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iOS9 Airdrop to Mac not working

Trying to connect iPhone 6+ iOS9 to 2013 iMac OS X 10.10.5 via Airdrop but not showing up on iMac or iPhone, worked perfectly before iOS 9.


iPhone can Airdrop to another iPhone and iMac can Airdrop to another Mac, but not iPhone to/from Mac.


iOS update was originally done OTA and have reinstalled through iTunes.


Have tried all suggestions I have come across but still they won't connect.


Anyone have similar problems?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 21.5 in 2.9GHZ i5 16 GB

Posted on Sep 18, 2015 7:13 AM

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Posted on Nov 1, 2018 1:10 PM

I just got a new iPhone 6s last weekend and my AirDrop is to working. It was working fine with my iPhone 5S with the latest version of El Capitan. I tried the suggestion about restrictions and that did nothing. Between constant app lock ups since the latest El Capitan update and now this issue with AirDrop, I'm thinking El Capitan still has some major issues!!!

409 replies

Sep 23, 2015 9:30 PM in response to Community User

OH NO ! You all won't believe me... yesterday night everything was ok just after I updated my iPhone... and this morning, Airdrop isn't working anymore 😢 this bug is driving me crazy ... but I can see in the console that my MacBook found my iPhone via Bluetooth :


24/09/2015 06:26:43,779 sharingd[263]: 06:26:43.779 : BTLE discovered device with hash <01b34e30 f9000000 0000>

24/09/2015 06:26:43,779 sharingd[263]: 06:26:43.779 : Hash <01b34e30 f9000000 0000> exists in contacts


But it doesn't let me use Airdrop 😠

Sep 24, 2015 4:35 AM in response to macrobin

IS THIS CAUSED BY INCOMPATIBLE BLUETOOTH CHIPS OR SOFTWARE?


I've done a bit of experimentation.


iPhone 6 + and iPhone 6 both on iOS 9.0.1 and an iPad 3, on iOS 8.4. All can Airdrop to each other, no problem. The iPhones sometimes see the Mac (MB Pro on Yosemite) for a brief moment. If I try to send a file when it is actually visible all I get is the 'waiting' message. It never connects.


The iPad 3 connects without problem both ways. What is curious is that if I go to "Finder > Go > Airdrop" it doesn't see the iPhones at all, but, if the iPad is then activated, all the devices miraculously appear. However Mac will only "talk" to the iPad.


I'm not convinced that this is just an iOS problem, in that I had pretty much the same connection issues with both phones when they were on iOS 8x and the Mac was running Mavericks and then Yosemite.


I've have just updated the iPad 3 to ios 9.0.1. and it still connects to the MacBook and all iPhones flawlessly.


To conclude, my particular MacBookPro, late 2013 Retina, has 4.0 Bluetooth as does the iPad 3. They "talk". iPhones have 4.2 Bluetooth and they can talk to the iPad, so what's stopping the MacBook communicating? Is it software or hardware?


Anyone with a bluetooth enabled sound or telephone system in their car knows how bad Apple's bluetooth can be. Anyone got other, maybe newer Apple devices that are/are not working?


Thoughts please?

Sep 26, 2015 8:21 AM in response to xH4wK

I have been having this same issue between my iPad air 2 and iPod touch 5G. Just got it to work! On both devices, I pulled up the settings bar on the bottom of the screen (shortcuts to wifi, blutetooth, etc.) and selected "airdrop" bar on the bottom - I then selected the "everyone" option. Did this on both devices and viola, they are talking to each other again. Hope this works for others too! Good luck!

iOS9 Airdrop to Mac not working

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