Handoff and AirDrop not working in El Capitan

I'm so fed up too!

I spent Days trying to sort it out

Everyone has a different solution that doesn't work on different computers

Apple should give a simple one: make it works as it was in Yosemite

That's it

My intension was to try a clean install of El Capitan but Tettiko said he tried it and didn't work.

After I spent hours trying to find a solution with no result, I went to a friend's house. I had my mac book pro with me and my iPhone 5s.

Tried airdrop and it worked excellent both ways right away iPhone to/from Mac.

So I thought that maybe it was some settings on my router. My router is a linksys 8968.
After changing some settings with no succesful result, I used another router, a ZTE like the one my friend had. NOTHING!
Then used another router a Philips still NOTHING
What I did next I used a sappido router accessing the internet through a 3G USB stick. Nothing.

Alhtough my iPhone was connected to the sappido like my mac book my iPad mini was connected to the linksys and airdrop was working between iPad and iPhone even though they were connected to different routers.

vanagsg you said that at your work Airdrop is also working but not at home. Apart from your MacBook and your iphone do you have any other Apple device in you house like an iPad or an iPod? If you do do you think you can take it to your work as well allong with your iPhone and your Mac Book? Then login to your network with all devices and check if AirDrop works? If it doesn't work could you turn off your iPad/iPod go home and test the Airdrop between the Mac and the iphone with your iPad/iPod turned off?
Your iPad/iPod could also be in flight mode if you don't want to turn it off.

Just as frustrated as the rest of you. I followed all advice and Airdrop does not appear. HOWEVER, I went to my phone, selected a photo and hit airdrop, and low and behold, it appeared on my screen and went right into my downloads folder.

There is still no evidence of airdrop, nor do I know how to sent something out of my computer.... When I try to share from the computer Airdrop is gray.

For what it's worth...

Thanks for all your handwork everyone, hope apple is listening!!

george80 at work I have only two Apple devices Macbook and iPhone 6. At home I have also iPhone 5 and one week new AppleTV4. Personal contact information I have edited also on iPhone 5 as from begining was no difference if I change only on first two. Now is no problem on both 3 ios and osx devices, Airdrop is working.

ps. Before when Airdrop was not workig was so, at work everything is ok, Airdrop is working, but when I come at home and tested Airdrop then to 1-2 seconds my iPhone is visible on Airdrop on Mac. It looks that something was conflicting. After it gone and I need to wait till next morning when I'm at work.

vanagsgMy suspicion is around the number of the devices and the location.
At your work everything was OK but there you had only two devices, like I did when I went at my friend's house.

Another thing that happened some time ago, I had gone at my other house in another city. When I was there I had tried some things, made a hotspot with my iPhone and mac was connected through it then I restore the network settings on my iPhone and Airdrop was working between iPhone and MAC! When I tried my iPad, Airdrop was not working not even between the iPad and the iPhone and it has always worked among these two.

I don't recall what I did then but I managed to have airdrop working between my Mac and my iPad. Guess what? Airdrop was not working between my iPhone and the other two devices afterwards. It's like there was a limit of two.

Unless we find a pattern for this problem this forum will continue for ever.

When I say pattern I mean that from state A ( airdrop not working ) we do some changes ( delete a file for example ) and we reach at state B where Airdrop is working. Now if we undo these changes ( restore the file ) we should return to state A where Airdrop is not working.
Then verify that if we to state B again Airdrop will work. If then we analyze the factors that change we can find what causes the problem and have a solution that will work for everyone!

I feel that changing the contact info is not the source of the problem, it's just triggers a series of events which repair the problem. When I went to my friend's house I didn't changed anything, no contacts, didn't deleted files. It just worked! The only thing which did changed was the location of the devices on the iCloud which probably triggered some events and made the Airdrop work again. When I returned home I tested again with there different routers (two land line and one 3G) No success.

What I am trying to do next is take my iPad to my friend's house log in, ( it's location will change )then turn it off and when I get home test if Airdrop is working among iPhone and Mac.

Today's update:

Handoff that was working till yesterday among everything ,

stopped working without doing anything on my Mac or iOS

It works from my Mac to idevices but not viceversa

Airdrop still works between devices but not from devices to Mac

How can something be shared one way and not the other?!

and BTW the only thing I would like is that works from iOS to Mac

who cares about the opposite?!

Thanks to everyone who is fighting like me to look for a solution that Apple is not capable to give us

To everybody who has handoff working but not Airdrop, try this:

just disconnect your mac and your iPhone from the wifi access point but keep the wifi ON on both devices, you can do that by making it forget the access point or go to a place with no known wifi access point.

This seems very strange but it works.

That has worked for me in the past but only a couple of times. Unfortunately this trick doesn't work all the time and you can't rely on it. 


Yesterday I went to my friend's house and airdrop worked fine and right away among my iPad, iPhone and Mac book pro without changing ANY setting or doing anything else! My Mac could see both iPhone and iPad in the same time. WOW


When I returned home Airdrop was not working again!

I had tried three different routers the previous time without any luck. One of them was identical to my frIend's router. it's been provided by the telecom company.

Yesterday I tried a fourth one also provided by the telecom company after has been restored to telecom company defaults. Didn't work!

I wonder if there is a single person in Apple who knows exactly what airdrop checks in order to work. It has to be cloud and security related.

Yes, it's very strange, but it really works! My AirDrop is working again.

And one more thing: if I disconnect my iphone from wifi access point my macbook will disconnect from the same point automatically too. 😕

ios 9.2, os x 10.11.2

I had Airdrop, Handoff and Personal Hotspot working fine. After installing the OS X 10.11.3 Beta (15D9c) only airdrop is still working. I use an iPad air2 and an iPhone 6s. No problems between those two devices.

Right after installing the beta, i could still use Personal Hotspot with MacBook pro and the iPhone (not with the iPad). After reboot the iPhone was gone from the list of Personal Hotspots too. I tried deleting /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist and all the things suggested here (and helped with the earlier version of El Capitan) but nothing. Its really really frustrating. Strangely Airdrop is still working.

I did try what you suggested and works!

I was travelling. Easy to do 🙂

Now I'm home and Airdrop still works great

I would like to know what is wrong with the network that makes it go off or on

I did not change a settings, anything

On the other hand.. Handoff stopped working few days ago and still doesn't .

Thanks for finding this interesting clue!

I hope Apple will take a look at that

Personal Hotspot worked all the time BTW

On the other hand.. Handoff stopped working few days ago and still doesn't .

I 've to correct that : it works from the Mac to the idevices but not the opposite

Handoff is working from iPad/iPhone to Mac!

I changed two settings:

On Mac

System Preferences- Sharing- Bluetooth Sharing on (check the radio button)

On the iPad or iPhone

Settings-General-Handoff & Suggested Apps- I changed the prefs for Installed Apps to on

I don't know why, but it works

I hope it will help others

It does not work! It's for 2-5 days - depends on your luck how long Airdrop will work.

Also update to public betas OSX 10.11.3 and iOS 9.2.1 does not fix the problem.

I drove to a friend's house yesterday, while still at the parking, iPhone, iPad mini and Mac book picked up the wifi signal and Airdrop worked like it always does when connected to that wifi. Later I stopped at a point where there was no wifi. Data was off on my iPhone. Airdrop worked again!

Got back home, Airdrop doesn't work between the Mac and the iDevices event when the router is turned off and there is no connection to the network although in a similar situation a couple of hours ago worked OK!
Airdrop between iPhone and iPad mini always work!

Doesn't make any sense! Because I don't delete any files don't change any settings and in one case at my friend's house works but in my house when connected to the internet using an identical router same settings firmware everything like my friend's with the same internet company it doesn't work!

Reading other posts I don't know what to assume about what is causing it...