AirDrop not Working : All Possible reasons and their fixes

If you are facing errors sharing resources using AirDrop on your Mac or on your iPhone, then there can be several reasons for this issue. You can check the following reasons according to your error and try validate the fix. It will surely fix your issue.

If you are facing issues using AirDrop to share files from iPhone to iPhone or to Mac and it is not working then the possible reasons are because:

Device Compatibility:

iPhone

If you are going to use AirDrop between two iPhones or iPads then the both devices must be running iOS 7 or greater iOS versions. If any of the two iDevices is having iOS version lower than iOS 7 then AirDrop will not work.

iPhone to Mac & Mac to iPhone

• Macbook must be from year 2012 or later and running MacOS Yosemite or later. Macbook pro mid-2012 doesn’t work.

Mac to Mac

• Macbook Pro must be from year 2008 or later. The late 2008 doesn’t support AirDrop.
• iMac Pro all models supported.
• Macbook Air introduced in late 2010 or later are supported.

All other lower models of the macbook are not supported.

Range:

The AirDrop uses Wifi and Bluetooth for sharing resources. If both the devices are not in Wifi or Bluetooth range then they are not discoverable to each other. They both must be nearer to each other to share files.

AirDrop Settings:

Check if AirDrop is turned on or not. Turn On AirDrop on iPhone. Also Turn On AirDrop on Mac. Make sure the settings of your AirDrop are one of bellow.

• Contacts Only -> Means you can use AirDrop with your contacts.
• Everyone -> Means you can AirDrop with all available devices.

You can find these settings on iPhone:

• Settings -> General -> AirDrop ==> You will find above options there.

Find AirDrop Settings on Mac:

• Finder -> AirDrop -> Bottom of the Screen ==> AirDrop Options there.

Wireless Connections:

Make sure the Wifi and Bluetooth are turned On. Whenever you Turn On AirDrop on your Mac or iPhone, then the Wifi and Bluetooth are turned On automatically. But if for any reason one of them is turned off then you cannot use AirDrop. So you must turn on both of them to start using AirDrop.

Turn On Wifi & Bluetooth on iPhone:

• Simply Swipe up from bottom screen of iPhone to Open Control Center and click on Wifi & Bluetooth icon to turn them on.
• Or you can go to Settings -> Wifi => and turn on
• Settings -> Bluetooth => turn on.

Turn On Wifi & Bluetooth on Mac:

On Status bar of your mac you can find Wifi and Bluetooth icons. turn them on from there. Or open System Preferences and turn them on from there.

Turn Off Personal Hotspot:

If the personal hotspot is running on your iPhone then you cannot use AirDrop. So you must turn off personal hotspot in order to use AirDrop. You can turn off by doing these steps.

Open Settings => Personal Hotspot => Toggle Off.

Reset Network Settings:

You can try to reset your network settings and in most of the cases it fixes the AirDrop not working issue. It is just a network reset and does not delete your data. So it is a safe process. You can reset network settings by following this:

Check Available Updates:

If still the AirDrop is not working on your iPhone or Mac then you must check for available updates. There are possibilities that the new update will fix all issues.

If still the problem exists then you must restore your iPhone or take it to an Apple Store so they can check what is the issue.