Topic here and in El Capitan: AirDrop no workee

[jest2dogs]

As noted in the El Capitan discussion, I cannot get AirDrop to work on my 15" MBP purchased/built February 2012. My iPad has iOS 9.1 and my iPhone has iOS 8.4.1. The reason I am posting here is that the other location hasn't been "picked up" by anyone yet, and, this may not be an "El Capitan" issue. Perhaps it's hardware?

I have never been able to activate AirDrop on the MBP. The icon is there but I have no option to turn OFF/ContactsOnly/Everyone. When I "right click" and the drop down window opens, it has a line for "More Info". Clicking on this option gets hours of the little, spinning, countdown wheel (not the color pinwheel) with no info forthcoming.

Even before switching to iOS 9.1 I had intermittent trouble between iPhone and iPad. Earlier I could turn AirDrop OFF, then Contacts, on each device and they'd discover each other. Now I often give up and use message or email to transfer pics or documents. Neither has ever connected to the MBP. (Just tried AirDrop a few minutes ago between mobile devices. No Go. Yes, wi-fi and bluetooth are on.0

i recently was in juxtaposition with another MBP running El Capitan. Both MBP's recognized each other. The other MBP even recognized my phone. But my MBP continued to ignore the presence of my iPhone.

I just checked my wife's 2010 13"MBP with Yosemite and she has a non-working AirDrop as well. And the "More Info" tab also begets an infinitely spinning countdown wheel.

Me thinks Apple needs to step up to the plate. Why so many folks with similar problems? incomplete testing? Rushing for "deadlines"? Deep breath...patience. Maybe I won't bother updating OS in the future, at least not until its been out a year. By then they'll be on to the next OS

[JerryFreilich]

Looks like you've got us stumped here! Have you tried doing these same operations in a "dummy login?" That is, a new, blank, un-used login that you've created just to test this out? I do recall that AirDrop only worked on Macs after a certain date. I know that my mid-2010 model didn't do it... but I don't remember at what point that capability was added. You need to check that out because my understanding is that this is a hardware limitation and not related to which OS is running.

[jest2dogs]

Thanks for responding Jerry.

As noted, my MBP laptop does recognize another, newer, MBP. So it has some AirDrop ability. However, the other MBP recognized my iPhone (to which it sent a test file) but it did not send to my MBP at the same time. I guess my mid-2012 build has only partial AirDrop capabili....

Here's an article from MacWorld UK. They didn't seem to have much luck either:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-so ... s-3500407/

And, if there's a hardware problem with the MBP, what has that got to do with intermittent AirDrop between the iPad and the iPhone?

Aren't you kinda glad to be still in the neighborhood? Otherwise, you would be really retired, putting your feet up, and putting a lot of this behind you.

I haven't tried a using "'Guest Spot" on my own computer. Is that kinda like Leno or Letterman sitting in both chairs? Oh, wait a minute, that wouldn't work,... they're both retired.

Jesse

[Jay Cline]

I couldn't get it work either...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203106

[rickj]

I just discovered something that I think is new to El Capitan that may help here. I was trying to send a file to an older MacBook Air, and it wasn't showing up. I noticed this for the first time:

airdrop1.jpg (16.73 KiB) Viewed 3730 times

When I clicked on Don't see what you're looking for? I got this:

airdrop2.jpg (23.1 KiB) Viewed 3730 times

I clicked on Search for an Older Mac and the MacBook Air immediately showed up.

[Stephen Hart]

Rick, I tried the same thing and didn't see the devices that I should have.
So maybe our 2010 iMac is not new enough. But what about my iPhone 6s? It doesn't show up even though it's set to AirDrop Everyone, and it's 6 inches from my iMac.

All I can get is that my retina iMac shows up in my wife's older 2010 iMac, but not the other way around. Searching for older Macs... does nothing. And my iPhone doesn't show up even if I get it off lock screen.