Active drops are synthetic, micron-sized “swimmers” that convert chemical energy into mechanical motion. These drops are physico-chemically isotropic and emit/absorb chemical solutes, whose concentration gradients cause interfacial flows which drive the solute’s own transport via advection. This nonlinear coupling between the fluid flow and solute transport around the drop can cause a spontaneous symmetry-breaking, leading to sustained interfacial flows and self-propulsion of the drop, provided the ratio of convective-to-diffusive solute transport, or Peclet number, is large enough. As a result of their net buoyancy, active drops typically evolve at small finite distances from rigid boundaries. Yet, existing theoretical models on drop propulsion systematically focus on unbounded flows, due to their geometrical simplicity. Using numerical simulations, we address this gap in understanding and provide physical insights on the spontaneous emergence and nonlinear saturation of the propulsion of active drops along a rigid wall. Specifically, we show that, and explain why, a reduction in the drop-to-wall separation actually promotes the drop’s self-propulsion.