How to Scan a QR Code

1. On your iOS device, open the Camera App.
2. Next, point directly at the QR Code.
3. There would be an alert on the screen based on the data from the QR Code.
4. Tap on the same to perform the action that was pre-programmed.

The option is super simple and convenient, and you can now easily scan all the codes you find in your newspaper or the banners or advertisements you see while driving, but you may wish you kept this option as a quick shortcut at times. This is where Apple allows you to also scan from the Control Center. You must go to the Phone Settings to accomplish this.Next, tap on Customize Controls > More Controls > Code Scanner > Tap on the + to move it towards the upper section.

That’s it. Now you can visit the Control Center and directly tap on the Reader icon that opens up a different interface and not the camera application, while you also get the option to turn on the flashlight.

Most of the QR codes we find are generally made to redirect you to some official websites or social media handles in order to follow them, but there have been reports of some inappropriate content access or vulgar information shown when scanned. In order to avoid getting into these kinds of situations, it is recommended to disable the option to scan QR Codes from your camera and access it only when you actually wish to scan. To disable scanning, visit the Settings > Camera > Disable Scan QR Codes option.

Do not confuse these with NFC because the NFC Tags are based on hardware while the QR Codes are just two-dimensional designs that can be programmed easily and can be scanned to give away information like website URL, App Store download link, telephone, or mobile number, Plain Text, SMS Messages, Email Address to Contact, Wi-Fi Credentials, or links to Social Media Profiles. The point is to give access to some type of information that can either be quite long or not be worth giving in plain information style. You can also find QR codes on a few modern business cards that can be easily scanned.

We hope these steps shared will be helpful to you in order to scan any type of QR Code you find online or offline and also create shortcuts and access the option easily.

Apple has given out a solution for this problem and this is called “Legacy Contact” who is someone you would nominate to access all your data after you die and this includes different kinds of data like the videos, photos, messages, notes, files, contacts, calendar data, downloaded apps, and the data along with the backups of all your devices stores in iCloud.

This is a new feature introduced in iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, and macOS 12.1 depending on the device you use, though all of these devices are linked with your Apple Account, hence it becomes important to complete the setup of this feature to generate the access key and keep your account ready for taking over by your family members. First of all, if you are wondering the type of data that your Legacy Contact can access, then here’s the complete list of the same.

• iCloud Photos
• Notes
• Mail
• Contacts
• Calendars
• Reminders
• Messages in iCloud
• Call history
• Files stored in iCloud Drive
• Health Data
• Voice Memos
• Safari Bookmarks and Reading List
• iCloud Backup

Let’s look into the complete process and to start the same, you need to make sure that the Two-factor authentication is turned ON for your Apple ID. Following this you need to go to the Settings & Tap on your Name, followed by tapping on “Password & Security“, then tapping on “Legacy Contact“.

The next step would be tapping on the “Add Legacy Contact” option where you would get information about the same. Do make a note that Apple suggests you Add someone you trust to have access to the data and the legacy contact will need to provide an access key which is kind of the most secure key to get a copy of the data along with the death certificate that needs to be provided. Tap on “Add Legacy Contact” Button to proceed.

Apple informs that – As your Legacy contact, the person will be able to access the data stored in your account after your death. Again, this is why you should only give this access to someone you completely trust. Just proceed and tap on “Choose How to Share Your Access Key” where you need to “Print a Copy” of the document. Now, this is a physical copy and not something you can just save on your phone, so you need to keep your printer ready while getting the Access Key and sharing it with the person you trust.

If the Legacy Contact isn’t using an Apple device or having an Apple device but running on older software you can still notify them through the Messages App or just print a copy and share it with them. Do make a note that you can always get a PDF copy of the access key but it is not suggested to share it because a physically documented copy is generally considered safe and you can keep it with your other important documents.

You can always change or remove the Legacy Contact by going through the same steps and removing them from the list, while the earlier generated key would stop working in case they try to access the same. You can always perform similar steps for giving access to your other important services with people you trust and make sure that they have access when in need.

The program is available under the Dock and you can find it with the “stamp” type icon on it. The application once opened would show you the following screen with no emails. You need to setup the accounts which you would like to Sync with your device and then the emails would show up.

Setting up Email Account on Mail App :

On the top of the options under the “Mail” application you would get a option which is Preferences. Click on this.

Next you would get a small window showing you with numerous options, here click on the second tab named “Accounts”. On the left there are accounts which you have already setup on your Mac OS X, while you can also add new ones. Click on the + button on the bottom left area to add a new account.

Once you have entered you email account which could either be a Apple iCloud, Google, Aol, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Vimeo, Flickr or your self hosted domain email, you would see some additional settings. You will generally get the Incoming Mail Server, Outgoing Mail Server [SMTP], IMAP, Port etc detailed automatically from the email services but if you have a email at your own domain then you need to get the above mentioned details to setup the mail application.

How to Show Gmail Labels & Folders

Few email services offer you to tag your emails under folders or labels and you can see the same in the mail app too. Just click on the “Show” button on the “Inbox” app which would unhide all the options listed on the left section.

How to Send, Receive, Reply & Forward to Emails

Its pretty easy performing these simple tasks on this application. Once you are on the Inbox section you can find all the emails on the left side section, select any email and then right click on it, you would get a list of many options on the context menu.

This allows you to not only Send or Reply but also forward the email also as an attachment and redirect the same. You can easily find all the regularly required options in the context menu itself.

How to Attach a File as an Attachment

At times you would be interested in sending some music file or some text document as an attachment with your normal message and this is when you would need this option on the mail application. When you are on the Compose Window, you would find a small Icon which looks like an “Paper Clip” which you need to click, following which you would be taken to the selection window where you can select the file you wish to send.

How to Add Signature to Emails Sent

Its pretty easy to create a default signature for every different email account you add to the Mail Application. Just click on the Preferences option from the Menu and then you would find a option of “Signatures” under the different tabs. Here you can select the account for which you would like to setup and then click on the + symbol. It would show you the first signature under “Signature #1” with your name and email on the actual content area. You can edit and set this as your default signature though there is a option to either select signatures in sequential orders or in a random order as shown below.

Overall this was a quick guide on the Apple Mail Application for first timers who have just purchased a Apple Computer and are using it for the very first time. If you need any other assistance around the mail app let us know in the comments section and we would be guiding you on the same.

One downside, to using a laptop, is that you only have one hard drive slot, so upgrading to a super-fast SSD is often either expensive or space is limiting. Though, Lucky for you that it can bypass by replacing the optical drive with a second hard disk.

MCE Technologies is one of the companies that make these kinds of products for modification purpose. It makes a SuperDrive shaped bay that can fit a standard 2.5″ notebook hard drive. That means you can use this kit to replace your optical drive with another fully functional and bootable hard drive.

This upgrade isn’t for everyone, and most probably isn’t for one who use the optical drive much often, as removing it may be inconvenient for them. In addition, if you’re not comfortable digging around in your Mac and voiding your warranty, then you don’t want to do this.

What you’ll need

• A Macbook or Macbook Pro (any generation), Powerbook G4, or Mac Mini: In this guide, we have used Macbook Pro 2013 Model, most Unibody Macbooks should have the similar if not the same, internals. Check Compatible Macbooks
• An MCE OptiBay: It will be second internal hard drive where you will put your new hard drive, which is available for $29.99 Buy Discounted MCE OptiBay®
• A solid state hard drive: We have used the Kingston Digital SSD, which has worked wonderfully. Note that any SSD should work as long as it’s compatible with and bootable on a Mac. Buy SSD from $29

Note: You’re about to defy company’s intentions for your computer, yes that’s right. Once you open your Macbook Pro, the warranty will be voided if your Mac is under warranty period or Apple acre plan. And if you aren’t careful, possibly would break something as well. Let’s be sure if you want to do this before proceeding further.

Open / Disassemble Your MAC

1. First you have to make sure that your computer has cooled down for at least 10 minutes before your rush in, as Macbooks can get pretty hot.
2. Next, you’ve got to crack open your notebook. Now comes the fun part.
3. Flip your Mac over, and locate the at least seven screw holes.
4. Remove the screws using the double headed-screwdriver that comes with the kit (though, they are not magnetic screwdrivers, which made our task double time hard). Note where these screws go and set them all aside.
5. Note: We recommend placing the screws in a small bowl or something to that effect so the screws don’t go missing. Because they’re scattered all over in this picture; do as we say, not as we do.
6. Pry the bottom off of your MacBook Pro. It should come off fairly easily, without any undue force.

Replace the Optical Drive with SSD

1. Now comes the hard part (not as much hard but gruesome), taking out the optical drive.
2. Your optical drive may be somewhere else (especially if you’re looking at it upside down), but it should look about the same—it’s just a big, flat silver thing. It’s held in place by a little piece of plastic between the optical drive and Hard Drive. Remove the screws holding the plastic piece in place.
3. Next, gently lift the cords stuck to the top that you would just need to peel away before proceeding to remove the optical drive.
4. The optical drive should be connected to the motherboard by a small black or red ribbon near the corner. You’ll want to pull this out of its socket before continuing.
5. Now you have to unscrew the drive from the case. You will find there are two screws that needs to be taken out in the corners on the case edge, as well as one is to be taken out from the middle of the side connected to the motherboard. This is where you would miss the magnetic screwdriver if you haven’t used it yet.
6. Once you have freed the optical drive from the case, you have to remove the SATA plug attached to that black ribbon and put it aside.
7. Grab the SSD and put it into the Optibay before you screw it into the computer. Remember, all you need to do is slide it into the OptiBay and connect it carefully to the SATA plug on the edge. You may need to shove the drive as it does not slide easily; we did the same with ours with the help of a knife.
8. You have to plug the SATA ribbon that was removed from the SuperDrive into the slot on the side of the Optibay. And then place the whole thing in the space left by the SuperDrive in your computer.

Note: Since the MacBook doesn’t look to SATA port for your main drive, it will give your computer problems waking from sleep. We noticed this when the Mac went to sleep modes. So what can be done to fix this is, you shouldn’t be installing your SSD in the Optibay, you’ll want to disconnect your regular hard drive, install the SSD in that slot, and then install your old drive in the Optibay and continue as written.

Take the screws from the bowl, and secure the OptiBay by placing the screws into same places. Again, take care, not to drop them into the abyss of the Macbook’s internals. After it’s secure, put the Black Ribbon to its socket on the logic board, as well as put the bottom case back on your Macbook, making sure to put the long screws back in the right holes. Flip your computer over, and fire it up.

Check if the SSD is recognized or not

Once you boot up the computer, your new SSD should show up on desktop and Finder sidebar. If it doesn’t show up, you should not freak out just yet; there could be the couple of reasons. First open up disk utility and see if the drive is showing up in the sidebar there. If yes, then you did everything right, now you just need to format the drive by clicking on the Erase button. And if it doesn’t show up, then you have to open the computer again, and check all the connections you fitted back. Especially the SATA connection to OptiBay, as well as the connection between Black Ribbon and Motherboard. If those are fine, then check if the connection between the Drive and OptiBay is there.

If everything looks fine, but it’s still not showing up, you may have a bum drive, or maybe an incompatible one. Then, contact the manufacturer of the drive, explain your issue, and proceed from there. You could directly contact MCE as the problem could be with your OptiBay, although if everything works as expected, then format the drive as Mac OS Journaled and continue to the next steps as instructed on the opened window.

Well, here’s the thing, you can simply boot from the external SSD without even opening the Mac. Though if you are not one who likes to carry around the extra things, then you can just head over to our tutorial, which will teach you about to replace the hard drive on your Macbook with an SSD. But if you are already done replacing the hard drive with an SSD, or either you are looking to upgrade your iMac or Mac mini, then we will guide you through the process of booting from external SSD & speed up your Mac.

Now to begin, you have to first download the OS X version you are using. To do that, you have to head to the App Store (command+ space and type “app store” to find the application). Head over to the product page of the for the OS version you are using (in our case, we are on OS X 10.10.2). Click on the download, and then you would have to continue to download the Installer. We recommend that you don’t turn off the computer after you have finished downloading the installer, as if you are not familiar with Mac’s OS, the installer will be cleared as soon as you turn off the computer.

Since the full installer is in gigabytes of size, you would have to wait for the next step to proceed (depends on your internet connection speed). It will have everything necessary to complete fresh installation of Mac OS. Even though, it would be a fresh installation, the Migration assistant on Mac allows you to transfer the applications, data, and all kinds of settings from your other Mac Hard Disk as well as from other Mac computer (which would be wirelessly). But that is for another tutorial.

You would have to open the Disk Utility (command + space and type the name of the application) to further proceed with installation of the file, which includes the setting up of SSD for new Mac OS. Click on your new SSD and choose the partition tab, from the drop-down list, choose partition 1. You can either make different number of partition or break down the SSD storage in different drives, or you could choose to use the whole storage space in one partition and use the Hard Disk for your other storage needs. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and Name the new partition whatever you’d like.

Click the Options button, which you’ll see under partition layout, and choose the GUID partition table as the partition scheme, and then click OK. Make sure to verify your choices final time, and click Apply on the disk utility window if you want to commit the changes to a new disk.

Now go ahead and start the OS X installation wizard, and continue through the first screens until you reach the disk selection step. There select show all disks, and choose the recently created SSD partition, finally select the “Install”, and confirming the administrative password to begin installation of OS X on your new drive.

If you are doing this process on an external hard disk, then you might want to restore the data via the Time Machine backup, for which you would have to shut down the Mac hold Command + R while booting it up again. You’ll see the recovery options window and from here you can select “Restore from a Time Machine Backup”, and follow the instructions to restore the files and preferences from the backup you to took earlier for your new install.

Though, if you’ve installed a new SSD replacing your optical drive on your Mac, then you wouldn’t need to go through the above procedure. You’ll just have to open the installer file and follow the simple wizard instructions, remember to select your new SSD as the installation drive. The computer will reboot and would have to go through the installation steps, including setting up the Wi-Fi, transferring the application preferences from your Mac HD to SSD. The migration assistant will help you out and allow you to transfer the data and settings from various options including, Time Machine, Other Mac PC or others.

After completing the installation process, you would like to choose the SSD drive as your default startup disk, which will allow computer to boot from the newly installed drive. To do that you have to go to, select Spotlight Search (Command + Space), their search for Startup Disk and open the application.

Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner, and select the “System Preferences”, and then “Startup Disk”. Now choose your external SSD drive in the list and mark as the target disk mode. It will ask to restart the computer in target disk mode, once you do that, your Startup Disk would be changed to the SSD on which you newly installed the OS X.

This means that if you store an important document on an external hard drive and then decide to delete the file, its contents will still be on the drive and may be recoverable. However, Apple does offer a few approaches for removing the residual data from a file that you are going to delete, or which has already been deleted.

Note: The following methods will PERMANENTLY delete the files in your trash and other files you have previously deleted. You will NOT be able to recover them afterwards.

If you have sensitive data on your machine and need to delete it securely, there are two methods to use:

Secure Empty Trash

If your file is still available, then the first option is to secure-delete it using the Secure Empty Trash option in the Finder. This will perform a multipass overwrite of the file’s contents with random data before the system finally removes the file. Keep in mind that this process will take far longer to do than a basic deletion, and its time frame will depend on the file size.

For instance, if you secure-delete a small text document, it will be done in split seconds, whereas, if you do so for a 2GB movie file, it will take number of seconds to completely erase the file.

1. Move the files into your trash (at the end of the Dock).
2. From the Finder menu, select Secure Empty Trash. This may take some time, depending on how large the files are.

Erase Free Space

The security empty trash option will only work if you have existing files, it you cannot be used on an already deleted file. However, Apple does have a service that can be used to ensure that deleted files are not recoverable, which is to secure erase the entire free space on a drive.

1. Launch the Disk Utility Application, from Applications/Utilities on your hard drive.
2. Select the name of your hard drive (e.g. Macintosh HD) in the left-hand pane of the Disk Utility window.
3. In the right-hand pane, choose Erase Free Space. You may choose from Zero out Deleted Files,3-Pass Erase, 7-Pass Erase or 35-Pass Erase of Deleted Files.

The Zero Out Data is the quickest free space erase option, which provides good security over the unused disk space (one pass), taking the least amount of time. Because the 3- Pass Erase or 7-Pass Erase writes data over the free disk space seven times, which ultimately provides a highly secure erasure of disk data. A 3-Pass Erase takes three times longer than a Zero Out Data erase, as 7-Pass Erase will be 7 times stronger. And if you want to secure your data and not want to take even a little bit risk, then you can go with 35-Pass Erase. Though, the US Department of Defense recommends that 7-Pass Erase would be enough, as 35-Pass Erase is an overkill.

The more erase pass you will choose, the more time it will take to secure the data and overwrite it. As even with a “Zero Out Data” option, we saw the initial remaining time of 30 minutes raises to more than 1 hour. While it also depends on the size hard drive as well as the number of files in it, but the point here is that you would have to be patience if you want to secure your files from never been able to retrieve by some stranger. So, it takes at least an hour for 1TB Hard Disk to secure data with Zero Out option, if you select 7 or 35 Pass Erase, it will take at least 7 & 35 times more for these options to secure your data. Now the choice is yours.

Note: With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase it difficult to recover data from an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.

This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they USB, Firewire, or Thunderbolt. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk:

1. First you need to connect the hard drive or USB key to the Mac.
2. Now launch the Disk Utility, which is located in Applications section, and then go to Utilities. 
3. You need to locate the drive name from the left-hand side of Disk Utility and click on it.
4. Click on the “Erase” tab across the top. 
5. Click the “Format” drop-down menu and select your preferred file system. Optionally, enter a name for the drive in the “Name” field.
6. Click “Erase” button, and a prompt will pop up, which will ask again to click or Erase button, if you are not sure, then go with the Cancel button.

That’s all there is to it, the drive will now format.

Note: After formatting, the existing data will be gone. Make sure to back up any important data before formatting the drive.

Smaller external hard drives, SSD’s, and USB flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. After completion the drive will be formatted to the Mac OS X compatible HFS+ file system

Well, the answer to this is very simple. Yes, you can get back the storage space on your computer, and that too for free of cost. If you have been using the Windows OS then you might have got a good habit of easily finding the files and deleting them but on the Mac OS, its a little complex but we will make it very easy for you to find the right solution. Let us dig further into the same.

Most mac users will click on the Apple Logo > About This Mac > Storage and find the instant report that gives you an overview. Just mouse over the sections and you find the exact space used by the type of media or files on your computer.

Next, you can click on the Manage option. This will take you to the Recommendations page that gives you a detailed report with suggestions that with one click you can start getting your space back. Though most of the options given here try to push you towards iCloud where you have to actually spend money and would be hard to manage those files.

Let’s look at the better options. The first step to take a look at the actual disk space on your Macbook or iMac would be by heading to the Disk Utility option that you can find directly from the Spotlight. This is where you can find the used and free space of your computer as shown below.

Do make a note that the Disk Utility is only for looking at the storage space and for the next step you will have to download an application from the internet, called Omni Disk Sweeper which is a very straightforward app that once you open would show you the list of different disks connected to your computer & the best part of the app is that you can make use of the same for even looking into the external hard disk drives or your pen drives and investigate into them.

Select the Drive & Click on the “Sweep Selected Drive” option following which it starts sizing or taking a deep look into your files & folders and this can take a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the size of your drive and the number of files you have in it.

If you notice in the following screenshot, when we dug deep into the drive, we realized that around 17.3 GB of storage was used by the Final Cut Pro projects that we were not using anymore but needed them as project files and could easily remove the Render Files from it as they were not needed anymore. Just select the folder or the file and click on Trash to directly select the specific file and reclaim the storage space easily.

The application might sound very limited but the point is that it does the job and you can easily find the storage used, remove the unwanted files and reclaim your space when you are running out of space. You do not need any paid applications because the job gets done for free and you can remove all the cache files, render files, downloaded apps, and programs that you might not need in the future in a very simple way.

We hope this article was helpful to you.

What is App Tracking Transparency?

Apple introduced the all-new App Tracking Transparency feature with the newly released iOS 14.5 update. It allows all the apps available on iOS to ask the permission of the user to track them across other apps and websites. However, this doesn’t affect the ads based on first-party data provided by the users. It ensure no app on your iPhone or iPad can track you without your consent.

Once a specific app is not allowed to track, it can no longer personalise ads based which other websites or apps you visit. For example, Facebook app can no longer show ads from a certain website which you visited on your iPhone’s browser. Since Facebook also owns Instagram, it can still use the data from Instagram to display personalised ads on Facebook.

With the app tracking disabled, all the tracked data by a particular app will have to stay only with it. No data brokers can collect your data from different apps to create a larger database of yours.

How to block iPhone apps from tracking?

The iOS 14.5 also allows the user to completely turn off the app tracking by default for all the apps. To do it, open settings on your iPhone and select Privacy > Tracking. You have to disable the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” on your iPhone to not even see the prompt for requesting to track. For some users, the option will be disabled by default so there’s nothing that needs to be done.

How to allow a previously rejected iPhone app to tracking you?

You might have rejected an app while using it previously. If you willingly want to allow a particular app on your iPhone to track you, go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking and enable the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” option. Once this is enabled, you can see the list of apps. You can manually enable the apps to track you across other websites and apps.

Once the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” is enabled the button turns green, every new app installed in the future will show a prompt for taking your consent to track you. Anytime you can go to the “Privacy” settings and revoke the consent for any particular app or for the whole app tracking feature.

How to check what data is being collected by an app?

As said earlier, the App Tracking Transparency can’t avoid the data being collected by the apps themselves. But what if you want to know which kinds of data are being collected on your iPhone? The Privacy Labels introduced with iOS 14 14 can help you know how the data is being collected. It not only has a Privacy Policy, but it’s also labeled with what kind of Data and Location are being used by the App to provide services for its users.

Which iPhones and iPads will support the App Tracking Transparency feature?

All the iPhones running on iOS 14.5 or later will include the App Tracking Transparency feature in device settings. Similarly, the iPads need to be running on iPadOS 14.5 or later. Below is the list of all the iPhones and iPads that are eligible to receive the iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 update.

• iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus
• iPhone SE (first generation)
• iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone X
• iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone SE (second generation)
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini
• iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPod Touch (7th generation)
• iPad Mini 4
• iPad Mini (2019)
• iPad (2017)
• iPad (2018)
• iPad (2019)
• iPad (2020)
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Air (2019)
• iPad Air 4
• iPad Pro 9.7 (2016)
• iPad Pro 10.5 (2017)
• iPad Pro 11 (2018)
• iPad Pro 11 (2020)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2015)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2017)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2018)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2020)
• iPad Pro (2021)

Meanwhile, if you find yourself facing some difficulties while trying to use Airdrop on your iPhone then don’t worry because we’ve got you covered! Find the fixes for the most common issues related to Airdrop on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Have any additional questions? Let us know in the comments section!

First of all, let’s understand How AirDrop works?

AirDrop is a service that works by using peer-to-peer Wi-Fi to exchange data between devices. The sender device needs only be in the proximity of the receiver’s AirDrop window and if they are both running iOS, macOS or watchOS then it will automatically function without any issue. But there are instances when you may face different issues.

Second, the AirDrop service only works with devices that have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled in them. If you want to share content using AirDrop from your iPhone or iPad, both these switches need to be ON whereas for Macs, it’s just a matter of checking if Bluetooth is turned on.

Thirdly, the distance also matters and your devices need to be close enough to be within the range of AirDrop. The maximum distance that an iPhone can send data is 30 ft and all other Apple devices have a similar function but with their own limitations.

Now let’s take a look at the common problems you might face using this service and the solutions for the same.

Problem #01: AirDrop fails on a Mac computer that has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned ON but doesn’t show any nearby devices when scanning for them.
Solution – It might be because of the Finder settings that need to be changed to fix this issue. Just open the Spotlight Search & search for AirDrop App. Once found, go to the Finder and click on Preferences. You might see an option that says “Do Not Show AirDrop in the Sidebar”. Change it to “Show AirDrop in the Sidebar” & then close out of Finder preferences. Now you’ll be able to find other nearby devices if they are within range for AirDrop usage!

Problem #02: When you try to connect to your Devices that are in the same network, the AirDrop is not showing.
Solution – To fix this problem you need to have your Device that you are trying to connect from, open the AirDrop app on both devices. Once done so then go back and try again on both devices. Make sure that you have enabled the option of “Share with Everyone” selected that will give the app access from all the other Apple devices. Following this, you need to select the file you wish to transfer and drop it on the destination device’s name that’s visible now on the AirDrop app.

Problem #03: When sending a file over using AirDrop it doesn’t show up in Messages or Mail App.
Solution – To fix this problem, you need to make sure that when transferring files through Airdrop, the Bluetooth needs to be turned ON for both Devices & also ensure that they’re within close proximity of one another during transfer. If those two conditions aren’t met then there’s no way for the other device will receive the transferred file!

Problem #04: I have tried all the basic troubleshooting and still unable to use the app’s functionality, I’m using Hotspot to connect to the internet, is that an issue?
Solution – To fix this, you will have to make sure that all your personal hotspots have been turned off, then restart the application again and try transferring files through Airdrop. This is because we do not want any interference with the connection between two devices.

Problem #05: My MacBook Air M1 does not allow me to transfer files to my iPhone running on iOS14. What could be the issue?
Solution – If you are using the latest MacBook Air powered with Apple’s own M1 chipset, you might face a few issues because of the latest hardware and compatibility issues. Though the general suggestion would be to make sure you have tried all the solutions mentioned above and if that does not work, you should be restarting your devices once and make sure are on the same WiFi network. Also, we would suggest you Update your iOS or macOS to the latest version to resolve any compatibility issues.

Frequently Asked Questions on AirDrop

• Which devices does AirDrop work on?
  AirDrop can be used on iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running iOS 12.x and later. You will need Mac OS Mojave build 18A366a (or newer) to use AirDrop wirelessly from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to a nearby MacBook Pro.
• Can you share photos & videos from AirDrop App?
  Yes, you can transfer photos and videos from AirDrop App on iPhone/iPad to your Mac or vice versa.
• Can we block AirDrop with Screen Time?
  You can use the Screen Time feature that is available for iOS 12.x and later to block AirDrop on your device. Head over to Settings > Screen Time > Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps, and then deselecting AirDrop

If you have any other issues concerning AirDrop in your Apple device, please feel free to contact us below! We will be happy to help with your problem any time of the day!

Hope this tutorial helps out everyone who’s having a difficult time using AirDrop on their iPhone or iPad!