If you are going to do a Network Tech Course (The Cisco CCNA for example) get yourself a head start by following this guide to get some practice in.

Before you can get started, you need to make sure you have the necessary tools, and decide whether you’re going to use Cat 5e or Cat 6 network cables (the ones with the spline to increase separation distance for performance reasons). Yes, even more recent versions are available, but as these are sufficiently different I’ll leave them out for now.

I hope the list below helps.

Legal Note: These links are provided for your benefit and are not necessarily recommendations by us of one brand over another. A helpful list is what we want to provide.
We might get a very small fee for referring you, provided your purchase qualifies, that won’t affect your price. It helps support this free website. We write in-depth and detailed articles not brief lip-service like the large websites that rank easily. Thank you for your support!

25ft CAT6 Patch Cable

You are going to make one of these, but you can start off with a long CAT6 cable and make several smaller ones for practice following the RJ-45 Pinout diagrams above. They will come in handy later too. I always carry a patch cable in my toolkit for obvious reasons, so it is a good idea to get a long one anyway.

The longer the better especially when trying to plug in to a wall port or switch that fortune has it way of in the distance. Or you can cut and practice more wiring and crimping.

If you want you can just get a cheap ‘Amazon Basics’ cable:

You can find their Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) patch cable here>.

PINK is the New Black! Er.. Blue?

Pink rj45 crossover cables are all the rage.

You might know you can get these crossover cables in different colors now.

You might love the 10 ft pink patch cable here!

Or you might like to find your own cable color for that matter. Maybe it’ll become the trademark of your installations!

Shout out to our women in tech!

Do NOT forget PURPLE! Follow the link and search for that if you like!

Okay, so those are some short cable options. Feel free to search around and find your own source. Moving on!

Buy Cable in Bulk = Cheap RJ45 Cable!

You might be ready to buy in bulk to save. To do this you want to look for pull cable like the following.

1,000 ft bulk Cat5e Ethernet Cable (Wire UTP with Pull Box Cat-5e-Style Grey Cable)

Cat5e Ethernet cable

This bulk cable of 1000 ft (308 meters) is by far the cheaper way to buy it. But it might just be too big and too much so I list it last. If you are just starting out I think you could get it as there will always be applications and it will go quicker than you think.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see there is the center hole in the wall of the box, so you can pull through as needed (great for long runs) with the clip to hold the end of the cable until next use.

Cat 5 RJ45 connectors

Get a big pack of Cat 5 connectors

RJ45 Connectors

Used with my TRENDnet Crimp Tool to make new cables or repair damaged ones. Buy a big pack! You will probably use many of these.

(These connectors are also called 8P8C plugs.)

RJ45 Female to Female Straight Coupler

I carry one of these around with me just in case I need to quickly make a longer cable. This one is optional for this exercise, but handy if you cut your long cable and then need to reconnect it!

These do not look the best in my opinion, so you might prefer couplers like these.
Depending on what you’re going to be doing, you might also consider to buy the following tool now, although it is optional for now (did I say it is optional?).

Fluke Network Pro3000 Toner and Probe Kit

I use the Pro3000 for toning and tracing out Ethernet wires. It’s especially handy when the cable installers don’t label any of the ports! If you are going to be installing cables – THEN LABEL THE PORTS please!

And you will probably want other cables in time.

Additional Cables you might consider while you are at it:

• SATA Cable

• • Firewire 800 to Firewire 800
  • Firewire 400 to Firewire 800
  • USB A to Type B
  • USB A to Mini B
  • and USB A to Micro B

Tools to Connect Your RJ45 Wiring

I mentioned above that there is another article with all the tools to help you make your RJ45 wiring, but I’ll put a few of the most relevant ones below too.

What you’ll need to use when following the above RJ45 pinout pics.

TRENDnet RJ11/RJ45 Crimp/Cut/Strip Tool

I use these for not only making new network cables but also replacing damaged RJ45 connectors on existing cables, using the RJ45 pinout poem shown above of course!

This is my preferred brand of Crimp and Strip tool. If you want you can search around on Amazon to find a brand to your liking (or price for that matter!).

Klein Tools Ratcheting Crimper

A more popular one among colleagues is the Klein Tools crimper.

Brilliant for cutting stripping and crimping.

Ratcheting action makes it easier. Versatile as it crimps 4, 6, and 8 position modular connectors (RJ22, RJ11/RJ12, and RJ45).

Network Cable Tester

This basic network cable tester is used to determine if your cable is good, bad, or wired incorrectly. You will always use this one or one like this.

Also for a bigger list, I have written an article that gives you all the consumables along with a list of tools you’ll need as a computer repair technician (don’t worry if you never want to become a computer repair tech, but this list is gold!).

It has pretty much all the consumables you will need as well as the tools I use and have found to be the best in my work.

If that’s not enough of an explanation of how to make your own Ethernet cable, here is a video!

Here’s simple video tutorial that takes less than 10 minutes that shows anyone can do it. Do check out my links just above to check pricing before you buy any tools!

Are you new to Making Cables and Installing Networks?

If you are looking for RJ45 Pinouts then likely so! You would be well advised to check out Mike Meyers book on the CompTIA network plus book below. We have mentioned Mike Meyers books before, but of course you could check out a few books and get a different CompTIA network plus book if you prefer.

It’s very handy and as typical the CompTIA study course covers a lot of the basic knowledge or foundational knowledge that you need.

I know you may not intend to do exams and become a certified computer network technician. However, this book does provide worthwhile knowledge before you start cutting and crimping to any large degree.

For beginners, it is a book covering the basics and really is an essential network technician’s tool regardless of whether or not you intend to actually sit the CompTIA test.

Mike Meyers’ CompTIA Network+ book is a great way to leapfrog your computer networking knowledge. Click any of the links above, and to check it out on Amazon search for CompTIA or Mike Meyers. Yes these are affiliate links which mean if you click and buy AND if it qualifies, we get a commission that goes towards running this FREE website. Thank you for your support!

The post Network Cable tools, tips and links appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

Introduction

Most printers come with the ability to communicate with an iPhone via Wi-Fi. It’s built in, and printer manufacturers have been including the ability for several years.

First check your printer can use AirPrint using my list below. Optional really, because you can just try it to see if it works because it is pretty quick!

If it can’t then you can still print directly from your iPhone to a Printer if you connect them via a lightning-USB cable.

Can you print to your printer?

Probably. The table below shows a simple list of 50 makers of printers that can use AirPrint. Most of these printers seem to have very many different models that can use air print.

For example:

• Canon have more than 1800 printer models that can use AirPrint. In fact 1865 Canon printer models at the time of writing can print using AirPrint, so it’s likely you do not even need an app!
• HP have around 1500 printer models that can use AirPrint.
• Seven hundred to nearly 1000 models each for Pantum, Epson and Brother printers can print using AirPrint.
  
• Over 300 models for Ricoh, Lexmark and Sharp can use AirPrint.

Jump directly to the method rather than scroll down the list if you want, as it is quite long.

As you can see, there are quite a lot and looks like all the popular printers on this list. It certainly contains all the big brand names.

So, next time you receive something in a message that you want to print, you should try to print it directly from your phone. You will quickly find whether it works or not for you.

Note: You can find a full list of all the printers and the specific models that can work with AirPrint at Apple. But be warned, it is a very very long list in which to search and find your printer!

It’s much easier just to try it, and see if your printer appears. So read on!

How to print a PDF from your iPhone directly to your printer

As I wrote above, first thing is to Check if your Printer can use AirPrint. Or just do the following!

Make sure your Wi-Fi is on, on your iPhone.

Make sure your printer is on.

1. Tap the message (in WhatsApp in my case) on the PDF to open it.
2. Tap Send (the box with the arrow).
   Yes, it’s a little strange but you will see there are many things you can do from this menu!
3. Down the screen after people or groups, AirDrop Mail etc., and Copy is Print.
4. Tap Print.
5. I found my Printer on the very first line under Options.
6. Select number of Copies you want, using the plus or minus signs (of leave as the default 1)
7. I chose to turn off double-sided as I needed them that way. I like that double sided was the default to minimize paper usage by default.
8. Check other options if you want.
9. Tap Print at the top right.

Printing from my iPhone 14 directly to my Epson WF-2750 printer, using iOS 17.

There! Your printer should start.

Also Useful, Read these:

• Since you might be working with PDFs, you might like to know how to copy a list of PDFs to Excel and just get only the file names.
• As you have an iPhone, you will love to know how to find your most recently added contacts (as you can’t find them via the contacts menu).

Background

Do you have to send a pdf to your desktop computer to print from your iPhone? No!

I learned today that I could print directly to my printer at home from my iPhone! How cool!

In the past, I will do something as silly as the following:

1. Open the PDF someone had sent me by text message.
2. Copy the PDF.
3. Open my email app.
4. Paste the PDF into the email.
5. Send the email to myself. 
6. Go to my computer at my desk.
7. Open the email in my email app.
8. Download or open the PDF in the browser.
9. Select to print the PDF from the menu.
10. Modify any options.
11. Click print!

This is a bit of a hassle and when I had the need today I found that you can print directly from your iPhone.

It seems there is this thing called air print, which allows your iPhone to print directly to the printer that has Air print capability.

When I first read that such a thing exists, I thought “Oh, great, this would be good if I had a modern printer”!

This is probably some new thing that only works with modern printers. My printer is quite old, so I thought it probably wouldn’t have this capability. But I was wrong!

I found I can print directly from my iPhone to my Epson WP-2750 printer!

I found that there are many printers, even some quite old that can use this a printer system

So, I think that you can probably print to your printer, from your iPhone even if it’s quite old. It seems that this is not new.  

Some frequently asked questions follow.

The post I found how to print a PDF from my iPhone directly to my printer appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

What is a Siri Shortcut?

A Siri shortcut is an iPhone action or shortcut you trigger with a Siri voice command.

A Shortcut contains a few steps to be performed within or between your iPhone’s other apps. Siri acts as an assistant, or like a mini program to “do stuff for you”!

The built-in Shortcuts app is where you manage iOS Shortcuts you or other people write. More on that further below.

1 A Silent Siri Shortcut

You might not want other office workers to know you are commanding Siri. Open office space being so common these days.

You can call Siri into action silently.

Hold down the single button on the side of your iPhone while you ask a question or command an action. If your phone is in your hand, it will be discrete and quicker than calling out “Hey Siri” before you start.

NOTE: If you have an older iPhone with the Home button, touch and hold that instead of the side button. Be Careful: you might turn your phone off if you slide to do so without reading and think you are just sliding to unlock!

Therefore, the first time you try this, pay attention to your iPhone type and read the screen.

Occasionally I get teased for setting a timer or asking something starting with “Hey Siri”, so I use this one every so often to be discrete.

I know what you are thinking. “This is not really a shortcut.”

Yes, that is true, yet it is a quick way to use Siri, and the bonus is that it is discrete. You might use it to kick off your other shortcuts.

I’ll include an extra bonus shortcut further below to make up for this one not strictly being a shortcut.

Perhaps it is more of a useful tip for Siri than actually being a shortcut, but I wanted to include this one first because it is handy for all Siri shortcuts and it leads into the next shortcut.

2 Be Silent Quickly

Many people like to play music while they work. However, there are times when this might be inappropriate or inconvenient. For example, if a client calls your office landline you might not want music playing in the background when you answer.

If you are just playing music on your iPhone, but then need to turn it off quickly, you might stumble to find your iPhone and select the correct options or menu selections to turn it off or pause the song.

Instead, command “hey Siri, stop music“.

The song will be paused at that moment.

After your call or whenever you are ready, you can find your iPhone and tap the Paused Button to restart where you left off.

If you are playing music to office speakers while you work, but then need to turn it off quickly, you might stumble to find your iPhone and select the correct options or menu selections to turn off AirPlay quickly.

A quick and easy shortcut is to command Siri to “Turn off AirPlay”. This will work for those with AirPlay 2-enabled speakers. Probably the best shortcut for iOS16! Those with a new iPhone 14 will love it.

Having mentioned that, it is important to explain that all iPhones with iOS 16 can run shortcuts.

Wow! Did you know Siri could do that?

3 Be Alarmed! – Set Alarms Quickly

I usually have my standard weekday morning alarm, with the days selected for which I need it.

Occasionally I set a one-off alarm I use for earlier for things like early morning flights, or special one-off occasions.

These one-off alarms are neat because they do not repeat like an everyday alarm.

So it’s very much set and forget. You won’t have to stop it repeating or change it later.

“Hey Siri, open alarm clock” will have your iPhone open the Alarm in the Clock app.

Nice, but you may already know Siri can open apps. You can ask Siri to do more than that.

Rather than just use Siri to open the clock app, a Siri shortcut would be to command to set a one-off alarm. Hold the side button and say, “Set a one-off alarm”.

If you do not specify more with your first statement (although you can), Siri will ask for when and you can reply with what you need.

So you could say, “hey Siri, set an alarm for tomorrow morning at 6 30.” All in one go.

Siri creates a new one-off alarm set for when you need and clarifies the time at which Siri set it.

4 Scan and Quickly Find Documents

Don’t want to walk to your office scanner?

Is your office scanner a pain and slow (or painfully slow)?

Scan with Siri’s help direct into your iPhone.

Step 1: Call out “Hey Siri” (or press the side button) “open a new note” ready for scanning.

Step 2: Tap the icon of a camera bottom of the Notes app, and then choose Scan Documents in the popup menu.

You might know this one already, so let’s take this further.

I have many different notes and several notes with scanned documents. Sometimes it seems too many when I am trying to find a specific thing.

Do you know you can ask Siri to help you further with notes?

Siri can help you quickly find one of your last scanned documents.

Say “Hey Siri, find notes with scanned documents”. A list of your last notes that contain a scanned document will appear. The most recent is at the top.

NOTE: sometimes the structure of your wording is important. Siri needs to recognise a specific command, or it will just do an online search. For example, if you just ask Siri to “find scanned documents”, the result will be a list of online search results related to scans and how to find them on various devices.

Siri can follow on and start reading the selected notes. This can help you if you are not looking at your phone.

Speaking is faster than typing. Especially on an iPhone keyboard. Even more so if you need to work through a complicated menu system (even if you remember where that particular setting is!). Siri reading items back to you also helps these shortcuts be more practical.

If you work with your hands or can’t look at your phone, such as driving for a living, then they make even more sense to include some in your workday!

The above examples are just scratching the surface. They should all function without any setup.

5 Book meetings or appointments without typing

Hold the side button (or say “hey Siri”) and say “book a meeting Wednesday at 8 pm, take the bin out” (insert your classic business needs-based meeting description here!).

If you have your iPhone on silent, a popup will display the meeting with time and the description you said.

NOTE: You might want to set the alert either before or at the time of the event within the meeting settings. This way it can give you an audible alert.

Here is a screen copy of the meeting I made just for fun to show the popup that will appear after you ask Siri to make a meeting or calendar entry.

This is a work calendar meeting I asked Siri to create to show the popup of a result after asking for a meeting to be created. Siri reads the event back to you when made. No typing and potentially no reading required!

Ask Siri what meetings you have

This is another useful tip rather than really being a shortcut, so I have not counted it as a separate item.

Want to know whats on today, or tomorrow, or on a particular day? Just ask Siri.

Say something like “hey Siri, what meetings do I have Wednesday?”

If your sound is on, then Siri will read out your meeting (or tell you how many events) and show you a popup view of your calendar for that period (note you can deine part of a day instead, like “Friday Afternoon”).

If you still need to be hands-free and eyes on the road, then you can ask Siri to read these events.

So you rushed to get in your car/bus/train to work and now have a moment to think ahead and prepare? Ask Siri to help you visualize your day!

Introduction to Siri Shortcuts that require Set up.

These allow you to make some logic-based, programmed shortcuts.

TIP: You can edit or create your own more complicated Siri Shortcuts using the in-built Shortcuts app.

Each shortcut is built up of steps that Apple calls “Actions”.

The first action might be in one app, the next in another different app.

For an example of when you might want this, you can only find your last added entries into your contacts using either a shortcut or an app. If you don’t want to add a third-party app to your phone, you can do it all within your own phone with a shortcut. To use a shortcut within your own iPhone, see this article: How to Find Recently Added Contacts on iPhone.

For another example, a more sophisticated shortcut than to open a new note, could be to interact with two existing apps, like Photos and Messages. Like the next Siri shortcut!

6 Take a photo and send it with Siri

You can ask Siri to “text last image”. This command to Siri will trigger a true shortcut easily visible in the Shortcuts app.

You will possibly need to change the shortcut’s privacy settings, so additional setup could be required for shortcuts like these. Otherwise it might not work or some options will appear due to the automatic Privacy settings. Here’s how:

Step 1: Go to the Shortcuts App.

Find and tap your iPhone Shortcuts icon. It’s typically on the second screen of shortcuts (but that depends on a lot of things).

Find Apple’s Shortcuts app icon on your iPhone. (Hint: it wont be this big!)

Step 2: Find the example shortcut to text last image.

If this is your first shortcut, you will see a folder called Starter Shortcuts.

Look for a green block with the writing “Text Last Image 2 Actions”.

Tap it and it will already try to send the last image.

TIP: Probably best not to test it until you are sure what that last image was!

Try it and your iPhone will bring up a Privacy menu. It will actually show you the last image (so you don’t really have to remember!) and offer you three options:

• Allow Once.
• Always Allow (recommended if you don’t want to set this Siri Shortcut up separately under Privacy Settings).
• Don’t Allow. This is like ‘Cancel’ and you can simply tap that for now if you are just trying it out for the first time.

Step 3: Tap one of the above to make your selection.

That will become the default selection from now on.

NOTE: It also shows how you command Siri to perform this shortcut.

Under the title ‘Text Last Image’, you can see “Hey Siri, Text Last Image”.

How to set privacy options for a shortcut.

When viewing the starter shortcut in the Shortcuts app, tap you the circle with the three dots to view the details.

Tap the icon with dots in lines (see image below).

Tap to select the Privacy tab near the top.

How to set the privacy setting for a shortcut.

Look in the Shortcuts app for the Gallery icon (bottom right of the main Shortcuts screen) for many more examples of shortcuts you can command with Siri.

7 Send Last Scanned Document

This is an extra added bonus. Because it could be a useful Siri shortcut for work.

You would think you might need to program it with a detailed iOS Shortcut, but I found Siri is at least partially capable of it without actually creating a specific shortcut.

I am very often scanning documents for others with my iPhone; I am not the only one who finds it faster than mucking about with the office scanner!

Therefore, very often the next step is to send it to the person who asked for it.

Step 1 Say “Hey Siri open notes with scanned documents”.

Siri will yell you how many notes with scanned documents were found.

The most recent scanned document will be at the top. Tap it to open it. (Feel free to play around with Siri to see if you can find a command to open the note for you.)

Now if you ask, Siri can send a screen-copy, via text.

Here’s the rub. While testing this one again recently I found you do have to tap to send rather than ask Siri if you want to email the scan rather than send a text with a screen copy of the note showing the scan.

Summary

We’ve shown 6 iOS 16 shortcuts examples to use one way or another with Siri. Play around with these Siri shortcuts, and try your own variations which suit you at work. One idea is see how far asking Siri to set a timer or a new meeting can go. You might adopt them into the useful shortcuts you often use in your daily routine.

A few FAQs we have covered:

The post 6 Useful Siri Shortcuts for Work (and life) appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

Here’s the Fast Fix:

On both iPhones:

1. Swipe down from top right (for iPhones with FaceID).
2. Find the control that includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
3. Press and hold in the middle of the 4 icons (not on any of the the icons).
4. Select ‘Everyone for 10 minutes’ and it should work both ways.

If this is too brief, or you have an iPhone (or iPhone SE) without FaceID, or you want to see it step by step in more detail, read on or click a heading from the Contents below.

Contents

Introduction

Some Problems

AirDrop Only Working One Way

Contacts

“Everyone’ Versus Contacts

Version of iOS

Introduction

AirDrop is a handy way to transfer quite large files like photos or notes locally or person-to-person.

It uses both W-Fi and Bluetooth.

For most people it either works or it doesn’t. But sometimes you can get the curious problem of only working in one direction!

Some Problems

As indicated above, you both must have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on so you can AriDrop.

Firstly, the person sending must have them both on.

The other person must have them both on to receive.

So how can it be that in some situations AirDrop only works one way?!

I mean, by definition it must all be set up right to transfer data one way, so how come AirDrop doesn’t work in the other direction?!

Well, the answer is that the two iPhones in question are not entirely set up the same. Read on to see why, and then fix it.

NOTE: If airdrop is not finding anyone at all, make sure you read the related article: AirDrop not finding anyone.

Airdrop Only Working One Way

Curious problems may occur with AirDrop, like AirDrop only working one way.

The ‘Contacts’ selection can cause this.

But first, lets show how to find the settings where you need to select your options.

As indicated above in the fast fix, you can use a shortcut method to get to AirDrop settings via the Control Center.

In addition you can find what you need to adjust in Settings.

Go to your iPhone’s Settings.

Then tap General.

Finally select to go into AirDrop.

This is where you can see and select you AirDrop options.

Contacts

The three AirDrop options you can select in iOS 16.4 and later are:

• Receiving Off
• Contacts Only
• Everyone for 10 Minutes.

As shown below.

You must have something other than Receiving Off (the first Setting option for AirDrop) for a transfer to work one way, but why wouldn’t it work both ways in some cases?!

Let’s say you both have selected ‘Contacts Only’.

A potential cause is only one of you is in the contacts of the other.

If you both have ‘Contacts Only’ selected, AirDrop will work only from the iPhone with the contact details of the other person.

TIP: You are sure you have the other person in your Contacts, right? Well are you sure they are using their phone?! Maybe they have their partner’s phone (do you have their partner in your contacts?). Or maybe they changed their phone or Apple ID!

There are a few other permutations with your settings and contacts that can cause Airdrop to only work one way.

‘Everyone’ versus Contacts

Another combination is that only one of you have ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ and the other has Contacts Only set.

So both of you are set to receive an AirDrop.

But, if for example, neither of you are in the contacts of the other, then AirDrop will only work for the one with ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ selected.

Version of iOS

Another reason why you may find AirDrop only working one way, is that one of you has an older version of iOS. This way it is possible one of you has selected ‘Everyone’ (which does not time out). The other may have had ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ selected.

Suppose one of you waited a moment before you started to make one of the transfers, or it took a long time. Or you want to make another transfer much later in time.

Then AirDrop to Everyone (for 10 Minutes) will time out for only one of you. Then AirDrop will only work one way.

I suppose it is also possible that it times out for one person but not the other. I guess you will try it again and find that it would cease to work both ways eventually.

The fix that should work for all these scenarios is to select AirDrop to ‘Everyone’ or ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ and make the transfers within the next 10 minutes!

The post Fix Airdrop Only Working One Way appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

Contents

In Brief Fix

Background

Fix Airdrop Not Finding Anyone – Method 1 From Wherever

Fix Airdrop not finding iPhone – Method 2 From Within Settings

In Brief Fix

This fix uses a kind of shortcut to access the AirDrop settings.

• Show the Control Center (swipe down top right on an iPhone with Face ID).
• Hold in center of the control that includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
• Tap AirDrop and select Everyone for 10 Minutes.

If this was too brief to understand, it didn’t work for you, or you have an iPhone model without FaceID, please read on to find more details about the steps and some extra checks to do.

Background

AirDrop uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You need to have them both on for it to work.

Let’s say you have already turned these on, or made sure they are on.

NOTE: Another thing to be aware of is that using your iPhone as a local hotspot prevents AirDrop from working. If you are using it, you will have to turn it off to use AirDrop.

AirDrop Problem

Having checked or fixed these settings, you go back to photos and tap a photo to send. Select AirDrop and … nothing.

If you are like me, you ask, “Why can’t AirDrop find anyone?”

There could be reasons other than explained above. The one we focus on in this article is: AirDrop not finding anyone due to the wrong AirDrop settings.

So as written above, you tapped AirDrop to send a photo and now it says you cannot find anyone when you go to AirDrop. You will see something like in the screen copies below.

From photos you tap share, then tap the AirDrop icon, and then you would normally select the person identified under ‘AirDrop a Copy’. In the above image you can see AirDrop not showing anyone. So even when there is someone right there near you, you see that AirDrop can’t find anyone.

If you have used it before and it ‘just worked‘, then perhaps you’ve updated your iOS to a more recent version since then.

Even if AirDrop worked for you in the past, there has been a change in recent versions of iOS. This means you may need to do something you didn’t need to do in the past.  

That’s okay. When AirDrop won’t find anyone even if they are nearby it means that there are some setup changes you need to make. Let’s get on with it.

Fix AirDrop not Finding Anyone – Method 1: From Wherever

How to fix it when AirDrop can’t find anyone on your iPhone using the Control Center.

I prefer this method because you do not have to leave what you are doing and go to Settings, then find the right place, and make changes in there.

It seems quicker and easier to use Control Center.

Step 1 – From wherever you are, show the Control Center.

I love this method because you can start it from (almost) anywhere. Even if you are looking at the screen showing AirDrtop shows no-one, or if looking at this article in Safari.

It uses a neat trick to get quickly to AirDrop settings.

Swipe down from the top right corner on your iPhone (for iPhones that have FaceID).

NOTE 1: Phones that have FaceID include newer iPhones from iPhone X. That is, like iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 (including the pro/Max versions).

NOTE 2: If you have an iPhone with a Home Button then swipe up from the bottom of the screen. These phones include the older models like iPhone 6, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. It also includes the newer iPhone SE.

This action will show the common Airplane Mode, Mobile Data, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons (or controls) and other icons in what’s known as the Control Center.

Don’t tap on the Bluetooth icon to go into Bluetooth.

Well, I mean that is if Bluetooth is already on. So do check that it’s turned on (blue icon). If it’s not turned on, do turn it on now. See the image below for clarity.

Same for Wi-Fi icon, you can make sure it is blue to indicate it is on.

NOTE: If you have changed from the default Control Center Setting for ‘Access Within Apps’, you can only access it from the Home Screen, rather than in the Photos app.

Swipe down to show the Control Center. Note the communications control with Wi-Fi etc.

Step 2 – Bring up a new Control menu of options for AirDrop.

Tap and hold in the middle of the four buttons for Aeroplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile data. The location to hold is shown in the above image.

A new larger menu of buttons (called a control) will display.

This control has 6 buttons instead of 4.

TIP: press and hold and try not to swipe or the control with 6 buttons might not show.

This control is relatively new and is visible in iOS 16.4.

You can now see the expanded communications control within Control Center. 6 icons are better than 4, right?! It’s a fast way to access your AirDrop settings from wherever you are on your iPhone.

Can you see six buttons now?

Notice that we didn’t need to go into AirDrop from your photos then search for options. In fact you can’t change AirDrop settings at that location.

Neither did we go to your iPhone’s Settings to do this. You could do that. We show you using this in Method 2.

Now you should see those two additional buttons.

The first extra icon on the left is a control for AirDrop.

The other icon is Personal Hotspot.

NOTE: As stated above, make sure Personal Hotspot is off.

This AirDrop control location is where we are going to fix the problem of AirDrop not finding anyone.

Step 3 – Change the AirDrop Settings From the Default Value.

Tap on the AirDrop icon.

Now you will see three options for AirDrop as text. You can only select one of them at a time.

• Receiving off.
• Contacts only.
• Everyone for 10 minutes.

This view shows the AirDrop settings accessible from Control Center. Shown set to AirDrop not receiving anything.

NOTE: one of these rows of text will have a tick or check-mark to the right to indicate it is selected.

How to set AirDrop to Everyone

Tap the third row at the above screen to select that option for AirDrop. This is the option for AirDrop that helps you find anyone.

Now, as you might expect the option to select ‘Contacts Only’ allows you to only find anyone nearby who is also in your contacts.

If your iPhone won’t find anyone, and someone you know who in your contacts is standing right there, this is a second option you can select to fix it.

It also will make your iPhone discoverable by others.

Here is the Change:

The third option has changed from in the past.

In the past, the third option was ‘Everyone’.

AirDrop for Everyone is now slightly but significantly changed.

It appears this change is either an additional security measure, so that you can’t send sensitive information or photos without choosing to do so for only a short time, or to reduce your iPhone searching for other phones around you all the time.

Whatever the reason, it means your iPhone’s AirDrop can’t find anyone anymore, even if it could in the past.

At the time I saw this, I thought, “now I see why I can’t AirDrop!”

For now, let’s say the person you want to send photos to is not in your contacts.

Tap ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ to select it.

Here you see Everyone for 10 Minutes is now selected, so you should expect AirDrop to find everyone. But wait, there’s more… AirDrop might still not find anyone!

NOTE: When you tap your selection, the screen will jump back to the previous one you saw.

I’m not sure why it doesn’t remain to allow you to change your selection again. I suppose if it did, then you’d have to have an extra button to go back or say you’ve finished your selection. It takes out one step, so I suppose it is a good thing.

Then again, tapping outside the working area of a control is a common way to do it without a button in iOS.

If you want to read a brief explanation about these options, you would need to view them in the iPhone Settings, which we show in Method 2.

Now you will notice that under the AirDrop heading will be a description of your selection. For example, if you tapped on ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’, there will be the word ‘Everyone’ written under AirDrop.

Here the AirDrop control shows Everyone selected. This six-icon view is found from the Control Center.

Step 4 – Go back and Use AirDrop

Tap your screen outside the boundary of the control with the 6 icons and you return to the normal view of the Control Center.

Tap outside any icons on the Control Center (or swipe up) to return to where you were. As stated near the start of this method this could be the photos app (or even at a blank AirDrop selection screen).

Let’s say you are back in the photos app.

So now when you tap AirDrop, you will see it can find anyone near you with the ability to receive AirDrop communications.

If it seems that AirDrop won’t find anyone still, the problem is with the other user! They will need to check they have switched on both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for example.

In addition, they may need to change the ‘Receiving off’ default selection in the same way you changed it above.

These last lines give a clue to what might go wrong if AirDrop only works one way (click the link to see an article that shows how to fix that).

Fix AirDrop Not Finding iPhone – Method 2: From Within Settings

To use this method, you must leave whatever app you had been using when you found that Airdrop doesn’t find anyone. To me, that is a disadvantage.

This method is fine and quite quick to use when you are not in the middle of trying to send photos, notes, or documents.

There is also one small advantage I’ll highlight below.

Step 1 – Go to Settings

Go to the home screen if not already there.

Tap the Settings icon (looks like a gear).

Step 2 – Go to General

Slide down the screen if necessary and tap General.

Step 3 – Go into AirDrop settings

Tap AirDrop, which is quite close to the top of the General Settings options.

Now you see three options

• Receiving Off
• Contacts Only
• Everyone for 10 Minutes.

Compare what you see versus the screenshot below.

If your AirDrop is not finding anyone with an iPhone nearby, It probably is set to ‘Receiving Off’. You can select Contacts Only or Everyone for 10 Minutes.

In addition, you can also see a description of settings below the third option.

This description explains a little more about your choices.

The explanation shown in this view is one (small) advantage of Method 2 over Method 1.

(Yes, for some reason, the almost equivalent view accessed from the Control Center has no explanation.)

Step 4 – Select Option Other than Receiving Off

If your iPhone won’t find anyone, and someone who is in your contacts is standing right there, you could choose the second option you can tap to select it.

It also will make your iPhone discoverable by others.

If you are not sure the person nearby is in your contacts, or you know they are not; you will need to select the third option.

NOTE: The third option has changed from in the past. In older versions of iOS, the third option was ‘Everyone’.

Thus AirDrop for Everyone is now slightly but significantly changed.

It seems this change is could be an additional security measure, so that you can’t send sensitive information or photos without choosing to do so for only a short time. Alternatively it could help to stop your iPhone searching for other phones around you continually.

For now, let’s say the person you want to send photos to is not in your contacts.

Tap ‘Everyone for 10 Minutes’ to select it.

You then go back by tapping at the top left of screen <General and <Settings.

The next time you go to share a photo or Note via AirDrop, your iPhone will find anyoneone who’s iPhone is not set to ‘Receiving Off’.

If you do try at some time in the future, and find that AirDrop can’t find anyone, you know it will be the other person’s iPhone that needs the Settings changed. Even better, you now know two ways to show them how to do it! If this article helped you it could help your friends. Share it with them – as they say, sharing is caring!

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