iOS 14: No longer charging

Quick update with more data:

Attempted a complete re-install from the ground up, in the hope that this is a problem with the download of iOS 14; as the USB doesn't work, the only way to do this is to "Erase all data". Which, based on what I saw, doesn't actually re-download and re-install the operating system. Is there a means to re-download and re-install the operating system directly onto the phone itself? If not, that's a pretty big blind spot, as right now I am pretty dang convinced the problem that a lot of folks are having is that iOS didn't download correctly, and was missing a bit here or there. That would explain the various disparate nature of these failures across the board.

Unfortunately, as this did not re-download the OS, it didn't solve the problem. One thing I did note, however, is that while the USB is plugged in, the phone recognizes it to the point that it actually disables its own wireless charging. So, again, the hardware is functional; it *must* be a software failure.

To answer Jfs767's question: This is an unmodified iPhone, that might as well be straight out of the box. No battery replacement, no connector replacement, not even a trip to the Genius Bar.

I wish I could change at least the title of my post. At this point, the problem isn't charging; it charges just fine on a wireless charger. The problem I'm having is that the USB handling is just gone. It'd be nice if Apple had a series of tests I could do here that would confirm whether the problem is actually a problem with the Lightning port (which I don't believe, but might be) or with the OS. But then, that'd mean they'd have to admit they made a mistake with their latest OS release, which, they didn't want to admit that even in the beta testing phase, when a huge chunk of people were like, "My charging disappeared" or "My USB disappeared".

I mean seriously. At this point, if I could revert the phone to 13.7, I absolutely would. This is torturous.

You know what? You might have actually given me the final piece of the puzzle here.

We already know the iOS 14 upgrade causes an *immense* initial draw on the battery, something that was easily the number-one complaint about the upgrade itself. Between running update processes in the background and forcing updates in the foreground, the power draw was much larger than I believe any other iOS release.

It's entirely likely that the folks at Apple anticipated this, and decided to include code to reduce power draw by other, "less necessary" elements, including but not limited to the wireless charging, USB, and camera / flash LED, in order to make the transition to iOS 14 seem like less of a problem and more overall successful. ****, I might even say that it was their intent to have the code then restore that functionality once the initial power draw boost was over. However, it would appear that someone forgot to include that, because a large number of people are still without. They fixed the camera / LED item because for many, that destroyed half the functionality of the phone, but these other issues have been largely ignored because "you can work around that".

In radio, there's a well-known thing called the reciprocity theorem, that states that an antenna's receiving characteristics are equivalent to its transmitting characteristics. The wireless charging on the iPhone is an inductive charge, but that's still a form of antenna: If power is reduced to the receiving antenna, its ability to receive is subsequently also reduced. That would explain what you're seeing, that the induction charging only works if you remove the back plate.

Similarly, USB is a signal transmitted down a wire. If the phone's USB receiver has reduced power, its ability to see that signal is also summarily reduced. So, while the phone sees the signal well enough when it's off to power itself back on, it doesn't see the signal well enough to actually consider it a proper USB connection.

I think we're getting somewhere here. I sincerely hope Apple's engineers read this, but I know it's called the "Community Forums" for a reason. :V