How to block AirDrop with restrictions for iPhone and iPad?

Shreyas Patil
Shreyas PatilUpdated :
How to block AirDrop with restrictions for iPhone and iPad?

AirDrop allows instant sharing of photos, documents and more between Apple devices. However, you may want to disable or restrict AirDrop on your iPhone or iPad to prevent unwanted sharing. This guide will show you how to block AirDrop completely or limit sharing to Contacts only.


Requirements

  • iPhone or iPad running iOS 7 or later
  • Apple ID with Family Sharing enabled (for contact-only sharing)

Completely Disable AirDrop

Follow these steps to turn AirDrop off entirely:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General.
  3. Scroll down and tap on AirDrop.
  4. Select Off to disable AirDrop.

With AirDrop disabled, you will no longer be able to send or receive any AirDrop sharing requests. This is the simplest way to block AirDrop completely.


Limit Sharing to Contacts Only

To restrict AirDrop sharing to your contacts only:

  1. Open Settings and go to General > AirDrop.
  2. Tap on Contacts Only.

This will block AirDrop sharing from everyone except your contacts. You need to have Family Sharing enabled for this option.

Contacts must also have you in their contacts to AirDrop you. This prevents unwanted sharing from strangers while allowing sharing among your contacts.


Set Restrictions Through Parental Controls

Parents can selectively disable AirDrop for child accounts using Restrictions:

  1. On your child's device, open Settings and go to Screen Time.
  2. Tap on your child's name.
  3. Scroll down and turn off AirDrop.

This will override AirDrop settings and force it to be disabled. Parents have full control over their child's AirDrop settings.


Quick Tip to ensure your videos never go missing

Videos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your videos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. 

Download PicBackMan

Simply Download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your videos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all videos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.



Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does turning AirDrop off disable all sharing?

A: No, turning off AirDrop only affects AirDrop. You can still share via Messaging, Mail, third-party apps, etc.

Q: Can I restrict AirDrop on just one of my devices?

A: Yes, AirDrop can be independently disabled on each device. The settings are not synced.

Q: What happens if I disable AirDrop while a transfer is in progress?

A: Disabling AirDrop will immediately cancel any ongoing sends or receives in progress. The partial file will be deleted.

Q: Will turning AirDrop off affect my Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity?

A: No, disabling AirDrop will not disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It only stops the AirDrop service.


Conclusion

Restricting AirDrop sharing is easy - just toggle it off or limit it to contacts only. This prevents unwanted photos or files from being AirDropped to your device while still allowing sharing with your trusted contacts. Use parental controls for even more granular control over AirDrop for child accounts.

World's #1 Photo/Video Uploader

Backup & Transfer your Photos in Minutes

Automate backup & migration of your photos & videos with support for all top services.

(283 reviews)

Trusted by users in 125+ countries.

95,000+ PicBackMan Users

95,000+ Users Trust PicBackMan To Backup Precious Memories

money back guarantee
Kip Roof testimonial Kip Roofgoogle photos flickr
PicBackMan does exactly what it's supposed to. It's quick and efficient. It runs unobtrusively in the background and has done an excellent job of uploading more than 300GB of photos to 2 different services. After having lost a lot of personal memories to a hard drive crash, it's nice to know that my photos are safe in 2 different places.
Julia Alyea Farella testimonialJulia Alyea Farella smugmug
LOVE this program! Works better than ANY other program out there that I have found to upload thousands of pictures WITH SUB-FOLDERS to SmugMug! Thank you so much for what you do! :) #happycustomer
Pausing Motion testimonialPausingMotionsmugmug
I pointed PicBackMan at a directory structure, and next time I looked - all the photos had uploaded! Pretty cool. I use SmugMug and while I really like it, the process of creating directories in is pretty laborious when you need to make 80+ at a time. This was a breeze. Thank you!
Gavin Whitham testimonialGavin Whithamflickr
PicBackMan was really easy to setup and has been running for 3 days now backing up all my locally saved photos to Flickr. My photos are really valuable to me so it's great to be able to have them easily backed up to a secure location.
 Jim Griffin testimonialJim Griffinsmugmug
It's AWESOME!! I have tens of thousands of pictures...and they are now successfully uploaded to SmugMug, where they are safely backed up, and I can edit and organize them. If you are hesitating about using PicBackMan, hesitate no longer...try it...and you'll be glad you did!!
close icon
World's #1 Photo/Video Uploader

World's #1 Free Photo/Video Uploader

PicBackMan has everything you've ever wanted to backup your photos or migrate/transfer from one account to another. No feature left behind!

(283 reviews)
Trusted by users in 125+ countries.
  • Maintain Folder StructureMaintain Folder StructureUpload to your online accounts & keep your folder structure as you have it.
  • Sub-folder SupportFolders & their sub-folders are automatically picked up.
  • Smart De-dupeDe-dupes photos before uploading so you don’t have duplicate copies.
  • AutomaticPicBackMan monitors & automatically uploads from connected folders.
  • PrivacyPrivacyAll uploaded photos & videos are always marked as private by default.
  • RAW FilesComes with support for RAW files for uploads as well as transfers.

“Your pictures are scattered. PicBackMan helps you bring order to your digital memories.”

the wall street journal
close icon
One Uploader for All Services

One Uploader for All Services

PicBackMan is the only tool you will need to backup to one or more of the top online photo and video services.

(283 reviews)
Trusted by users in 125+ countries.
Google Photos

Google Photos

Flickr

Flickr

SmugMug

SmugMug

Dropbox

Dropbox

Google Drive

Google Drive

pCloud

pCloud

OneDrive

OneDrive

youtube

Youtube