Run Lion’s AirDrop on older and unsupported Macs also running Lion

OS X Lion's AirDrop can work on older Macs with just a few Terminal commands

When Apple released OS X 10.7 Lion, they introduced a small but extremely useful feature for anyone with more than one Mac on the same network called AirDrop. While we’ve always had the ability to connect to other Macs with File Sharing turned on, it’s never been as easy as it is with AirDrop. The only problem: AirDrop only works with newer Macs. I have a 2006 MacPro, and was extremely disappointed when I found out AirDrop wouldn’t work. Thankfully, there is a simple work-around that got it working for me.

The first thing you need to know is that the unsupported Mac must be on the same WiFi or ethernet network, and also that you must run the commands below on ALL the Macs you wish to use AirDrop with, even if one or more of them already support AirDrop.

To get AirDrop running, type the following in the Terminal application:

• defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1
• Hit the Enter key
• killall Finder
• Hit the Enter key

After you perform these commands on each Mac on your network, you should be able to see your Macs when you click on the AirDrop icon in the Finder window sidebar.