Monday, October 17, 2016

AirDrop Can't Discover On Mac Server

AirDrop the debatably easy to use wireless file transfer support system from Apple to share files between iOS and macOS devices.
AirDrop works very well, until it doesn't.
Each year since AirDrop was made available on the OSX it had worked very well for a few weeks, then stopped working between the Mac and iPhones.
Once a new OSX update went out, AirDrop would work again and I chalked it up to a bug fix, until a few more weeks it stopped working again.
Sierra is released, AirDrop works better than ever and I and transferring photos from my iPhone to a MacBook with ease, until just last week.
This update I was able to track the moment AirDrop stopped working for me, the only system change I made, was updating the Mac Server install. It finally dawned on me. Mac Server installed on the MacBook was breaking AirDrop.

If your AirDrop has stopped working on your Mac, and you know you've installed the Mac Server. The rest of the internet is resolved to turning off/on the bluetooth to wake up AirDrop discovery. And not the solve. You will have to choose between Server or AirDrop transfer until there's a fix. (I've file a Radar, update below)

If you have Mac Server already installed on the workstation MacBook and you would rather get AirDrop back at the sacrifice of Mac Server features, here is how you can remove Server and restore AirDrop.
  • Launch Server.app
  • Destroy the Open Directory, then disable the component
  • Turn off all Server.app services (Web, DNS, all..)
  • Close Server.app and run command below in terminal:
$ /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/share/devicemgr/backend/wipeDB.sh
  • Delete Server.app (Drop to Trash), wait about 5 seconds for the services to notice app deletion.
  • Delete the folder /Library/Server
  • Delete any certificates relating to the server in Keychain Access
  • Restart, and try to AirDrop


Radar update: 
Though there was an issue AirDropping from a 2013 MacBook to iOS device resolved by the above steps. It did not duplicate after trying a second install of Server. This makes me think a portion of older Server's files or settings was not completely overwritten when I upgraded to Sierra Server. So much like turning it off and on again, do try to completely uninstall and reinstall.

Additionally Apple replied about a different MacBook 2011 I included in the issue:
"AirDrop between Mac computers and iOS devices is supported by the following Mac models:
MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
MacBook Pro (2012 or newer)
MacBook Air (2012 or newer)
Mac mini (2012 or newer)
iMac (2012 or newer)
Mac Pro (Late 2013)"

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