Here’s a better, overarching question. Why isn’t AirDrop “always on"?
Why do I have to have a Finder window open TO AirDrop for me to even show up to anyone else… who also have said windows open? Idiotic.
It should be right-click, AirDrop, list of people on the network to which it can be AirDropped, boom. A Notification Center notification pops up; [name] wants to send you [filename] from their computer/iOS device/[computer name]. Accept, Reject, or iMessage as options.
Sorry, this may be an obvious question, but you and your wife both have separate iCloud accounts, yes? I know a lot of families that share one, and if you are both logged in to the same iCloud account, that would probably not work for AirDrop transfers. The router shouldn't matter, as long as you have bluetooth and wifi turned on for your phone, both have different iCloud accounts and are logged in, and both have AirDrop turned on in Control Center.
That would be a silly requirement, don't you think? To have to have separate iCloud accounts. I have both an iPhone and and iPad. One person, one iCloud account. It would kind of defeat the purpose of iCloud to have separate accounts on my two devices. And just as silly to not be able to use AirDrop to transfer files between my two devices.
Yes, there definitely is a battery cost for bluetooth. I've seen different reports of exactly what that cost is from different testers. You might want to try an app like this to see what effect it has on your own device / OS configuration: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id446751279
Just as one point of reference, I leave Bluetooth on all the time because I use that rather than wifi for the hotspot feature to tether my iPad to my iPhone. When my iPad isn't connected and the iPhone's BT is just sitting there waiting for a connection, there is no noticeable drop in battery life. BT on, but in active, seems to be quite energy efficient. At least for me in that scenario, which may (or may not) be similar to sitting there waiting for an AirDrop connection.
So is it just me, or does anyone else wonder why this only works with iOS devices??
I have AirDrop right there in the sidebar of Finder windows on my iMac.. Why no Mac to iOS transfers??
Sorry, just read ALL the posts.. I guess there is a reason why it doesn't work...
Maybe theres some sort of legal or security reason, we can already drag a lot of types of files via itunes onto a device, not always the other way around though and definitely not for all file types, not even for the photos I just took, what could be the reason behind that one?! Apple wants us to use iPhoto? I hate iPhoto, so that's lame. Will Mavericks bring Airdrop compatibility? Hope so, but it probably won't, sigh.
I've been having trouble getting it to work with my iPhone 5 and my wife's iPhone 5. We have it set to "contacts-only", and of course we're both in each other's contacts. Half of the time, her phone doesn't even show up in the list of available devices when I try to send a file (and we're in the same room).
Opening the options up to "everyone" doesn't change a thing. We both have Bluetooth enabled and we're connected to a dual-band Wi-Fi N router.
In the past week that we've been running iOS 7 GM, I've only been able to get it to work one or twice.
I also had a hello of a time activating properly.
Followed the easy to understand instructions and couldn't get it to work on either phone.
Was working with and AT&T worker who is also a friend so we know what we are doing.
When I put us on the same wifi network it finally worked. Maybe it's related to servers?
Kinda like Siri?
Once we connected to same wifi it was flawless but before then we turned it on and were both under "everyone" discoverability.
THIS is a bummer as there is likely no technical reason it's not supported on all iOS devices that support iOS7. Although it does appear to require iCloud.
It does work on all devices that support iOS7, see here, bottom of page. The article is just misleading with its "Despite being an iOS 7 feature, AirDrop is only compatible with Apple's latest devices"
Here’s a better, overarching question. Why isn’t AirDrop “always on"?
Why do I have to have a Finder window open TO AirDrop for me to even show up to anyone else… who also have said windows open? Idiotic.
It should be right-click, AirDrop, list of people on the network to which it can be AirDropped, boom. A Notification Center notification pops up; [name] wants to send you [filename] from their computer/iOS device/[computer name]. Accept, Reject, or iMessage as options.
That is indeed how I think it should work. But I think they may have it configured it this way because of laptop users; it would probably drain the battery faster if it was always scanning the network to see who has the AirDrop feature.
yet the biggest fail is that you can't air drop files to your mac despite the macs having the air drop feature for quite some time now..
Several people want this, but what kind of file would you want to send from your phone to the desktop? Wouldn't it be a file you can already access on your desktop? Be it through iTunes file sharing or iCloud?
In the Network System Preference in Mavericks is something new: Thunderbolt Bridge.
Presumably since it's in the Network panel, it is IP over Thunderbolt. And since there are no Thunderbolt-speed consumer routers (that I know of), it must be point to point. If it's "speedy local file transfer" you want, that will redefine the meaning the of the term. And put together with one of those Corning cables...
It does work on all devices that support iOS7, see here, bottom of page. The article is just misleading with its "Despite being an iOS 7 feature, AirDrop is only compatible with Apple's latest devices"
That is indeed how I think it should work. But I think they may have it configured it this way because of laptop users; it would probably drain the battery faster if it was always scanning the network to see who has the AirDrop feature.
This is not correct. AirDrop does not support the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S or iPad 3rd Gen, even though these devices support iOS7.
Several people want this, but what kind of file would you want to send from your phone to the desktop? Wouldn't it be a file you can already access on your desktop? Be it through iTunes file sharing or iCloud?
Some people don't put everything in the cloud or use itunes match for one reason or the other, so at times it's easier to be able to send a photo or a music file, a keynote/pages file through airdrop..
From what I remember reading, the technical limitation preventing AirPlay on pre-2011 Macs is based on feature Intel added to CPUs in 2011: <span style="line-height:1.4em;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video</span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">While it's possible to do AirPlay encoding in </span>
software<span style="line-height:1.4em;"> (like AirParrot), it can be heavy on the CPU and doesn't have the minimal performance hit that Apple's chosen implementation does, since Apple's implementation leverages hardware features that make the video transcoding </span>
trivial for the CPU. As you can see from the Wikipedia article, Intel introduced QuickSyncVideo in their processors starting in January 2011. That seems to be the reason why native Mountain Lion support for AirPlay mirroring only goes back to 2011 Macs.
Gotchya, thanks. I always wanted to know that back story. My MBP i7 can play 1080p with air AirParrot to AppleTV from .mkv no problem but probably only because it is a high end MBP of its era. It doesn't even get the fan going I am happy to say. It still works fine with 10.9 dev 8 BTW.
It does work on all devices that support iOS7, see here, bottom of page. The article is just misleading with its "Despite being an iOS 7 feature, AirDrop is only compatible with Apple's latest devices"
That is indeed how I think it should work. But I think they may have it configured it this way because of laptop users; it would probably drain the battery faster if it was always scanning the network to see who has the AirDrop feature.
Sadly iOS 7 doesn't bring Airprop to older devices, my iPad 2 and iPhone 4S don't have it. My Wife has iPad 3 and iPhone 5 supposedly do but its not showing up as an option, I assume because no other device is in range that can share with her. She can't use it between her own devices it seems.
from the page: "AirDrop is available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account."
Air drop. I think Dilger made fun of this style option on Zune with people running around San Fran trying to find another Zune user to send stuff too. Bluetooth is a battery drainer on laptops not connected to the wall power. So now we need to be running two data paths (Blurtooth and WiFi) to transfer data. Not exactly magical. More Rube Goldberg in my thought. And yes I have nothing but Macs, iPhones, and iPads in my house. And yes I got in and downloaded iOS 7 to my "5" yesterday afternoon. Hate "white" screen on "Notes". Going blind typing on it.
Air drop. I think Dilger made fun of this style option on Zune with people running around San Fran trying to find another Zune user to send stuff too. Bluetooth is a battery drainer on laptops not connected to the wall power. So now we need to be running two data paths (Blurtooth and WiFi) to transfer data. Not exactly magical. More Rube Goldberg in my thought. And yes I have nothing but Macs, iPhones, and iPads in my house. And yes I got in and downloaded iOS 7 to my "5" yesterday afternoon. Hate "white" screen on "Notes". Going blind typing on it.
The Zune joke wasn't so much about the process as trying to find another Zune owner.
Comments
Update has been removed from iPad. Says "6.13 is up to date" under software update.
Bummer, wanted to play with it.
Does iOS AirDrop work with the AirDrop on Macs?
Edit: Ok found out it doesn't.
I have AirDrop right there in the sidebar of Finder windows on my iMac.. Why no Mac to iOS transfers??
Sorry, just read ALL the posts.. I guess there is a reason why it doesn't work...
Here’s a better, overarching question. Why isn’t AirDrop “always on"?
Why do I have to have a Finder window open TO AirDrop for me to even show up to anyone else… who also have said windows open? Idiotic.
It should be right-click, AirDrop, list of people on the network to which it can be AirDropped, boom. A Notification Center notification pops up; [name] wants to send you [filename] from their computer/iOS device/[computer name]. Accept, Reject, or iMessage as options.
Sorry, this may be an obvious question, but you and your wife both have separate iCloud accounts, yes? I know a lot of families that share one, and if you are both logged in to the same iCloud account, that would probably not work for AirDrop transfers. The router shouldn't matter, as long as you have bluetooth and wifi turned on for your phone, both have different iCloud accounts and are logged in, and both have AirDrop turned on in Control Center.
That would be a silly requirement, don't you think? To have to have separate iCloud accounts. I have both an iPhone and and iPad. One person, one iCloud account. It would kind of defeat the purpose of iCloud to have separate accounts on my two devices. And just as silly to not be able to use AirDrop to transfer files between my two devices.
Yes, there definitely is a battery cost for bluetooth. I've seen different reports of exactly what that cost is from different testers. You might want to try an app like this to see what effect it has on your own device / OS configuration: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id446751279
Just as one point of reference, I leave Bluetooth on all the time because I use that rather than wifi for the hotspot feature to tether my iPad to my iPhone. When my iPad isn't connected and the iPhone's BT is just sitting there waiting for a connection, there is no noticeable drop in battery life. BT on, but in active, seems to be quite energy efficient. At least for me in that scenario, which may (or may not) be similar to sitting there waiting for an AirDrop connection.
So is it just me, or does anyone else wonder why this only works with iOS devices??
I have AirDrop right there in the sidebar of Finder windows on my iMac.. Why no Mac to iOS transfers??
Sorry, just read ALL the posts.. I guess there is a reason why it doesn't work...
Maybe theres some sort of legal or security reason, we can already drag a lot of types of files via itunes onto a device, not always the other way around though and definitely not for all file types, not even for the photos I just took, what could be the reason behind that one?! Apple wants us to use iPhoto? I hate iPhoto, so that's lame. Will Mavericks bring Airdrop compatibility? Hope so, but it probably won't, sigh.
I also had a hello of a time activating properly.
Followed the easy to understand instructions and couldn't get it to work on either phone.
Was working with and AT&T worker who is also a friend so we know what we are doing.
When I put us on the same wifi network it finally worked. Maybe it's related to servers?
Kinda like Siri?
Once we connected to same wifi it was flawless but before then we turned it on and were both under "everyone" discoverability.
It does work on all devices that support iOS7, see here, bottom of page. The article is just misleading with its "Despite being an iOS 7 feature, AirDrop is only compatible with Apple's latest devices"
That is indeed how I think it should work. But I think they may have it configured it this way because of laptop users; it would probably drain the battery faster if it was always scanning the network to see who has the AirDrop feature.
That's not true; the moment you want something to AirDrop it will automatically enable Bluetooth
Several people want this, but what kind of file would you want to send from your phone to the desktop? Wouldn't it be a file you can already access on your desktop? Be it through iTunes file sharing or iCloud?
In the Network System Preference in Mavericks is something new: Thunderbolt Bridge.
Presumably since it's in the Network panel, it is IP over Thunderbolt. And since there are no Thunderbolt-speed consumer routers (that I know of), it must be point to point. If it's "speedy local file transfer" you want, that will redefine the meaning the of the term. And put together with one of those Corning cables...
It does work on all devices that support iOS7, see here, bottom of page. The article is just misleading with its "Despite being an iOS 7 feature, AirDrop is only compatible with Apple's latest devices"
That is indeed how I think it should work. But I think they may have it configured it this way because of laptop users; it would probably drain the battery faster if it was always scanning the network to see who has the AirDrop feature.
This is not correct. AirDrop does not support the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S or iPad 3rd Gen, even though these devices support iOS7.
disregard..
Several people want this, but what kind of file would you want to send from your phone to the desktop? Wouldn't it be a file you can already access on your desktop? Be it through iTunes file sharing or iCloud?
Some people don't put everything in the cloud or use itunes match for one reason or the other, so at times it's easier to be able to send a photo or a music file, a keynote/pages file through airdrop..
Gotchya, thanks. I always wanted to know that back story. My MBP i7 can play 1080p with air AirParrot to AppleTV from .mkv no problem but probably only because it is a high end MBP of its era. It doesn't even get the fan going I am happy to say. It still works fine with 10.9 dev 8 BTW.
Sadly iOS 7 doesn't bring Airprop to older devices, my iPad 2 and iPhone 4S don't have it. My Wife has iPad 3 and iPhone 5 supposedly do but its not showing up as an option, I assume because no other device is in range that can share with her. She can't use it between her own devices it seems.
from the page: "AirDrop is available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account."
The Zune joke wasn't so much about the process as trying to find another Zune owner.