Brand new iPhone 12 pro max not charging on wireless charger in Ford Expedition

We have 2021 Ford F150 and it charges the 12! BUT............

Our 2019 Expedition will not, on the pad and is weird even on the cord. When on the cord it constantly disturbs the screen as someone els had mentioned.

We have had this issue too and we just fixed it!!!!

Go out to your car we have a 2019 expedition, take off all the phones that are currently connected to the car. Then clear out all the blue tooth and connections on the 12.

Then re hook up your phone to the car with bluetooth and carplay.

Now it will charge on the charger.

I shall try this later today. I have a 12 and a new Ford Puma. The phone charges for a while, then I get the misalignment message. Annoying and dangerous whilst driving.

If your solution works I will share it with my U.K. friends on the Puma Forum. Everyone is having the same issue.

My understanding is that Apple moved position of the charging coil. Had Ford known this then they might have adjusted the position of the charging dock but then not everyone has an iPhone 12 so why should others suffer due to Apple changing things?

Its a conundrum because whatever Ford do it will affect someone else. The only real solution is for Apple to fix it and then swap our phones - good luck with that.

stoopo wrote:

My understanding is that Apple moved position of the charging coil. Had Ford known this then they might have adjusted the position of the charging dock but then not everyone has an iPhone 12 so why should others suffer due to Apple changing things?

The location of the coil is not specified by the Qi standard so Apple can put it wherever they like.

Not sure we can say this is not an Apple issue. iPhone X , 7, Samsung S21 work in my 2020 F250 . 12 does not and the 12 does not work on other cars tested. Apple changed there configuration while manufactures use the the same standard.. Not sure if Apple did QA tests before release or even test in development. I’m sure Ford would have been happy to test for them if they were offered. Shame to pay so mush for a phone and one of its main features does not work.

That’s just it, cool placement is not a standard.

Just because other manufacturers put their coils in a certain place and Apple did in the past does not make it a standard and coil location is not specified in the Qi standard.

Thats why charging pucks work so well (you can put the phone on it however you need to) but charging stands that force an alignment have been an issue for years; the iPhone 11 series no longer charged on the Logitech Powered stand in portrait mode, only in landscape, and the iPhone 12 no longer worked with Belkin stands.

Belkin has since discontinued those stands and introduced new stands that are compatible with iPhone 12 models.

Were this the fault of the phone, Belkin would not have redesigned their stands, but they did.

If you ask Belkin about it, they will say that their specifications for their older stands did not say they are iPhone 12-compatible (because the iPhone 12 models hadn’t been released yet) so they are not.

This is the reply that I have received from Ford customer support.

I have received a response from our technical department regarding the concerns you are having with your wireless charging pad. 

Please see below: 

the root cause is an issue with the new introduced feature for iPhone 12, which is called MagSafe (Magnet in Phone), the QI-Standard for Wireless charging is not met and not supported by Automotive Standard for Wireless charging. That affects all OEM's.

I can confirm that Iphone 12 is not compatible and this is because of a new feature introduced for the Iphone 12. This is not an issue with Ford.

Based on the above information, we can confirm that the issue is with the features on the phone, rather than anything that does require fixing within the vehicle. 

To say that I’m disappointed with Ford is an understatement as they should clearly document if iPhones 12 and any future models Apple release are not compatible.

Ford says it's due to MagSafe… but it's not.

The Qi charging coil is in a slightly different location on the phone due to MagSafe requirements, and Ford assumed all Qi phones would have their coils in the same place.

As wireless charging only works with a precise alignment between coils, that causes the issue.

You are correct that Ford should let buyers know of this incompatibility, but even today auto makers and especially dealers are not well-equipped to deal with technical issues interacting with customer devices.

Ford is just doing so much hand waving to try and cover their behind on this.

This isn't hard to see in real life: if you have a Qi charging puck, you will notice that if you move the phone as little as a quarter to one half inch any particular way charging will stop as the coils come unaligned.

All MagSafe does is add magnets to help align the coil to the charging puck, every time, plus slightly redesign the coil itself to allow for faster charging at a higher power than Qi alone allows.

Automotive groups decided to promote Qi charging as a standard… and iPhone 12 devices are fully Qi-compliant.

The fly in the ointment again is alignment of the coils, especially as automakers usually put their charging coils in a specific place in a "tray" as bumps, turns and such would easily allow devices to come misaligned with the coil if it were just a large flat surface. (Imagine just setting your iPhone flat on your dashboard and expecting it to stay in place, you get the idea.)

The problem is when the phone is properly aligned in the tray the coil may no longer be properly aligned with the car's coil and charging does not occur.

This is the same issue seen with charging stands from Logitech and Belkin, and those companies readily admit their products are not compatible with the iPhone 12 without blaming Apple. (Belkin has since announced a new stand that will be.)

ok this is all fine but my 10 year old Kia that uses a USB port to charge my phone doesn't work with my iPhone 12. My iPad works but not the phone so it is a phone issue, as far as I can see. I'm hoping there is some work around but haven't found it yet. Any ideas?

Many older vehicles don’t provide enough power over USB to properly charge newer phones.

Try a more modern cigarette lighter USB adapter.

There have been many reports of this on Kia discussion forums.

Thank you RuiBear1, I just bought a 2020 Edge w/the same problem, funny thing is I just picked it up from the dealership and like the rest on the these threads I was told it’s a software issue. I read you’re suggestion, followed what you said and it works, it works I tell you. Before, it would take 3 hours for my phone to charge 1% and I couldn’t touch it because it would be so hot. Thank you again.

I guess I'll just plug in the phone. :(

I just liked the idea of not dealing with cables. I even bought a wireless carplay dongle that works great. It would be nice just to hop in the car and plop the phone down on the charger.

REPORT THIS TO FORD.

To all who are here because if this, REPORT IT to ford.

I was just online chatting with ford who say they have no reported issues of this. I explained how it was hard to belive as I’ve seen this wireless charger/iPhone 12/13 compatibility issue reported on several owners forums (mustangs/expedition/f150). She said that unless enough people report it to them it won’t be flag to find a solution.

I had reported it to the dealer a couple of days after I bought the car, they were of no help.

so please go to the online chat with ford and report the issue with your car model.