Can't get AirDrop to work in High Sierra.

[BobHas]

I have never gotten into using AirDrop between my 4 devices because back in the day on the first one, a 27" iMac mid-2011, I had essentially this problem. The machine is on 10.13.6 High Sierra. I eventually had to give up. Now it would be very nice and helpful if it did work.

I just can't get it to see any of the other devices, and none of them can see it - in Finder -> AirDrop or in Share...

I have gone through all of the guidance I can find on the Internet repeatedly and not succeed.

I wonder if there is a hardware limitation. Maybe that the mid-2011 27" iMac says it does not support Bluetooth Low Energy, while I think all the others are newer and do, and back in the day I recall that being an issue for some of new stuff at some point.

 

[pm-r]

I wonder if there is a hardware limitation.

I'm sorry I do not have a constructive or positive answer for you but I do know I wasted many many hours trying to get AirDrop working on our mid 2011 27-in IMacs, Cleveland though several sites said it was supported and should work including Apple.

I finally gave up and figured whoever the Apple employees were who said it was supported and should work or possibly smoking some funny smelling stuff.

It was certainly installed on both our mid 2011iMacs running OS X 10.11: El Capitan. So I assumed in the end it was one of those figments of imagination in the minds of some Apple employees.

I was disappointed but relieved to read many others were having the same problem with their postings and questions on the internet trying to get it to work on their supposedly supported Macs.



- Patrick
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[BobHas]

I'm sorry I do not have a constructive or positive answer for you but I do know I wasted many many hours trying to get AirDrop working on our mid 2011 27-in IMacs, Cleveland though several sites said it was supported and should work including Apple.

I finally gave up and figured whoever the Apple employees were who said it was supported and should work or possibly smoking some funny smelling stuff.

It was certainly installed on both our mid 2011iMacs running OS X 10.11: El Capitan. So I assumed in the end it was one of those figments of imagination in the minds of some Apple employees.

I was disappointed but relieved to read many others were having the same problem with their postings and questions on the internet trying to get it to work on their supposedly supported Macs.



- Patrick
=======

Well, at least I am not alone...

Thanks.

Still hoping someone does know something.

 

[IWT]

@BobHas

I wonder if this will help you. It's from Apple Support and deals with High Sierra.

High Sierra and AirDrop - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Ian

 

[BobHas]

@BobHas

I wonder if this will help you. It's from Apple Support and deals with High Sierra.

High Sierra and AirDrop - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Ian

Yes, I think it does. The part in the requirements statement: "Each Mac was introduced in 2012 or later (excluding the 2012 Mac Pro)"

I had not spotted that anywhere.

I think the key may be that point about Bluetooth Low Energy support. I think it came in on the model right after the 27" Mid-2011 iMac. That is very close to this symptom.

I am not quite sure, but I don't think I have seen anyone saying AirDrop worked on anything earlier.

 

[pm-r]

I am not quite sure, but I don't think I have seen anyone saying AirDrop worked on anything earlier.

There were definitely posts and reports of a theoretically and supposedly working back in the early days of late 2011 and into 2012 and possibly later, but perhaps they have all been corrected now with the correct information as things actually are and as they are supported.

I recall my wasted time efforts much to clearly mainly to help support my wife with her iPhone and iMac at the time.

If you hear otherwise, I would love to hear what the requirements are if you can actually get it working with your Apple Hardware.


EDIT:
And just to add to the confusion and make things more confusing, Wikipedia adds this info about Apple's Airdrop:

AirDrop is a proprietary wireless ad hoc service in Apple Inc.'s iOS, macOS, and visionOS operating systems, introduced in Mac OS X Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) and iOS 7,[1] which can transfer files among supported Macintosh computers and iOS devices by means of close-range wireless communication.[1] This communication takes place over Apple Wireless Direct Link 'Action Frames' and 'Data Frames' using generated link-local IPv6 addresses instead of the Wi-Fi chip's fixed MAC address.[2]

Prior to OS X Yosemite (OS X 10.10), and under OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks (OS X 10.7–10.9, respectively) the AirDrop protocol in macOS was different from the AirDrop protocol of iOS, and the two were therefore not interoperab.

AirDrop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

One would have thought they would have used a different name for an application that worked quite differently. But Apple does a lot of things differently.



- Patrick
=======

 

[BobHas]

I recently watched a YouTube video about AirDrop, and it said AirDrop transfers the file/data/whatever by WiFi if it is available, but it starts by discovering available destinations using Bluetooth. (I am not sure he said it, but implicitly I suppose the data also goes by Bluetooth if WiFi is not available). So the change in the Bluetooth support right at this point in the hardware evolution seems very likely to explain this. Its the hardware, not the software/OS.