Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Yosemite Edition

AirDrop

AirDrop lets you shoot photos, videos, maps, Contacts cards, PDF files, Word documents, and all kinds of other stuff—from one Mac to another Mac. Wirelessly. Without having to set up names, passwords, or permissions. Without even having an Internet connection. That Mac-to-Mac AirDrop feature is described on AirDrop.

But until iOS 8 and Yosemite, you couldn’t use AirDrop between a phone and a Mac. And now you can.

From iPhone to Mac

Open whatever it is you want to send: a photo, map, Web site, contact…anything with a button, on either the Mac or the device.

When you tap , you see the AirDrop pane—and, after a moment, the icons of any nearby Yosemite Macs, iPhones, and iPads show up, too. Including yours (Figure 14-8, left).

If the Mac’s icon doesn’t show up, it’s probably because its owner hasn’t made the Mac discoverable by AirDrop.

Instruct him to open the AirDrop window on his Mac. (Click AirDrop in the sidebar of any Finder window.) See the small blue control at the bottom? It governs who can “see” this Mac for AirDrop purposes: No One, Contacts Only (that is, people in the Mac’s address book), or Everyone.

Once that’s set up right, that Mac shows up in the iPhone’s AirDrop pane (“David” in Figure 14-8). Send away. (Unlike the AirDrop of Macs gone by, in Yosemite, you don’t have ...