Rust on smart cover?

Just noticed that my smart cover had rusted along several sections of the magnetic area. This is after only two weeks of use. Seems this is a good idea but flawed in its execution. Has left two marks on the iPad that will not polish off. Considering how expensive the cover is for what it is that's a pretty poor piece of design on apple's part. Just junked the cover and picked up a Targus with no visible metal.

i also have the same problem !!!

some one help me please T.T

So the new cover shows signs of oxidation as well. Went to apple store and the "genius" now tells me that it's normal wear and tear for this cover. Where I the friggin manual did it say that! I would have gladly avoided this cover had I known. Also does that mean that every month or so I should just trot into a store and just get a new cover?

How can I escalate this issue? Obviously the store is going to end up treating me like if I was an idiot.

No replacement of ipad cover with rusty magnetic hinge in Singapore! The shop and even the apple service center (Wheelock Place) told me that it was "beyond their assistance" since it was bought for quite some time. One Apple Reseller at 313 even told me that it could be due to wear and tear (even when I told him that it was a gift from a friend in less than a month and was kept in a laptop bag). At apple service center, a service guy who attended to me advised me that they could not replace the faulty cover and should call up apple to get a apple case id on how it should be resolved.

It appears that apple service really suxs big time in Singapore. Many apple store available, but when theres a problem with the product, everyone just shrug helpless and beyond their control. Even at apple service centre, they have no other provider to refer to and will refer you to call the hotline instead? What service?

Well I had 3 rust spots on my smart cover and some of them got on to the side of the Ipad2.

I took valuable advise from this forum and got to the Apple store.

They looked at it for a while and said its cosmetic damage it wont be covered by policy.

When I told them it was from the smart cover they said only thing they can replace is the rusty smart cover and I will have to half of my original Ipad2 price for changing the rusty cover of my Ipad2.

Kinda disappointing cause it just been 6 months..

Mne started out fine but over the last 5 or so months that I have had it, it has steadily gotten worse. It still works, although the magnetic force that connects it to the side of the iPad may not be as strong as it used to be.

Hi, it seems that the same rusty cover issue surface across the globe (from NY to Singapore). The guy from Apple has been at least nice to offer half the price for a new cover. Not my case in Singapore.

Given some thoughts comtemplating over another day of endless call to Apple and requesting for an ID lodged, I have decided to go back to basics: removing the rust on the cover using a tweezer. Sounds crude but yes, rubbing off the rust area like Flintstone. And at least to my pleasant surprise the rust came off and remain shiny for the past week. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Perhaps a robust and functional ipad 2 is better, I thought.

😝

I had this same problem after a month of using a grey smart cover with the iPad 2. In my case I removed the cover one day and there was a powdery brown substance on the iPad. I wiped it away but it left a brown stain that couldn't be removed.

I bought both the iPad and cover from my local apple store (Bath) who were good enough to replace the iPad and cover. The guy was surprised by the problem and had not encountered it before. However, I'm now reluctant to use the smart cover in case the problem reoccurs.

I am also a fellow Apple smart cover user in Singapore! I bought my dark grey smart cover on 31 March 2012 and just one month into using it, the brown marks started to appear. Initially I didn't dwell too much into it but a few days ago, I found out that more spots surfaced and the stains rubbed onto my iPad as well!

Did a quick search online and chanced upon this discussion thread that the brown marks are apparently rust and some users are unable to remove the marks on their ipad. I already called Singapore's Apple support and they told me there is nothing they can do about it as they have not heard about this issue before and they told me to approach the shop i got it from.

Hence I went to The shop (a rather well known and famous IT retailer) and well they basically said they can't do anything as they are only a reseller. What the guy did was to try and wipe off the stains on my smart cover magnetic strip. He used the same cleaner as what they will use to wipe the screens. He said its primarily due to dust trapped in the gap and was rather sarcastic by saying "nobody actually buys the smart cover because a lot of people already complained on forum." Oh well, he suggested me going to the apple service centre instead. The only helpful thing he did was to search for the addresses online and printed a copy out for me.

Looking at the response here, I doubt going to the apple service support centres in Singapore would help.

The lighter stains can be removed but most of the stains were still around. This doesn't solve the problem I feel cos 1 month down the road, newer stains will most probably surface again. I don't mind wiping the stains off here and there but the stains may just get rubbed onto the iPad itself and if one does not discover early, might not be so lucky to be able to wipe it off easily.

Dos anyone from Apple read this forum? Can someone from Apple provide a good explanation on this and give a solution? Thank you.

Sounds like very poor customer from the store you bought the ipad. You have all the rights to get it repaired or have replacement. 'Never seen it before' etc. comments are just bad excuses.

I think Apple customer support should be able to help. Please print this conversation to back-up your message and try to be very strict. Apple devices are build to highest precision but this lousy defect is like from the cheapest chinese copy-products.

Hey thanks for the comments, just want to clarify, when you say customer support, are you referring to the phone support team or the service centre team (meaning in person)? I am contemplating going down to the service centers because I am not sure if it will be a wasted trip. There was a fellow Singaporean whom left a comment above mentioning that it was useless contacting Apple.

I had the same problem after only a few weeks of using the smart cover I bought at Best Buy.

I also had rust on my new iPad 3 that I just bought a few weeks ago and was ******.

I just wanted to say that I tried cleaning the rust spot from my new iPad with toothpaste and it cleaned right up.

Toothpaste is a mild abrasive and I used to use toothpaste to try to remove small scratches from plastic and to polish with.

Just a small amount lightly with a damp cloth or paper towel should be all that's needed.

Hope this helps someone.

This is not cool, i am using the new ipad (ipad3) only for 2 weeks and now seeing this rust spot on both smart cover and ipad, i bought them both from apple online store. I had seen this rust only on the smart cover 1 week ago and neglected but today i see the rust spot has gone bigger and appeared on ipad also. I tried to clean both with my nails, but it didn't cleaned totaly, left a brown shade 😟 I searched google and landed on this thread. Duh, i wish i knew it before. I should not have bought this apple's cover, targus covers seems more cool, maybe i should get one of them, does anyone faced this rust problem in targus's covers ?

As a science major i know rust can only happen in iron and this rust is looking definitely similar to rusts that form in irons. This type of rust can not happen in aluminiam. I'll try to totaly clean the rust from ipad with a glass cleaner.

Sharim, the rust is not from the aluminium but from the magnets beneath. Both sides the ipad and the smart cover have dedicated magnets on corresponding areas. Looks like the magnet material is not good and the design is not optimum since the rust is leaking to a visible surface. Also, seems like this is not corrected to ipad version 3. ...would be quite easy to redesign actually

I had this problem with a grey smart cover staining a brand new ipad 2. The Apple Store where I purchased both items replaced the ipad and smart cover. After a month I noticed a small brown stain on cover/ipad again. I had been careful to always remove the cover whilst charging the ipad so can confirm it has nothing to do with heat from charging. Luckily I'd caught it early enough that I could remove the stain but I took the cover back and replaced it for the new smart cover that has a back cover incorporated (and no magnetic strip).

My hunch is that a large majority of these smart covers are defective. Just a hunch, but I find it quite a coincidence that I experienced this problem with the only two smart covers I ever bought (both grey fwiw). I would certainly not recommend them to anyone, and if you are using one I think it's worth consistently checking for these rust marks before they damage the ipad casing.