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a7forttoday at 12:21 PM3 repliesview on HN

Recently started using it, it works really well and it's much more reliable than AirDrop. But the UX could be improved.

But I just wish Apple fixed AirDrop, every time I go to use I have so little confidence in it, it often doesn't see devices or if you have multiple Mac users it will confuse them, showing you the same Mac device twice without telling you which user it is


Replies

d3Xt3rtoday at 12:55 PM

I'm curious, what do you people use this for? What are all these (presumably large) files that you guys are generating and transferring, that requires the use of apps like these?

Like in my case, the only files I generate on my phone are photos and videos, and these get backed up by Immich, which I can then share with someone by sending them a link to the files/album in question. I imagine normal folks would use iCloud or Google Photos for the same task.

For syncing other files like documents and such, I use ownCloud OCIS, and I'd imagine most other folks would use something like DropBox or iCloud, or even just email or WhatsApp the files.

For local network transfers of say ISOs or something, I'd just copy them over SMB, which is pretty much universal and doesn't need any special app. Or even just plug in a hard drive, if I'm doing backups.

So I don't understand why I should be using this.

show 1 reply
dmaktoday at 12:25 PM

Have you tried troubleshooting those issues already? I had similar visibility issues in the past, but seems to always work now for me.

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OGWhalestoday at 12:37 PM

Yup, for me I can see the device but when I try to initiate a send it just doesn't show up on the other device about half the time. I've not found a reliable way to fix it either, toggling AirDrop on and off on both devices seems the best way to fix it but only works like 70% of the time.