Q: Air Drop between iMac and iphone5 not working?

I have the same problem. The iMac with AirDrop active will not recognize the iPhone 5 and vice-versa. My iMac and MacBookAir can see each other, but neither can see the iPhone 5. I just installed the latest update to Version 10.8.5 on the MBA, but that didn't help. It is hard to believe that Apple would have made AirDrop on these two device families incompatable.

I have the same problem!

I have the same problem with iMac (early 2009) and ipad mini, they do not see each other

Its not made to work with the desktops or with older iOS devices.

See macrumors.com recent post on the subject.

At this time, Airdrop is not supported from/to Mac OS > iOS. Only from iOS > iOS or Mac OS > Mac OS.

I simply can not believe this?.......

Send feedback to Apple:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Really?... Lame.

Kyryll.S wrote:

 

Really?... Lame.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

And just like that the one thing that would make airdrop useful to me instead makes it useless.

It's inconceivable to me that I can't airdrop a picture from my iphone to my imac.  That's just stupid IMO.  In fact, there's no truly convenient way to get pictures from my iphone to my imac.  I have to manually move them via imagecapture.  Really Apple?  Two of your own devices on the same network and I can't simply move pictures from one to the other wirelessly?  Pretty lame.

The are apps for the iPhone to move photos and videos to the Mac over wifi. One easy way is to use  iPhoto on the Mac (install onto the Mac) via iCloud to send photos to the Mac. Once you take a photo on the iPhone it will be sent by way of iCloud to the Mac automatically.

Yeah, but do I have to download a 3rd party app to make my iphone and imac (both made by the same company and both running that companies software) be able to share a picture?

And the iphoto/icloud connection continues to be a dysfunctional, highly confusing environment where I am never confident that it's doing what I want.  Furthermore, if I just want to put a picture from my iphone onto my desktop for future use first I have to upload it to icloud, then download it to iphoto, then move it from iphoto to my desktop then go back into iphoto and delete it from the iphoto library if I don't want it to live in iphoto forever?

What a hassle.

How about this... my imac and iphone are on the same network... when I take a picture with my iphone I should be able to simply drop it onto the desktop of my imac.  Couldn't be simpler.  Except that doesn't exist.  Lame.

I don't think you understand the iPhoto/iCloud concept. You take a photo on the iPhone and the photo is automatically sent to iCloud and then sent to iPhoto on the Mac. No uploading or downloading...

I do this all time with my iPad. Mostly with screen captures from the iPad.

I definitely understand it, I've been using it.  But nothing about it is easy, you have to figure out how to make it so that you can send just the pictures you want to iphoto, which requires creating a special stream in iphoto, and even once you do that it doesn't always work... not to mention that there's no way to create a stream that will automatically add photos to your iphoto album, you still have to manually add them if you want them to be part of something like your apple TV screensaver.  It's convoluted, confusing and ultimately way too much hassle.

Plus if I want to put a picture from my phone on the desktop of my imac I now have to open iphoto, move the picture from iphoto to my desktop, go back into iphoto and delete the picture if I don't want it hanging around in iphoto and then close iphoto. 

Why?  Why not just have it so that I can take a picture on my iphone and when the iphone is connected to my local network simply drop the picture on the desktop of my imac?  One simple step.  No setup required, no opening of software required, no confusing icloud account to setup and hassle with, no confusing photostreams that don't always work... just move the picture from my phone to my computer's desktop, done.  I can do it from one imac to another over the network, why in the world can't I do it from my iphone to my imac?  Makes no sense that I have to jump through icloud/iphoto hoops or use image capture, an obscure program most users probably don't even know they have.