Display problems

Find the section that matches what the panel is doing.

No flights, only dots or a clock

The display is online but shows three animated dots, a clock, or a blank screen. This is the normal no-flights screen. The display is working and has nothing that matches your settings.

After a fresh setup this is almost always the tracking area or the filters.

1. Confirm the display shows as connected in the app, and is not still on a setup or preparing screen. Those are connection problems, covered below.
2. Open Area Tracking and check a radius or polygon covers somewhere with real traffic. A circle centered on a quiet house can be empty even when you can see aircraft in the distance.
3. Open the filters on the same page and check nothing is removing everything: the five aircraft type toggles, Show Flights with Unknown Routes, the Airlines list, and the speed and altitude filters. At least one aircraft type has to stay on, and the altitude filter also hides aircraft that broadcast no altitude.
4. Select Save in the device header. Map edits and filter changes do not reach the display until you do.
5. Wait a minute for the display to refresh.

To prove the display can show anything at all, move a radius over a known busy airport, save, and wait. Flights there mean your original area or filters were the cause.

If the area and filters are right and saved, power-cycle the display once. Still nothing, and it is worth reporting with the Device ID and screenshots of your area and filters.

The screen goes black and needs a power cycle

The panel goes dark after saving settings, after startup, or while idle, and a power cycle brings it back for a while.

1. Check Display schedule under Display Layout. A sleep window you forgot about looks exactly like a fault.
2. Check the No Flights Screen style. Blank makes an idle display look switched off.
3. Check the timezone and the daylight saving setting under Edit clock settings, because the sleep window follows them.
4. Power-cycle the display: unplug it for about ten seconds.
5. Update the app and let the display pull the current firmware after it restarts.

If it keeps going dark after those checks, report it with the Device ID, and note whether the app can still reach the display while the panel is dark.

The display sleeps on time but does not wake

1. Confirm Display schedule is on, and read the times back.
2. Check the timezone and daylight saving setting under Edit clock settings. A schedule firing at the wrong hour is nearly always this.
3. Note whether it wakes late or never, and whether the shutoff time still works. That difference matters when you report it.
4. While the panel is off, change a setting in the app and save. If the display accepts it, the display is still online and only the wake step failed.
5. Power-cycle the display to bring it back.

If you would rather it dimmed overnight than switched off, raise Sleep brightness above 0%. See Brightness and sleep schedule.

preparing, app connecting, or configuring will not clear

Each of these is normal for a moment.

app connecting means your phone is joining the display's own Wi-Fi so the app can change something. Expect it during setup, Change Wi-Fi Network, Connect to your FlightWall, and Factory Reset. You should not see it during ordinary use.

configuring means the display is pulling updated settings from the servers. It appears briefly during normal operation, even when nobody is using the app, and passes on its own.

They are a problem when they stay, or when they loop for long stretches and block the flight display.

1. Unplug the display for about ten seconds so it reconnects cleanly and applies any waiting firmware.
2. Update the TheFlightWall app.
3. If your phone keeps trying to join the display, forget the Flightwall- network in your phone's Wi-Fi settings.
4. Photograph the panel while the message is up. Some of these flash past quickly.
5. If it seems tied to one network, test on another network or a hotspot.

Report it with the Device ID and the photo if it survives a reboot and an app update.

Flights appear, then vanish while still nearby

The display drops to the no-flights screen, or aircraft show for a moment and then go, even though traffic is still in range.

1. Note whether this happened once or keeps happening. A single episode is worth watching rather than chasing.
2. Power-cycle the display once if it has not recovered.
3. Check the tracking area, the filters, and the anchor airport settings.
4. If you use polygon areas, collect example flight numbers and a short video of aircraft appearing and disappearing.
5. Note whether it started right after an app or firmware update.

Report it with the Device ID and those flight numbers if it keeps happening.

The display is stuck on a flight that already arrived

Auto-remove after landing is turned off for that flight. With it off, the flight stays on the display until you clear it.

Open Flight Tracking, select the red X next to the flight, and save. Area results resume without a restart. See Flight Tracking.

Settings do not change anything on the wall

Units that stay metric, a missing border or anchor airport section, or brightness that makes no difference are usually the layout template rather than a fault. See Layout and templates and Display units.

If a setting is right in the app and wrong on the wall after saving:

1. Power-cycle the display so it pulls the current firmware.
2. Update the app.
3. Photograph the app settings page next to the panel and report both with the Device ID and app version.