Cannot AirDrop From iPhone XR to iPad 4

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Cannot AirDrop From iPhone XR to iPad 4

A strange inconsistency with hopefully a simple solution? I have an iPhone X (iOS 14.1) and am easily able to AirDrop photos to my wife’s iPad 4 (iOS 10.1.1). However, when my wife tries to AirDrop a photo from her iPhone XR (iOS 14.1) to the same iPad, the AirDrop window that pops up says: “(Name) would like to share a file that requires an app from the App Store.”

Given my ability to easily send a photo to her iPad using the previous generation of iPhone and both iPhones are running the same iOS, this doesn’t (on the surface) make sense. Both iPhones are set to AirDrop with Everyone. The iPad does not have AirDrop settings.

One other possible factor...if both her phone and her iPad are active, I can only see and AirDrop to her iPhone. She has to put her iPhone to sleep for me to see the iPad. Also both devices appear in my AirDrop list exactly the same, showing her actual name but not the names assigned to each of the devices. Perhaps part of the problem may lie in how AirDrop perceives the device names?

iPad (4th gen) Wi-Fi

Posted on Nov 9, 2020 11:38 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Nov 17, 2020 7:02 AM in response to RobnPanda

Hi RobnPanda,

We see you're having some issues with AirDrop on your iPad. To clarify, are you able to AirDrop from the iPhone XR to the iPhone X without an issue? Have you tried restarting all devices and seeing if the issue persists?

Here's a support article on How to use AirDrop on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

We hope this helps and look forwarding to hearing back from you.

Take care.

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Answer 2

Nov 17, 2020 2:19 PM in response to raina_b22

I have a similar issue. My mother tried to airdrop me some pictures (iPhone XR not yet iOS 14) and after clicking on ‘me’ the waiting shows underneath but nothing happens. I (iPhone 12pro, iOS 14.2) was however able to sent here some pictures...

Not sure if this is also related to the underlying problem but my iPhone and MacBook (both with latest software) are not able to communicate (use Handoff) anymore.

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Answer 3

RobnPanda Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 17, 2020 3:09 PM in response to raina_b22

I believe we solved at least part of the problem. An online search pointed us toward Settings/Contacts/Short Name.

The “solution “ was to have all devices set up the same way here. In our case, we were mostly set up with “Short Name “and “Prefer Nicknames” activated, plus “First Name Only” selected. My wife’s phone had a different selection for Short Name. When we changed her phone to have “First Name Only“ selected, we were then able to AirDrop to her iPad.

I can’t say we completely understand why it worked, or why we still cannot see the actual given device same in all cases in the AirDrop mode, but since we finally got the AirDrop to work, we chose to leave the naming issue to another time.

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Answer 4

RobnPanda Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 17, 2020 3:10 PM in response to laurens131

See my reply in this message string to learn about how we (at least partly) solved the problem.

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Cannot AirDrop From iPhone XR to iPad 4

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