AirDrop not allowing choice of app in iPadOS 17

Not ideal, but.. Since I don't care for the Files app at all, I deleted it and now the popup is back. We'll see how long this minor victory lasts.

Hi all,

I managed to find a temporary work around for Files and Goodnotes. Place your two apps side by side > in files, use the Select button to select the files needed > drag and drop into the Goodnotes folder. Not sure about other applications but hope this save some hassle.

Hope Apple will go back to the original method (options on where to drop the files) in the next update!

I just offloaded the Files app instead of deleting it and then tried airdropping a file. The popup menu works again. It's a lame work-around if you don't want to completely delete Files.

Quick solution: send it to your own email. When you want to save the pdf it will give you the option to open it with Goodnotes.

I have a similar problem...when I try to AirDrop an ePub from my Mac to my iPad. I used to use AirDrop without a problem, now the files (sometimes!) also ends up in Files which I did NOT want. But, I found a way to AirDrop my ePub to Books which MIGHT be relevant to you too. When I (you?) right-click on a ePub (in my case) in the Mac Finder, I choose SHARE...but before you then choose AIRDROP from the popup list, I chose EDIT EXTENSIONS at the bottom of that popup. Then I checked the SAVE TO BOOKS item. Now, when I use AirDrop, and the file is moved to Files, I can choose the SHARE icon, and then just click the Books icon and my ePub ends up in Books where I wanted it. A bit convoluted, but seems to work. Hope this helps.

as a previous user suggested I deleted the Files app and now I can AirDrop to whatever app I want again. But if you use the Files app I guess the solution won't work.

That's very annoying. Why do I have to save everything I send by AirDrop from Mac or iPhone to the iPad download folder? I want the menu back, where I choose in which application I want to open that file.

I use my iPad a lot as a sheet music reader, since I play the piano. I receive a lot of PDF scores via Whatsapp or email and I always want to send them to Forscore, my default app for scores. Before I sent it through AirDrop and the menu opened and so I could choose Forscore to open that PDF score. Now the file goes to the download folder and from there I send it to Forscore, which makes me have two copies of the same file.

same thing with. I used to get the pop but no longer after ios 17. Everything (epub, pdfs, goodnotes, word files) I send now by default goes to icloud drive. If I were to use icloud drive then I would have uploaded it? why airdrop is just uploading files to icloud now? thats ridiculous and redundant.

I want to be able to share files without via airdrop without having to rely on icloud.

Its 2023 and apple can’t figure out basic bluetooth feature!!

This has been such an inconvenience to me as a musician. I now have to take extra steps to load the files into my app forScore and set them in the right setlist, whereas before iOS 17 I could send it straight to the app and add it directly to the setlist I used last.

Same issue here. Extremely annoying that these files pile up in the files folder, clogging up the space in iCloud. I guess this is Yet a petty attempt from Apple to sell iCloud storage. Of course, I can delete it afterwards. But this was working fine in ios16. Ios17 is the first ios that feels like a serious downgrade. Things are lagging. Airdrop is only working occasionally. Don’t ask me why. Bad work this time Apple

This is frustrating regardless, for the reasons mentioned by OP. But it is particularly frustrating when I bulk-transfer 10-100 pdf files for grading. Yesterday I could simply airdrop all into one folder in Goodnotes with a single tap. Now I need to transfer them into Downloads, select each individually (tapping individually each file!), and "share" them into Goodnotes.

This is a terrible change to have made. Why is there no option in settings to go back to the original method?

Same here, I don't see any point from keeping all files on iPad then copy to GoodNotes then back to delete from download. I addition, previously, when I send 10 files from iMac to iPad I can save them directly in GoodNotes folder, but now after update to iOS17 I have to do it one by one. very annoying options

Same here. It's extremely inconvenient and exasperating. I am happy that they bring back the "send a copy of PDF" via AirDrop function on Mac iOS (which inextricably disappeared in the early version and forced me to do A LOT OF extra steps). But I don't understand why they've decided to make this absolutely unnecessary change to iPadOS 17. Please, I'd like to learn about a solution soon.

I have the same issue. I'm a script supervisor and send my pdf scripts to scriptation on my ipad and now I have to do the extra step to send it from file to scriptation. Every time there is some update in software it interrupts my work flow I'm doing for years. I really hesitate every time there is another update. Very annoying.

I have to agree. This is such a step back in number of taps. It’s highly time-consuming now to share multiple PDFs to GoodNotes. This has made my work a lot slower and in a silly step that didn’t use to even be there. Please return the old system of using AirDrop. Please let us choose what app to use or at least let us transfer multiple files of the same type, in this case PDF, at the same time.