jfs-dev

Q: AIRDROP NOT WORKING! El Capitan

I know this topic has been addressed a lot already...

The issue is I can't really say Airdrop is not working at all. Somehow is does work between my MacBook Air (Mid 2012) and my iPhone 5c but it does not work between my iMac (late 2013) and my iPhone.

The weird thing is that I have to use the "Don't see who you are looking for?" link in finder for trying to connect bot Macs. Since the Airdrop connection work with the MacBook Air and the iPhone I assume that my iMac late 2013 is recognized as an "older" Mac. Why is that?

 

Apple clearly says that for sharing files between mobile devices and Macs the Mac needs to be newer than 2012! Which is the case with my iMac.

What is going wrong? Do I have a special iMac not supporting the Airdrop feature with mobile devices?

 

Gosh, Apple needs to fix that Airdrop issues at some point. This is really annoying!

 

Thanks for any hint.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), late 2013 (21.5", 2.7GHz)

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 3:27 AM

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Q: AIRDROP NOT WORKING! El Capitan

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  • by daviddeg,

    daviddeg daviddeg Mar 8, 2016 4:17 AM in response to jfs-dev
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 4:17 AM in response to jfs-dev

    I turned my firewall on and than it works

    go to system settings

    than to security

    klick on firewall and turn it on

  • by wellington d,

    wellington d wellington d Mar 10, 2016 11:07 AM in response to jfs-dev
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 10, 2016 11:07 AM in response to jfs-dev

    Hi guys i try to remove the file but i have a different name on it "com.apple.BluetoothFileExchange.plist" is this the same? this other name of file reported is com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, i tried to remove but still not working... i try to turn firewall on and still not working.. i have mac pro early 2015 el capitan, my airdrop was working fine after updated stopped working..

  • by Richard_K,

    Richard_K Richard_K Mar 12, 2016 9:40 PM in response to daviddeg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2016 9:40 PM in response to daviddeg

    This almost woked for me except I turned my firewall on then OFF (it was already off). Airdrop now works with it off or on.

     

    I had tried  all previous suggestions in this thread without luck.

     

    Before toggling the firewall I made sure my iPad Pro was properly paired with my MacBook Pro . Once that was working fine I toggled the firewall on then off.

     

    Richard.

  • by banjo48,

    banjo48 banjo48 Mar 12, 2016 10:12 PM in response to Richard_K
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2016 10:12 PM in response to Richard_K

    Not sure what's happened but suddenly my airdrop is working as it should, I did go into itunes and checked out what iphones and ipads I had assigned to my account, my old iphone 4 and my old ipad2 which my wife uses was also on there still, so deleted them from my account, but that's it all good now.

  • by Ferdinand Magellan,

    Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan Mar 15, 2016 3:25 PM in response to jfs-dev
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 3:25 PM in response to jfs-dev

    I finally got my AirDrop to work today between an iPhone and my iMac, both running current OSs. AirDrop had randomly quit a few weeks ago. My iPhone and iPad could see each other but my Mac showed neither.

     

    During the steps below, I had my iPhone looking for devices to share photos with via Airdrop, and on my Mac, Finder was open to AirDrop. Both were set to "Everyone."

     

    Not sure if all of the following was required, but here is what I tried in order:

    0) Restarted each device.

    1) Disabled bluetooth, deleted com.apple.bluetooth.plist, and then reenabled bluetooth (I controlled my iMac with a VNC app on my iPad that I had configured/tested ahead of time). I noticed that my iPhone and iPad now showed up as devices to connect to in the Bluetooth devices list (they were missing before).

    2) Reviewed my iTunes account (via iTunes on the Mac) and cleaned up old devices that did not need to have access.

    3) Logged into https://appleid.apple.com and made sure devices and contact information was current. Use appleid credentials.

    4) Logged into https://www.icloud.com and again made sure devices and contact information was current. Use appleid credentials.

    5) In iTunes on the Mac, I signed out of my account. I logged right back in with my appleid credentials. I checked my iTunes account again to make sure it was the same account I had verified earlier (it was). Immediately after signing out and signing back into iTunes I noticed my Apple Music library disappeared from my Mac and my iPhone, it was still good on my iPad.

    6) On my iPhone, I enabled iCloud Music Library (it was off). This restored my Apple Music library on my iPhone. Sync Apple Music across your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and computer - Apple Support

    7) In iTunes on the Mac, enabled iCloud Music Library (also off). This restored my Apple Music library on my Mac. Sync Apple Music across your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and computer - Apple Support

    8) I turned off Wifi, waited a few seconds, and then turned Wifi back on.

     

    As soon as Wifi came back on, my iPhone appeared on my Mac Finder for AirDrop, and my Mac appeared on my iPhone.

  • by baban ismael barzji,

    baban ismael barzji baban ismael barzji Mar 26, 2016 6:34 PM in response to jfs-dev
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Mar 26, 2016 6:34 PM in response to jfs-dev

    hello gents,

    i have got the same problem, the airdrop really annoying. after i tried all the ways to solve the problem, while my mac was on Capitan, it was not working properly. then i changed to Yosemite. it started working but was tooooooo slow. lately reverted to Capitan again and erased the Hard drive as well but there was blocked again. Now it is not working and I'm really tired of searching and finding the solutions. so please help me as soon as you see my message. otherwise i have to sell my mac.

     

    Regards,

    Baban Barznji

  • by JosueK,

    JosueK JosueK Mar 26, 2016 8:56 PM in response to baban ismael barzji
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 26, 2016 8:56 PM in response to baban ismael barzji

    Same here, airdrop not working and location too, the strange thing is when I go back to Yosemite everything works well which mean no faulty hardware, so I suspect that maybe is a software issue with some Macs and El Capitan, if you search through the forums you will find problems related to: location, airdrop and wifi and those three things are dependent on wireless card.

  • by Ferdinand Magellan,

    Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan Mar 28, 2016 5:20 AM in response to Ferdinand Magellan
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 28, 2016 5:20 AM in response to Ferdinand Magellan

    As a follow up to my original post, I noticed that a few days later my airdrop stopped working again. The only thing that had changed is that I had removed the bluetooth icon from the menu bar. I added bluetooth back to the menu bar and airdrop started working again. It seems that the affect of the bluetooth icon on Airdrop is delayed. So, I recommend going into Bluetooth in system preferences and enabling "Show Bluetooth in menu bar".

  • by JonyR,

    JonyR JonyR Mar 29, 2016 12:30 AM in response to jfs-dev
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 29, 2016 12:30 AM in response to jfs-dev

    Hi,

     

    Re-installed OSX El Capitan (10.11.4) over the existing installation (which was already 10.11.4). Just less then an hour effortless operation (in normal circumstances, all settings/files remain in tact). Airdrop is working again between Macbook 12 inch and iPhone 5 (IOS 9.3). Somehow this did something under the hood, would be interesting to know what...

     

    Tried a lot of things like the suggestions below, unfortunately they did not fix the Airdrop issue for me:

    • Turn off Bluetooth on your Mac
    • Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
    • Turn Bluetooth back on
    • Deleting /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.SOMENUMBER
    • Making sure that 'Block all incoming connections' is not ticked under 'Security&Privacy>Firewall.
    • Turning off Wifi/Bluetooth several times
    • Restarting
    • Holding shift+alt-option and clicking the Bluetooth option in the top menu bar>debug and trying all options.
  • by ORN.W,

    ORN.W ORN.W Apr 13, 2016 10:20 AM in response to wellington d
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 13, 2016 10:20 AM in response to wellington d

    My situation is the same with you! I have just only "com.apple.BluetoothFileExchange.plist" file. I've deleted it and AirDrop still isn't working!

  • by wellington d,

    wellington d wellington d Apr 13, 2016 12:07 PM in response to ORN.W
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 13, 2016 12:07 PM in response to ORN.W

    i found the file, they will not papers if you go to preferences, instead go to library and search on search box the right name! Also, I figured that out if I conmect to another networking airdrop works! I did all the troubleshooting commented here and i think that the router is blocking airdrop or some settings! Try to connect to another public network like an Apple Store

  • by annabelle,

    annabelle annabelle Apr 13, 2016 12:25 PM in response to annabelle
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 13, 2016 12:25 PM in response to annabelle

    a follow up to my post

    Now Airdrop (and Handoff too) works at home among Mac and idevices, latest El Capitan and iOS 9.3.1

    Didn't work in other locations where the network has a different router, for example at my sister's

    even if the settings are exactly the same

    By chance something happened and now everything works here too

    She has an iPhone 5s still with 9.2.1 iOS . Both my iPad and iPhone 6s are 9.3.1 iOS

    We had to transfer some photos to her computer , than to mine

    Mine idevices didn't show anywhere , than we tried her iPhone and it worked just fine with both computers

    After the connection with her iPhone , both my iPad and iPhone 6s appeared in airdrop everywhere !

    Jealousy ?Competition? who knows.....

    Probably her iPhone unblocked  some preferences

  • by gogolatinboy,

    gogolatinboy gogolatinboy Apr 13, 2016 4:53 PM in response to Ferdinand Magellan
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 13, 2016 4:53 PM in response to Ferdinand Magellan

    That didn't work for me    I gave up!... .thanks for your advice!   you're the best.     

  • by Sheldon Rothman1,

    Sheldon Rothman1 Sheldon Rothman1 Apr 13, 2016 10:37 PM in response to gogolatinboy
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 13, 2016 10:37 PM in response to gogolatinboy

    Here's another variation on the theme.  Just upgraded iMac (late 2009) to 10.11.4, to match my Air (late 2011).  Can't get them to see one another on AirDrop.  Tried my wife's Air, which is running 10.9.5, and both my Macs can see hers, and her Mac can see both my Air and my iMac.  Tried the Bluetooth trick, but no success.  Don't think we'll upgrade my wife's Air just yet...

  • by emandelapaz,

    emandelapaz emandelapaz Apr 28, 2016 6:30 PM in response to daviddeg
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Apr 28, 2016 6:30 PM in response to daviddeg

    Turning on the FIREWALL worked for me.  Thanks for sharing this advise

     

    After so many weeks of not being able to use Airdrop between my iPhone 6 (IOS 9.3.1) and Macbook Pro (late 2015 El Capitan 10.14.4) despite following most recommendations, it was only after I turned the Firewall ON that this feature finally worked.

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