AirDrop is not working after new iOS 17 update

I had the same problem and try to check the situation, in all cases of mine, failure or declining were happened once automatically the “hot spot turned on “. This will automatically disable WiFi, and the problem occurs!

simply as soon as you see the green hot spot sign on your upper left, quickly turn the WIFI manually

This is the only solution that has worked for me:

Do a 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.

It seems Airdrop is now working the iPhone’s Airdrop you want to share with is set as “Everyone for 10 Minutes”. If Airdrop is configures as “Contacts Only”, it is not able to find that iPhone. I opened an issue in Apple for this, hopefully they will take a look at it.

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/13542147

I was having the same problem on my iPhone 11 Pro Max (on iOS 17.4). My AirDrop suddenly switched to “Receiving Off” out of nowhere and I couldn’t change it; neither to “Contacts Only”, nor to “Everybody for 10 minutes”. I couldn’t fix it despite trying everything I found on Google, including reviewing my Screen time settings and checking AirDrop settings in the General Settings of iPhone in the Settings app.

But, I force restarted my iPhone (didn’t see it anywhere on Google - just clicked in my mind) and luckily it worked. My phone became super hot after restart, just for a while and has cooled down now, but the AirDrop is working fine now. I think it was some bug of the new iOS update.

Anyone else who is having this problem, please try and force restart your iPhone if other solutions on Google don’t work.

Thanks.

This started to happen for me after the 17.4 update if I remember correctly. This is what worked for me :

• I enabled and disabled both the VPNs I'm using on both my devices ( I use Google ONE VPN ), they were both disabled at the start of this but I enabled them and disabled them both anyway.
• On my MacBook, I found an old VPN configuration ( I used GhostVPN in the past ) so I deleted it because it was useless.
• And that's it. Airdrop works now !

Hi Tul1p_,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! We would recommend checking the following settings from the article below that can help:

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.

Hope this helps!

Have a great day.

I just did iOS 17.1.1 update on both my iPhone and iPad and I still have to turn off Express VPN off to get airdrop to work.

I still have to turn off Express VPN even after iOs 17.1.1 update to get airdrop between iPhone and iPad to work.

Try this. Turn off cell on all devices that want to use airdrop. You should be able to airdrop. That’s the only way I can airdrop between iPad, iPhone and my MacBook.

Airplane mode on then off worked ... such a waste of time ... this would NEVER have happened if Jobs were alive.... NEVER this long an issue if it was reported a year ago...

Not sure if this is helpful but my coworker found out her VPN that was automatically turned on by her network provider (Google Fi) was disrupting Airdrop. Once she turned it off, she started to see other devices from her iPhone.

Initself this did not work. I used all suggestions in the posts here:

sync of contacts between phone and iCloud

screen time settings in two stages as above and;

switching the vpn app off and the vpn toggle off as it sometimes comes back on by itself

two phones have to be within two centimetres of each other longways, not end to end. Move apart and phone drops off screen.

combination of all these worked, and keeps working. Some suggestions only worked one time then stopped, this keeps working. iOS 17.1.2

disable any VPN you have on your phone, or receiving device. After disabling the VPN on my iPhone 12 I was able to send documents via airdrop again to the laptop

This is the only solution that has worked for me:

Do a 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.

Update all devices to latest version of iOS on all devices.

If Airdrop still isn’t working restart your home wifi, once devices are back on wifi, now try to Airdrop a photo.

if it still doesn’t work, turn on Aeroplane Mode on each device, then turn it off again. Try Airdrop again.

This has worked for me when airdrop was working, then stopped.