Stop strangers AirDropping things to your Mac
Set to Everyone, AirDrop lets anyone in the same carriage put a picture on your screen.
Works on: macOS Tahoe 26 and later · checked on macOS Golden Gate 27
Published: · Source: Snoflaa
Go to System Settings → General → AirDrop & Continuity. The AirDrop setting there decides who can find your Mac to send it something, and the choice that matters is between Everyone and Contacts Only.
Everyone is the one to get rid of. Nobody needs your name, your number or your permission to try: if they are close enough, your Mac turns up in their share sheet, and while you still have to accept the file, the request and its preview land on your screen first. In a train carriage or a lecture theatre, that is the textbook definition of a nuisance.
Contacts Only limits it to people in your contacts, matched against the Apple Account they are signed in with. That is the setting to live on.
When it fails, it fails for a reason worth knowing: either the sender is not in your contacts, or the card you have for them has no Apple Account address on it. Switch to Everyone for the thirty seconds the transfer takes, then put it back.
On macOS Sequoia and earlier, the panel is called AirDrop & Handoff.
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