Share Files With Airdrop on a Mac

When you need to transfer files between your computers, you could email them, or place them in a shared network location, or burn a DVD. But who has time to do all that? If you’ve got two Mac computers, you can use the AirDrop feature to quickly and easily transfer files between the two of them. They don’t even have to be on the same network! Follow this guide to find out how.

Steps

  1. Ensure that you have AirDrop enabled on your Mac. Computers that come with OS X version 10.7 and later have AirDrop automatically enabled, and can be found in the left menu of any Finder window. You can enable AirDrop on older Macs through the Terminal, which can be found in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
    • Enter the following command into the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1
    • Press Return and then enter the following command: killall Finder[1]
    • AirDrop will now be available in Finder.
    • In order to enable AirDrop on an unsupported Mac, it still needs to have Lion (OS X 10.7) installed.
  2. Open AirDrop on both Macs that you want to connect. In order for AirDrop to work, it will need to be open on both Macs. If both computers on running OS X 10.7 or later, they will not need to be on the same network. Older versions will need to be connected to the Network-Computers as the other computer.
    • You can open AirDrop by clicking the button in the left menu of any Finder window, or by pressing Command+Shift+R.
    • Make sure that AirDrop is open on both Macs.
  3. Wait for both the computers to appear in AirDrop. It may take a moment for the other computer to appear in your AirDrop window. When the connection is made, an icon representing the other Mac will show up in your AirDrop window. If the other Mac is not appearing, make sure that it is relatively close to your Mac, or on the same network.
  4. Drag and drop the files that you want to send to the other Mac. Drop the files directly on to the icon of the Mac that you want to transfer to. Click the “Send” button to send the request to the other Mac.
  5. Accept the file transfer on the second Mac. Once the first Mac has set files to transfer, a message will appear on the second Mac asking what you would like to do with the files. Click “Save” to save the files to the computer.
  6. Wait for the file transfer to complete. Once you have confirmed the file transfer, a progress bar will appear and you can monitor the transfer. The “Downloads” icon in your Dock will help you track the transfer.
  7. Open your transferred files. Your newly transferred files will appear in your Downloads folder, which is located in the Home directory.[2]


Warnings

  • AirDrop does not work between Macs and iOS devices. For using AirDrop on an iOS device, see Use Airdrop on iOS.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/16/enable-airdrop-ethernet-and-unsupported-macs/
  2. ↑ http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/14/how-to-use-airdrop-in-mac-os-x/
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