Jim Rossman: Getting AirDrop working to send photos wirelessly
Published in Science & Technology News
This week a reader asks, “I have an Apple phone and an Apple desktop computer. What is the fastest, simplest way to move photos from the phone to the computer? I’ve been doing that one at a time but that’s tedious & time consuming."
This is an answer I could almost spit out by heart, because I use this feature at least weekly.
The short answer is AirDrop. Now, let’s take a look at what AirDrop is and how to enable it.
AirDrop is Apple’s way of wirelessly sending files, photos, videos and lots of other things between any combination of Macs, iPhones, iPads an even Apple Vision Pro goggles.
The reader mentioned in a subsequent message that she’d used AirDrop between phones, but never got it to work between her iPhone and her Mac.
Apple says for AirDrop to work, the devices need to be within 30 feet of each other and they both need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.
You don’t have to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network, but it doesn’t hurt.
On the Mac, to check to see if AirDrop is enabled, click on the desktop so that the word Finder appears on the top left of the screen. Then choose AirDrop from the Go menu.
In the AirDrop window, you’ll see a line that says "Allow Me to Be Discovered By" listing who can see and send you files in AirDrop. The choices are No One, Contacts Only or Everyone.
You can choose the appropriate option.
Then on the iPhone, open the Photos app and you should see the camera roll. If you select a photo to send, you should see a sharing icon at the bottom of the screen – it looks like a small square with an upward arrow coming out the top.
Click the Share icon and you’ll see AirDrop listed as one of the options. You may even see your Mac or other iPhones listed there individually.
The recipient will probably have to click an "Accept" button in a popup message saying there are incoming files from AirDrop.
Here’s a pro tip: In the Photos app on the iPhone or iPad, in the thumbnail view, look for a select button at the top and you’ll be able to touch each thumbnail you want to send and they’ll transfer in one bunch.
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