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iPhone 12 pro won’t wirelessly charge

Picked up new phone. It will not charge on my Qi wireless charger. My family members’ iPhone X and 11 charge fine. Mine initially shows the green battery, then it disconnects from charging and the charger flashes a blue LED, signifying it is no longer connected. This despite using different charger blocks.


iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Oct 25, 2020 5:41 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 27, 2020 6:12 AM

Have any of you tried a Forced Restart?


  1. Press and quickly release volume up button
  2. Then press and quickly release volume down button
  3. Then press and KEEP HOLDING side power button (keep holding past the swipe to shut down) until you see the Apple Logo, then let go.


Once your phone restarts and you sign back in, see if you can charge your phone on your Qi charger.

349 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 27, 2020 6:12 AM in response to Parker2005

Have any of you tried a Forced Restart?


  1. Press and quickly release volume up button
  2. Then press and quickly release volume down button
  3. Then press and KEEP HOLDING side power button (keep holding past the swipe to shut down) until you see the Apple Logo, then let go.


Once your phone restarts and you sign back in, see if you can charge your phone on your Qi charger.

Oct 29, 2020 9:46 AM in response to Zeyda_in_ME

Zeyda_in_ME wrote:

The reboot seemed to have worked, or, at least it started to charge. C'mon Apple. All of us just paid a fortune for new phones. Please fix this glitch.

Apple isn't here on this user to user only forum. Your plea will not be heard. Anyone who is having an issue with wireless charging should provide feedback to Apple via this link --> https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


It's the best way to make sure Apple is aware and hears from you.

Oct 27, 2020 12:13 PM in response to joe pm

This is definitely a software issue. It's not a listed bug but Apple should eventually fix it. The problem seems to be a glitch in the software where it disables the device to be wirelessly charged. A "band-aid" to this issue is to reboot your device. This should work and your device should be able to charge wirelessly again.

From other people I've asked, this seems to be really impacting iphone 12 users.


Nov 20, 2020 5:45 AM in response to joe pm

Also same issue. Iphone 12 pro with (or without) magsafe case, wireless charging stops after sometimes up to 10-15 minutes. 

Especially frustrating waking up to a phone NOT ready to go. 


Bought two wireless charging pads Native Union, the regular small "wireless drop" and the "drop XL" (not cheapest wireless chargers FYI) and same issue on both. + These charge my Airpods Pro just fine, the phone seems to be the troublemaker. 

Yes im on the latest update (nov 20, 2020), yes have tried the reset phone thing and numerous phone-on-pad-placing positions... 


Wrote to Apple about this issue and would encourge you to do the same, so hopefully we can get a fix sooner than later.

Link: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Nov 16, 2020 11:24 PM in response to joe pm

Same issue with the 12 pro (tested with x3 12 pro's), using QC3.0 bricks, 6 different qi chargers tested so far - all different manufacturers & all working on xr, xs & 11 models, software is up to date at 14.2. None will charge the 12 pro. Force restart does not resolve as it has for others, it won't even charge temporarily. All of the chargers will recognize a phone has been placed on them but none will charge the device.

Certainly hoping for a software fix.


Nov 19, 2020 3:29 PM in response to appleisawesome1000

Received my iPhone 12 Pro Max 11/13. It worked fine in my new Silverado with a factory charger as well as two wireless charging cradles in the house. It stopped working with all of them on Monday 11/16. On Tuesday, I read about rebooting the phone. That made it start working again. Today it quit again on all chargers and a reboot made it start working again. My wifes iPhone 11 works fine with all of the chargers and never has an issue.


This is obviously a problem with the iPhone 12 and is not a problem with the chargers

Mar 17, 2021 1:50 PM in response to Barryng

Regrettably, BarryNG, it's not that clear cut. We have people on this board reporting that theirs even fail to charge on Apple's own MagSafe chargers. My experience, admittedly with non-Apple equipment, and power bricks that only meet the original Qi standard, not Apple's faster-charging specs, is that they all work much of the time, but, when the fault surfaces, none of them do. I do get occasional lapses that can be quickly corrected by sliding the device on the pad or stand, but that's not a panacea - when the problem surfaces, you can spend all day looking for the "sweet spot", and get no results.

Oct 27, 2020 6:20 AM in response to joe pm

Yes, and this only seems to work for a few minutes then right back to not charging. It appears after some thorough research this is happening with a lot of iPhone 12 Pro customers. Good thing is I currently have it charging via a direct lightning connection and that works fine. However, doesn’t fix the problem with “wireless” charging.

Dec 30, 2020 7:57 AM in response to Windsor2707

Is this the item you bought? I can't find a 26 watt Otterbox charger on the Apple site, I presume it was a typo and you meant 36 watt?

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HNXM2ZM/A/otterbox-otterspot-wireless-charging-base?fnode=877ca87e2486211114db8ff0d49c8cb7171060118b03fd5453a7f83d994d3f7e0c0da9d12ee859248ffd08807660fb29babb309a0da2c46e5e0afb2aabe8d9ac55a4a95814304e081835423d84b03f763b1f2e690b1921d133917d159b58fac03bd73f3811d3e7641c41ec9595d25e72&fs=f%3Dinductive%26fh%3D458e%252B49e9


Have you tried using just the 36 watt brick with your old wireless charger? I wonder whether it is only the brick that needs to be of higher wattage, and not the wireless pad itself.

Nov 2, 2020 3:31 PM in response to jetskier2

I'll ask you the same question. What happened after you performed a Forced Restart (not a basic restart), which has solved this for many who were having this issue. Since you responded to the OP, it can be assumed you didn't take any time to read through the thread.


Since you likely didn't do that, I'll take my time and tell you how:


  • Press and quickly release volume up button
  • Then press and quickly release volume down button
  • The press and KEEP HOLDING the power button (keep holding past the swipe to power off) until the Apple Logo appears, then let go


See if your phone charges on your Qi charger when you sign back in. My money's on IT WILL.

Feb 6, 2021 6:09 AM in response to Abraham_Tamez

I am curious if all those above that cannot make their phones charge on a wireless charger have done two things:

  • First, make sure the phone is horizontally centered on the charger at all times. I found even if it extends slightly over one side or the other unequally, it will not start charging.
  • Second, have you very slowly tried moving the phone up, while keeping it flat against the back of the charger and centered horizontally? In my case, with an iPhone SE-Mini, placing a 1/4-3/8" shim on the bottom shelf results in 100% reliable charging. Our two SE-2020's work 100% reliably without the shim but they are somewhat bigger than the 12-Mini. If slowly moving the phone while flat against the back of the charger does not work, try removing the phone far enough away from the back of the charger each time you slightly reposition it so the charging logic resets in both the phone and charger.

It is impossible for me to know for sure because I only now have the three phones I mentioned above and five chargers, but it strongly appears to me, for a wireless charger to work, the charging coils in the charger and phone must be reasonably well aligned to achieve sufficient magnetic coupling. Again, I have no way of knowing for sure but I strongly suspect the phone (and maybe the charger too) takes a reading on the quality of the magnetic coupling and will not allow charging to start unless a certain quality factor is met. This repeats my comments far above in previous posts, but in case some of you did not look that far back, try repositioning the phone as it leans flat against the back of the charger. Once you find the hieght needed (keeping it horizontally centered), it is really easy to put an appropriate shim on the bottom shelf. I used a small square plastic level and it even look good. My very limited experience indicates these things do work so, at the expense of being redundant, I hope this might help some of you that have so far been unsuccessful. Maybe this all is the underlying reason Apple has implemented the magnetic gizmos that will exactly position the phone in their new Magsafe chargers.

iPhone 12 pro won’t wirelessly charge

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