How to AirDrop (Files, Photos, and Links Between Apple Devices)

What AirDrop actually needs to work

Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on, on both devices — this is the single most important requirement, and the most common source of confusion. AirDrop uses Bluetooth to discover nearby devices and Wi-Fi to actually transfer the file data; both need to be active, not just one or the other.

Devices within reasonable range — typically around 30 feet, though a direct line of sight with no walls or major obstructions in between helps reliability meaningfully more than distance alone.

Receiving visibility set correctly — covered in more detail below, since this setting determines whether a given sender can even see your device as an available AirDrop target in the first place.

Sending a file

Confirm Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are both on for both devices — the single most common reason AirDrop fails is one of these being off on either end.

Check your own AirDrop receiving visibility setting (Control Center on iPhone/iPad, or the AirDrop icon in Finder’s sidebar on a Mac) — set to Contacts Only if the recipient is saved in your contacts, or Everyone for 10 Minutes if they aren’t, or if Contacts Only isn’t finding them for some reason.

Select the file, photo, or link you want to send, and tap the Share icon (or the AirDrop icon directly, depending on the app). Nearby available AirDrop devices appear as selectable icons.

Tap the recipient’s device icon. They’ll see an incoming AirDrop request on their end and need to accept it before the transfer actually begins — it doesn’t happen automatically without their confirmation.

Receiving visibility settings, explained

Receiving Off — your device won’t appear as an AirDrop target to anyone at all, even someone standing right next to you.

Contacts Only — your device is discoverable only to people whose Apple ID (tied to their phone number or email) is saved in your Contacts app, and vice versa. This is the more private default setting.

Everyone for 10 Minutes — your device is discoverable to any nearby Apple device for a limited 10-minute window, then automatically reverts back to the previous setting. This is the one to use for sending to or receiving from someone not saved in your contacts, such as someone you just met.

AirDrop only works between Apple devices

This is a hard limitation worth stating plainly: AirDrop works exclusively between Mac, iPhone, and iPad devices. It does not work with Android phones, Windows computers, or any other non-Apple device — there’s no version of AirDrop or compatible feature available on those platforms. For sending files to a non-Apple device, other methods (email, a cloud storage link, a messaging app, or a USB cable transfer) are necessary instead.

A worked example: sharing a large video after an event

Say you took a long video at a family gathering and want to share it with several relatives standing nearby, all with iPhones, right after recording it — rather than uploading it somewhere and sending everyone a link.

Open the video in Photos, tap Share, then AirDrop. If everyone in the group is already saved in your Contacts, Contacts Only visibility on their end is enough for their devices to appear as targets. For anyone not saved, they’d need to temporarily switch their own device to Everyone for 10 Minutes so you can find and select them.

Because AirDrop transfers directly device-to-device rather than through any upload and download cycle, a large video transfers quickly over the direct local connection — meaningfully faster than uploading it to cloud storage first and having each person separately download it afterward, and with no file size limit like many messaging apps impose that would otherwise compress or reject a long, high-resolution video.

Repeating the process for each additional recipient is straightforward — AirDrop supports selecting multiple recipients at once in the sharing sheet if several nearby devices are all visible simultaneously, sending the same file to all of them in parallel rather than needing to repeat the whole process one person at a time.

Sending to multiple people at once

When several AirDrop-visible devices appear in the sharing sheet at the same time, tapping more than one of them queues the transfer to all selected recipients simultaneously, rather than requiring the full share process to be repeated individually for each person. Each recipient still needs to individually accept the incoming transfer on their own device before it actually completes on their end.

AirDrop and privacy

Since Everyone visibility genuinely makes a device discoverable to any nearby Apple device, it’s worth treating it as a temporary, situational setting rather than a permanent one — which is exactly why Apple built in the automatic 10-minute expiry rather than requiring it to be manually turned back off. Leaving a device permanently on Everyone visibility means it stays discoverable (and technically receivable-to, though the recipient still has to accept any actual transfer) to any nearby stranger, which most people would rather avoid as an ongoing default state, particularly in a crowded public place like an airport, campus, or conference where many unfamiliar Apple devices are likely to be nearby at any given moment.

When AirDrop isn’t finding the other device

One device has Bluetooth off — double-check specifically, since Wi-Fi being on alone isn’t sufficient; both need to be active together on both devices.

Receiving visibility set to Contacts Only, but the recipient isn’t actually a saved contact — switch to Everyone for 10 Minutes on the receiving device to make it discoverable.

Devices too far apart, or with obstacles between them — move physically closer, ideally with a clear line of sight rather than through walls or other obstructions.

Personal Hotspot is active on one of the devices — this can interfere with AirDrop’s own Wi-Fi usage; turning off Personal Hotspot temporarily often resolves an otherwise unexplained connection failure.

One device isn’t an Apple device — confirm both devices are genuinely Mac, iPhone, or iPad; AirDrop has no equivalent on Android or Windows regardless of any settings adjustment.

A quick reference

Sending to a group of people at once: select multiple visible recipients in the same share sheet rather than repeating the process one at a time. Worried about privacy in a crowded space: leave visibility on Contacts Only by default and switch to Everyone only for the specific moment a transfer is actually needed, switching back afterward if the automatic timeout hasn’t already handled it.

Frequently asked questions