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AirDrop Barely Ever works

ngocnguyen said:
I initially had my airdrop set for "contacts only"...my co-worker had his "contacts only"...we are in each others contact list.

my 5S recognized his 5S...but his would not see mine

we switched both to "everybody" and airdrop worked
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I also had this problem....then noticed that if I put the other parties Apple ID email address in their contact info, they appeared. It doesn't recognize phone numbers associated with the accounts for some reason.
 
I just tried it a few hours ago with a friend of mine. He has a iPhone 5 and I have a 5s. He appeared almost instantly and I was able to send him a photo.
 
Wife 5c me 5s, I show up for her but consistently take 2-5 minutes for her to show up for me. Sitting right next to each other on the couch. A little frustrating, but my biggest gripe is not having the option to make a custom share list, like favorites. Why can't I choose just who I want huh Apple?
 
Fantasigraphic said:
I'm sure that'll change in next major update like 7.1 (or I hope so)
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No you don't. That would mean your phone would constantly be using Bluetooth and wifi to create a local network for airdrop. Your battery would never have seen worse days.

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solodogg said:
I also had this problem....then noticed that if I put the other parties Apple ID email address in their contact info, they appeared. It doesn't recognize phone numbers associated with the accounts for some reason.
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Yes this is a pretty big flaw. Apple likes Apple IDs more than phone numbers. Same issue when I tried sharing a photo stream to my friends using their phone numbers. The stream never got to them, until I resent the invite to the email associated with the Apple ID. #annoyed.
 
aristobrat said:
The point for me is that I don't have to know the other persons phone number or email address (or vice versa). If I'm at a party and someone catches a great picture of something, I don't necessarily want to have to do a BFF-level exchange of information in order to get a copy of a freaking picture.
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So few guys and/or gals stand like idiots with their iPhones waiting for that AirDrop connection. Yeah :rolleyes:
 
My experience has been really good so far. Took a second for my friend to show up and the file transfer is instant. Even with slomo videos, they appeared instantly.
 
I will say that when people actually show up for me it works great. Everything is instant pretty much.
 
Armen said:
would you rather your phone drain battery while it "listens" for Airdrops in sleep mode?
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My Phone can be in 'sleep' mode and still automatically see and detect my Car's bluetooth system, or my headset when I power them up.
 
Menel said:
My Phone can be in 'sleep' mode and still automatically see and detect my Car's bluetooth system, or my headset when I power them up.
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Airdrop requires both Bluetooth and Wifi to function. Since Wifi is off when the phone is in sleep mode I would assume Airdrop wouldn't work anyhow.
 
Armen said:
Airdrop requires both Bluetooth and Wifi to function. Since Wifi is off when the phone is in sleep mode I would assume Airdrop wouldn't work anyhow.
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It finds people using bluetooth.
 
AirDrop is another gimmick. Nobody in real world settings uses AirDrop.
 
joejoejoe said:
No you don't. That would mean your phone would constantly be using Bluetooth and wifi to create a local network for airdrop. Your battery would never have seen worse days.
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true, then again, not true.. FaceTime was only used w/ wifi.. now you can use it for wifi as well as 4G/LTE. Im sure they can find another way to make it work with minimal drain and not have to use bluetooth and wifi (and/or if ever comes to cellular connection) constantly.
 
mine was definitely not working with sending contacts.
friend and i set our 5 to 'everyone' . we could find each other no problem .
attempted to send contacts. i to her and her to me. it seemed like it went through just fine but when we checked the contact lists they were not there.
WTF?
never did get it to work.
 
aristobrat said:
The point for me is that I don't have to know the other persons phone number or email address (or vice versa). If I'm at a party and someone catches a great picture of something, I don't necessarily want to have to do a BFF-level exchange of information in order to get a copy of a freaking picture.
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But you need to know whether the person is using iPhone 5 or above. Of course it's not too difficult to tell :D

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gentlefury said:
In Mac osx airdrop requires both parties to have finder open and airdrop panel open. I'm guessing it's going to stay like this.
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Unfortunately the AirDrop on the Mac is not compatible with the one with the same name on iOS devices... it's kinda like Windows RT tablets and Windows 8 situation... if they're not the same, don't use the same name, or make them compatible!

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3lite said:
AirDrop is another gimmick. Nobody in real world settings uses AirDrop.
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I used it to send photos between my iPhone 5/5s and iPad 4.
 
AppleFanatic10 said:
Yea it'll only go iPhone to iPhone and Mac to Mac (if you have OS X Mountain Lion).
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notrack said:
Isn't it supposed to work with Maverix?
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Currently AirDrop iOS & Mac OS X are not compatible.

AirDrop on Mac OS X & Mac OS X works with Lion/Mtn Lion/Mavericks on Macs that have wifi direct capability.

Mac OS X uses Bonjour to discover/connect, wifi direct to transfer data.
iOS 7 uses low power Bluetooth LE (4.0) to discover/connect, wifi direct to transfer data.

Perhaps Apple will change Mac OS X in a future update and add iOS AirDrop compatibility, but, currently they function differently, not compatible (the Mac cannot discover the idevice).
 
Menel said:
It finds people using bluetooth.
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http://www.macworld.com/article/2048737/get-to-know-ios-7-airdrop.html

"How does AirDrop work? Interestingly, it requires that you enable both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your device. We suspect this is because Apple is using an approach similar to that enabled by Bluetooth 3.0 + HS. This technology allows two devices to use Bluetooth to establish a secure, direct connection, and then hands off the actual data transfer to Wi-Fi for faster performance. Given that all iOS devices that support AirDrop include Bluetooth 4.0LE, it’s likely that Apple is using Bluetooth 4.0’s low-power mode for discovery, and then Wi-Fi for actual data transmission."
 
iwayne said:
It's frustrating because it was probably the only feature I looked forward to in IOS 7. I understand all the things like not actually being needed to be logged into a wifi network, I was more proving a point in that everything is open and working on the phone. This IOS is the buggiest IOS Apple has ever released. The fact the 7.0.3 is set to be released says something.

The other thing is if it actually takes a minute to show up, then whats the point when you could have sent a text or email in the time you're waiting for airdrop to wake up.
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pray, tell me, how many iOS versions have you been through? did you go through iOS 2? or iOS 6?
 
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