How to Enable AirDrop on Unsupported Macs and Over Ethernet

Posted on December 16, 2012 by

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AirDrop is a simple OS X service for sending files back and forth between Macs wirelessly. Unfortunately, Apple only supports this feature on newer Macs, but this can easily be fixed with a quick terminal command.

Just enter the following command into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1; killall Finder;

This command also enables AirDrop over ethernet connection, making it much more useful. You will also need to run this command on any newer Macs, even if they are officially supported, before you can see them in an AirDrop session.

If you ever want to disable this feature, just type the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 0; killall Finder;