3 ms·

I wonder if it's more reliable than Apple's own implementation for MacOs. It used to be rock solid – and between iOS devices it still is – but between Macs I re

I wonder if it's more reliable than Apple's own implementation for MacOs. It used to be rock solid – and between iOS devices it still is – but between Macs I regularly have to switch both to "Search for an older Mac" to make them see each other, with no explanation why.

shimms 7y ago
I was complaining about this with a coworker today. AirDrop 1 was flawless, since 2.0 it has been more often than not unreliable between Macs. I’d love to know if anyone knows the technical details about what caused this regression?
- flixic 7y ago
  Interesting, my own experience has been the opposite. From what I remember v1 was constantly broken, initial v2 was not much better but now everything is very smooth all the time.
  - AndrewStephens 7y ago
    I had the same experience. The first AirDrop worked about 30% of the time, once AirDropv2 came along it works 90% of the time. The "Share Only With Your Contacts" option still seems broken to me, I usually have to temporarily allow all access before AirDropping something.
- knolan 7y ago
  I had massive issues with Airdrop 2 when it first came out. After many lengthy chats with Apple support it managed to resolve itself. All I can offer and a working solution is signing out and back into iCloud on each affected device. This of course comes with the resync penalty.
- lostgame 7y ago
  AirDrop 1 never worked for me, ever. With any combination of iOS or MacOS devices. AirDrop 2 is still so finicky I just much rather put stuff on a USB key.
DerDangDerDang 7y ago
I’ve found it very flaky on iOS - regularly try to transfer between my phone and my wife’s sitting next to each other and it will randomly not see the other phone or take minutes to find it :( When it works, it just works.
- jclardy 7y ago
  I've never had issues with iOS - discovery is near immediate every time. The only time I've had issues is when sharing with random people that have it set to contacts only and we haven't shared a contact, or if someone turned wifi off manually. On the Mac though, it is a different story. Just yesterday my wife was trying to send me a PDF and I had to send it to my phone from her Mac, then dump it into iCloud Drive. I rebooted my Mac and then it worked again - but these are stock 2018/2019 Apple laptops, they shouldn't have these issues.
- cerberusss 7y ago
  Yep, for me it's also quite flaky. When I mentioned this to a friend, he asked me if I was kidding -- it always worked for him.
chapium 7y ago
I found that the macos firewall is to blame.

shimms 7y ago

I was complaining about this with a coworker today. AirDrop 1 was flawless, since 2.0 it has been more often than not unreliable between Macs. I’d love to know if anyone knows the technical details about what caused this regression?

flixic 7y ago
Interesting, my own experience has been the opposite. From what I remember v1 was constantly broken, initial v2 was not much better but now everything is very smooth all the time.
- AndrewStephens 7y ago
  I had the same experience. The first AirDrop worked about 30% of the time, once AirDropv2 came along it works 90% of the time. The "Share Only With Your Contacts" option still seems broken to me, I usually have to temporarily allow all access before AirDropping something.
knolan 7y ago
I had massive issues with Airdrop 2 when it first came out. After many lengthy chats with Apple support it managed to resolve itself. All I can offer and a working solution is signing out and back into iCloud on each affected device. This of course comes with the resync penalty.
lostgame 7y ago
AirDrop 1 never worked for me, ever. With any combination of iOS or MacOS devices. AirDrop 2 is still so finicky I just much rather put stuff on a USB key.

DerDangDerDang 7y ago

I’ve found it very flaky on iOS - regularly try to transfer between my phone and my wife’s sitting next to each other and it will randomly not see the other phone or take minutes to find it :( When it works, it just works.

jclardy 7y ago
I've never had issues with iOS - discovery is near immediate every time. The only time I've had issues is when sharing with random people that have it set to contacts only and we haven't shared a contact, or if someone turned wifi off manually. On the Mac though, it is a different story. Just yesterday my wife was trying to send me a PDF and I had to send it to my phone from her Mac, then dump it into iCloud Drive. I rebooted my Mac and then it worked again - but these are stock 2018/2019 Apple laptops, they shouldn't have these issues.
cerberusss 7y ago
Yep, for me it's also quite flaky. When I mentioned this to a friend, he asked me if I was kidding -- it always worked for him.

chapium 7y ago

I found that the macos firewall is to blame.