Monterey & Airdrop

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.

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!

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

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

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?

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.

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.

lebackpacker wrote:

Can you provide the solution you used?

im having the same issue (though can’t airdrop anything to MacBook) and I’m losing patience.

I'm not sure what problem the OP was having with AirDrop. On my computer, when AirDrop stops responding to clicks, it works again after I restart.

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.

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!

Hi, Alexandra I am having the exact same problem in Monterey as you have. I have no adware installed and have been in contact with Apple's senior adviser multiple times. I have done a clean install to no avail . We are currently out of ideas. What is your status? Has your situation changed, could you solve your problem. Please reply, thanks.

My devices are 1iPhone 12 and MBP16 2021 M1Max both have the newest software installed. PS. It's not Monterey based since my older MBP 15 (2014) that is on Catalina has the same problem. I start thinking that the iPhone is the problem.

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.

In response to falk20. My issue continues and I need more input from others here. VPN is not the problem in my case since I don't have any such App nor do I use any adblockers etc. I still see two iPhone and Mac avatars when airdropping but only one works . The ones with my contact profile image is dead. The generic one works up and down from and to MBP. What the heck is going on? My problem has been looked at the Apple engineer level to no avail. Who else suffers from this? Please swamp the forum. Thanks.

Having one machine freshly installed with Monterey and the old one running Big Sur. No issues seeing the Big Sur MBP, but the other way around at some point stops to be discoverable and only works again after a restart.

Checked firewall settings, looked for VPN services running, no AdGuard installed. Tried restarting Wifi/BT on either side without any luck.

It works consistently after a restart. While it works I now tried switching BT & Wifi off on the Monterey machine and then on again, but it is visible once reconnected, so that doesn't seem to be the issue. Also waited until it went to sleep and it worked fine after waking up. Not sure yet at which point it stops and what might be causing it.

Wow! I've never had a post removed in this way by Apple! I'll try this again because I believe the relative information is important for Apple and it's communities to share in order to arrive at a solution to this ongoing problem with Monterey Airdrop and Bluetooth connectivity...

I was able to send files and photos from my Mac mini 2014 with Catalina and nothing changed when I upgraded to Monterey 12.0.1, bluetooth and airdrop all still worked just fine.

However after upgrading again to Monterey 12.1 Airdrop from my Mac to either my 2017 iPad Pro 12.9 or my 2020 iPhone SE was no longer possible, and upgrading a 3rd to Monterey 12.2 last night I had hoped would fix the problem but alas no the problem still exists.

My iPhone SE is running with the latest "Bravo Echo Tango Alpha" and my iPad Pro still on iPadOS 15.2. It really doesn't matter which version iOS the problem is with Monterey and bluetooth regarding Airdrop.

Conversely I'm able to receive Airdrops from my devices to my Mac. But when ever I want to send something to my phone I'm forced to attach to an email I send to myself then open that on my phone and save.

I honestly think Apple can do better it seems such a simple thing really...