Q: charging is not supported with this accessory

Finch might be on to something here.  Maybe the new os is physically attracting lint/dirt into the connector.  Maybe mac created a software/os that can manipultate matter and - unfortunatley all it does is cause extra dirt to get caught up in the connectors all 3g phones that upgrade to os5.1 - You are genius Finch - Sorry we did not recognize it at first. My most sincere apologies.  Perhaps you should write apple and convince them of your revelation. I FOR ONE AM A BELIEVER!!

Hey all,

I did the "clean the connector" routine and still had the error on both wall charging and connecting to my Mac. I put my iPhone 3GS and iPad both in airplane mode and they charged fully.

Again, I did the OS update on both of these and had to resort to putting in airplane mode to charge. It's a bug that needs to be fixed.

YOU ARE MISTAKEN MY DEAR SDYJIGME, IT IS ONLY YOUR IMAGINATION PLAYING MIND GAMES.  THE REAL ISSUE IS THAT WHEN YOU CHANGED TO AIRPLANE MODE,  OS5.1 USED ITS POWERS TO EJECT THE DIRT CAUGHT IN YOUR CONNECTORS - BECAUSE ITS DEFINITLEY A DIRT ISSUE - RIGHT FINCH?

I'm just going to sit back and watch..I was smart enough to get rid of my I-Phone  (I just use it for wi-fi gaming and music now) and currently carry droids.. they have no built in software bugs to keep them from charging properly

I prefer not to jinx my iPhone (because I do not receive the error message anymore) but I would like to make an update here. First of all, What did I do? Nothing! But, I have stopped receiving the message.

I first received the error message last Friday night. My phone never had a charging problem before or after the message first appeared. The message was very persistent for 3 days. Sometimes, I received it numerous times in a single minute. I kept receiving it at various battery levels. However, it disappeared on Tuesday and I have not received it for the last 3 days. Not even once!

For the records, I have not cleaned the connector at the bottom of my phone. I perceived Mr. Finch's suggestion as a very simple and naive approach to a possibly more complicated problem. It would not hurt cleaning the connector, but I decided to wait on purpose to see what happens. I could not believe my iphone's operating system has a way to sense the dirst and dust around the connector. Let's just assume it does, than why would it say "charging is not supported with this accessory" ? If it is due to the dirt around the connector, I would expect another more meaningfull message related to the problem warning me about that. Besides, why did I first receive the message while not even charging the phone and received it at least a 100 times in 3 days while the phone was just in use and not connected to a charger?

So, I did not clean at all and the message is gone now. What happened to the dirt and dust?

I have been using my iphone 3GS for more than2 years now. I definitely think that it is getting older. However, I also think that this error message is nonsense. It is very interesting to hear that other people started receiving the message right after upgrading the iOS. It has been months since I updated the firmware and I have just started receving it last weekend. it really felt like a virus that sits on a Windows computer for a while and all of a sudden activates.

After my experience, I certainly believe this is a bug with the iPhone and there is a need for another update to the iOS.

Anyway, I am glad my error message is gone now. I hope the same for the other people on this thread and I hope it will never comeback.

I have a similar issue.. but it's with my powermat receiver case.  right after I rebooted from updating to 5.1.  I had to dock and undock it several times to get it to work.. it works fine with the apple cable when it's out of the holder.  I bought another holder thinking that was the issue.  It still wouldn't charge with anything other than the apple cable. I would still get the message if I plugged in the mini usb connector into the powermat cover.   my solution was to roll back to 5.0 from 5.1  now both receiver cases and the usb work again.    hardware issue my eye..

Seems to me we are argueing about this while the people at the Apple camp sit back and laugh. A bit of a coincidence that a lot of Iphones are not charging and that they all happened about the same time. It is my belief that thw people at Apple needall the older 3gs phone to fail so they can seel the later model, after all I'm sure we have all got plenty of paid for apps and to buy an opposition phone would mean scrapping them. My phone has always been kept in surgical conditions and again a coincidence that when I upgraded the software suddenly the connector got "dirty". I have had mine cleaned, bought new charger (Apple) and cables, all what I see is a rip off and probably uneccesary cost. Perhaps I'm cynic, Engineered software obsolecence?

I agree.  I had no problems, and now I have issues with four different chargers/methods, including the original iPhone charger that came with my phone.  Doesn't work right at work, home, laptop, car, or travel charger.

Something is definitely amiss.

Hello guys.

I too just updated my iOS on my 3GS and now getting this error, "Charging is not supported with this accessory" when I unplug my phone from any Apple charging cable which I have been using for years.

It is definitely a bug. I have never got this error before and it's news to me.

For the record. I have the same prob on my ios5 3gs. I have no idea what causes it but am just cracked up with all the salvos fired at Mr. Finch . they really made my day. Mr. Finch maybe you trolling here?   (just kidding). I hope we get a permanent fix for this somehow

I have a decommissioned 3GS that I use as a touch, so I just updated it to 5.1.1 to see what all of the hullabaloo was about. I have no problems of any kind with it, not even a "charging is not not supported" message.

.

   After reading your sarcastic reply, I just blew on the connectors to blow away any dust or whatever, and charging again proceeded normally!

    So sarcasm is useful sometimes.

.

it doesn't work unless you use a soft toothbrush.. based on the number of "dirty connectors" maybe I should buy stock in colgate....

And because the issue didn't happen on mr Finch's 3GS mobile, makes all the rest of people in this post liars or tech incompetents... nice try mr Finch, nice try.

I was just responding to an earlier claim that ALL 3GS's have the problem.