iPhone not charging/syncing on Mac/PC - but charging/playing in iHome docks

But.... You do have a car charger.

Have you ever charged the iPhone with that car charger? Did you use the car charger before or after the 2.0 update?

Was the car charger made by Apple for the iPhone. Was the car charger certified by Apple to work with the iPhone?

(My car has a 110 AC outlet so I use the OEM apple iPhone USB cable and charger even in the car. I read in earlier threads last year that the third party car chargers put out twice the amperage than the Apple OEM charger produces so I decided not to risk using those third party chargers. My iPhone works fine, before and after the 2.0 update.)

Just for the record, i had never plugged mine into anything but the apple iPhone cable attached to the supplied wall plug or my computer. In fact, the phone was only 3 weeks old since i had obtained a replacement at the end of June (with <1 week left on my warranty) as my first iPhone suffered a large decrease in volume.

I didn't try the car charger until after the failure occurred, and was in fact surprised to see that it works, and gives me the charging icon. i can still charge from the USB port on my computer, but the charging icon does not come on and it is not recognized by iTunes. And by the way, the updated iTunes 7.7.1 did not fix my problem.

One more update on my situation - actually it seems that my phone is now charging - I left it in the cradle attached to the Mac Book overnight and when I got up it was charged. However it no longer displays the familiar charging symbol on the iPhone and iTunes no longer recognizes it so no updates or syncs occur.

I sure hope someone at Apple reads these groups and recognizes that they have a problem. I am not sure how it will get fixed since the updates usually occur through iTunes and it no longer recognizes the iPhone.

I wanted to throw my hat into this discussion because there may very well be a larger widespread problem than Apple is aware of at this point. I have an original 8GB iPhone purchased in late September 2007. At no point during the time in which I have had my iPhone have I dropped the phone, and I have at all times kept the phone in a Contour Showcase case for maximum protection. The phone, when out of the case, is in perfect, brand new condition, and there is not a scratch on the thing.

I downloaded the new 2.0 software, iTunes 7.7, etc., a few Apple-certified apps and everything was working fine until last night, when, in the middle of the day, I synced my phone, backed everything up, and used the phone as normal. During this sync, it appears a few apps may have been updated (all Apple certified) but after the update was complete, I experienced no problems...until later that night when I tried to charge my iPhone (using the Apple-supplied original iPhone USB cable and wall charger) into an outlet - no response from the phone, and no recognition that the phone was charging. I then took the USB cable and tried syncing it to my computer - no response, and my computer no longer recognized the phone.

I then reset all settings, followed everything the Apple Troubleshooting site said to do, and then finally went through a complete deletion of everything on the phone to try to get it working again - to no avail. Then, this morning while driving to work, I connect it (for the FIRST time) to my friend's non-Apple car adapter - and wouldn't you know it - the phone started to charge and power was formally recognized by the unit. Now, I'm sitting here at my desk at work charging the phone with the ORIGINAL iPhone adapter and cable, and the phone does not formally recognize the connection, but the power bar has been increasing (very slowly) all day.

I don't know if this is a widespread problem (I will be taking the phone into my nearest Apple store later this evening for a replacement - thankfully it is still under warranty until the end of September) but my story here seems a bit different from everyone else who has posted in this forum. At no point while owning the phone have I attmepted to put on the phone unauthorized apps or anything like that for fear that something like this would happen down the line, and, like I said, until this morning, I have never, at any point, used non-authorized Apple cables to charge/use my phone.

Apple - if you are monitoring this - you may have a problem beginning to take shape...

Thanks for the post. It sounds as if your situation is EXACTLY like mine, except that you are still under warranty. it would be great if you could keep us posted on what Apple tells you. my guess is that they will just give you a replacement phone, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Have you tried forcing the phone into Recovery Mode?

See this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

Have you tried forcing the phone into Recovery Mode?

See this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

Iansman

Your situation is like reading about my own. I am certain that the phone is recharging but is no longer indicating that it is charging. The problem was nonexistent until the 2.0 "downgrade" (anything that makes things worse is a downgrade). Problem is APPLE. I would be surprised to hear that someone with Apple is monitoring this thread. In 28 years of buying Apple products there are 2 things that have always been consistent - make great, creative products and ignore the customers (unless they are charging a fortune for it). If Steve Jobs iPhone screws up when he is demonstrating it, the problem will be fixed before sunset. All we can do is hope his iPhone has the same problem:).

Thanks to everyone piling on to this issue! This issue is not based on cables, iTunes or any other far fetched crap someone can come up with. This issue occurred after 2.0 and never before. Until I see someone with the 1.1.4 firmware have this issue then we can blame 2.0 for it 🙂

Like a lot of other people in this topic, I have a brick right now. Hopefully Apple realizes after enough people ***** that this is a real problem and they need to fix our phones for FREE!!

I don't know how many times I have to say it, this will end up being like the Xbox 360 issues where Microsoft extended the warranty and took all the bad Xboxes back to keep everyone happy...

Jane, I took mine to the store. It isn't going to work with anything anyone tries if the Apple Tech can't get it to work. Recovery mode was the first thing I tried and the first thing the Tech tried after the icons didn't change and the phone didn't show up in iTunes.

And BTW, the cable he used wasn't an Apple made cable. It was a USB/Firewire dual cable and I don't believe they make one of those. That is what the tech used in the store. Hooked it right up to a white MacBook. Tried USB, no icon changes. Hooked up the Firewire end of it and BAMM! It showed an icon change that it was charging. Firewire works for charging but not syncing. Which means the dock connector isn't damaged - OEM cables did not damage my phone or anyone else that is having this problem. It has to be the 2.0 update. I would almost be 99.9% sure it is the software...

You are lucky your phone hasn't done this yet. And hopefully it doesn't happen to you either cause it is **** to have a $600 device that is a brick...

I don't know if anyone can say there aren't hundreds of people with this issue YET. And YET is the keyword. My phone was absolutely fine with the 2.0 software for two weeks and then BOOM. For no reason everything went to **** and here I come to the forums to see if anyone else has this issue. I found two other people and now there are probably 10 or more people with this issue showing up in here. I have a feeling this is only just begun getting reported...

Not everyone can get a 3G phone to replace the bricked iPhone they have now...

I'm waiting for this to be fixed and my wife will use my old one once her crappy Palm is up for an upgrade...

Thank you for sharing.

You are lucky your phone hasn't done this yet. And hopefully it doesn't happen to you either cause it is +no darn fun+ to have a $600 device that is a brick...

Well, I did try to pay $600 for my iPhone while on a trip to California last summer. Because I was out of my home state at the time, my credit card would not go through. I bought my phone a few months later for $400. And... I also bought the APP - Apple Care Protection Plan - so I still have another 15 months under warranty. I'm moderately safe, unless I drop it in the bath tub ...

There are several million of those phones out there and - seemingly - a small number having this problem. Logic tells me the problem must be "Version 2.0 and something"

I do hope - for your direct and immediate benefit - and my potential benefit later - that Apple, in cooperation with the intelligent and dedicated users on this forum, can isolate and identify the " and something"! 😉

The same thing happened to my friend last week right after he updated his firmware to 2.0. He took his phone to an Apple store and they replaced it with another original iPhone. Apparently they have kept some on hand for these types of situations.

Earlier this morning, I was in the middle of syncing my iPhone and it was just about done when I decided to turn the phone on. And poof, the iTunes lost contact and the phone stopped taking charge. I connected it directly to the wall outlet, and nothing. I have made an appointment for tomorrow, but I am worried. I had dropped my phone couple of months ago and a small part of the glass is broken so I am wondering if they are going to use that as an excuse for this problem.

Update...

I just got back from my appointment at the Apple store in Palo Alto, CA. They were going to replace my phone. However, as I suspected since my phone had been dropped and the glass is cracked, they can not rule out that as the contributing factor, so I would have had to pay $200. If your phones are not cracked, I suggest to take it back and get a new (old iPhone) one. She did not even ask if my phone is still under warranty or not.

I am going to wait to see if the future firmware updated fix this problem or not. For now, I use my iPod charger with the Firewire cable to charge the phone and rely on Mobile Me to sync my important stuff.