Weirdly specific airdrop issues

I’ve been airdropping files to my new iPad from my iPhone for a bit now, but it suddenly stopped working. I have no idea if this is because I recently updated my iPad (9th Generation) to iOS 17.1.1

Now, my phone is an older model (iPhone 7) and is currently running on 15.8 (it’s pretty much dying which is why I use airdrop so often)

I can airdrop to my phone still, but my iPad won’t show up as a device to my phone and, yes I have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled on both deceives and both are set to “everyone” when it comes to airdropping. I’ve tried everything like turning the devices off and then on again and double checking everything is enabled, but nope! only airdropping from my iPad to iPhone is currently possible. Is this a compatibility issue or something else and is it hopeless?