AirDrop Is Unreliable and Fails at Basic File Transfer Tasks

Question

AirDrop Is Unreliable and Fails at Basic File Transfer Tasks

I am using an iPhone 16 Pro Max with a MacBook Pro (M4), and AirDrop has been extremely frustrating for a feature that’s supposed to be central to Apple’s ecosystem.

It is inconsistent and unreliable—bulk transfers frequently fail, stall, or don’t complete. This isn’t occasional; it’s a recurring issue that makes AirDrop impractical for serious use.

In contrast, Android’s Quick Share performs far better. I transferred over 4,000 photos (~25 GB) in one go without issues, while AirDrop struggles with far smaller batches.

For a company known for seamless integration, this level of instability is disappointing. Apple needs to urgently improve AirDrop’s reliability and scalability—it currently cannot be trusted for large or critical transfers.

MacBook Pro (M4, 2024)

Posted on May 2, 2026 1:43 AM

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Answer 1

May 2, 2026 2:34 AM in response to appleuser_sagar

I personally use an app called send anymore but it does limit transfers to 10gb

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,452 points

May 2, 2026 4:13 AM in response to appleuser_sagar

—it currently cannot be trusted for large or critical transfers.

Do you have a reference for Airdrop being a bulk file transfer tool? The guide isn’t clear either way. I have never thought of it doing any more than a handful of files. I guess I can’t understand why I would want to transfer a large number of files to or from my iPhone. I just use iCloud. iOS has never had much of a capability to use the iPhone as a storage device.

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Answer 3

leroydouglas

Level 10

201,928 points

May 2, 2026 10:33 AM in response to appleuser_sagar

appleuser_sagar wrote:

I am using an iPhone 16 Pro Max with a MacBook Pro (M4), and AirDrop has been extremely frustrating for a feature that’s supposed to be central to Apple’s ecosystem.

For a company known for seamless integration, this level of instability is disappointing. Apple needs to urgently improve AirDrop’s reliability and scalability—it currently cannot be trusted for large or critical transfers.

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your feedback here: Feedback - macOS - Apple

E-mail Tim Cook, tcook@apple.com

Executive Relations and a little push can clear up a lot of issues…

Contact the corporate office Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

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