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Air Drop isn't showing up.

Today I upgraded to Lion. At first, everything seemed to be fine. Then I noticed I didn't have Air Drop in my Finder window. I then upgraded my Macbook Pro to Lion and it does hav Air Drop. I've looked online and this was a common bug when developers were testing Lion.


Does anyone know if Apple is aware of the problem and is planning on fixing it? If they aren't then it looks like I'm going to have to do a clean install.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 11:03 AM

Reply
39 replies

Jul 20, 2011 11:24 AM in response to Maci75

I just found this :

There are only specific Mac models which would be compatible to use AirDrop. See below cut & paste text from Apple Website (Lion System requirements):

===========================

AirDrop


supports the following Mac models:


  • MacBook Pro (Late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (Late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (Early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2010)

Jul 20, 2011 11:31 AM in response to Maci75

2008 MacPro Tower and a 2009 MacBook Pro - neither are showing Airdrop in the finder or in a Spotlight search of the machine Yet each machine shows up on each others Finder in the sidebar under the "Shared Device" section.so they are "seeing" each other on the same Airport Extreme network

Both these machine are emminetly qualified for Lion.

Confusing.

If anyone get any further word of why this feature is "missing" from these machines please post here.

Jul 20, 2011 1:01 PM in response to Maci75

I don't think we really do know why some machines aren't supported. Apple has chosen not to support a feature on machines that are still within their AppleCare warranties. Two and three year old machine are not obsolete so I think Apple should provide an explanation as to why a marquee feature of Lion doesn't work on these machines. If it's a hardware issue, then explain they issue. If they've just randomly picked a cutoff version for support, then let's understand that as well. In the past, many things that Apple has claimed aren't supported do work, they've just chosen not to provide formal support. I'm not at all happy that both of my Macs are the version below the cutoff for Airdrop support. This was one of the features I was most excited about in Lion.

Jul 20, 2011 5:33 PM in response to Eric D.

I totally agree with you! They are selling AirDrop as one of the key features to Lion, and they aren't supporting all Macs? Come on, Apple - thats pathatic. Apple make great computers - but I feel like they are just trying too hard to appeal to the mass computer market, and forgetting about their current customers.


I have AirDrop on my MBP but as my iMac isn't supported, AirDrop is kinda pointless. I want answers on why. Or in 10.7.1 I want AirDrop enabled.

Air Drop isn't showing up.

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