iOS9 Airdrop to Mac not working

Today I went to Apple dealer in Bahrain machine. I showed SA that airdrop is not working. He too confirmed that it is not working from my phone. Then he put showroom wifi network password in my phone. Now showroom laptop and my phone was on the same network. Airdrop started working.

Apple to work airdrop is it necessary to have wifi router?

Yet more investigation:

1) Log on to router. Didn’t change security type or disable it. Changed password for wifi. Enter new password on Mac and Phone. Airdrop works.

2) Power off and reboot router. No Air drop.

3) Change router password to simple 8 numbers. Log on with new password phone and Mac. Airdrop back.

4) Power off and reboot router. No Air drop. Made me wonder if it would even retain the Airdrop capability after a router reboot even with no security at all?

5) Disable security on router. Log on as insecure router on Mac and phone. Air drop works.

6) Power off and reboot router. No Airdrop

7) I then re-enabled security on the router using the same password it had saved from the last time. Log on with new password phone and Mac. Airdrop back. So it doesn’t seem to matter if the Mac has a connection it remembers from a previous changing, it merely need to be forced to use something else, at least once, for Airdrop to come back after a router reboot, in my case that is.

So it seems in my case clearly to do with having to reset the password EVERY time there is a power cut or router reboot for any reason. If it just reboots without user input to do that, Airdop dissapears, even if your router security is set to disable. So it doesn’t seem to be related to the type of security you use.

Just seems to be that something that happens to the Mac and / or the phone when you input a new password into your routers wifi access, forcing the laptop to log on again, clears the missing Airdrop bug. Only for it to come back if you router for any reason reboots. Fixable by changing the password again. But what a state of affairs, needing to change you router wifi password in the event of a reboot, just to get Airdrop working.

TechAddict, thanks for sharing all these details!

I just honestly don't get how the airdrop can depend on the router password. When in case of using 2 iphones, both device do file exchange with out any issues neither having a router around.

Yah, beyond me too. I do think though that Apple devices can be quite fickle when it comes to networks and bluetooth. In all honesty I've never had a problem between IOS devices, ever. It's just air dropping to the MBP that curses me.

It's not even the security type or the password as such either I think. It's just that changing the password seems to force the MBP to do something internally that refreshes its network profile / connection that allows it to work again. I thought it might be to do with it deleting the old network profile, but no. Tried that with 'Forget this network' which I'd have thought would do the same thing. Seems not. I just know what I have to do to re-enable airdrop from IOS to OSX. What I don't know is why, or how to fix it without having to go to these lengths each time it goes down. Of course I shouldn't HAVE to do it al all if it worked properly and it's truly annoying. As of now, router hasn't been rebooted in 24 + hours, Airdop is still there, working fine IOS <> OSX.

When I return from Malaysia I plan to bring my AEBS with me and see if Airdrop works better with that. If it does I might buy a new AEBS here but it's a costly thing to try if the AEBS doesn't do any better given we don't have the Apple returns policy here, only having re-sellers, not Apple bricks and mortar stores.

There is surprise today. airdrop started working between iPhone 6splus and macbook pro but don't know how long.

There was continuous message on iPhone "iCloud approval request sent......". On investigation it was found that I need to reset keychain on my iPhone. I did that. Then there was iCloud authentication back and forth between iPhone and macbook. After that i tried airdrop started working.

Guys, I spent like the whole morning to trouble-shooting this. Having the latest El Capitan (10.11.3 15D21) on MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) with iOS 9.3.1 on iPhone6s Plus. Tried all the tips I can find online. Below is the only 2 steps worked for me.

a. Remove bluetooth plist file - This get my 2 devices working with "Everyone" setting.

- Disable bluetooth

- Delete the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist in /Library/Preferences/

- Enable bluetooth

- May require reboot the iPhone or Mac. However, this doesn't allow me to use the "Contacts Only" setting for AirDrop

b. Sign out iCloud and sign back in - This get my 2 devices worked normal finally

You might need to test out different steps below, because I tried it twice with different sequences and the first time didn't work (first time didn't reboot the devices, also, I signed out iPhone first on first time, also, because my credit card first name, aka iCloud first name, is different from my name in Contacts app, so I changed that before the 2nd time as well, not sure if that played a role...)
- Sign out Mac (delete everything when he asked me)

- Reboot Mac

- Sign out iPhone (delete everything when he asked me)

- Reboot iPhone

- Sign in Mac, and after it's done

- Sign the iPhone back in

For whatever reason, my AirDrop works smoothly as before. My AirDrop stopped working after I got my new iPhone (was an iPhone5), so my best guess is the iCloud setting was messed up. Hope this helped someone. Please comment it worked or not if you tried it. Good luck!

My happiness short lived. Airdrop stopped working.

Apple we pay premium price purchasing your product. Why there is no clarification from your side on this issue?

Hi George80,

I have exactly the same problem , I have Macbook Pro, 2 iPhones and one I pad. .. I phone and I pads airdrop each other easily everywhere. Macbook Pro , Airdrop works outside home , when at home , Airdrop doesn't work . BUT :

When I connect the macbook to a small SIM wifi router (Huawei) , the airdrop works on it at home . I even tried to connect the iPhone to it and the Macbook started seeing the I phone , what could it be , did you find a solution to it. why it works on certain networks but not on others . this feature is supposed to be available unselectively by Apple.

Try resetting Keychain back to defaults.

Hi, up to now I haven't found any fix, just some tricks. One of them was taking my Mac, iPhone, iPad mini to a friends house in which airdrop for some reason always work with his router then, deactivate sleeping in all devices and take them back home keeping airdrop activated in all times.

Doing that had as a result airdrop to work with my home router for quite some time without changing any setting on my router, Mac, or iDevice.

I have been contacted by Apple US, which asked me to run some test on my devices and upload the results on an Apple server which would help the technician solve this issue.

So I am waiting as everybody else for Apple to come up with a permanent fix!

I have installed Yosemite on an external drive. When I boot my Mac from that drive (Yosemite) Airdrop works. When I boot from my Mac drive El Capitan Airdrop doesn't work

So it's a software problem which I can't replicate although I have tried meaning I can't have a number of steps that will make Airdrop work, then a number of steps that will make it NOT working again and if ANYBODY would follow these steps would have same results as me with Airdrop.

Thank you George80 and thanks to Bradlytift as well, I acted on his advise and reset the Keychain, surprisingly ,my macbook started seeing my iPhone and vice versa, but other iPhones and iPads at home needed a reset to their network setting before all appeared in airdrop of my macbook and worked just fine on my home network.

But guess what , as I write to you now from a coffee shop , my macbook didn't see my iPhone , just yesterday it was seeing it here but not at home 😠 , I totally agree with you and many others that this is a software issue, I tried my share with Apple support , they accessed to my system and referred back to their senior engineers with no luck.

In my view, this service (feature) needs to be as stable as connecting to a wifi network without all such technical loops , so we maybe need to wait until Apple respond to all such complaints .

Best of luck to all

I don't get the request about who to share with:

"2) On the AirDrop screen, scroll to the bottom and choose the dropdown that states "Allow me to be discovered by:" Everyone."

Maybe I have a 'broken' Bluetooth or something? Mouse works, Hotspotting works. Airplay doesn't because the Macbook is too old. But it is supposed to support Airdrop.

Further study tells me that the Macbook Pro can only do Mac to Mac due to it's age:

Use AirDrop between iOS device to iOS device: has to be running at least iOS 7 and has to have a Lightning connector

Use AirDrop between iOS device and Mac: the iOS device has to be running iOS 8 and has to have a Lightning connector. the Mac needs to be running OS X Yosemite and needs to be a 2012 or newer iMac, 2012 or newer MacBook Air, 2012 or newer MacBook Pro, 2012 or newer Mac Mini or Late 2013 Mac Pro

AirDrop between Mac and Mac: needs to be an early 2009 iMac or newer, late 2008 or newer MacBook (except for the white late 2008 model), late 2010 or newer MacBook Air, late 2008 or newer MacBook Pro (except for the late 2008 17″ model), mid 2010 or newer Mac Mini, and early 2009 with AirPort Extreme Card or mid 2010 or newer Mac Pro

So it supports it... but not to my phones.

I've been patient ... waiting for Apple to fix this AirDrop problem.

Engineers worked with me - they really did make a concerted effort to reach me and get logs off my devices.

But it's been nearly a month now and ... crickets ... silence from anyone at Apple.

Oh, and the problem still hasn't been fixed. AirDrop between my iPod Touch and iMac just doesn't work.

This has gone from frustrating to irritating.

My suggestion is to stop using keychain all together. It is riddled with these type of issues. Besides your in way better shape if you memorize or have some alternative way of keeping track of your usernames and passwords. You may need to create a new user account to assure you have no trace of keychain causing any issues.