How to Open the Gallery on DJI Drone

What is the gallery on a DJI drone actually called?

Inside DJI Fly the gallery is labelled Album, not Gallery. Most drone pilots still call it the gallery in conversation, but the in-app button, the breadcrumb, and the section title across every current DJI drone all read Album. The Photos, Videos and Favourites tabs sit inside that Album view.

Why is the thumbnail icon below the shutter button missing on my DJI drone?

The thumbnail icon only renders inside the DJI Fly camera view once the drone is powered on and the remote controller is paired with the phone. If the home screen or a disconnected camera view is up, the icon is not drawn at all. Power the drone on, confirm DJI Fly shows the connection banner, tap Go Fly to enter the live feed, then look directly below the round shutter button on the right-hand control column.

Does the in-app Album show files on the phone as well as the drone?

The Album shows the on-board storage of the drone by default, which is the gallery most drone pilots are after. Files already downloaded to the phone via QuickTransfer sit in the phone Album under the DJI Fly folder rather than inside the in-app gallery — the two libraries are independent. If a clip is missing from the in-app Album, check that the drone is connected and that the file has not already been pulled across and deleted from the drone.

Can I open the gallery on a DJI drone without taking off?

Yes. The Album opens straight from the camera view in DJI Fly without ever taking off. Power the drone on indoors, pair the remote controller with the phone, tap Go Fly to enter the camera view, then tap the thumbnail icon below the shutter. The Album view is read-only on the drone side; opening it does not consume battery any faster than the standard camera view.

How do I get into the gallery if the DJI drone is not connected to the phone?

With no controller connection, tap the QuickTransfer or Wi-Fi Devices card on the DJI Fly home screen and follow the prompt to pair the phone directly with the drone over Wi-Fi. Once the QuickTransfer session is live, the home screen reveals an Album entry pointing at the drone storage. The first pairing on a new phone needs a long-press of the drone power button to confirm — after that the connection is one tap.

Why does the thumbnail icon sometimes show a generic placeholder?

The thumbnail icon below the shutter mirrors the most recent file on the drone. A generic placeholder usually means the on-board storage has just been wiped, the drone has not captured anything yet on this firmware, or DJI Fly is still loading the frame. Tap the icon anyway — the Album opens regardless of what the thumbnail is showing, and the empty state inside the Album confirms whether the storage is genuinely empty or simply still indexing.

Is the in-app gallery the same place I download files to the phone from?

Yes. Once the Album is open, tap any thumbnail to preview it full screen and use the download icon to pull the file across to the phone Album. Every current DJI drone supports QuickTransfer for high-rate downloads, and the same Album view drives both the in-app preview and the transfer queue. There is no separate downloads screen — the Album is the launch pad for every file action on the drone.

Do the Album tabs look the same on every DJI drone?

Yes. The Photos, Videos and Favourites tab strip is part of DJI Fly, not the drone firmware, so the layout is identical whether the connected drone is a DJI Neo 2, DJI Mini 5 Pro, DJI Avata 2, DJI Air 3 Pro or DJI Mavic 4 Pro. Only the file types listed inside each tab change between drones — for example, FPV drones add the goggles-recorded clips alongside the on-board files.