced Safety, and change the selector — the new value saves the moment you tap it and applies to the next signal-loss event. Just do not try to change it in the middle of a tight FPV line; pause first, hover, then dive into the menu.
What happens if I have no GNSS signal and the drone loses controller signal?
Return to Home is not possible without GNSS, so the drone falls back to a landing or hover behaviour depending on the conditions. If you are flying without GNSS — indoors, in heavy tree cover, under a bridge — set the Signal Lost Action to Hover deliberately. Picking Return to Home in that environment is asking for an unguided descent.
The Signal Lost Action is one of those settings most DJI owners only think about once — and usually after a flight where the default behaviour cost them something. Set it deliberately for the environment you are flying in, not once and forgotten.
If you have had a signal-loss event and you want a second opinion on which failsafe to set going forward, drop the 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 where the Advanced Safety sub-page and the Signal Lost Action selector live across every current DJI drone. Release notes record any menu reshuffles between versions.
- DJI — UK consumer drone product line-up · Per-drone user manuals carry the Signal Lost Action options and the failsafe timing under §Advanced Safety Settings.
- UK Civil Aviation Authority — The Drone and Model Aircraft Code (CAP2320) · The visual-line-of-sight rule that frames why a sustained controller-signal loss has to fall back to an automatic failsafe in the first place.
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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