How to transfer DJI Air 3 photos and videos to your phone or computer

You can get photos and videos off a DJI Air 3 three ways: QuickTransfer over Wi-Fi to your phone in the DJI Fly app (up to 30 MB/s), a USB-C cable to a PC or Mac, or by taking out the microSD card and using a card reader. If DJI Fly says QuickTransfer isn't supported, you're probably using the DJI RC 2 screen controller, which doesn't support it. Use your phone instead.

Air 3 transfer methods — QuickTransfer is fastest for a few clips to your phone. For full flights of 4K video, a USB-C cable or card reader to a computer is usually quicker.

QuickTransfer to iPhone or Android

QuickTransfer connects your phone directly to the drone over Wi-Fi. You don't need the controller, and you don't type a Wi-Fi password.

Power on the Air 3 and wait for the self-check to finish.
On your phone, turn on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and location services.
Open DJI Fly. A prompt to connect to the aircraft appears. Tap Connect.
The first time, press and hold the drone's power button for about two seconds to confirm.
Open the album and download the files you want. They save to your phone's photo library.

You can also start QuickTransfer while the phone is attached to the RC-N2: with the motors off, open playback in DJI Fly and tap the QuickTransfer icon in the top right.

Speed: up to 30 MB/s on 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi with no interference. If your phone doesn't support 5.8 GHz, or there's heavy interference, it falls back to 2.4 GHz at up to 6 MB/s. Stay close to the drone and away from routers and Bluetooth speakers.

Why "QuickTransfer not supported"?

DJI's Air 3 manual states that the DJI RC 2 does not support QuickTransfer. The RC 2 can still download files over the video link, just more slowly. For fast phone transfers, open DJI Fly on your phone instead. If QuickTransfer still fails on a phone, see Air 3 QuickTransfer not working.

USB-C to a PC or Mac

Connect the drone's USB-C port to the computer with a data cable (some charging cables carry power only).
The drone doesn't need to be powered on to export, according to DJI.
Open the drive that appears and copy the DCIM folder contents.

This reads both the microSD card in the drone and the Air 3's 8 GB internal storage, which catches clips recorded when no card was inserted.

microSD card reader

Power off the drone, remove the card and put it in a USB card reader. This is usually the quickest way to move a full card of 4K video. Never pull the card while the drone is recording. DJI's recommended cards for the Air 3 include V30 cards from SanDisk, Lexar, Kingston and Samsung, listed on the Air 3 specs page.

Tips

Shooting 4K/100fps or 10-bit D-Log M makes big files. Use a computer for those, and save QuickTransfer for clips you want to post right away.
If a clip on your phone looks low resolution, it may be DJI Fly's live-view cache. Download the original from the aircraft for full quality.
Back up before you format the card in DJI Fly.

For a general walkthrough that covers other models, see transfer photos from a DJI drone. Still shopping? The DJI Air 3 stores clips to microSD and to its built-in memory.