Q: iPhone 5s 'This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably...' help?

Finally I still have the error. It was gone for a while but I get it although the plug is clean and no cable plugged in

It does not prevent you to clean it as for some users it might resolve the issue.

I wish it was dust, but unfortunately not. The plug and cables are new and each of the sockets on the phones have been inspected in my workshop.

The dust I found was lodged behind/beneath the 2 "tension" springs that are used to hold the lightning cable in place when it is plugged in.

There was a significant dust 'glob' that was not visible at all but upon some plucking with a needle and toothpick while my phone was off I was able to dislodge it and found it to be quite a sizable portion of fuzz (approximately a 3-4mm ball)

I've found this to be the cause of this cable error now on 4 phones total from friends and family and have yet to find an issue related to software thus far.

Maybe you just need the cable replaced. I had the same message appear with the original cable, went to Apple store, and they gave me a new cable. Turned out one of the pins got damaged somehow in the old cable. Nothing difficult.

I suggest that the best solution to this annoying problem is for us to post here the sources on ebay (or elsewhere) of cables that do work. Or better still try mailing me on jeremyriches <at> hotmail.co.uk and I'll publish the results on a web page that Apple can't take down

I agree jezzer, since nobody from Apple can be bothered to comment or sort this out, we should seek out our own solution. Hopefully some links will appear here but just in case I'll email you for the web page link Come the revolution!!!

Thanks for the reply, no email from you yet.

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Jeezer, this is actually not TYPICALLY caused from 3rd party cables alone, I have over a dozen charging cables, some apple, some not, and after a proper cleaning of my contacts in my lightning port I was able to have each and everyone of them working without error, including the cheap POS chinese 1$ ones.

Your point is not coming from one of assisting users but attempting to initiate a flamewar in a thread meant to otherwise help people.

Hey all.  Thought I'd share my story and solution (thus far).

Sure enough I started getting this message incessantly. One day all was fine, and then boom, at least 50 times a day, seamingly at random with nothing plugged into the port. The only thing that changed on my phone was that I upgraded to IOS7 about a month prior.  Otherwise, no obvious changes.

I immediately began searching online for solutions and found no real satisfactory answer.  Here's what I knew at the time:

-  I only use the cable that came with my phone (iphone 5 - bought 8-2013), so it couldn't be a unapproved cable issue.

- My thunderbolt connection appeared completely clean with no obvious indications of dust or "gunk".  Still, I very carefully cleaned it out with paper, toothpicks, and modified q-tips.  I even used compressed air to get in there.  There was no obvious obstruction or dust.  I was very frustrated and the message kept on coming.

- Obviously downgrading back to IOS 6 was not an option...although I completely loathe ios7 and would downgrade in a hearbeat.  Don't even get me started about my horrible battery life now.

- Full resets and even a full restore from factory defaults didn't fix the issue.

So far I did stumble up on what appears to be a solution (either that or it randomly went away):

- First i went to the apple store and presented my problem and told the technician that a full restore didn't solve the problem.  Here is what he told me..and I quote:

"Yeah, I was getting that same message after I upgraded to IO7 too.  Couldn't get it to go away, but eventually it just healed itself,  not sure how, but there's no patch or fix from apple.  You either have to get a new phone which will cost you 200 bucks (since you're out of warranty now), or just live with it."

Seriously his expert techinal advice was to "live with it"

I started thinking hard about anything else that might have changed and I remembered something that I thought insignificant at the time.  A few weeks ago, just before starting to get the message, I had a weird glitch where I went to turn up the volume on my phone, but for some reason it thought I had headphones plugged in.  It indicated my headphone volume going up.  Weird.  It was odd since I obviously didn't have headphones plugged in.  I blew in the headphone port, and did a full reset and the glitch was solved.  This got me wondering though, I've been spending all my time focusing on the thunderbolt port, what if it's the headphone jack?  What if there's something messing with that port that's making the IOS 7 think a non-approved device is plugged in?  I know there are some devices that plug in and get power through the headphone jack.  So I took some q-tips, pulled off some of the cotton so it would fit in the jack, and cleaned out the headphone port thoroughly.  I also used some toothpicks and compressed air to make sure the pins were clean.  Needless to say, there was A LOT of crap in the port.  I usually carry my phone in my cargo pants pocket with the headphone port facing up, and so it doesn't surprise me that it would accumulate particles and dust.  After this full cleaning, of the HEADPHONE port, with no other change, the message has not returned now in 5 days.  Seems like too much of a coincidence not to be related.

I hope this helps some of you.  I know how absolutely frustrating this message can be and if it starts coming back like it was, I might seriously consider a different brand of phone for my next....as much as it would pain me.

--j

I completely suport this theory

I failed to mention in my previous "clean everything out" posts that I did indeed also cleanout my headphone jack thoroughly as well, so it very well could have even been that port.

Thanks again for the update, lets hope everyone gets the grime out of their phones

Unfortunately grime, dust, fluff, whatever you call it, isnt a factor for me. The ports on my 5S are completely clear and my ipad is brand new so unless Apple have started supplying their products with ifluff, it's this 'something else' that nobody, including Apple, can work out!

It may have just been coincidence, and I will certainly report if/when I get the message again, but it has been 5 days now, so that's encouraging.  I made no other chanes or updates to my phone since the cleaning.

Also a small type in my big post, but I bought my phone in 8 of 2012, not 2013.  Hence it being out of warranty.

-j

...well so much for that.

Error message started coming back again not even 2 hours after I posted this.  I guess that puts me back in the camp of "it's a software glitch, that needs a patch...and not a dirt in a port, issue"

****.  Really thought it was gone for good.  Nothing else changed on my phone between yesterday morning and night, so it really does seem to be some sort of weird glitchy thing.

sigh

-j

Another update folks. 

Started frantically getting the error again seemingly for no reason.  Popping up several dozen times an hour for the past two days.  Last night I tried several resets and as soon as the phone booted, it'd pop up the message again.  The ports are absolutely clean at this point so I'm fairly certain something else is going on here.

Last night when googling some more, I did find someone that posted about popping out their SIM card and reseeding it.  I used the tool that came with my phone, poppped out the card, shot some compressed air in there just to be sure, and reseeded it.  I rebooted the phone and so far the error has not come back in about 16 hours.  Again, could just be cooincidence, but I thought I'd at least share my troubleshooting.

No other changes were made and the error stlll was only popping up with nothing plugged in.  When charging, the error message never appeared.

-j