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AirDrop works from MBA to iPhone, but not from iPhone to MBA.

macOS Big Sur (11.6.2) on a late-2013 MacBook Air.


iOS 15.1 on an iPhone SE (1st generation)


AirDrop works from the MBA to the iPhone, but not from the iPhone to MBA. Each machine appears in AirDrop the other machine as a destination, both are set to allow discovery by "Everyone." Both are signed into the same AppleID. AirDrop worked bidirectionally on these two devices for years...until a few weeks ago. I cannot identify if the misbehavior began after a specific macOS or iOS update.


When trying to send a photo from the iPhone to the MBA, the MBA icon changes to "Waiting," but the transmission doesn't occur. In the opposite direction (MBA > iPhone), AirDrop works correctly.


Both the MBA and iPhone connect and operate correctly, and both are connected to the same wifi network. Bluetooth is enabled on both, and on the MBA, I ran sudo pkill blued in the Terminal, and then trashed /Library/Preferences/com.Apple.Bluetooth.plist (which was thereafter automatically recreated). I've restarted both machines, force-restated the iPhone, and signed out of iCloud and then in again on both. The misbehavior continues.


What else might I try?

iPhone SE, iOS 15

Posted on Dec 26, 2021 8:12 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 30, 2021 8:24 AM

On the MBA, I navigated: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall > Firewall Options. There, I found that sharingd was set to "Block Incoming Connections."


Reset sharingd to "Allow Incoming Connections," and AirDrop now works correctly.

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AirDrop works from MBA to iPhone, but not from iPhone to MBA.

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