A Stranger Keeps AirDropping You Pictures. What Now?

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You are on a train, a concert or a campus. Your phone buzzes with an AirDrop request from a name you don’t know. Sometimes it’s a harmless prank. Sometimes it’s an image you didn’t want to see, in front of people. The good news is that AirDrop only works if you’ve left the door open, and Apple gives you a few ways to close it.

This guide covers the three AirDrop settings, what changed with the AirDrop code, how to decline, and what to do if you also use AirDrop to send things yourself.

How a stranger finds you

AirDrop uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to find nearby devices. Apple’s security guide says that in Contacts Only mode, your iPhone checks the sender against the people in your Contacts. If there is no match, it doesn’t respond, so the sender never sees you.

In Everyone mode, your iPhone responds even without a match. The sender then sees a silhouette and your device’s name under “Other People” in the share sheet. That name is whatever is set in Settings → General → About → Name. If it says “Sara’s iPhone”, a stranger now knows a first name.

The three settings

Open Control Center, touch and hold the top-left group of controls, then tap AirDrop. These are the choices:

• Receiving Off. Apple’s security guide says you can turn AirDrop off entirely, and its AirDrop help names Receiving Off as a setting. Apple’s pages don’t spell out more, so we read it as: you receive nothing.
• Contacts Only. Only people in your contacts can send to you. Apple’s security guide says this is the default.
• Everyone for 10 Minutes. Anyone nearby can find you for ten minutes. Apple says that after 10 minutes it changes back: to Contacts Only if you’re signed in to your Apple Account, or to Receiving Off if you’re not.

So if strangers keep reaching you, check for Everyone for 10 Minutes, and set it back to Contacts Only or Receiving Off instead of waiting for the timer.

The AirDrop code

On iOS 26.2 or later, Apple says that if someone who isn’t in your contacts tries to send you something with AirDrop, they must use an AirDrop code. You only see the code if you choose to receive: you select Continue, a code appears, and the item is shared only after you give the code to the sender and they enter it.

That is a useful extra step, because a stranger can’t finish a transfer without you handing them the code. Don’t give it to someone you don’t know. Apple says you can keep sharing with that person for 30 days after, and that you can undo it earlier: in Contacts, find them under Other Known and choose Forget This Person.

What to do when a request arrives

1. Don’t tap Accept. Apple says the recipient can accept or decline each transfer.
2. Don’t hand over a code. If you see a request for an AirDrop code and you don’t know the sender, ignore it.
3. Switch to Receiving Off. One tap in Control Center, then the sender can’t find you any more.
4. Blur what you can’t unsee. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Sensitive Content Warning and turn it on. Apple says it analyses images on your iPhone and blurs ones that may show nudity or gore and violence, including in AirDrop (gore and violence detection needs iOS 27 or later). If something is flagged, you can tap Show, or tap the Alert button to find safety resources or block the person.
5. Rename the iPhone. Give it a name with no real name in it.

Don’t count on knowing what is coming. Decline anything you didn’t expect.

If you accepted something by mistake, Apple says most items are saved in the app they were sent from, so a photo goes to Photos. Delete it there.

When you are the one sending

In a crowd, AirDrop is quick and easy to get wrong. To send to someone who isn’t in your contacts, Apple says they need to open Control Center and choose Everyone for 10 Minutes on their side. You pick a photo, tap a name, and it’s sent.

Two habits help. Read the name before you tap, and use a small selection in the share sheet, not a whole library. And think about where the picture came from: the Photos app you pick from is the same library that holds everything else on your phone.

Keep private photos out of the picker

A photo you never want to send by mistake is safest if it isn’t in the library you’re sending from. A vault keeps photos in its own encrypted storage, so they don’t appear in the Photos picker when you tap Share in a hurry. Hidlet is designed this way: you import photos into a vault, and Hidlet offers to delete the originals from Photos. Hidlet is available on the App Store.

What Hidlet can and can’t protect

Hidlet protects photos inside a vault. It doesn’t change your AirDrop settings, and it can’t stop someone nearby from sending you something. Use the Control Center steps above for that. Photos that are still in your photo library are still there for the share sheet to find.