[Macworld]

Post your comments for Use AirDrop on any Mac here

[Danielsw]

Thanks, Glenn. This is very nice.

I was envious of my wife's new iMac and its support for AirDrop "out of the gate." Mine is the 3.06 GHz Dualie from early 2008.

Now we can use this handy AirDrop thingie!

Our WiFi is not broadcast and is password protected.

[Buffyzdead]

Will this work on Snow Leopard ???

[Inkling]

Thanks for the explanation. My chief complaint about AirDrop was that it didn't work over Ethernet. You've explained both why and why Apple made that choice.

Perhaps Apple should split the difference. Offer PAN encryption when available and offer a warning when encryption isn't available.

[Glenn_Fleishman]

Buffyzdead, on 21 September 2011 - 06:02 AM, said:

Will this work on Snow Leopard ???

AirDrop is a feature introduced in Lion, so, no.

[veggiedude]

Glenn_Fleishman, on 21 September 2011 - 06:35 AM, said:

Buffyzdead, on 21 September 2011 - 06:02 AM, said:

Will this work on Snow Leopard ???

AirDrop is a feature introduced in Lion, so, no.

There are numerous shareware (like dropzone) that works like this, so use them in Snow Leopard.

[TheMacAdvocatejp0m]

Maybe mine is an isolated problem, but when I used the hack I could only see my other computer in the AirDrop Finder window when the AirDrop Finder window was open on the other machine. If I closed the Finder window, AirDrop "lost" the device. Both the machines were given the hack and are on the same wireless network.

Anyone else seeing this?

[Glenn_Fleishman]

veggiedude, on 21 September 2011 - 08:40 AM, said:

Glenn_Fleishman, on 21 September 2011 - 06:35 AM, said:

Buffyzdead, on 21 September 2011 - 06:02 AM, said:

Will this work on Snow Leopard ???

AirDrop is a feature introduced in Lion, so, no.

There are numerous shareware (like dropzone) that works like this, so use them in Snow Leopard.

You're being more helpful than I am—and rightly so.

I quite like DropCopy, which Macworld gave a very nice review to as well. It's free for 1-3 machines, or $5 (from Mac App Store in Snow Leopard or Lion) for unlimited machines linked to the App Store account. It works over a local network, and you can configure it to work over the Internet, too.

[veggiedude]

veggiedude, on 21 September 2011 - 08:40 AM, said:

There are numerous shareware (like dropzone) that works like this, so use them in Snow Leopard.

Actually I should recommend Dropcopy - it's what I have used, it's free, and it's great.

[leicaman]

Buffyzdead, on 21 September 2011 - 06:02 AM, said:

Will this work on Snow Leopard ???

Not likely, since Air Drop is a feature of Lion only. It's not like Bonjour. It's an application.

[Playzabass]

Thank you sooooooooo much for this tip. Now I can see my old macmini, that I use everyday. I was wondering why it didn't work before.. You guys are the best, with all the great tips!!!!

[slambert73]

This might be a bad thing to do on a large network. I work a college so there are hundreds of computers on the network. I would not want to scroll through all of them to find one nearby (within WiFi range). This might even create harmful network traffic as AirDrop would request information from all available computers. I can see why Apple might hide/disable this option.

However, I hope this is a prelude to AirPort 2.0 with an interface that allows me to selectively do a broader network search (non PAN) and possibly save my favorites [maybe "accept computer into my AirSpace™"] for handy reference.

I was very disappointed with the limitations of AirDrop out of the box. Now I am excited again. Thanks.

[Amer]

TheMacAdvocatejp0m, on 21 September 2011 - 08:45 AM, said:

Maybe mine is an isolated problem, but when I used the hack I could only see my other computer in the AirDrop Finder window when the AirDrop Finder window was open on the other machine. If I closed the Finder window, AirDrop "lost" the device. Both the machines were given the hack and are on the same wireless network.

Anyone else seeing this?

I experienced the same issue. Both of my machines are on an ethernet network. Having to open the finder windows on both machines defeats the purpose of AirDrop.

[mretondo]

I was so looking forward to AirDrop until I found out it was WiFi only, then it was dead to me. I have Ethernet and WiFi connected Macs in my house and the WiFi only thing really ticked me off. This is great Glenn, thanks.