Monterey & Airdrop

Same issue after upgrading to Monterey a week ago (MBP 16" i9).

RESOLVED checking the System Preferences -> Network; it happened my VPN was connected even if not in use (I mean the app was not started and I was even logged out). Took me a while to have it disconnected and set the CONNECT ON DEMAND option off.

Tip: open your VPN app, log out and keep the app open so to check ALWÂYS what is connected.

Make sure you have nothing that filters your connection (addons, VPNs, ..) and disable.

I had the exact same problem. Went thru all steps, web searched solutions etc etc. (apart from deleting bluetooth cache and installing AdGuard).

Spoke to AppleSupport, who went through a few things... finally suggesting I reinstall Monterey.

It worked! NO changes to system or setting. Apparently the original install may have cause a 'glitch'.

So... to do the same, its very simple.

Power off your Mac - power up again while holding 'command' and 'r'.

Hold both keys before you hit power button.

You be taken to recovery mode and given options including 'Reinstall Monterey'.

Choose this - but note - it can take a while, so only do it when you don't need your machine for an hour or so.

Once complete, everything came back online - including all open tabs in browsers etc.

Tested the AirDrop and bingo! It works no issue.

No idea why the first install caused an issue, but it's fine now.

if you have adguard installed try this:

FIX: open AdGuard settings -> Gear -> Advanced -> Advanced settings -> Change network.extension.monterey.force.split.tunnel to true value

My problem was AdGuard as well. I was on the line with a senior Apple Care advisor for over an hour. First question he asked was if I had a VPN. The answer was, "No," but....when we went into System Preferences, there WAS a place in there that AdGuard was listed as a PVN. Maybe the fix that someone mentioned above is all that's needed, but we ultimately just ditched AdGuard altogether. The advisor told me that he suspected that most of these cases will be VPN-related issues.

I also had the same issue that Alexandra had in the above post with having to update my own contact card.

Try booting into Safe Mode and then then see if it works. If it works then boot normally and if problem comes back. Booting to Safe Mode takes minutes.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

hey!

I've got this problem too. I didn't have AdGuard installed on Mac but I had it in my Chrome browser. Anyway I've deleted AdGuard extension from Chrome. This didn't help.

Then I've switched off Wi-fi and Bluetooth on Mac, after a minute turned it on again and sent a file from iPhone to Mac successfully!

I did reinstall Monterey and I rebuilt mine user account manually. Still the same problem. It can’t be the Mac since everything is fresh installed. I still see two avatars , one with my Apple ID photo and one generic one. I can airdrop now but only if I chose the generic airdrop icon. Figure that.

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities falk20,

We understand you're unable to AirDrop between devices, despite the devices being seen.

Are you dragging the items you want to AirDrop to AirDrop in Finder, or accessing the option from the share menu? Do you get the same result either way?

The following page provides information and guidance on AirDrop that may be helpful: Use AirDrop on your Mac to send files to devices near you

Take care!

You would do a normal restart after Safe Mode. it working in Safe Mode but not after a restart mens something is loading during normal start that prevents Airdrop from working.

Download EntreCheckPro

https://etrecheck.com/welcome

Go System Preferences>Security and Privacy>and give Etrecheck Full Disk Access.

Run Etrecheck and post the results here. Etrecheck and paste to clipboard feature use that and click on the Additional Text Icon below the forum text entry box (third from right) and past in that box

adding on:

here is a screen shot from my phone. I'm wanting to airdrop from phone to my Mac. it recognizes it as my device, however, it will no longer airdrop to that. I have to use the NEW one (other people: which is still my computer) to send to my Mac. It works instantly, buts slightly frustrating that it's showing my computer but in two different options.

Prior to updating, I was able to airdrop to the photo of myself; which seems like it was my contact card across-the-board. That always came up when I was airdropping to myself whether it be from my computer to my phone or to my iPad. After the Monterey update, I can no longer use that picture but now I have to use the new option that came up which has no photo, but is still my phone? (whenever I try to airdrop to my photo, it says waiting for a while.) This has been happening all across the board on all my devices. Each device now has a new option to airdrop to. It looks like it's an unrecognized device but it is in fact my phone. The same goes for my MacBook and my iPad as well. Is anyone else having this issue? It took me a while to realize that the other pictureless person was actually myself. Is there a way to combine these two options or to save the new option?

Wow, it's really the AdGuard. Finally I can use Airdrop after a month. Thank you so much aleksandr76 :)

I think I've seen something similar when more than one user is logged in (to the Mac) at one time.

I'm having a similar issue with my 16" Intel MBP (2020) after upgrading to Monterey. AirDrop was solid whenever I tried to send anything to this machine using Catalina or Big Sur. Now from my iPad Air (iPadOS 15.1) or my iPhone 11 (iOS 15.1), I see the MBP as an AirDrop destination, but things never get past "Waiting" after I tap on its icon.

What do you mean by "nothing happens"? There are lots of issues that can affect AirDrop - firewalls, networks, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.

If AirDrop is not behaving as expected, you have to be very, very specific about what you are doing, what happens, and what you expected to happen.

For example, in Monterey, I've had AirDrop fail on me in a completely new way. Your description matches what I experienced exactly. But I experienced something very specific. My AirDrop dialog simply stopped responding to any mouse clicks. I couldn't even click the cancel button. But I could press the escape key to close the dialog. I rebooted and then it worked fine.