Drone Pilot ADS-B can reach your receiver several ways, and Bluetooth is the one we recommend. To change it, tap Receiver on the lower right-hand toolbar → Change Mode → Establish ADS-B Connection.

1. Bluetooth (recommended). Traffic arrives over Bluetooth while your phone stays on its normal Wi-Fi or cellular, so maps, weather, TFRs and LAANC keep working. Best choice for almost everyone.
2. Wi-Fi + Bluetooth. The receiver joins a Wi-Fi network you choose and carries traffic over it, with Bluetooth kept as a hot standby. Useful when the phone has to sit close to other radio equipment.
3. Wi-Fi only. Your phone joins the receiver's own network. Note that the receiver's network has no internet, so maps, weather, TFRs and LAANC will not load while you are on it.
4. Map Only / Playback. No receiver needed — see section 04.

If the app can see your receiver but won't connect to it, the cause is almost always 2.4 GHz interference — not a fault. Bluetooth shares that band with a lot of equipment a drone pilot has switched on, and your drone controller is the usual culprit: it transmits far more strongly than Bluetooth does, and inches from your phone it can simply drown the link out. Satellite internet routers and portable hotspots do the same.

1. Move the phone a few feet from the controller. Distance helps more than anything else, and usually fixes it outright.
2. Put the receiver on Wi-Fi instead. See the next card. If your network offers 5 GHz, that band is completely clear of the interference.
3. Power the ADS-B receiver on a minute before you need it. It is at its busiest in the first minute after switch-on.
4. Let the app retry. It makes several attempts automatically and tells you what it is doing — give it a few seconds before intervening.

The best fix if you regularly fly with your phone close to the controller — and once it is set, it happens by itself every time.

1. Connect over Bluetooth first. That is how the app configures the receiver.
2. Open the Wi-Fi settings. Tap Receiver → WiFi Network & Auto-Rejoin.
3. Pick your network and enter the password. Leave auto-rejoin switched on — the receiver will then join that network by itself every time it powers up, and the app will find it there with nothing to set up.
4. Your phone must be on the same network. The app looks for the receiver on the network the phone is using.

1. Check the receiver has power and give it about 60 seconds to finish starting up.
2. Start the connection from the app. Tap Receiver → Change Mode → Establish ADS-B Connection.
3. Check Bluetooth is switched on in your phone's settings, and that Drone Pilot ADS-B has permission to use it.
4. If you chose Wi-Fi only, confirm in your phone's Wi-Fi settings that it really is joined to the receiver's network.
5. Restart both. Power the receiver off, wait 60 seconds, power it on, wait another 60. Then close the app fully and reopen it.

1. Interference, again. See the Bluetooth card above. Moving the phone away from the controller is the single most effective change you can make. The best way to prevent drops is to use the Wi-Fi + Bluetooth connection method — Wi-Fi is a much stronger link and, especially on a 5 GHz network, is not subject to the interference that affects Bluetooth.
2. Check the power supply. In a vehicle, a cheap 12 V USB adapter can brown out under load and reset the receiver. Tap Receiver (lower right corner) and look at Power monitor — if it reports dips, that is your answer.
3. Mind the distance. Bluetooth is good for several meters in the open and much less through a vehicle body or a metal case.

First, check there is actually traffic in your area. Visit ADSBexchange.com — if no aircraft show within 15–20 miles, the skies near you are simply clear. Try testing near a regional airport.

1. Check the message rates. Tap Receiver and look at 1090 ES and 978 UAT. If 1090 shows messages arriving, your antenna and radio are working and the problem is elsewhere on this list.
2. Check your zoom level. The aircraft count at the bottom of the screen tells you how many are being received. If it shows aircraft but the map looks empty, zoom out — they may be outside your current range rings.
3. Check your filters. An altitude filter or a silence zone can hide traffic that is arriving perfectly well. Tap Filter and Altitude on the toolbar and confirm nothing is excluding what you expect to see.
4. Check the antenna connections. Both the 1090 ES and 978 UAT antennas should be firmly hand-tightened onto the correct ports.
5. Test outdoors. ADS-B is line-of-sight. Buildings, terrain and indoor use cut range severely.

1. Swap your antennas. If ADSBexchange.com shows traffic within 15–20 miles but the app shows nothing, swap the 978 and 1090 antennas. If traffic now appears, your original 1090 ES antenna is likely faulty and needs replacing. We test every antenna and receiver before shipping, so this is highly unlikely on a brand new unit. Replacement 1090 MHz antenna → or the 1090 + 978 antenna bundle →
2. Restart the receiver. Power it off, wait 60 seconds, power it back on, wait another 60 for full boot, then close the app completely, reopen it and reconnect.

ADS-B is line-of-sight. Aircraft at 10+ miles may drop off the map below 500 ft as terrain blocks the signal. Aircraft within 1–3 miles will generally show up even when on the runway. Low, distant traffic disappearing is normal physics — not a fault with your unit.

You can set your preferred GPS source in Map Settings (top right corner of the app). Two sources are available:

1. Receiver GNSS (recommended in flight). Uses the dedicated GPS built into your pilotADSB Receiver. Requires a clear view of the sky — indoors or under a metal roof the signal is weak. The status bar shows GNSS: Receiver when active. A first fix in a new location can take 1–3 minutes.
2. Device GNSS. Uses your phone or tablet's own GPS. A reliable fallback, and the better choice when testing indoors or during setup.
3. No position at all? Make sure location permission is granted.
   Android: Settings → Apps → Drone Pilot ADS-B → Permissions → Location → Allow while using the app.
   iPhone or iPad: Settings → Drone Pilot ADS-B → Location → While Using the App.
4. Still nothing? Go outside — a first fix indoors may never arrive — and switch to Device GNSS to confirm the rest of the app is working while the receiver's GPS acquires.

All of these are downloaded from the internet, so they cannot load if your phone has no internet connection. The usual cause is being connected in Wi-Fi only mode: the receiver's own network has no route to the internet, so while your phone is joined to it nothing else can load.

1. Use Bluetooth instead — this is the fix for almost everyone. Your phone stays on its normal Wi-Fi or cellular, so everything loads while traffic still arrives from the receiver.
2. Or put the receiver on your own Wi-Fi network (section 01). Then both your phone and the receiver have internet, and traffic comes over Wi-Fi.
3. Check mobile data is enabled. The app uses very little data for map tiles.

An orange TFR Cached banner means your TFR data came from an earlier session rather than a live download. Tap it for details, and refresh it while you have internet before you fly.

1. Check LAANC is switched on on the toolbar.
2. LAANC needs internet — see the card above.
3. LAANC grids are US-only. Outside the US there is nothing to draw.

With cellular data or any Wi-Fi connection you get maps, weather, TFRs, LAANC, obstacles, power lines and pipelines — everything except live traffic. Use Playback — Demo Mode to replay recorded ADS-B sessions, explore rules and learn the app before your receiver arrives.

A few receiver diagnostics — CPU temperature, connection resets and GNSS altitude among them — cannot always be sent over Bluetooth, because Bluetooth strictly limits how much can be sent at once.

This is normal and nothing is wrong. Everything that matters in flight — traffic, message rates, satellites, power state and firmware version — is available over Bluetooth. If you want the full diagnostic detail, put the receiver on a Wi-Fi network (section 01) and the remaining rows fill in.

One-month free trial. A payment method is required to start it, and you are not charged during the trial. Cancel any time before it ends and you pay nothing. If you don't cancel, your subscription starts automatically at $9.99/month or $99.99/year.

Manage or cancel any time in the Google Play Store, or on iPhone and iPad in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions.

Every pilotADSB Receiver includes a full year of the app. It activates automatically the first time you connect — no subscription and no payment method needed. If it hasn't unlocked, just connect to your receiver once with the app running.

This can happen right after reinstalling, before the store has finished confirming your subscription.

1. Tap "Already subscribed? Restore purchase" on that screen.
2. Or close the app fully and reopen it. Your subscription will be recognized.
3. Make sure you have internet on that first launch. Checking your subscription needs a connection.
4. Check you are signed in to the right store account — the one you subscribed with.
5. Still stuck? Send us a message with your Google Play or App Store order number and we'll resolve it within 1 business day.

1. Update the app. Android: Google Play → search "Drone Pilot ADS-B" → Update if available. iPhone or iPad: App Store → tap your profile icon → scroll to available updates.
2. Close it fully and reopen. Not just backgrounded — swipe it away, then launch it again.
3. Restart your device. A full restart clears memory issues that can cause crashes.
4. Clear the app cache (Android). Settings → Apps → Drone Pilot ADS-B → Storage → Clear Cache. Your settings are preserved. iOS has no cache-clearing option.
5. Report it. Send us a message with your device model, your Android or iOS version, what you were doing, and a diagnostic log. We fix reported bugs fast.

The app keeps a detailed record of what it and your receiver are doing, and it almost always contains the answer.

1. Tap Receiver on the lower right-hand toolbar.
2. Tap Bluetooth Log.
3. Tap Share Diagnostic Log and send it to us however suits — email, message, whatever you have.
4. Tell us roughly when it happened — to the minute is plenty — and what else was switched on: drone controller, satellite internet, vehicle running, and so on.