AirDrop sharing strange problem

Software
#1

I am having a strange issue with AirDrop when transferring photos (and other items) to my wife’s iPhone.

When I go into the AirDrop share screen I appear twice under the people section and my iMac under the devices. The iMac is fine and works well.

One of the instances of ‘me’ is my iPad, the other, strangely is my wife’s phone - see screen shot below. I can’t explain why her phone always appears as me? Is anyone else having similar problems and how do I get it to show her or her device.

I have checked the obvious things like making sure she is logged into her iCloud account and all seems to be normal.

I am mystified as to why this is happening and how I can fix it. The photos do transfer OK but I have to continually guess which icon to press.

airdrop-problem
airdrop-problem1170×2532 127 KB

#2

Curious—how does her phone appear in Find My? Do they show up in a separate HerName’s Devices section below all of yours?

Do they have the same device names?

1 Like
#3

Thanks @cornchip. On her phone, in Find My, everything seems normal. Her phone, iPad and watch are all showing with correct names and location.

On my Find My, all my devices are showing OK and all as normal. We both have different names for our devices.

Would you expect me to see her devices in Find My? I can see her location under People but only my devices which i thought was normal.

#4

Ah, sorry. You’d only see those devices of hers in Find My if using iCloud Family Sharing, I believe. I’m not sure if there is an additional setting beyond that.

Sorry those didn’t help! Strange problem.

1 Like
#5

Is your wife’s iPhone logged into iCloud under her logon?

#6

Yes, @geoffaire , she is logged in under her own iCloud account and all her settings seem normal. Really struggling with this one to figure out what is happening! :grimacing:

#7

Was your wife’s phone ever yours and/or logged into your iCloud?

Might be worth checking your iCloud account for devices associated with it. Delete any devices you no longer own.

1 Like
#8

If your wife has AirDrop set to “Contacts Only” in the phone’s Settings, and her contact card for you has your image associated with it, then that might explain why you see the image for each of the two devices.

1 Like
#9

Thanks @geoffaire , had a look at this and all is clear. Her phone has never been logged into my iCloud account. Still searching for an answer!

#10

Thanks @anon41602260 , I had a look and her Airdrop was set to Contacts Only. I changed this to everyone and checked the contact card she had for me - photo was different to the one coming up on Airdrop so unfortunately no nearer a solution.

I am increasingly wondering if the problem is with my phone, not hers. We are going to try Airdropping between her phone and someone else in order to check this.

1 Like