Access AirDrop Settings through the Control Center

In this video, I’m going to show you how you can easily change your AirDrop settings in the Control Center on the iPhone. Let’s go into my iPhone.

Now let’s first discuss what airdrop is. AirDrop allows you to share your files, your photos, your links with other Apple device users. On the flip side, other users can share their files, their links, their photos with you. This is all done through AirDrop. As an example, let’s say I wanted to share a link here. I’m going to open up Safari. I’m at my webpage. I want to share this with someone. The way that I can do that is through AirDrop. Now they do need to be nearby and they also do need to be on an apple device. I tap on sharing. I click on AirDrop. And then any of the other devices that are set up for AirDrop are going to show here. I just tap on that other device, who I want to share it with. They accept it. They do have to accept it’s being shared with them, and then it will be downloaded to their device. So that’s the basics of how AirDrop works if you want to share a file, or if someone wants to share a file with you.

Now we do have a few settings for this, mainly do we want to use AirDrop? Is our iPhone discoverable by other people that want to share a file with us? We have three settings. We can basically turn it off, so it’s not discoverable. We can have it be only discoverable to people in our contacts, and then we can have it be discoverable to everyone.

The way that we set this up is by going to our Settings app. So let’s go ahead and go to my Settings app. So I’m going to tap on done here and now I’m going to go to my Settings app. I swipe up, let’s go over to the left and we have my Settings here. From here I go over to General, and then you’re going to see AirDrop.

Under AirDrop, we have our three settings. Receiving off will basically turned discoverability off. If someone wants to share a file with you via airdrop, they will not find your iPhone. Contacts only. This is what I recommend. Your iPhone will only be discoverable to anyone that wants to share a file with you. It will only be discoverable if they are in your contacts. And then we have everyone. If you turn everyone on, anyone that is around is going to be able to share a file with you.

Now, when I say share a file, you still do have to accept that link. So even if you put it on Everyone, if someone wants to share a link with you, you have to accept it. So they’re not going to be able to put anything on your iPhone without you knowing it. But again, I recommend using contacts only. And then if someone wants to share a file with you, that is not in your contacts, you can easily switch it to Everyone. So that’s where we find these settings.

Now I mentioned we can easily switch this to everyone or contacts only, or even turn it off. It doesn’t look that easy. We got to go into our Settings, we got to go into General, and then we have to go into AirDrop. Well we can access these three settings here, Receiving Off, Contacts Only, and Everyone, through our Control Center. We do not have to go through the Settings app to access these controls. Let’s see how we do that. So I’m going to swipe up here.

Let’s say I was in my Notes app. Someone nearby wants to share something with me. They’re not in my contacts. So now what I need to do is I need to set AirDrop to Everyone. Well, instead of going to the Settings app and going to General, and then setting up AirDrop, all we need to do is go to our Control Center. I go up to the top right corner. I swipe down. I have an iPhone 10 here, and then I long press on my network controls. I tap and hold on this area here. When I long press on it or tap and hold, you’re going to see AirDrop. Right now to set to Contacts Only. Remember this person is not in my contacts, they want to share a file with me. So what I need to do is I need to change this to Everyone. Well, if I long press on this, what I’m able to do is set it to Everyone. Tap on it. Now that person can send me that file. I accept the file. I do have to accept the file. Once I’ve accepted the file and I’ve received the file. I go back to my Control Center. I long press on my controls. I go over to AirDrop here, long press on it and set it back to Contacts. Only. Tap to get outside, and now I’m back in my Notes app.

So that’s how we can easily change our AirDrop settings on the iPhone. We can do this through the Control Center. We do not have to go into the Settings app. What I would recommend doing is setting your AirDrop to either Receiving Off or to Contacts. And then if someone wants to share a file with your link with you, all you have to do is just go to your Control Center, long press on the network controls, and then long press on AirDrop. Set it to Contacts or Everyone, once you receive that file, set it back to either Contacts or turn AirDrop off altogether.

So that’s how you can easily change AirDrop settings on the iPhone through the Control Center.