AIRDROP NOT WORKING! El Capitan

Question

Level 1

10 points

AIRDROP NOT WORKING! El Capitan

I know this topic has been addressed a lot already...

The issue is I can't really say Airdrop is not working at all. Somehow is does work between my MacBook Air (Mid 2012) and my iPhone 5c but it does not work between my iMac (late 2013) and my iPhone.

The weird thing is that I have to use the "Don't see who you are looking for?" link in finder for trying to connect bot Macs. Since the Airdrop connection work with the MacBook Air and the iPhone I assume that my iMac late 2013 is recognized as an "older" Mac. Why is that?

Apple clearly says that for sharing files between mobile devices and Macs the Mac needs to be newer than 2012! Which is the case with my iMac.

What is going wrong? Do I have a special iMac not supporting the Airdrop feature with mobile devices?

Gosh, Apple needs to fix that Airdrop issues at some point. This is really annoying!

Thanks for any hint.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), late 2013 (21.5", 2.7GHz)

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 3:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

MD-48

Level 1

4 points

May 28, 2017 8:49 AM in response to DREAYSHAWN

I would love to try this fix, but my keyboard and mouse are Bluetooth, so I can't turn off Bluetooth without finding a solution like buying a wired mouse/keyboard. If I go that route, I might as well call in a technician - desktop is too big to bring in. This whole airdrop is something Apple should address with a fix in the OS. It is unbelievable it is this hard to remedy.

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 14, 2015 12:10 PM in response to jfs-dev

Same here:

2014 Macbook Air with OSX El Capitan
iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 9

Can't find each other (even with "available to everyone" selected). Used to be able to use this feature. Quite annoying!

Reply

Answer 3

El Ben

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2015 6:52 PM in response to Albert NL

I found a fix. I had changed my iTunes password and AirDrop stopped working. Once I logged into every single Apple device I own with the new iTunes password, then AirDrop worked again.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 27, 2015 4:39 PM in response to jfs-dev

Turn off Bluetooth on your Mac
Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
Turn Bluetooth back on

Reply

Answer 5

jfs-dev Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 28, 2015 6:07 AM in response to DREAYSHAWN

Hello Dreayshawn,

how simple is that. Awesome. After so many days it solved the problem completely.

I still do not understand why the Mac OS is not able to avoid such a (simple) bug.

Thanks anyway!

Reply

Answer 6

asimag

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2015 6:35 PM in response to jfs-dev

Mine was also not working. I tried every option even reseting SMC, signing in and out of iCloud and deleting/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

I noticed that I was signed in with different ID on iTunes, although my iCloud Apple ID was correct.

So I signed in with same ID in iTunes and Wola! Airdrop starts working.

I also authorized my computer on iTunes.

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 6, 2015 9:31 PM in response to jfs-dev

I couldn't find com.apple.bluetooth.plist in preferences that folder is empty please help.

Reply

Answer 8

jfs-dev Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 6, 2015 10:56 PM in response to Manpreet Singh Kukreja

Hello Manpreet,

make sure you are not searching within your home folder. You need to look in Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/...

"Macintosh HD" is not necessarily the name of your root folder.

Try to open finder, choose "Go To" in the menu, choose "Go To Folder" and write "/Library/Preferences" in the popup window.

Reply

Answer 9

umtsti

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2015 1:01 PM in response to jfs-dev

I have same problem.

AirDrop is announced at iOS 8 for Mac between iPhone. But from that time, My devices are rarely find each other.

Please fix this issue!

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 11, 2015 5:30 PM in response to jfs-dev

Thanks i found that file but the problem is still there😟

Reply

Answer 11

EastDog

Level 2

162 points

Nov 13, 2015 4:59 PM in response to Manpreet Singh Kukreja

Thanks i found that file but the problem is still there

Same here. 😕

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 14, 2015 8:27 AM in response to DREAYSHAWN

This worked perfectly. Is this a longterm solution? I'm just wondering if the file I deleted will have some use down the line.

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 14, 2015 9:54 AM in response to EastDog

Same here.

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 18, 2015 11:54 AM in response to jfs-dev

I tried everything and still not working. I can't see the options that should be there, such as if I want to make appears to Everyone, Contacts only or to turned off (see attached picture).

Any ideas?

Reply

Answer 15

EastDog

Level 2

162 points

Nov 19, 2015 3:53 PM in response to Alshalawi

AlshalawiNov 18, 2015 11:54 AM

I tried everything and still not working. I can't see the options that should be there, such as if I want to make appears to Everyone, Contacts only or to turned off (see attached picture).

Ditto. I see these options (the ones you refer to and indicate are missing from your screenshot) on my wife's MacBook Pro, but not on mine.

My Airdrop Finder window looks just like yours here.

I don't use Airdrop often (I do recall it working on this machine a few years ago, obviously under a prior OS), but I recently had a scenario where it would have been handy, obviously the exact reason why Apple designed this protocol... and it doesn't work. I'm selfishly glad to know I'm not the only one seeing this issue. And I'm stumped.

Reply