AirDrop on iPad2

It's not supported on the 2.

http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/

AirDrop is available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account

No it uses BT to scan and locate devices. Once a connection is established and the device needs to send the file, the file is sent over a Ad-hoc styled Wifi connection between the two devices.

While Apple does not go into details on their site, it has been looked into by various people and it has been revealed that this is how it works. Apples site even states it uses a combination of the two.

http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/#airdrop

I believe it is disabled on iPad 2 because of the bluetooth speeds. iPad mini received BT 4 while iPad 2 has BT 2. There's a large speed/bandwith difference between the two and with how Airdrop uses BT to search/pass data around (combo of BT and wifi) it is possible that this is the reason why iPad 2 did not get the feature.

I mention iPad mini because someone asked me this same question about why an iPad 2 didn't get it. They were annoyed iPad mini's (essentially same hardware) received it. I provide this explanation for anyone in the future to stumble on the thread.

you're right and I'm definetely wrong. I knew the transfer was using wifi but didn't know at all BT was used for devices discovery. So you're most likely right about the BT capabilities differences between iPad 2 and other AirDrop capable iPads. Thanks for pointing it out.

I'll chime in now. If BT is used for discovery, initial contact and building the WiFi had-hoc network which is used to transfer the file then speed is not an issue for the BT connection as it is NOT used for the transfer of the file. The BT 2.1 capabilities on the iPAD 2 are certianly sufficiant so, I for one would really like to know why Apple has once again left iPAD2 users ount in the cold.

On one side, AirPlay is only supported on Bluetooth 4.0 capable iOS devices.

On the other side, AirDrop is supported on many macs (MBP late 2008 or newer, iMac early 2009 or newer, ...) that supports only BT 2.1.

I guess Airplay is using SSP (Secure Simple Pairing) (but the protocol specs are quite opaque because AirPlay is a proprietary protocol) that was introduced in BT 2.1, because you don't have to enter any PIN code, as the BT connection is seamless.

So, again, it looks questionable to limit AirPlay support to the newest iOS devices.

It is so very sad to see that we are caught in a marketing shortsighted mans mania. The excitement of apple has faded and much of its initial functionality lost. Many friends have already started abandoning apple products. I won't go on. I am writing this on an ipad2. I find it hard to believe that the ability is not present when my old Nokia could.

Bigfoot2015 wrote:

I find it hard to believe that the ability is not present when my old Nokia could.

No, your old Nokia didn't have AirDrop either. It has been explained in this thread that the older iPads do not have all of the hardware necessary. You are not "caught up" in anything. Your iPad still has all the same features (actually probably a few more) than it did when you bought it.

Best of luck.

The point that Bigfoot is trying to make is that on the old Nokias it was possible for a simple file (for the sake of iOS let's just say a photo) to be transferred from one device to another without the need for an Internet connection (through Bluetooth). The only option other than email, iMessage etc for a device such as the iPad 2 is a third party iOS file transfer app which so far I have only found ones that work on Bluetooth. based on my experience, these apps are unreliable, very slow (compared to Bluetooth file transfers on my Nokia C3) and need to be paid for in order to enable more than one file transfer at a time.

AR1AN wrote:

The point that Bigfoot is trying to make is that on the old Nokias it was possible for a simple file (for the sake of iOS let's just say a photo) to be transferred from one device to another without the need for an Internet connection (through Bluetooth).

I think you've missed the point of my post. Bigfoot claims to have been mislead and to have an iPad with "much of its initial functionality lost". Neither are true. Their iPad 2 does exactly what it did when they bought it. In fact, it probably does more with the software updates.

Hi Meg,

To save any confusion and with a quick thanks to AR1AN.

I was directly referring to the ease and simplicity of passing work files whether they be PDFs, spreadsheets or work Documents even images from one device to another. I did not want to come back to this page to leave another comment but your last messsage prompted me to.

I am not a simple user of technology and have adopted the use of many devices over the years. Having one of the most rudimentary technologies roled back purely for the sake of an app opportunity was a great oversight in my eyes. It had me baffled. Recently i had wished to manipulate some photographs on my ipad whilst killing some time. The direct response that I had received from support relating to this request was simple.

" Email yourself ". LOL

The Ipad was groundbreaking for its time. The old tech oversights were initally overlooked with all the new software developments that were and remain rather impressive. Again to be told that the older versions of Ipad cannot adopt the new airdrop feature was poor.

Meg please do not continue to tell me that i missunderstand myself or the unit. Ipads from there inception held incredible processing power and opportunity to make processes simpler. To this end emailing myself images was not one of those wow moments.

Bigfoot2015 wrote:

Meg please do not continue to tell me that i missunderstand myself or the unit. Ipads from there inception held incredible processing power and opportunity to make processes simpler. To this end emailing myself images was not one of those wow moments.

I never said you misunderstood yourself, or, in fact replied to you at all. I do, however, maintain that you are wrong when you say your iPad has lost functionality.

Having one of the most rudimentary technologies roled back purely for the sake of an app opportunity was a great oversight in my eyes. It had me baffled.

What rudimentary technology was "roled (sic) back"? What funtionality for transfering files did you have when first got your iPad that you don't have now?

And frankly, emailing is a whole lot simpler than AirDrop.

Best of luck.

At the end of the day regardless of whether the iPad has lost functionality or not, the only reason airdrop doesn't work on the iPad 2 is because Apple is greedy and wants to force people to replace their "old" tablets, phones, and iPod's

Much like Apple's refusal to allow mouse functionality so that the iPad doesn't cut into MacBook Air sales. Apple has always been pricey but they have also always delivered top quality products that they supported for a very long time, now they have shifted to a disposable hardware mindset to push unit sales......but they forgot to lower the hardware to match.

I could understand if the ipad2 lacked some vital component, but it doesn't. The only thing lacking in the ipad2's is they want to sell more ipad4's

Beefy1212 wrote:

At the end of the day regardless of whether the iPad has lost functionality or not, the only reason airdrop doesn't work on the iPad 2 is because Apple is greedy and wants to force people to replace their "old" tablets, phones, and iPod's

I think you've missed the point of the thread which is that AirDrop on iOS doesn't work with Airdrop on a Mac. The reason AirDrop doesn't work on the older devices is because they DO lack a vital component. They don't have WiFi chips capable of generating an ad hoc connection.

As far as why Apple didn't include mouse functionality with iOS, all you know is they didn't. The rest is speculation and prohibited by the terms of use of these forums.

Best of luck.

Meg this thread has nothing to do with a Mac except to point out that bt4 is not required for airdrop because it works on computers with bt2. AirDrop and in the much broader sense tethering do not work as the hardware is capable of performing, because of poor programming or a deliberate choice on apple's part. Furthermore an iPad 2 doesn't need to generate an ad-hoc network, it simply needs to join it.

Ipad2's come with an IEEE 802.11n network card, this "chip" as you call it is a Ethernet card coupled with a 2 way radio. It does not require any special hardware AT ALL to create or join an ad-hoc network, nor does it need Bluetooth in the slightest to find clients. In fact had apple used the standard OSI model and the various IEEE and other regulatory standards developed to handle these exact scenario's, which by the way are included in the OS for the iPad to function on regular wifi networks, this thread would not need to exist.

It is shameful a cheap 80 dollar android phone has better wifi tethering support with an iPad than the iPhone 5s that cost the better part of a thousand bucks. Do you realize they had to do extra work to make an iPad 2 not function with airdrop than to make it work with any iPad.

This is very much a software issue, and in no possible way a hardware issue. I have loved the various apple products I have bought over the years, but if Apple is going to force me to continue replacing working hardware to the tune of 500-800 bucks every other year to use what should be simple features, I will switch to android hardware for a fraction of the cost and get over how much I dislike the OS.