Air Drop not working

Tips for sending items

If you don't see the recipient in the AirDrop window or sheet:

• Make sure that both devices have AirDrop turned on and are within 30 feet (9 meters) of each other.
• If you're sending to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
  • Your Mac needs to be a 2012 or newer model with OS X Yosemite or later.
  • The iOS device must be using iOS 7 or later and have Personal Hotspot turned off in Settings > Cellular.
• If you're sending to a Mac:
  • If the receiving Mac is using OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion, it needs to have an AirDrop window open: choose Go > AirDrop from the menu bar in the Finder.
  • If the receiving Mac is a 2012 or older model, click “Don't see who you're looking for?” in the AirDrop window or sharing sheet of the sending Mac. Then click “Search for an Older Mac.”
  • Find out if the Mac has “Block all incoming connections” turned on in Security & Privacy preferences. A Mac won't receive items using AirDrop if this setting is turned on.
• If AirDrop on the receiving device is set up to receive items from contacts only, make sure that both devices are signed in to iCloud. Also make sure that the email address or phone number associated with your Apple ID is in the Contacts app of the receiving device.

If you can’t see the other device in AirDrop

If you can't see the person or the device that you're trying to AirDrop to, check the following:

• Check that both of you have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on. If either of you have Personal Hotspot on, turn it off.
• Make sure that the person you're sending to is nearby. You can't AirDrop to users who are out of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range.
• If the other person’s AirDrop receiving setting is set to Contacts Only, and you’re not in their Contacts, have them set their AirDrop receiving setting to Everyone.

I had a iPhone 7plus that refused to connect via Air Drop to anything or one. I attempted many fixes - shutting things off and on, rebooting the phone, etc. What actually and instantly worked was signing out of my Apple ID ( Settings > [Your photo icon and name at the very top] > Sign Out [in red, at the very bottom]. I saved my iCloud content on the device when asked. Signed right back in, watched it spin for quite awhile reloading its iCloud content anyway. But well before the content was reloaded, the phone magically appeared for the first time in months in my iMac and iPad and wife's iPad AirDrop choices box. If you have two-factor authentication enabled, just make sure you have another device available that is empowered to authorize the device you're fixing, since signing out and in registers much like a whole brand-new device being introduced to your identity. Might add when I did sign back in, I took care to use the same form of address (me / mac / iCloud ) that the other devices were using - although that shouldn't be a factor, who knows?

In Air drop on the "Allow me to be discovered by" choose everyone on both devices, if everything works with this option then make sure you have contacts setup correctly.

Make sure bluetooth and wifi are both on, on both devices. Must be within range of of each other. Logging out of icloud and logging back in can also fix the issue.

Suggested instruction you should look through

Use AirDrop on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

This issue comes up frequently between my devices (2016 Macbook & iPhone SE) and sometimes (today) all of the tips (on/off, restart, reset, iCloud etc.) in the thread above are futile. During the golden era of Steve Jobs, troubleshooting problem on very simple features like file transfers would have been nonexistent ... wake up and step it up Apple!

After months I came across the following: "Also check if your searching for 'Everyone' in the Airdrop window. If you're restricting to Contacts you'll need to check your Card in Contacts. In Contacts from the menu bar>Card>Make this my Card."

This worked for me. Finally.

Note: I had it set to "Everyone" but still fixed it for me.

Goodluck.

Had the same issue. Oddly enough this totally worked. Signed out of iCloud, took a moment- signed back in, showed right up! Thank you!