Litchi Hub Bridge iOS issue

General Discussion
1

I will be hugely relieved to read the opinion that I might be getting a bit paranoid, as a response to my account of what just happened when I went to fly my trusty Mavic 2 Pro using Litchi’s superior waypoint capabilities.

Seeds for the debacle that I think has occurred were sown when I reluctantly uninstalled DJI Go 4 from my iPad Mini to make data storage space temporarily, because I kept getting “device storage full” messages when I launched my Air 3 on a few complex waypoint missions I had copied from Litchi Mission Hub into DJI Fly, using the new Litchi Mission Hub Bridge.

For years, I had carefully sidestepped all DJI firmware “upgrades” that were suggested on those rare occasions that I had to use DJI Go4 to calibrate my Mavic 2 Pro’s compass and IMU. During those years, my Mavic quadcopters flew thousands of miles of fully autonomous Litchi waypoint missions that ranged out as far as 6 miles from home, and over 12 miles round-trip, since FAA and CAA regulations don’t apply in my remote Third World location.

When I uninstalled DJI Go 4 to make space on my iPad as a temporary troubleshooting last resort, my optimistic hope was that DJI Go 4 was no longer being “upgraded”, and that I’d be downloading a “legacy” version of DJI Go 4 when I reinstalled it for use in calibrating the compass or IMU of the Mavic 2 Pro.

When I reinstalled DJI Go4 and spotted a mention that there WAS a firmware “upgrade” just a few months ago, my heart sank, but I didn’t get around to testing my Mavic 2 Pro on a Litchi waypoint mission until just a few minutes ago. First, I noticed that the latitude and longitude in Litchi showed all zeros, while a “calibrate compass” message popped up.

I opened the newly reinstalled DJI Go4, calibrated the compass, and then opened Litchi to launch and fly a waypoint mission that I had flown numerous times in the past. When I tried to select and start the waypoint mission in my iPad’s Litchi waypoint mission listing, the flight path failed to appear on screen, meaning the only option I had was to hand-fly the drone, which I hardly ever do, since my passion has always been long-range waypoint missions created with Litchi Mission Hub. In fact, 100% of my drone flying is fully autonomous Litchi waypoint missions.

Suspecting that DJI Go 4 might be “competing” with the Litchi app for my iPad’s meager number-crunching capacity. I switched off the iPad, waited a few minutes, then switched it on again, and opened the Litchi app alone, so there wouldn’t be any conflict with DJI Go4.

Once again, and now fueling my growing unease, the waypoint mission that I selected in Litchi would not appear on the screen. I cannot recall this particular issue ever stopping me from launching a Litchi waypoint mission in the past, but then I have never before allowed a DJI Go 4 firmware “upgrade” to contaminate my iPad.

The question I want to ask, for which my preferred response to hear would be “no”, is whether DJI Go4 has gone back to the legacy DJI Go4 app, and mined it with bugs that will effectively disable Litchi’s vastly superior waypoint capability, whereby drones such as DJI Go4-calibrated Mavic 2 Pro will no longer be able to fly autonomous Litchi waypoint missions that worked just fine in the past?

If the answer to this question is affirmative, and DJI has indeed sneakily killed off the capability of older drones like the Mavic 2 Pro to fly Litchi waypoint missions, my follow-up question would be whether outfits such as No Limit Drones, or Drone Hacks, might offer work-around solutions or even downloads of older DJI Go4 editions that don’t contain the malicious code recently inserted to disable waypoint capability for Litchi for models such as the Mavic 2 Pro?.

Now, I am aware that the Litchi server occasionally goes offline for routine maintenance and will not be accessible for a day or so. If this is the case today, March 29th, 2026, I will be relieved that my suspicions about DJI skullduggery are unfounded, and that I have not lost the ability to launch my older drones like the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic Zoom, on waypoint missions.

The thought of my prized drones being rendered unusable by DJI, because I reinstalled DJI Go4, is depressing to contemplate, given how many of my favorite drones will be effectively grounded, so any clarifications that can be shared on this subject would be appreciated.

Workflow No Longer Working to Run Waypoints / Area Mapping with RC2 and DJI Mini5 Pro
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I’ll add a footnote that while most of my saved waypoint flights were created with the old Litchi Mission Hub version, I did create a handful of new waypoint flights with the new Litchi Mission Hub edition.

In doing so, I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that the waypoint flights I saved in the new Litchi Mission Hub, would be copied automatically to the old Litchi Mission Hub edition, and replicated with geographical accuracy. I have since discovered that this assumption is not correct, in that waypoint flights created with the new Litchi Mission Hub are not replicated unchanged in the old Litchi Mission Hub.

Compounding my confusion, I accidentally deleted a couple of newly created waypoint missions in the new Litchi Mission Hub version before I realized that the “save as” option used to store waypoint missions in the old Litchi Mission Hub edition had been renamed as the “lock” function in the new Litchi Mission Hub edition.

With my precious few remaining brain cells overheating at this point like a car with a damaged radiator, I’ll pipe down now, and wait to read any opinions as to what, if anything, has gone awry, besides my ability to formulate rational thoughts for the next few hours haha.

3

The new Litchi Hub lets you select a drone model. Any mission using a drone model that is not supported in the older Litchi for DJI Drones app will not load in that app.

Any of your older missions created in the old Mission Hub should still load as before.
Also any mission created in the new Litchi Hub with a drone model supported by the older app should also load.

The list of supported drone models for the older app can be found here: Help - Litchi

We also strongly advise against using the old Mission Hub once you start using the new Litchi Hub to prevent any conflicts.

4

This reply clears the fog, and I thank you kindly, Vico. Your advice to avoid using the old and new Litchi Mission Hub versions concurrently is well taken. I noticed that waypoint flights saved with the new edition Hub were corrupted when they appeared in the old edition, such that waypoints were scattered across continents and hemispheres.

I wrongly assumed that since old edition Hub missions copied to the new edition Hub without issues, then the reverse would be equally permissible, which is not the case. With a good night’s sleep having reanimated my muddied brain this morning, I’m going to run some more flight tests.

On the subject of Litchi compatibility, I have always chosen my used drone purchases from among those that are compatible with Litchi. From the Phantom 3S, Phantom 3P, to the Mavic 1 Pro, Pro Platinum, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, and the Air 1, to my most recent purchase, the Air 3, I have avoided buying any drone that is not capable of completing waypoint missions autonomously and beyond RC signal range.

My only misstep was buying the Mini 3 the instant it was suggested that DJI might release an SDK for that model. Since that SDK is unlikely to materialize, I will be selling the Mini 3 as soon as I find a buyer. Once again this reassuring response is appreciated, and I will take it to mean that DJI Go4 has not been booby-trapped to disable Litchi.

5

DJI did actually release a SDK for Mini 3 and Mini 3 Pro, as well as Mini 4 Pro, but not Mini 5 Pro (will they ever? who knows).

Of the Mini 3&4, only the Mini 4 Pro can do waypoint using the onboard engine (with option to continue beyond signal loss being available depending on local regs).

For Mini 3/3 Pro, you can plan on Litchi Hub and fly using Litchi Pilot (Android only - [OPEN BETA] Litchi Pilot)

For Mini 4 Pro, you can plan with Litchi Hub and fly using either Litchi Pilot (Android only) or DJI Fly (both support onboard waypoint)

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I really like the Mini 3, but its inability to store GPS waypoint data on board is a deal breaker. I never realized the Mini 3 SDK was eventually released, and I also assumed wrongly that the release of the SDK implied that the Mini 3 would be capable of completing waypoint missions beyond RC signal reach.

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Your posts contain many more words than are necessary to ask a question. No one wants to read a book and sift through all of the extra verbiage just to find your questions. I mean this in the nicest possible way.

Rebooting an iPad does not remove suspended apps. Those background apps are written to disk before shutting down so that they can be re-deployed in the background upon boot up. To test this, reboot your iPad that then swipe up and you’ll see the suspended apps still there.

Why would DJI write two pieces of software (DJI Go4, DJI MSDK) and then use one of their software products (Go4) to disable their other software product (MSDKv4)? That wouldn’t make sense, would it?

Both hubs use the same storage. A mission created in one hub will appear in the other.

This will only happen if the mission in the new hub specifies a newer drone (such as an Air 3s) supported with MSDKv5. If an older drone or the drone is not specified in the new hub, the mission will properly display in the old hub.

DJI Go4 and Litchi are two separate and independent apps. One cannot “booby trap” the other.

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I was hoping you’d chime in, Wes. I really was beginning to entertain the thought that DJI does not like a third-party outfit like Litchi outclassing them with the gold standard Mission Hub, and that DJI found some way through the alchemy of computer code, to disable Litchi remotely, as it were. I cannot tell you how relieved I am to hear from you that subterfuge of the sort I envisioned cannot be possible.

I was baffled and irritated by what seemed to be “vanishing” waypoint missions as I attempted to launch both my Mavic 2 Pro and my Air 3 on saved flight paths that worked flawlessly in the past, so I typed out my questions with conspiracy theories swirling in my brain.

When the Equatorial sun cools off towards evening today, I’ll run a few more waypoint tests with the Air 3 in DJI Fly, and Mavic 2 in DJI Go4, which I hope will establish that my worst fears haven’t materialized for the reasons you have stated here,.

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While there are plenty of conspiracy theories relating to DJI, disabling 3rd party developers should not be one of them. Why would DJI create SDKs for other developers if they did not want other developers to make use of them?

Do some further testing. Both the old and new hubs work. Just remember not all flights created with the new hub (for newer drones) are backwards compatible with the old hub.

Litchi has created some fantastic software that makes working with DJI drones lacking MSDK support, almost seamless.

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10

I just flew my Mavic 2 Pro on a Litchi waypoint mission, and it was without incident despite an occurrence that I’ve never seen before. The Litchi app screen display suddenly closed while the drone was halfway through its 15-minute flight, yet I could see from the drone’s RC controller screen that the waypoint mission was continuing as though nothing happened.

That uninterrupted waypoint flight progress told me that the Litchi app was still communicating with the drone, despite my being unable to bring up the Litchi screen by frantically tapping at the Litchi icon multiple times. My speculation is that the memory of my iPad was running low and thus closed the Litchi display, but without shutting down the app’s functionality.

My iPad is an older model with a total of 32Gb available memory to run my DJI apps and Litchi, since I use the iPad for little else besides flying drones. When I started flying waypoint missions with my Air 3 using DJI Fly, the amount of memory hogged by DJI Fly shot up to a whopping 18.79 GB - more than HALF of the available 32GB of memory that the iPad has in total. It just seems odd that DJI Fly alone accounts for more than 50% of the iPad’s memory inventory.

I have no idea why DJI Fly would require 18.79 GB of memory after less than ten waypoint flights that I launched with the app. By comparison, Litchi only uses 2.93GB, while, DJI Go4 uses 522.2 MB, with DJI Go using a scant 368.4MB. My presumption is that the hogging of so much memory by DJI Fly is the reason why the iPad was unable to display the Litchi screen even as I flew a Litchi waypoint mission.

For my next test, I will delete DJI Go4, and thus free up 522.MB in the hopes that the vanishing Litchi screen syndrome won’t recur if that extra memory space is freed up. If that deletion of DJI Go4 does the trick, and stabilizes the Litchi screen such that it stops vanishing as it did today, I will leave DJI Go4 off the iPad, and use the copy of DJI Go4 on my Samsung tablet for any calibrations of compass or IMU that I need to carry out in the future.

In summary.my suspicion that DJI had “locked out” Litchi is demonstrably unfounded, which is good news. Tomorrow I’ll run a few flights with the Air 3 to make sure all is well with that drone and its memory-hogging app.

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When a Mavic 2 Pro is flying a waypoint mission, it is not necessary for it to communicate with the Litchi app.

Don’t confuse memory (RAM) with disk storage space. Memory management in iOS devices is complicated but it should not close the app you are currently running.

I think you are referring to storage/disk space, not memory/RAM. 32GB of storage space is used for storing the operating system, apps, and data.

Again, I think you are referring to storage space, not memory. iOS→Settings→General→iPhone Storage.

Go into your settings as shown above. It will tell you how much storage space the app uses and how much storage space the related data uses. The data may include flight logs, cached video, and other things.

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Aha! That cached video might be what I need to delete to trim down DJI Fly’s heavy usage of the iPad’s meager resources. I also think your presumption is correct, in that it is likely DJI Fly’s voracious appetite for RAM storage space that suddenly began to trigger those repetitive low memory alerts of the sort I never saw in the past.

I will now embark on a little detective work to find out how to delete all the cached video without accidentally eliminating any files that are essential to DJI Fly’s normal functionality. Oh, how I wish that my Air 3 could be flown with Litchi, so that I could relegate DJI Fly to the sidelines for use in compass and IMU calibration that could be confined to my Samsung tablet.

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I did the same if I except that I bought a second hand Air 2S supposed to be used with Litchi. It did but I rapidly discovered that it was with the excruciating “virtual stick” protocol which made autonomous missions not autonomous at all and useless to obtain videos better than the ones you obtain when flying manually. So; I sold immediately this drone and I continued flying and filming with my old Mavic 2 pro and Mavic 1 from 2017 !
Recently I learned that beside the heavy and expensive “enterprise” drones capable of flying embarked waypoint missions, DJI had also released the Mini 4Pro also able to fly true, embarked autonomous missions, with the possibility to be set to “continue mission” in case of contact lost. As the possibility to fly higher than 120m over the take off point, this feature is important to me since I fly my drones mainly in mountainous, rugged terrains where an unpredictable RTH du to a contact loss can lead to a crash or to a landing in a remote and out of reach area.
So I very very recently bought a second hand (but brand new) Mini 4 Pro, decided to move it from C0 to C1 category in order to beneficiate both of the altitude max extension to 500m altitude and to the embarked Lithchi missions with the “continue” option. Sadly, DJI do not allow this mutation since last December. Hopefully I discovered a hack of DJI Fly app which not only removes the 120m limit of this C0 drone, but also gives FCC and… “Continue mission” ! Not very expensive but with an annual subscription. All these capabilities are transfered to Litchi Pilot when using this app with the device where FCC DJI Fly is installed. A bit complicated but it works with this tiny drone.