AirDrop on Macs

doublem1 · 26 Oct 2015

Does anyone use this? The idea is very appealing to me seeing I know have a macbook so that I can transfer files between them. However, I just can't get it to work! They are both set to be discoverable by everyone. Both have bluetooth & wifi on. Can't get it to work for the life of me.

andyscott · 26 Oct 2015

Could never get it to work either, so just canned the idea of using it.

funny_h0w · 26 Oct 2015

Is both the Mac and the iPhone up to date with the latest OS/iOS? And it sounds a stupid question but are the devices connected to the same Wi-Fi?

I found today actually that if your phone is plugged into the machine then it does not connect to Airdrop.

chrism_scotland · 26 Oct 2015

I've been trying this out on my new Macbook 15" and iPad Air 2 and can't get it to work either, can't see what I'm doing wrong either

Gary Wood · 26 Oct 2015

I have only ever got this to work IPhone to IPhone either the macbook or iPad work with air drop

Andy Taylor · 27 Oct 2015

iOS <> Mac Airdrop requires IOS 8 and Yosemite or higher.

I've never found it to be as fast as I'd like, so tend not to bother.

andrewc · 27 Oct 2015

I've used it a number of times to quickly transfer things from my macbook or iPhone to each other or to one of my parents iPads.

funny_h0w · 27 Oct 2015

I have found it has improved greatly too on El Captain and iOS9

wyx087 · 27 Oct 2015

I've not tried on El Cap and iOS 9 yet. On Yosemite and iOS 8, I've used it a number of times between iPad mini 2, iPhone 5S and Macbook air late '13. No problems using it, just works.

But for actual file sharing (eg. not 2 mobile phone photos), you'd be better off enabling file sharing on your Mac (one that rarely leave the house). I found Mac file sharing to work reliably across all platforms.

More info on file sharing:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204445

JohnM100 · 27 Oct 2015

If you are wanting to transfer Mac to Mac then agree file sharing is a better way to go.

Airdrop however needs newer hardware: how old are your Macs? Some older machines don't support it. Not 100% sure of cut off but think that the oldest iOS devices to support it are iPhone 5, iPad 4.

IIRC Macs from 2012 onwards use a different implementation of it so it's harder to get pre 2012 Macs & post 2012 Macs/iOS devices to see each other.

Edit: link added:
http://m.imore.com/how-use-airdrop-older-macs