Drone Not Syncing

Symptom#

On Drones or Drone Detail, the unit shows Offline or telemetry timestamps lag by more than a minute while the customer insists the drone is powered on and flying (or recently landed).

Diagnosis#

Work top to bottom — most cases are environmental, not RMA.

1. Expected offline#

Between missions the aircraft is powered down. Offline is normal. Ask when the customer last powered on and whether the controller reported link.

2. Controller network path#

Telemetry reaches the portal through the Controller. If the controller has no cellular or Wi-Fi, the portal stays Offline even when the RC link to the drone is fine.

• Have the customer open a browser page on the controller.
• Retry after moving within coverage or switching networks.

3. RC link vs portal link#

If the controller shows lost link to the drone, treat as field operations (range, interference, RTL) — not a dealer portal defect.

If RC link is healthy but portal is Offline, continue to step 4.

4. Dealer record checks#

In Drone Detail:

• Confirm the serial matches the physical label on the bench.
• Check Block Status — Blocked units may suppress expected telemetry behavior until resolved in Settings.
• Compare Firmware Version to OEM baseline; outdated firmware can stall sync after updates.

5. Portal session hygiene#

Ask the customer to reload the customer portal and sign out/in. On your dealer view, refresh Monitoring or Drone Detail after two minutes — telemetry can backlog briefly after landing.

Fix#

Finding	Action
Powered off	No action; explain expected Offline
Controller offline	Restore network; retest
Wrong serial on ticket	Correct Drone on Support Ticket
Blocked	Clear block per policy or escalate to Distributor for factory hold
Firmware drift	Schedule update per OEM bulletin before further repair
Still stale after above	Open internal ticket with serial, controller id, last-seen timestamp; escalate OEM if fleet-wide

Related#

• Drone management · Monitoring
• Run diagnostic checklist