I wonder what meme they are sharing?

AirDrop. It’s so useful. You can privately share almost anything without being tracked, hacked or accidentally falling into some marketing hole. And it’s almost completely useless if you or others use names like ‘iPhone’, ‘Mac’ or ‘iPad Air’.

That’s why you need this tip:

How to change AirDrop name

This is one of those tips that’s really useful if you don’t know it, really annoying if you’re attempting to AirDrop items with someone else who doesn’t know it, and well worth sharing with others if you think they need to know how it is done.

If you’ve ever tried to find a Mac or an iOS device belonging to you or to someone else on your network and all you’ve found is generic iPhone or Mac information, so you can’t tell it is them, then this might help.

[Also read: How to share passwords using AirDrop]

It’s not always necessary, as if a person attempting to share with another person has the sharee’s email or phone number in their Contacts book they will see the name they use for that person in the AirDrop list, but this isn’t the case if they don’t have a contact for you. If they don’t have you as a contact they will probably see the device name – which may be generic.

You can make this a lot easier by following this tip:

How to change AirDrop name on an iOS device

Open Settings>General>About.

At the top of the About screen tap Name.

You’ll now be able to delete the default name (tap the x) and replace it with something more memorable and easier to spot, such as “Devourer of Memes” or what-not.

Click Done.

How to change AirDrop name on a Mac

You can change the name you use for AirDrop on your Mac.

Open System Preferences

Tap the Sharing tab to open this

On the top line you’ll see the current name, delete it and choose a more appropriate and memorable one.

https://youtu.be/Vfk1Jgbti8Y

Once you’ve changed the name of your Mac or iOS device you’ll find its rechristened identity in use on iCloud and Find My.

This is also particularly useful if you are the administrator for a device-heavy family or enterprise, as it’s quite hard to find the device you’re looking for if they all use the same generic name.

AirDrop teens

There’s a big trend among younger people to use AirDrop to share memes, emojiis and images with those around them.

The beauty of this is that you don’t need to be on Wi-Fi to share this stuff, and you can send it randomly to anyone nearby. If you don’t want to receive these things, the best protection is to set your AirDrop preferences to Contacts Only in Settings>General>AirDrop.

[amazon_link asins=’B01HGM33HG’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’9to5ma-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dd0030e2-5b4e-4666-adee-c0094f650ad7′]

You’ll probably find most teens have already changed their AirDrop name to something relevant to they and their chums – they usually know all the tips you’ll ever need to use an Apple device. If you ask nicely, they may AirDrop some of these to you.

Hope this helps!

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