Obstructions are the single most common reason Starlink service drops — not the network, not bad weather, not the hardware. A tree branch clipping the edge of the dish’s sky view can cause dozens of brief outages every day while the connection looks perfectly healthy the rest of the time. This guide walks through how to run the obstruction check correctly, what the numbers actually mean, and what to do when the scan shows a problem.
The questions people are actually asking when their Starlink keeps dropping — answered plainly.
This specific pattern — brief drops, then reconnects, then drops again — is almost always an obstruction. A tree branch, roofline, chimney, power line, or neighboring building is clipping the edge of the dish’s sky view. As satellites move across the sky and pass behind that object, the connection drops for 2–20 seconds, then recovers as the next satellite clears the obstacle. The repetitive pattern is the giveaway. A genuine Starlink network outage looks different — it takes everything down at once and stays down. Open the Starlink app and go to Settings → Statistics → Outage History. If you see a string of short drops with “Obstruction” listed as the reason, you have a solvable installation problem, not a Starlink network problem.
Open the Starlink app. On the home screen, tap Obstructions — or go to Settings → Obstructions → Check for Obstructions. Select your hardware model (Gen 3 Standard, Mini, etc.) so the app scans for the right field of view. Then: stand at the exact location where the dish is or will be mounted, holding the phone at the same height the dish will sit. Rotate slowly through a full 360° sweep, taking 30–60 seconds — the camera and gyroscope together build an AR sky map in real time. Red areas on the map are obstructions. After the sweep, the app shows an obstruction percentage and an estimated outage frequency. Important: the phone must be exactly where the dish will go, not nearby. Moving six feet from the intended location can completely change the result.
The targets, from Starlink’s own app guidance and verified real-world results: under 1% is excellent — less than 2 minutes of outage time per day, suitable for video calls, gaming, and anything real-time. 1–2% is good — 2–5 minutes of drops per day, suitable for streaming and most home use. 2–5% is marginal — 5–15 minutes of interruptions per day; streaming usually works because of buffering, but video calls and gaming will be affected. 5–10% is problematic — 15–30 minutes of drops per day; basic browsing only. Above 10% means major relocation is needed. The app itself tends to be slightly conservative — some users with 5–7% reported in the scan get fewer actual drops than predicted, because the satellite constellation has grown denser. But never accept more than 5% if you can avoid it.
Several things cause this. First, power lines are nearly invisible from ground level but the dish’s AR tool catches them — look specifically at horizontal lines in the red zones on the map. Second, the roofline itself is a common culprit: the dish needs clearance not just directly overhead but angled toward the horizon in multiple directions, and a roofline that seems low can still clip the dish’s field of view at certain satellite positions. Third, a chimney or vent pipe that’s barely visible from where you’re standing might be dead center in the dish’s path. Fourth, deciduous trees are seasonal — a scan done in winter or early spring on a tree with no leaves will show zero obstruction, but the same tree in summer with full foliage can push to 5–15%. Always do the obstruction check at the worst time of year for your trees, not the most convenient.
Not always — and the first thing to do is read the obstruction map carefully rather than immediately pulling the dish off the roof. The app shows exactly where in the sky the blockage is. If it is a narrow sliver at the edge of the map, raising the dish a few inches or shifting it sideways by a foot or two might eliminate the problem entirely. If the blockage is centrally located and large, relocation is probably the answer. A pole mount extension — Starlink sells official pipe adapters — can raise the dish above a roofline or tree that is just barely cutting into the view. Sometimes trimming a single branch, not the whole tree, is enough. Check the outage history before doing anything physical: if you see “Obstruction” drops every few minutes all day, it needs fixing. If you see two or three drops at specific times and no others, you may only need a minor tweak.
A few practical paths exist. First, check every high point — chimney height, peak of the roof, above an outbuilding — using the app’s obstruction scanner before giving up on the property. The scanner sometimes reveals a surprisingly clear pocket that’s not obvious from the ground. Second, a tall pole mount (10–20 feet, set in concrete) can raise the dish above the tree canopy — Starlink sells official pipe adapters and professional installation is available at starlink.com for $200. Third, if no on-property location clears the trees, some households in wooded rural areas have successfully placed the dish on a barn, outbuilding, or a pole at the edge of a cleared field, running a longer cable back to the house — the Gen 3 cable maxes out at 150 feet using official Starlink cable without a signal booster. The app is the only tool that tells you whether any given spot on your property is actually viable. Scan first, then decide.
These are two different tools in the app and they answer different questions. The pre-install check (Check for Obstructions) uses your phone’s camera and AR to predict what will block the dish before installation — you run this before mounting anything. The live obstruction map is built by the dish itself after it is online and tracking real satellites over time. The dish logs every connection attempt and failure for up to 12 hours, then generates a sky map showing exactly where real drops occurred. This map is often more precise than the phone-based pre-install scan, because it reflects actual satellite paths rather than a prediction. Check the live map 12–24 hours after installation to confirm the pre-install scan was accurate — or to find obstructions that weren’t obvious during setup. Access it in the app under Obstructions → Obstruction Map.
The most common reason obstructions appear on a dish that previously had a clean map is tree growth. Trees grow several inches per year — a tree that wasn’t in the dish’s field of view when installed can grow into it over a season or two, quietly. This is especially true for deciduous trees that weren’t in full leaf during your original scan. Seasonal foliage is a major variable: a tree with 0% obstruction in November can show 8% in July. The second reason is physical shift — if the dish mount was not fully secured, winter frost, heavy snow load, or wind can rotate the dish a few degrees off its original alignment. Check the dish position physically and compare the live obstruction map with the pre-install scan image if you saved it. The outage history reason codes will say “Obstruction” if trees are the cause — if they say something else, the problem is different.
The app gives you a number. Here is what that number actually tells you about daily experience — and what action is appropriate at each level.
| Obstruction % | Downtime Per Day | What You’ll Notice | Suitable For | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | None | No outages from obstruction | All uses including gaming, live video, Zoom | ✓ No action needed |
| Under 1% | Under 2 min | Brief flicker rarely noticed | All uses · video calls still reliable | ✓ Excellent — leave it |
| 1–2% | 2–5 min | Occasional brief drop; streaming unaffected | Streaming, browsing, email, casual video calls | Monitor · optional tweak |
| 2–5% | 5–15 min | Video calls drop mid-sentence; gaming stutters | Streaming OK · not for work calls or gaming | ⚠ Raise or reposition dish |
| 5–10% | 15–30 min | Frequent drops · HD streaming buffers · Zoom unusable | Basic browsing and email only | ✗ Relocate or mount higher |
| Over 10% | 30+ min | Unreliable for any consistent use | Not recommended for regular use | ✗ Major relocation required |
Not all obstructions look the same in the app, and not all require the same fix. Matching the right cause to the right solution saves a lot of time and money.
| What’s Blocking It | Pattern on Map | When It Shows Up | Best Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trees (deciduous) | Wide irregular red zone, usually one side | Worse in summer; may be near 0% in winter | Raise dish above canopy; or trim specific branches |
| Trees (evergreen / pine) | Consistent red zone year-round | Same all seasons — no seasonal variation | Raise dish significantly or relocate; no seasonal workaround |
| Roofline / eave | Red arc at low edge of map | Always present from that position | Move dish to roof peak or raise it above roofline |
| Chimney / vent pipe | Small, defined red spot | Always present; doesn’t change | Shift dish laterally a few feet to route around it |
| Power lines | Thin horizontal red line across map | Always present; easy to miss by eye | Raise dish above line level or reposition away from line |
| Neighbor’s building | Solid red block at map edge | Always present | Move dish to opposite side of roof or higher elevation |
| Dish misalignment (Gen 3) | Broad red coverage on one side | Present from day one if not aligned northward | Realign dish to face northward per app alignment tool |
The scan takes about 2 minutes and gives you the most useful single piece of information about any installation location. Do this before permanently mounting anything.
The Starlink app (free, iOS and Android) is the only tool that works for this — the AR obstruction scanner is not available anywhere else. You do not need an active Starlink subscription to run the pre-install obstruction scan. If the app asks you to log in, you can create a free account or use the app in guest mode for the obstruction tool specifically.
From the home screen tap Obstructions, then Check for Obstructions. If you do not see this option immediately, it is under Settings → Obstructions. The app will prompt you to select your hardware model — choose the correct generation (Gen 3 Standard has a 110° field of view; Gen 2 Actuated is 100°). This matters because the scan covers the dish’s actual view angle.
This is the step most people get wrong. Hold the phone at the exact height and horizontal position where the dish will be mounted — not where you’re standing, not 10 feet away “approximately.” If the dish will be on the roof at 15 feet, you need to be at 15 feet with the phone. For a ground-level tripod installation, hold the phone at the height of the dish as it sits on the tripod. The scan is highly position-sensitive: a two-foot difference in height can make an obstruction disappear or appear.
Turn your entire body in a full circle, taking 30–60 seconds to complete the rotation. Keep the phone at the same height and angle throughout — do not tilt it up or down as you turn. The camera and gyroscope together build a composite sky map. Moving too fast misses objects; moving too slowly does not hurt the result. The screen will show the AR overlay building in real time, with red marking anything that clips the dish’s view of the sky.
After the sweep, the app displays a circular sky map (fish-eye view) and two numbers: the obstruction percentage and an estimated minutes-between-outages figure. Under 1% obstruction with outages estimated at more than 24 hours apart is excellent. Anything showing estimated outages every few minutes is a problem worth solving before drilling holes in the roof. Note exactly where on the map the red zones appear — that tells you which physical object is causing the blockage and which direction to shift the dish.
Run the scan at every candidate location — different sides of the roof, different heights, different corners of the yard. It takes two minutes per location and takes zero physical work. Many people find that a spot three feet from their original choice has dramatically better sky clearance. Save or screenshot each result so you can compare. The best spot is not always the most obvious or most convenient one — the data from the scan is more reliable than any visual estimate from the ground.
Most obstruction problems are fixable with repositioning. When they are not, Starlink’s support team and professional installation service can help.
That specific pattern — brief outage, reconnects, drops again, repeats — is the signature of an obstruction problem. Open the app and go to Settings → Statistics → Outage History. If the reason codes say “Obstruction,” you have your answer. The drop happens as a satellite passes behind a tree, roofline, or other object and the dish loses the signal for the few seconds it takes the next satellite to come into view. The fix is always physical: raise the dish, shift its position, or remove the object blocking the path. Running the obstruction scan at the current dish location will show you exactly where the blockage is and how significant it is. From there, the choice is whether to move the dish or accept the drops.
Before concluding that your property has no viable location, scan every elevated point — the peak of the roof, an outbuilding’s roof, the tallest spot in a cleared area, above a detached garage. The app sometimes reveals a pocket of clear sky that is completely invisible from ground level. If no on-property location works without trees, three practical options: (1) a tall pole mount set in concrete to raise the dish above the canopy — Starlink sells pipe adapters and professional installation is available for $200; (2) run a cable to an outbuilding, barn, or location at the edge of a cleared field — the Gen 3 proprietary cable runs up to 150 feet without signal loss; (3) use the Starlink app to determine whether tree trimming a single branch or two would be enough — sometimes one specific branch is causing 80% of the obstruction. Never decide without running the scan first. The scan will tell you whether the tree problem is solvable or not.
Before touching a drill or a ladder: run the obstruction scan at every candidate location from the ground, using the app, holding the phone at the height the dish will sit. This costs nothing and takes two minutes per location. Then move to the best option the scan reveals. For most homes, the peak of the roof gives the widest, clearest sky view — but the scan sometimes shows a lower, easier-to-reach wall-mount location that is nearly as good. Starlink also offers professional installation at starlink.com/installation for $200 if you would rather have a technician do the survey and mounting. The single most expensive mistake in Starlink installation is drilling a permanent roof mount in the wrong spot and discovering after the fact that a roofline or tree was blocking the dish’s view. The scan prevents this — always run it first.
Something almost certainly changed, even if you didn’t notice it. The most common cause of new obstructions on a previously clean installation is tree growth — trees grow several inches per year and the branch that wasn’t a problem last year may have grown directly into the dish’s field of view this year. Check the current live obstruction map in the app (Obstructions → Obstruction Map) and compare it to your original scan result if you saved it. If you see new red on a side of the map that was previously clear, look physically at what exists in that direction. Also check whether the dish has shifted physically — wind, ice load, or an unsecured mount can rotate a dish several degrees off alignment. The obstruction map tells you where the problem is; looking in that physical direction tells you what it is.
Call 888-GO-STARLINK (888-467-8275) — available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An AI voice assistant will walk you through the obstruction check at your pace and can schedule a callback from a human agent if needed. If you would rather not do any of this yourself, Starlink’s professional installation service ($200, available at starlink.com/installation) sends a trained technician to your home — they scan for obstructions, find the best location, mount the dish properly, run the cable inside neatly, and verify everything is working before they leave. You do not need to understand how satellite internet works to get it installed correctly. The $200 professional install often prevents far more expensive problems down the line — a poorly placed dish that needs to be moved after-the-fact costs more in time and materials than the install would have.
This happens more often than expected, and the explanation is straightforward: the Starlink satellite constellation is dense enough now that brief passes behind a small obstruction are covered by the next satellite before most applications notice. Streaming services and web browsing buffer data ahead, so a two-second drop every 20 minutes often goes completely unnoticed in actual use. The obstruction percentage in the scan is a prediction based on satellite paths and the geometry of the blockage — it can be conservative. However: video calls, live gaming, and real-time applications are a different story. Even brief drops kill a Zoom call mid-sentence. If your specific uses do not include anything real-time, a 2–3% obstruction level may genuinely not bother you in practice. If you do use video calls, gaming, or work-from-home applications — fix the obstruction, because those uses will expose every drop.
Note: The Starlink app’s obstruction scan is a prediction tool — actual performance can vary from the estimate depending on your specific satellite cell density. Always check the live obstruction map 12–24 hours after installation to confirm real-world results. App interface details may change with software updates.