AirDrop is not working after new iOS 17 update

I tried all the fixes listed here with no success. As a tech I systematically tested the problem:

First installed the latest 17.2.1. Airdrop starts to work and immediately locks up. Force quit photos, go back in, airdrop option inaccessible again.

Tried just resetting only the settings: Airdrop starts to work and immediately locks up

Tried doing a full hard reset, signed in with Apple ID but refused to do an iCloud restore. Airdrop works.

Do another full hard reset and restore Apps but customize settings: Airdrop is broken yet again

Do another hard reset and do not restore from iCloud. Manually download and reconfigure all apps. Signing in with Apple ID allows all photos and messages to sync. **Airdrop now works**

Clearly there is something causing the problem in the apps that the iCloud restore brings back.

I found a temporary fix, it's definitely an iOS 17 bug. I turn off the Bluetooth on my iPhone - I'm sending from an iPad to my iPhone. - My iPhone appears in the iPad AirDrop and i select and send over the photos on my iPad that I'm trying to AirDrop to my phone. as the AirDrop icon on my iPad says "waiting" I then turn on the Bluetooth on my iPhone and the items get airdropped. This is obviously just a temporary fix to help people out until this bug is solved.

I'm happy to report with the latest updates that appeared this morning on my devices, iOS 17.2.1 on my iPhone, and 14.2.1 on my iMac and MacBook Air, Apple fixed the problem with AirDrop and it is working again. No need to restart anything or jump through a bunch of other hoops, just simply update your devices (which will cause them to restart as a part of the update process) and AirDrop is working for me like it used to.

Ok, here is how I fixed it. Thankfully no others on my account so it’s an easy fix. 2 things. 1. Settings, search for SCREEN TIME, click communication safety and turn off. 2. Go back to settings and go to privacy and security and look for SENSITIVE CONTENT and turn it off also. If you follow step 2 first you cannot disable the censorship system that IS BLOCKING OUTBOUND AIrdrop, like to your iPad for example. So go to step 1 first then step 2. Then follow the other Apple advice to ensure it works. 17.01 did not have it enabled on my 15 pro max, but 17.0.3 seems to have defaulted it to the on position without notice..

Hope this helps! It works like a champ now on my devices.

I found a solution that works for me when transferring from iPad to iPhone or the reverse. Turn off cell service. I’m currently using hotspot on my iPhone 14 Pro and when I turned cell off I was able to transfer between both devices. I then turned cell on and was no longer able to transfer. Hopefully Apple will get this fixed. I’m running 17.1.1 on both devices.

Wanda, I don't have a VPN on my iPhone either but, I do use a VPN on my iPad and cannot airdrop between the two devices. But, as soon as I turn off the VPN on the iPad, I can airdrop back and forth between the two devices. When the VPN is on the iPad I get "declined" when trying to airdrop from the iPhone SE to the iPad and when I try to airdrop from the iPad I get "No People Found". This problem did occur until the last few iOs updates.

First photo right corner you can see VPN on iPad and "No People Found". Then I turn off iPad VPN (upper right second photo) and then iPad detects iPhone and sends photo. Only turning off VPN allows my Airdrop to work even with latest iOS 17.1.2 update.

Fixed photo Airdrop between my iPhone & iPad!

Short version: remove duplicate contact entries of yourself in both devices in the Contacts app.

To fix ‘Find My’ app device offline problem between the iPhone & iPad, share your location with yourself and use Family Sharing to link both Apple ID’s as a family member on both devices.

Longer version:

Before I updated to iOS 17.1, I used airdrop everyday to send photos between iPhone & ipad for work, it was fast and worked perfectly, however I had noticed that iPhone’s Airdrop request icon on my iPad had a super old contact photo, which would never update, so ignored. This may have been a problem others noticed in iOS 16.

The update to iOS 17 stopped Airdrop working, the Share button worked but the Airdrop button did nothing, or the screen turned white. What I’ve come to understand, Airdrop between devices uses the Contacts entries of both devices. I found I had 3 separate contacts listed for myself in my iPhone, one was just an email (which ended up being the reason for the old icon pic) once I linked duplicate contact entries in both devices Airdropped worked again (plus the old icon pic was gone). I think Airdrop was confused which Contact was sending and which was receiving.

Before coming to this conclusion I wanted to see if I could use ‘Find My’ app to see the iPhone from the iPad and vice versa making sure there was a viable connection between the 2 devices. It also didn’t work, both devices appeared offline, even when iCloud and sharing was On. The problem is my iPhone and iPad use different Apple ID’s but they’re merged and both Apple ID email addresses appear in my Contacts entry, however the only way to see the devices is to treat each of the ‘Me’ contact entries as a friend that needs to be shared with, in ‘Maps’ I shared the ‘Me’ Apple ID 1 location with Apple ID 2, and also used Family Sharing to add ‘Me’ Apple ID 1 to Apple ID 2 as a family member on each device. Now I can see all my devices and locations across the 2 devices and my iMac can see both iPhone and iPad locations.

I did that too and it did not work. So I did it on both phones and it still did not work. so I thought about restarting both iPhones and I did that. It works like a charm now so the last step is the most important turn off your iPhone and restart it for both devices.

How to use AirDrop on your iPhone or iPad

1. Go to Settings > Screen Time.

2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.

3. Tap Allowed Apps and make sure that AirDrop is turned on.

I do not use iCloud and turning off VPN on both iPhone and iPad always works. When VPN is on it “decline” or “no device found” and then turning off VPN, devices are found and it works.

Hello everybody, I am back after I found a stupid but probably obviously solution when you talk about electronic devices.

In my last comment that I could not found [:D] I was talking that I have the same issue with my iPad and iPhone after both devices got iOS 17 AirDrop just stop working.

Well one day my iPhone got completely discharged at night. So next day in the morning I been forced to charge my iPhone.

Then I noticed that AirDrop just come back and work again.

Then I completely forgot that I leave a comment in this post; after maybe one month of use AirDrop with no problems.

I was trying to transfer some files between my iPhone and iPad then my laptop.

Then AirDrop just stop working again.

This time I took the decision to Turn OFF the iPhone and iPad.

Well, after restarting both devices AirDrop come back again, and I keep working normally.

Conclusion: Just Turn OFF and Turn ON the Apple device to fix AirDrop.

lol hehehe [^.^]

Finally fixed my Airdrop by turning Private WiFi Address on!

Don’t know why it was turned off or when but now my Airdrop is working again.

You find this in your Settings by tapping on the “i” after your SSID name.

Hope this helps.

I just encountered this issue after updating my iPhone Xs to iOS 17.1.1 . I couldn't airdrop from my iPhone to my 2020 iMac running Ventura 13.6.1 . Here is what solved the problem for me ( temporarily? time will tell ):

1. power iPhone down
2. power iPhone back up
3. swipe down from top to open control center
4. press and hold Wi-Fi
5. my AirDrop (after powering down then back up again) had been turned off....

tap on AirDrop and click on 'Contacts Only'

After completing these 5 steps, my AirDrop works perfectly again (and transfers photos quite a bit faster than previously). Hopefully this lasts and hopefully this solution will help some other folks.

Hi everyone!

I was an early responded to this support thread, and I think I may have cracked it. I know difficulties that many of you and myself we’re facing with airdrop not working. I believe I may have found one solution to this issue, during the update what is happening is my Apple devices within “Find My” were turned off. Once turned on, I can communicate between devices with regards to airdropping, photos, documents, etc..

So here’s how to go about it, go to settings in the search bar above type “find my” under share my locations you should see something that says “find my Apple ID”once that is open. Check to make sure that your device whether it’s an iPad or iPhone or whatever Apple device is selected to the one position. If not, turn it on and then try to use AirDrop, once selected to the on position, I hope that this helps as it did for me.

I’ve just updated my iPhone and iPad to iOS 17.1 and rebooted both devices but airdrop is still not working. One suggestion above advised turning ExpressVPN off. So I turned ExpressVPN off on both devices and airdrop works. But it’s very annoying that every time I want to use airdrop I have to turn VPN off, then use airdrop and then turn VPN back on. That’s not convenient but it is a work around. I have reported this to Apple using the link above.