8 ms·

AirDrop is brilliant but it fails silently, no error messages - nothing. At best, it says that it was cancelled. Does anyone knows how to debug it? I also won

by mrtksn 5y ago

AirDrop is brilliant but it fails silently, no error messages - nothing. At best, it says that it was cancelled. Does anyone knows how to debug it? I also wonder, why this type of file transfer isn't the industry standart. It's so straightforward(when it works), why would anyone transfer files in any other way? Okay, maybe a transfer history can also be useful.

aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago
sudo killall bluetoothd This fixes if the error is on the Mac side. On iOS you have to reboot the device.
- ink404 5y ago
  Toggling bt/airplane mode can work for iOS instead
mrfusion 5y ago
A major failure point for me is devices simply not showing up as available.
- tgv 5y ago
  I’ve got an MBP that doesn’t show up, and never has, but it sees the rest. Any other macbook or iphone I’ve tried AirDrop with just works, but not my MBP.
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    I've had similar experiences. iOS devices always show up, no problem. Macs at home only do occasionally. Until the latest macOS update, my MacBook Pro would only show up if I opened an AirDrop Finder window. But when I was in the office, my work group of about 15 people would AirDrop files back-and-forth to one another all day long, without a hiccup. It is a mysterious beast.
  - notreallyserio 5y ago
    I've had trouble with airdrop from phone to mbp when the mbp was on VPN. I don't know how airdrop works but I'm guessing the fact the VPN takes over DNS (and blocks requests to all other nameservers) has something to do with it. Who knows though. Apple's engineers love writing software that doesn't produce useful logs.
    - tgv 5y ago
      They do love clogging the logs with useless messages, though, as anyone who’s opened Console can testify.
Traubenfuchs 5y ago
It‘s brilliant until a pair of devices enters a state where the target does not receive airdrop notifications anymore, while the source is stuck on „waiting“, which can only be resolved by restarting the devices.
- elondaits 5y ago
  When AirDrop doesn’t work I just turn Bluetooth off and on on the device. That’s usually enough.
  - Traubenfuchs 5y ago
    Sometimes it is for me, sometimes it isn‘t. It fails up to 25% of times.
jbverschoor 5y ago
Also my experience.. Super unreliable. It works, as long as you don't touch your phone/laptop, and don't have any network hickups. Still, it's the only thing that works
- cormacrelf 5y ago
  I thought it multiplexed over Wifi, Wifi Direct and bluetooth? So much for that.
- supreme_berry 5y ago
  When I was traveling from Sharm El Sheikh through Sinai to Israel in the bus I’ve transferred 40GB of photos and videos to my friends on iPhone 6S. Imagine this on Android 5 years ago - they (Google) only managed to copy AirDrop with same functionality (wifi + bluetooh) only in 2020 with Nearby Share.
  - edf13 5y ago
    Yes - similar story… I had to use it at airport security in south east asia when I needed my hotel booking to get through… my colleague was able to airdrop it to me even though we had no cell or wifi connectivity
  - unixhero 5y ago
    Why not just use a cable and copy the files? Oh wait you can't do that on an iPhone. You don't have the freedom to.
    - mrtksn 5y ago
      Of course you can use a cable, but they are unreliable. They tend to break, corrode, get dirty, disappear, have incomparable ends(one side USB-A, the other one micro USB, lightning - whatever) that one of the devices don't accept. They are also bulky and the transfer speeds are slow. Airdrop can transfer gigabytes of data in minutes, which is only possible with the latest wired interfaces that only the newest devices have and not all support file transfers. iPhones tend to last 3-5 years or even more and iPhones from different generations can transfer each other files through AirDrop. Not everyone has the money to update their phone each year and many who can update think it's wasteful to do so that they can use the latest wired file transfer method.
Wowfunhappy 5y ago
> I also wonder, why this type of file transfer isn't the industry standart. I would assume because it's technically complicated, using multiple protocols under the hood. That's fine if you control all the hardware on every supported device, but not great for building interoperability. Bluetooth file transfer is a standard that works, but it's slooooooooow!
emsy 5y ago
This is true for most Apple protocols in my experience. I’m supposed to be able to control my Homepod from my watch with a tap but it never works. Sometimes I can’t use the Homepod for minutes until it shows up. iMessage regularly fails to show the blue name for contacts, FaceTime is randomly unavailable for certain contacts, Airpods randomly disconnect, Airdrop rarely works. Tethering is also kind of spotty. The watch Walkie-Talkie function is terrible, dropping bits of the message. How they even implemented a working TCP/IP stack is beyond me. Lo and behold the most reliable “protocol” is HomeKit, but even that is randomly unable to persist name changes.
- macNchz 5y ago
  I’ve encountered many of these as well and have always assumed this was somehow the result of trying to make everything “just work”, wherein providing detailed user feedback or error messages would be some kind of admission that it hadn’t “just worked”.
  - spicybright 5y ago
    It either "just works" or "just doesn't work"
    - GeekyBear 5y ago
      I've seen one of the Bluetooth guys from Google Glass say that it's perfectly normal in the industry to silently restart the Bluetooth stack before every connection attempt. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981 I guess Apple should adopt that too, since toggling Airplane mode on and off is the usual fix for issues with services layered on top of Bluetooth?
      - atian 5y ago
        Heh “should”
- Uupis 5y ago
  My experience suggests that this is true for most Apple products. It either works the way Apple has decided it should work, or it fails silently and mysteriously.
GeekyBear 5y ago
> Does anyone knows how to debug it? Toggle Airplane mode on and off. Bluetooth is problematic on every platform. Restarting it is the usual fix.
fragmede 5y ago
The furthest I got was, on macOS, I restarted the daemon with `sudo launchctl stop com.apple.sharingd` followed by start. This however didn't fix it for my case, and I was not able to find any deeper debugging steps on my iPhone. Perhaps rebooting the phone would have helped.
KarlKemp 5y ago
Console.app will give you all the error messages you ever wanted. And more.

by mrtksn 5y ago

aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago

sudo killall bluetoothd This fixes if the error is on the Mac side. On iOS you have to reboot the device.

ink404 5y ago
Toggling bt/airplane mode can work for iOS instead

mrfusion 5y ago

A major failure point for me is devices simply not showing up as available.

tgv 5y ago
I’ve got an MBP that doesn’t show up, and never has, but it sees the rest. Any other macbook or iphone I’ve tried AirDrop with just works, but not my MBP.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  I've had similar experiences. iOS devices always show up, no problem. Macs at home only do occasionally. Until the latest macOS update, my MacBook Pro would only show up if I opened an AirDrop Finder window. But when I was in the office, my work group of about 15 people would AirDrop files back-and-forth to one another all day long, without a hiccup. It is a mysterious beast.
- notreallyserio 5y ago
  I've had trouble with airdrop from phone to mbp when the mbp was on VPN. I don't know how airdrop works but I'm guessing the fact the VPN takes over DNS (and blocks requests to all other nameservers) has something to do with it. Who knows though. Apple's engineers love writing software that doesn't produce useful logs.
  - tgv 5y ago
    They do love clogging the logs with useless messages, though, as anyone who’s opened Console can testify.

Traubenfuchs 5y ago

It‘s brilliant until a pair of devices enters a state where the target does not receive airdrop notifications anymore, while the source is stuck on „waiting“, which can only be resolved by restarting the devices.

elondaits 5y ago
When AirDrop doesn’t work I just turn Bluetooth off and on on the device. That’s usually enough.
- Traubenfuchs 5y ago
  Sometimes it is for me, sometimes it isn‘t. It fails up to 25% of times.

jbverschoor 5y ago

Also my experience.. Super unreliable. It works, as long as you don't touch your phone/laptop, and don't have any network hickups. Still, it's the only thing that works

cormacrelf 5y ago
I thought it multiplexed over Wifi, Wifi Direct and bluetooth? So much for that.
supreme_berry 5y ago
When I was traveling from Sharm El Sheikh through Sinai to Israel in the bus I’ve transferred 40GB of photos and videos to my friends on iPhone 6S. Imagine this on Android 5 years ago - they (Google) only managed to copy AirDrop with same functionality (wifi + bluetooh) only in 2020 with Nearby Share.
- edf13 5y ago
  Yes - similar story… I had to use it at airport security in south east asia when I needed my hotel booking to get through… my colleague was able to airdrop it to me even though we had no cell or wifi connectivity
- unixhero 5y ago
  Why not just use a cable and copy the files? Oh wait you can't do that on an iPhone. You don't have the freedom to.
  - mrtksn 5y ago
    Of course you can use a cable, but they are unreliable. They tend to break, corrode, get dirty, disappear, have incomparable ends(one side USB-A, the other one micro USB, lightning - whatever) that one of the devices don't accept. They are also bulky and the transfer speeds are slow. Airdrop can transfer gigabytes of data in minutes, which is only possible with the latest wired interfaces that only the newest devices have and not all support file transfers. iPhones tend to last 3-5 years or even more and iPhones from different generations can transfer each other files through AirDrop. Not everyone has the money to update their phone each year and many who can update think it's wasteful to do so that they can use the latest wired file transfer method.

Wowfunhappy 5y ago

> I also wonder, why this type of file transfer isn't the industry standart. I would assume because it's technically complicated, using multiple protocols under the hood. That's fine if you control all the hardware on every supported device, but not great for building interoperability. Bluetooth file transfer is a standard that works, but it's slooooooooow!

emsy 5y ago

This is true for most Apple protocols in my experience. I’m supposed to be able to control my Homepod from my watch with a tap but it never works. Sometimes I can’t use the Homepod for minutes until it shows up. iMessage regularly fails to show the blue name for contacts, FaceTime is randomly unavailable for certain contacts, Airpods randomly disconnect, Airdrop rarely works. Tethering is also kind of spotty. The watch Walkie-Talkie function is terrible, dropping bits of the message. How they even implemented a working TCP/IP stack is beyond me. Lo and behold the most reliable “protocol” is HomeKit, but even that is randomly unable to persist name changes.

macNchz 5y ago
I’ve encountered many of these as well and have always assumed this was somehow the result of trying to make everything “just work”, wherein providing detailed user feedback or error messages would be some kind of admission that it hadn’t “just worked”.
- spicybright 5y ago
  It either "just works" or "just doesn't work"
  - GeekyBear 5y ago
    I've seen one of the Bluetooth guys from Google Glass say that it's perfectly normal in the industry to silently restart the Bluetooth stack before every connection attempt. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981 I guess Apple should adopt that too, since toggling Airplane mode on and off is the usual fix for issues with services layered on top of Bluetooth?
    - atian 5y ago
      Heh “should”
Uupis 5y ago
My experience suggests that this is true for most Apple products. It either works the way Apple has decided it should work, or it fails silently and mysteriously.

GeekyBear 5y ago

> Does anyone knows how to debug it? Toggle Airplane mode on and off. Bluetooth is problematic on every platform. Restarting it is the usual fix.

fragmede 5y ago

The furthest I got was, on macOS, I restarted the daemon with `sudo launchctl stop com.apple.sharingd` followed by start. This however didn't fix it for my case, and I was not able to find any deeper debugging steps on my iPhone. Perhaps rebooting the phone would have helped.

KarlKemp 5y ago

Console.app will give you all the error messages you ever wanted. And more.