AirDrop Outage, AirPods Pro 3 Crackling, and Studio Display Flickering
Since the latest iOS and macOS versions, users have been reporting difficulties with AirDrop and Apple displays. Another bug affects AirPods Pro 3.
(Image: Primakov / Shutterstock)
Several issues of varying severity are currently bothering users of iOS and macOS devices. Additionally, there appears to be a persistent hardware-related bug with the popular AirPods Pro (3rd generation), which has been known for several months but Apple has not yet been able to fix via firmware update.
AirDrop No Longer Works
With iOS 26.2 and macOS 26.2, Apple actually intended to improve data transfer via the short-range protocol AirDrop. Spam attacks with unwanted messages are to be prevented, but it should still be possible to temporarily share contacts. Thus, you can now completely block AirDrop transmissions, share them for ten minutes, or allow only contacts. Bringing two devices together also allows sharing for 30 days using a code.
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In this context, Apple has apparently introduced a bug that particularly affects the sending of AirDrop content between Macs and iPhones. In the “Mac & i” editorial office, we were able to reproduce this with two of an editor's devices. It was no longer possible to send content from a Sequoia Mac to an iPhone; AirDrop was only shared with contacts. Only the general sharing of AirDrop messages for ten minutes resolved the issue. The error does not seem to occur only with older macOS versions but also in the interaction between macOS 26.2 and iOS 26.2. What exactly triggers the bug remains unclear. Before iOS 26.2, there were no problems establishing a connection, and both devices “know” the contact, as it is the same person.
Flickering and Crackling
From macOS 26 up to the current version, macOS 26.2, users continue to report intermittently occurring flickering issues, as stated in Apple's official support forum. These occur particularly when an app has a bright, white background. In some cases, the display error also occurs in other situations. The flickering is only brief; reportedly, it occurs more frequently with macOS 26.2. It is apparently not a hardware issue, as the devices ran cleanly under macOS 15. How widespread the issue is remained unclear at first; a Studio Display in the Mac & i editorial office did not show the error initially.
Finally, it seems Apple has still not managed to fix a “crackling bug” in the AirPods Pro (3rd generation). This causes noise, for example, on airplanes or trains and is said to be related to pressure changes – and also occurs when no music is playing. A kind of rustling occurs, which appears suddenly. Reports about this have existed since October. In some cases, units of the earbuds were replaced, but new models also showed the problem. A firmware bug is currently assumed. Apple most recently released a new update (version 8B30) in December. It is automatically installed on the earbuds after a few days, provided they are connected to an iPhone or Mac.
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