Hello folks! If AirDrop suddenly stopped seeing your other Apple devices after you updated to macOS Tahoe, you’re not imagining it. A bunch of Mac owners hit the exact same wall this month — your iPhone shows up one second and vanishes the next, or your Mac just never appears in the AirDrop sheet at all. I ran into a milder version of this myself on a MacBook Air after the 26.2 update, and it turned out to be something dumb and fixable, not a hardware problem.
Quick answer: Most AirDrop failures on macOS Tahoe come down to one of four things: a VPN or third-party security app blocking the connection, a stuck Bluetooth daemon, a custom DNS setting, or an AirDrop visibility setting quietly set to “Contacts Only” or “Receiving Off.” Fix those first, then relaunch Finder, before you touch anything else.
Step 1: Check your AirDrop visibility setting
This sounds obvious, but it’s the most common cause. Go to System Settings > General > AirDrop & Continuity (you may need to scroll down). Make sure “Allow me to be discovered by” is set to Everyone, or at least Contacts Only if you’re transferring between your own signed-in devices. If it’s set to “Receiving Off,” nothing will ever find your Mac.
Step 2: Turn off any VPN before you AirDrop
VPN apps and some antivirus or “cleaner” tools interfere with the local network discovery AirDrop relies on. Open System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions, find your VPN, and disable it (or just quit it from the menu bar) before you try again. If AirDrop suddenly works with the VPN off, you’ve found your culprit — most VPN apps have a “allow local network” toggle in their own settings that fixes this permanently.
Step 3: Restart Bluetooth
AirDrop actually starts its handshake over Bluetooth before switching to Wi-Fi, so a stuck Bluetooth process breaks the whole thing. Click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar and turn it off, wait about 10 seconds, then turn it back on. If you don’t see a quick toggle, go to System Settings > Bluetooth and flip it off and on there instead.
Step 4: Remove any custom DNS settings
A few people traced their AirDrop breakage straight to a custom DNS server they’d added under System Settings > Network > Wi-Fi > Details > DNS. If you’ve got anything other than “Using DHCP” or your router’s default listed there, remove it and see if AirDrop comes back.
Step 5: Relaunch Finder
Sometimes the AirDrop window in Finder just gets stuck. Hold Option, right-click the Finder icon in the Dock, and choose Relaunch. When Finder comes back, open a new AirDrop window (Finder > Go > AirDrop, or Cmd+Shift+R) and try again.
Step 6: Sign out and back into your Apple Account
This is the fix that came up most often in Apple’s own community threads. Go to System Settings, click your name at the top, scroll down, and sign out. Restart your Mac, then sign back in. It’s annoying because you’ll need your Apple Account password and possibly a two-factor code, but it clears up whatever Continuity token got corrupted during the update.
Step 7: Try Safe Mode once
If nothing above works, boot into Safe Mode (hold Shift while restarting an Apple silicon Mac, or hold the power button until you see startup options and pick your disk while holding Shift). Safe Mode forces macOS to clear a bunch of system caches. You don’t need to do anything once you’re in — just restart normally afterward and test AirDrop again.
Tips and troubleshooting
- Test with both devices unlocked and near each other — AirDrop can be surprisingly picky about screen lock during discovery.
- If your Mac can see your iPhone but not the other way around, it’s almost always the Bluetooth restart in Step 3 that fixes it.
- Check for a pending macOS update under System Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has been patching this in point releases, so 26.1 fixed it for some people, and later builds keep improving it.
- Firewall on and blocking things? Go to System Settings > Network > Firewall > Options and make sure there isn’t a rule blocking incoming connections for AirDrop-related services.
Frequently asked questions
Why did AirDrop stop working after I updated to macOS Tahoe?
Apple changed some of the underlying Continuity and networking code in Tahoe, and it’s had a rough time playing nice with VPNs, custom DNS, and Bluetooth stacks on certain Macs. It’s a known, ongoing issue that Apple has been patching gradually through point updates.
Does AirDrop need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both turned on?
Yes. AirDrop uses Bluetooth to discover nearby devices and then switches to a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection for the actual file transfer. Both need to be on, and neither can be off in Airplane Mode on the sending or receiving device.
Why can I see my iPhone in AirDrop but it can’t see my Mac?
This one-way visibility issue is usually the Bluetooth daemon on the Mac not broadcasting properly. Restarting Bluetooth (Step 3) resolves it in most cases reported so far.
Do I need to be signed into the same Apple Account for AirDrop to work?
No, AirDrop works between any two Apple devices nearby. But if you’re seeing it fail specifically between your own devices, being signed into the same Apple Account and having Handoff enabled does make discovery faster and more reliable.
If you’ve hit this and found a fix that isn’t listed here, drop it in the comments — this is one of those bugs where the fix seems to depend on what else is running on your Mac, so more data points help everyone.
Sources: Apple Support — Change AirDrop & Continuity settings on Mac, Apple Community discussion thread. Related: How to Fix External Monitor Wake Issues on macOS Tahoe, Focus Mode Not Syncing on Mac and iPhone? Try This.