AirDrop showing the wrong name and picture with iOS 7

The problem with jandrostory solution is that most of us want our families on the same iCloud account for sharing purchases and using find my iphone. Using this solution will prevent relatives from downloading and even keeping material downloaded from the original iCloud account. I think this may cause even greater problem unless you want re-purchase all media individually for each device. But why pay 100 for a movie that everyone can share for 19.99 if on the same iCloud account? There will be other issue. If you lose your phone, you don't have a device linked to you longer to "find my iphone."

With my solution, all 6 of my devices are able to share the same movies, music, ITunes Radio Playlist, ITunes Match and Apps because you can still be signed into the master account via "Itunes & App Store" while having a different ICloud account. Just to be sure I bought a new movie and download a paid app that my wife and all other devices were able to access and keep. Also, your phones and devices will still be attached to the "FInd My Iphone" under the new icloud username and password. I do agree it is a bit annoying to have to remember each device email and password to find that particular device, but I don't use it all that often, and I have a way that I am able to remember each of them easily and access them quickly. I am still able to have my IPAD and my IPHONE 5 on the same ICloud because I want to share the same info, which means when I log into my ICloud/Apple ID to find my phone I am able to see both my ipad and my iphone. Trust me, my situation is the same as yours and I didn't want to be able to lose that option to only have to buy things once, but give it a shot, I am 100% this works. The other issue I found was that I can't share Photostreams with my wife and girls, but that actually ended up being a good thing organizationally.

If you don't like the cons to it, then it may not be worth it. However, if you are concerned about buying the same apps over and over again with this solution, be at ease that you will not have to.

Ok read whole thread re seperate iCloud accounts etc and see sense for those who have different people using same account. HOWEVER, I have ipad and iPhone. Both are linked to same iCloud account as both mine. I want iMessage and FaceTime to reach both so I receive calks or messages no matter which device I happen to have on me at time. BUT if I am sitting next to someone who wants to airdrop a photo to me on my phone rather than iPad which is upstairs it would make sense if they could tell which device is which but both currently have same name and picture. Come on apple just use device name.....please........

Sorry ziggy6894, that is not correct. There is a difference between an iCloud account and an iTunes account. Each user should have a separate Apple ID assigned to iMessage and iCloud. However, multiple devices in the same household can share iTunes content using a single iTunes account ties to the main Apple ID. You can restrict purchases by simply not sharing the password for that account.

After a lot of time playing with this, and trying the tips larry1 suggested (with no luck for me), I think I at least figure out what is going on, and what criteria airdrop is using when there are multiple emails associated with you Apple ID.

Alphabetical.

Like many others on this thread, I have multiple email addresses associated with my Apple ID, including two for my daughters. At 8 years old, I DO NOT wish to create separate IDs for them, nor should I based on Apple's ability to allow you to set up multiple emails, and choosing which are used for Messages and Facetime. Sure, I could, but it should not be necessary, if they had just used existing ideas used for Messages/Facetime.

AirDrop needs to have a similar checklist in the settings, so you can choose which Apple ID email that device is associated with.

Instead, it has a hard-coded, built-in priority order that doesn't appear to be changeable. Instead of priority going to the "primary" email address or even the email addresses associated with your "me" contact, it takes all of the emails associated with your Apple ID, and prioritizes them based on alphabetical order.

Using my case as an example:

On my Apple ID, I have the following emails:

-- scott@ (primary contact email, the email of my "me" contact card, AND contact for me on my wife's iPhone)

-- emily@ (my daughter, used on her ipod touch for iMessage and Facetime)

-- ipad@ (for my ipad for iMessage and Facetime)

In all examples, I am requesting an airdrop tranfer from either my wife's iPhone or my iPad. My iPhone is to be the receiving device, which should be showing as "Scott"

I kept having issues with Airdrop always showing me as Emily when trying to send from my wife's iPhone and from my iPad. Both sending devices have a contact card for Emily, and a card for Scott, with no mixing of the email addresses. This is because of those three emails listed, it is the first one alphabetically that match a contact card of the PERSON REQUESTING the tranfer.

When in "contacts only" mode at least, my phone appears to be broadcasting all of the available emails associated with my Apple ID, and trying to match the requesting device's contacts, going in alphabetical order.

If the sending device only has a contact with scott@, it shows up (as I want) as Scott

If I add a contact with the ipad@ email, then airdrop shows my iphone as that contact

If I add a contact with the emily@ email, then airdrop shows my iphone as that contact

I can repeat this with the exact results each time. It makes sense, from a very simplistic coding approach without much thought given to how Apple allows us to use our Apple IDs. Using an alphabetical priority is completely non-intutive for the user, and does not allow for any reasonable customization.

Finally figured it out, WITHOUT removing ability to share purchases, music, etc.

Step 1. Settings>FaceTime: Sign out of Apple ID (it will not sign out anything else) and make sure ONLY the number (for iPhones) or email (for iPad/iPod) you want is associated with FaceTime (indicated by a check mark).

Step 2. Settings>Messages>Send&Receive: Once again sign out of Apple ID and make sure only one number or email is checked.

You will still be able to link contacts, calendars, etc. and share music, video and purchases.

I have successfully done this on 3 phones and an IPad.

Adding on to my previous post, you must do this on EVERY phone linked to your Apple ID.

Finally figured it out, WITHOUT removing ability to share purchases, music, etc.

Step 1. Settings>FaceTime: Sign out of Apple ID (it will not sign out anything else) and make sure ONLY the number (for iPhones) or email (for iPad/iPod) you want is associated with FaceTime (indicated by a check mark).

Step 2. Settings>Messages>Send&Receive: Once again sign out of Apple ID and make sure only one number or email is checked.

You will still be able to link contacts, calendars, etc. and share music, video and purchases.

I have successfully done this on 3 phones and an IPad.

Again do this on every device in ur ecosystem.

I wish they would go back to allowing you to turn on find my iphone for your secondary Apple ID. It would solve the whole problem (or create an airdrop toggle in your first and second Apple ID/icloud). Seems like a simple solution. Don't know why they took it away in ios7 ?!?!?

Well, after trying many of the suggestions on this post, here is the only thing that solved the issue for me.

Have the following devices:

2 iPhones

1 iPad

Have one Apple ID that is shared by all devices.

My Apple ID email address, business email addresses and personal email addresses are all Google addresses (gmail).

Apparently, there was some type of conflict between all (some?) of the gmail addresses and AirDrop displaying the correct device name and image.

Here's how the problem was solved:

1. Added a backup email account to my Apple ID (also a gmail account)

2. Removed all other personal and business email addresses from my Apple ID account

2. Went into settings on the iPad for Messages - selected the backup email account for Messaging

All devices now show the correct name (the name assigned to each device in the General>About>Name field

Not sure why the business gmail email accounts seemed to be causing AirDrop problems but the above worked for me.

Thought I would post what worked for me.

After the latest ios7 upgrade, the wrong contact was associated to my device.

To correct this go to settings -> mail, contacts, calendar

Scroll down to the contacts and you will see "My Info". Select the correct contact card.

It's to do with the Apple ID that you sign in to iCloud with, which is where AirDrop gets the user details. You are able to sign into the store and iCloud with separate ids so you just need to create an id for each family member that they will use only for iCloud . You don't have to associate any payment details with the account so kids are safe

Each device uses the family Apple ID to sign into the store so they can all access the apps and content paid for under that account and then uses the users own id to sign into iCloud.

As long as each of the ids has the users name in the account details you will see the right name appearing in airdrop.

You will have several iCloud accounts to manage but that is no bad thing as you will actually gain lots of free storage and won't have your iCloud cluttered up with your teenagers drunken party photos.

I forgot to mention you have to remember to add each of the email addresses for each new Apple ID into the family members contact cards otherwise if you have airdrop visibility set to contacts only you will not be able to see each other.

GottaLoveTechnology wrote:

Here's how the problem was solved:

1. Added a backup email account to my Apple ID (also a gmail account)

2. Removed all other personal and business email addresses from my Apple ID account

2. Went into settings on the iPad for Messages - selected the backup email account for Messaging

All devices now show the correct name (the name assigned to each device in the General>About>Name field

Not sure why the business gmail email accounts seemed to be causing AirDrop problems but the above worked for me.

Thanks! I had the exact same setup of two phones and an iPad. This solution worked for me too! It seems that the iCloud alternate email addresses were somehow overriding the personal contact information. I knew this because mu wife showed up as "ipad" (one of the alternate emails) and had the iCloud picture.

So anyone else who has a shared iCloud account and isn't quite ready to try out Family Sharing might want to try this. Leave only ONE email configured for iCloud that is independent of any one person. If you have a personal account currently set as primary you may have to change it (this will change your Apple ID for that account). For the record I already had an independent email as primary for iCloud so all I had to do was delete all the alternate emails.

You can still add additional emails in iMessage and FaceTime as needed.

Not only did I follow your advice, but in my case, my wife and I share the same iCloud account as family account (as there was no family share for so long), she has recently got her own AppleID and etc... but in her contact card, there was the AIM ID referring to our shared iCloud account. Just deleting that AIM ID from her contact card made it all work.

So it could be AIM/email/or anything else that you share... watch out! its very poorly designed IMHO.

I had the same problem

When I airdrop to my girlfriend, it was showing my brother,a name on her phone (he is on the same Apple ID/iCloud account) we found that the Apple ID email address was on my brother's contact info on her phone but not mine so it showed that it was coming from him. She deleted it from his profile and put it on mine and then it was fixed

Hope this helps