Home Drop

Install Home Drop

Home Drop needs macOS 14 or later, and it runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Install it on every Mac that sends or receives.

After you pay, download Home-Drop-1.2.0.zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and move Home Drop.app to Applications. The download is signed with my Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Pair two Macs

Open Home Drop on both Macs and pick Pair a Mac (⌘P) on each. One Mac shows a 6-digit code. Type that code on the other Mac and they are paired.

The first time, macOS asks for the Local Network permission. Allow it on both Macs. Without it, Bonjour can’t find the other Mac and pairing never starts.

Pair as many Macs as you need. Each pair belongs to a group, a set of Macs that share a stream of what was sent and received. The default group has a star. Use Settings (⌘,) to rename a group, add Macs to it, or make another one the default.

Send files

There are four ways to send:

• Drop files on the window or on the Dock icon. They go to the default group.
• Hold ⌥ while dropping to choose another group from a small menu.
• Drop on a group in the sidebar to send to that group.
• Use Share › Home Drop in Finder or Photos. Hold ⌥ while picking it to choose a group. The Share extension is off until you turn it on in System Settings.

If the other Mac is offline, Home Drop keeps the send waiting and starts when that Mac appears again.

Sharing from inside Photos sends a rendered JPEG. To send the original RAW file or a Live Photo, drag it from the Finder instead.

Where received files go

By default they land in ~/Downloads/Home Drop. In Settings, pick another folder, or add photos and videos to an album in Photos. Photos keeps each photo’s date and location, and a Live Photo’s still and video arrive as one Live Photo.

The homedrop command

homedrop is inside the app at Home Drop.app/Contents/Helpers/homedrop and shares its state with the app. Link it into your PATH:

ln -s "/Applications/Home Drop.app/Contents/Helpers/homedrop" ~/.local/bin/homedrop

homedrop pair "Anna's MacBook Air" 482913
homedrop groups add Family "Anna's MacBook Air" --default
homedrop send ~/Pictures/Trip
homedrop history --group Family

homedrop help lists every command. homedrop capabilities prints what an agent can do with it.

Remove a Mac

Unpair on either Mac and the other one drops it from the group. If you sell or wipe a Mac, unpair it first, so its keys can’t be used to connect again.

Update

Updates are manual. Download the new zip from your Polar receipt, which always has the latest version, quit the app, replace it in Applications, and open it again. Pairing and groups stay in place.

Limits in this version

Album sync between Macs is not here yet. Home Drop copies files and photos; it does not merge Photos libraries.