airdrop not working (iOS8 and Yosemite)?

Update: I go to airdrop a file to mbp this morning and the iPhone6 doesn't see the the mbp agian. 1st I tried turning off the firewall and nothing. 2nd I tried restarting the iPhone and nothing.

So I restarted the mbp (firewall enabled) and then it showed up on the iPhone again. Definitely still a few bugs to work out.

And it seems that it's not possible between a MacBook Air and an iMac 27" although both on the same OS 12 and network

I'm not seeing the "Allow me to be discovered" item at the bottom of the Airdrop window (OS X 10.10 MacBook Pro early 2011). What have I got misconfigured that's keeping AirDrop from working?

I have the same on my screen for AirDrop. Dont get the "Allow me..."

As near as I can tell, to support AirDrop you need to have a device that supports something called "low energy" bluetooth. My mid-2012 MacPro apparently does not support this version of bluetooth and this is why I do not see the options that others do. It would be lovely to get a more informative message, but there you are.

I have this issue too, but rebooting hasn't helped.

I have a MacBook Pro 13" 2013 using Yosemite official release and I wanted to test AirDrop using my mother's iPad Air which is on iOS 8.1. The Mac could see and send files to the iPad immediately, no problem. But the iPad doesn't see the Mac.

I've tried:

- rebooting both devices several times

- tested both 'contacts only' and 'everyone' settings in all combinations

- logged out of and back in to iCloud on both devices

- logged in as both my @gmail and @me addresses in iCloud on the Mac

- had mobile LTE on and off for the iPad, with internet sharing on and off

- internet connection on and off going into the MBP

- looked for all possible updates

- tested sharing from various apps on the iPad

- firewall on and off on the Mac

- logged in as my mother on the Mac, so that both devices were logged in on the same iCloud account

I just can't get the iPad to see the Mac for AirDrop.

Surely at this point it must be a bug?

This is going to sound weird, but it is close to Halloween. Today I was working with Apple Support to resolve a problem where my MacBook Air running Yosemite could not connect with my new (2014) or old (2009) iMac, both running Yosemite. The problem was resolved when we turned off the SMB option in Sharing under System Preferences. Whether the SMB option was on or off on the MacBook Air seemed irrelevant, but was critical on the IMacs. When I tried AirDrop again after the changes on the iMacs, everything worked. My iPhone 5c could see both the new iMac and the mid 2012 MacBook Air. I realized that when I had tried Airdrop previously, my devices had always been near my new iMac, which apparently (with the SMB option turned on) was somehow interfering with the iPhone's ability to see the iMac or MacBook Air. Two big problems solved with only one phone call. The Apple Support people were really nice also. Hope this helps.

Bingo!! This didn't directly solve my problem, but it lead to the solution.

My setup is different from yours, just MBP 13" (2013) and iPad Air, but I went into Sharing to have a look at SMB anyway. It was already off. But, I then went into Bluetooth Sharing > Open Bluetooth Preferences just for the **** of it. And suddenly my MBP popped up in my AirDrop share window in Pages on my iPad! I guess my MBP was kicked to start actively looking for the iPad in order to update its info in the Devices list.

I tested closing all windows & turning off and on again AirDrop on the iPad, to see if the Mac would find the iPad again. It didn't. But as soon as I went to the Bluetooth Preferences again, the Mac immediately found it.

I then turned on Bluetooth Sharing on the Mac (When receiving items: Never Allow/When other devices browse: Never Allow) and now it works all the time.

Maybe I'm dunce for not testing this right away. But it says nowhere in the documentation that Bluetooth sharing has to be on for AirDrop to work, right?

Thank you very much indeed!

Good news for MykeMayo! I tried to test his solution with my devices and found the following. My mid 2012 MacBook Air, new iMac, both on Yosemite, do not have Bluetooth sharing turned on, but both now continue to work with my 5c iPhone (iOS 8.1). I rebooted everything to see if they would continue to work and they do. The problem must be very hardware specific. I have not tried this with an iPad yet.

Macron, you are a genius! I've been trying for days to get Handoff and AirDrop working from my iPhone/iPad to my Mac. Toggling SMB off and on completely solved the problem.

well, i have gotten this to work by allowing incoming connections to discoveryd and sharingd in the firewall exceptions.

continued to work after restart.

we shall see if this is a lasting fix.

imac late 2012

ipad air

iphone 5S

ba

Thanks TurboKaos for your description of what Apple had you do. When I first upgraded my Mid 2012 MBA to Yosemite 10.10 and iPhone 5S to 8.1, I was able to Airdrop from the MBA to iPhone but not the other way around. The iPhone would not recognize my MBA. I tried most of what everyone else was saying would work without success. I then used the second option Apple had TurboKaos use (the firewall on my MBA). Although mine was already in the "Off" mode, I enabled it then turned it back off again thereby resetting the firewall. This corrected my issues and now my iPhone can Airdrop files to the MBA.

I believe this is a bug in Apple's code since so many others are having issues like identified in this thread. Maybe something as simple as forcing the firewall setting to reset in an upcoming upgrade might fix this. Again, there might be other things causing this but for me, this solution proved to work.

✅ Thanks again to TurboKaos for sharing his experience.

Same issue here. Running an old MBP 15" from 2008 (work computer), recently updated to Yosemite, and trying to AirDrop to an iPhone 5s. Only see the below on my MBP and nothing popping up on my iPhone either. I've AirDropped numerous times between iPhones and iPads. I'm doing nothing differently. Is my 2008 MBP just too old or is this a bug? Clearly, this "upgrade" wasn't quite ready to hit the market.

You cannot air drop between those devices. Best to know what you're talking about before you start cryng 'bug'.

Mac Basics: AirDrop lets you send files from your Mac to nearby Macs and iOS devices - Apple Support

Actually, Imp68, I posed it as a question (note the question mark). Best to know how to read before accusing people of "crying bug"! So thanks for answering the question. No need to be rude next time.

The link you provided was helpful. Basically, all it says is, "If a Mac you're using with AirDrop was manufactured before 2012, you can send and receive files with other Mac computers." What it does NOT specifically state is the following:

Pre-2012 MacBooks, even after being upgraded to Yosemite, will still not be able to AirDrop to/from iOS devices.

A simple, clear statement. That's all that's needed. Just be upfront about it.