Does AirDrop actually work?

Tom Wolsky wrote:

I'm trying to AirDrop files from my Mac to my wife's iPhone. I select Share>AirDrop. I see my wife's phone. I select it. It says Waiting. What is the receiver supposed to do? Absolutely nothing appears on the phone. No notification. There is no AirDrop window equivalent to the Mac. I'm having to resort to using an iCloud Shared folder, which of course means uploading files on a slow network because a straight WiFi AirDrop just doesn't work. It's incredibly unreliable.

Try doing a search for "using AirDrop with iOS" in Apple support. You get no useful result. Just ridiculous.

Is AirDrop really supposed to the work from a Mac to an iPhone when we're on the same WiFi network? It certainly doesn't just work.

Thanks very much for any insight.

First let me say Airdrop has always been a bit finicky. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't.

Requires both WiFi and BlueTooth being on—

How to use AirDrop on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple

Use AirDrop on your Mac - Apple Support

See if there is anything here— https://www.imore.com/how-to-fix-airdrop-iphone-ipad

Is there any chance you're using a VPN on your the iPhone or Mac?

I thought AirDrop was just broken for the longest time, but eventually figured out it just doesn't work when connected to a VPN. Now I know to disconnect my VPN when I need to AirDrop and it works completely fine.