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MBP: Can't Get Airdrop to Work

H

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
525
22
New York
I'm on a late 2011 15" MBP, running the latest version of El Capitan.
I'm trying to Airdrop a video from my iPhone to my Mac.
In Finder, if I click on Airdrop, a window opens showing the Airdrop icon, but it doesn't see my iPhone (both devices have wifi and bluetooth on).
I right click Airdrop on the left bar, and click "Get Info." The "Airdrop Info" window opens. Under "More Info," it says "Fetching" and the wheel keeps spinning -- it seems to be stuck Under General, it says, "Kind:Airdrop", and the "locked" box is unchecked.

I don't see any box for "Allow Me To Be Discovered" or "Friends Only," etc.

Any ideas?

Also -- why don't my videos transfer automatically from my iPhone to Photos? Is that a setting in Photos I can't find?
 
I have a 2015 Air which had a failed Airdrop too, the OS running on my mac is 10.11.3, it can't search my iPhone on 9.3 beta 6 (same on the reverse case).
 
asv56kx3088 said:
I don't see the problem of this. The topic is "can't get airdrop to work".
Click to expand...

If the advice for your situation is the same as the advice for the OP, there is no problem. If it is different then it can get confusing. Instead of hijacking a thread, why not start your own?
 
Airdrop is not always reliable. It's a shame because the transfer speed is so much faster than when using Bluetooth.
 
It uses bluetooth to find the device but the actual file transfer is done via Wifi direct. Try transferring the same file with AirDrop and then Bluetooth and see for yourself.
 
Fancuku said:
I don't know what it uses. Try transferring the same file with AirDrop and Bluetooth and see for yourself.
Click to expand...

AirDrop uses Bluetooth to broadcast, discover and negotiate the connection but then uses LTE or wifi to do the transfer.

So you're right that it can be faster but Bluetooth is still required to make it happen. (And why the OP can't do it on his 2011 MBP. Requires a version of Bluetooth that is only in 2012 and up machines.)
 
Hrothgar said:
I'm on a late 2011 15" MBP, running the latest version of El Capitan.
I'm trying to Airdrop a video from my iPhone to my Mac.
In Finder, if I click on Airdrop, a window opens showing the Airdrop icon, but it doesn't see my iPhone (both devices have wifi and bluetooth on).
I right click Airdrop on the left bar, and click "Get Info." The "Airdrop Info" window opens. Under "More Info," it says "Fetching" and the wheel keeps spinning -- it seems to be stuck Under General, it says, "Kind:Airdrop", and the "locked" box is unchecked.

I don't see any box for "Allow Me To Be Discovered" or "Friends Only," etc.

Any ideas?

Also -- why don't my videos transfer automatically from my iPhone to Photos? Is that a setting in Photos I can't find?
Click to expand...
If you're willing, you can purchase a BT 4.0 card and replace the original one in your MBP. You'd then have to run the CAT app for it to work (I have done this on my 2011 MBP and works perfect).

Or, you can use a dongle but would still have to modify kexts.
 
Airdrop has been extremely unreliable for me as well. It's still tolerable between iOS devices, but between iOS and Mac devices is really hit and miss.

You may want to consider a 3rd party app like Instashare if you find yourself passing files around this way on a regular basis.
 
I have a late 2014 rMBP. From iPhone to the Mac, it always works. However, from Mac to iPhone almost never works. I don't know why.
 
ielessar said:
I have a late 2014 rMBP. From iPhone to the Mac, it always works. However, from Mac to iPhone almost never works. I don't know why.
Click to expand...
I was just searching the forums for a solution to this issue. My devices work exactly as you described, it works from iPhone > Mac, but not Mac > iPhone (or iPad in my case). Very frustrating, because when it works it's great.
 
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AlexH said:
I was just searching the forums for a solution to this issue. My devices work exactly as you described, it works from iPhone > Mac, but not Mac > iPhone (or iPad in my case). Very frustrating, because when it works it's great.
Click to expand...


I was afraid that my jailbroken iPhone was the culprit. But I tried with another non-jailbroken iPhone, still doesn't work as it should.

Too bad. I hope this is fixed in iOS 9.3
 
This is interesting... as I've wanted to AirDrop between my iPhone 6 and MacBook Air (2011), but nothing shows up for either device, yet I'm certain I've had it working between these two devices before!
I appreciate it may be to do with the BT in the device not supporting Handover, etc (and I have used the Continuity Activation tool before also).
Maybe now I've upgraded to 10.11.4 I need to reapply the Continuity tool again.
 
groovyf said:
This is interesting... as I've wanted to AirDrop between my iPhone 6 and MacBook Air (2011), but nothing shows up for either device, yet I'm certain I've had it working between these two devices before!
I appreciate it may be to do with the BT in the device not supporting Handover, etc (and I have used the Continuity Activation tool before also).
Maybe now I've upgraded to 10.11.4 I need to reapply the Continuity tool again.
Click to expand...
Typically you have to reapply CAT after an update. You can check by going to System Preferences>General and see if the option "Allow Handoff" is present. If not, then you need to reapply CAT.
 
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Figured as much, thanks for confirming.
Happy to report reapplying CAT has got my 2011 Air and iPhone 6 seeing each other again via AirDrop (and given me Handover functionality again).
 
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