With OS X Lion, Apple announced a new file sharing feature called AirDrop. While the concept of AirDrop is great, it’s lack of support on older Macs cripples it’s functionality for some users. In this video, I’ll show you how to enable AirDrop on your older Mac as well as use some of AirDrop’s lesser known functionality.
Terminal Code: defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1
Drop Copy can be found here.
Michael Steeber is a student who is obsessed with everything Apple. He enjoys making videos and runs the MSComputerVideos YouTube channel in his free time. You can follow him on Twitter as well.
26 responses to “Make The Most Of AirDrop [Video How-To]”
this is awesome! Now my MacBook white can do AirDrop. Thanks
Awesome! Thanks for the tip. I’ve been using DropCopy and it’s great but having it baked in to Finder, well that’s just epic! (I don’t normally use the word epic, really).
Is there any app that makes it work with PC? Cause i got PC at home and MacbookAir
Biggest issue I have with Airdrop (after using the hack to enable it on my not-that-old iMac) is the confirm dialog…if I want to send a file from my macbook to my iMac (in the downstairs family room), I need to go down there and accept the file transfer…might as well use a stick…dropcopy just does it, and is SL compatible too…
My MacBook Pro is 5years old and will not run Lion. I’ve completed your instructions on it and my iMac, running Lion, does not see it via AirDrop. Is there any way I can make this happen with my older MacBook Pro?
Thanks,
Enabled it on my 2007 Mac Mini and it works there…I can see my 2011 iMac. However, my iMac cannot see the Mac Mini. Why?
looks like the same problem as I am having, Rich.
Edit: I sent a files around to all my Macs (iMac, Mac Mini and Macbook Pro, and the computers that initially did not show up now do show up.
Great video. Thanks
Great article. And a great help. Just out of interest, what is the mouse cursor app used to highlight the cursor and clicks used in this!
Great tip.
When there’s a hack to show a Windows 7 PC in AirDrop, let me know…
seems to me that if you are connecting to one of your own computers, it is easer to use the “Shared” section, and log on to the other computer. Then you can transfer the file without a confirmation.
AirDrop is useful if in a public setting where you want to send a file to someone with a Mac on the same wireless network, but not give the person the password to your own computer or get their password.
My partner and I both have Macbook Pros running Lion. We can each see Airdrop on the left side of a finder window. When we both click on Airdrop we can see each other’s computer. HOWEVER, when I try to drag a small PDF file on to his computer I first get the bubble saying “Do you want to send [insert name of file] to [my partner’s name]?
I clicked SEND and I then got the following bubble…
The Apple ID certificate for “[my partner’s name]” is invalid. The transfer has been canceled.
Does anyone have any idea what’s going on here? Is the problem on my Macbook, or is there something on his that needs to be changed?
I tried this solution with two 2011 MacBook Pro’s Did everything exactly as described…it just doesn’t work… computer 1 says cpu 2 has an invalid certificate and cpu 2 says cpu 1 declined the file…over and over