Lightning Cable Corrosion?

This all has NOTHING whatever to do with WATER!

It is due to poor design.

The pathetic little contacts are NOT up to carrrying the amperage needed and are simply BURNING up.

Apple needs to STOP blaming the customer and TAKE responsibility for this mess. . . .

Stop crying nonsense.

Just exactly what is "NONSENSE"? do you think these people are MAKING THIS UP?

And just who are you, anyway?

If this cable and socket assembly were correctly designed, this would NOT happen.

kindly stop giving "orders" and being pushy, pal.

"A bad batch"

LOL!!!

Just who are you to question the honest statements of users??

MY cable was a genuine product -- from apple.

and many of us are speaking only about iphone 5 cables.

Stop being an apple apologist.

who said "everyone has this problem"?

I think you need a blog all your own. one YOU can moderate and be as pompous as you desire.

end of discussion. <snicker>

I agree that the problem is more likely a design flaw and not moisture related. I've had two cables show the burned connectors and start failing to charge my iPad Air. I started noticing the darkened connectors on the lightning cables in only a few weeks after buying the iPad last in Nov 2013. Unlike a phone, my iPad is used at home only. It is always indoors and has never been exposed to moisture. The Air is my 4th iPad, and I never had any charging problems with the old connectors.

Rome, Italy, Iphone5s, bought one year ago (christmas 2013), I have three cables, one the original from apple, two OEM. I use them in more or less the same settings : i have one in my bag, one near my bed, one usually attached to my computer, but they "rotate".

Recently (last 2/3 weeks) i started experiencing the problem, sometimes it does not charge, sometimes it makes intermittent charge/not charging, sometimes it say the cable is not compatible. Removing, flipping, rubbing them a bit, etc... and then they usually work.

It does this on all three cables, and all three cables show the black/bluish stains (call it whatever you like) on the fourth pin starting from the left, on both sides. Some smaller black stains appear also on the nearby pins in one side of two of the three cables.

I tried "cleaning" it, but no way. I don't have a microscope to see if it is oxidation over the pin or corrosion of the pin itself. However, bluish stains are often on the plastic part, black ones on the pin itself, and they seem to be different, the bluish ones can be removed by rubbing, the black ones no. If I try to scratch the pin with something solid (a needle for example), i can feel the surface of the affected pin has some concavity (holes, craters, whatever).

As to moisture, I think Apple (and most other manufacturers following Apple) are taking the wrong side here. We have often humidity around 80/90% here, and our phones are with us in what could be even worse situations, like crowded places, sudden termical changes (in and out of a car in summer, in and out of house in winter) that can cause condensation. So, they should either tell us not to carry the phones with us too often, or made them able to resist these quite normal "shocks". Unless you dipped your phone in your cappuccino, i would not accept the "moisture" argument if not as a clever excuse to refuse to replace your phone.

I will buy a new cable as soon as possible, because I want to check if it's my phone and if it's permanent (that is, if it will make also the new cable have the same problem in a short time), and also I'm afraid that, be it corrosion/erosion/whatever, the contact surface on the cable is now smaller that it originally was, and that can cause damage to the contact in the phone itself, especially if there is an hypotheses of some electrical arcing.

I have burned though several original Apple lighting cables (purchase 3 iPhones and a iPad mini). They all show the same issue of a burned contactor in the middle. I do love these cables though. My solution was to go on e-Bay and simply buy knock offs straight from China. I get 'em for a $1 or $2, shipped, and I buy 5 or 10 at a time. They last for several months and at the first site of problems I just chunk it and get a new one. And I don't feel bad for the price.

The lightning cable is great, but the 30 pin was a lot more resilient. I have 2 that have been in daily usage for years and show no problems with charging.

Yup

This is a common issue - and not surprising. I have had 4 of them go like this.

Because the contacts are exposed, unlike all the other connector types, they are prone to touching other surfaces.

This happens most commonly in cars if the cable is left plugged into a maintained charger (ie not switched off when the key is removed) and the cable touches even a remotely damp carpet (for example). Electrolytic action occurs which destroys the contacts that are 'live'. Like this:

Damage can also occur if the plug comes into contact with grounded metal parts of the car, but that is less likely.

As for corrosion happening at home, when the plug has never apparently come into contact with anything wet, it only takes trace moisture to start the electrolytic action if the cable is left plugged into a live charger. It could even happen with traces of hand cream because the surface of the contacts is in the same plane as the supporting insulation

When I first saw one of these connectors when the 5 first came out, I immediately wondered if this would be an issue. You wouldn't normally leave live exposed wires with *any* voltage on them hanging around without expecting some failure. A week later, because of careless unplugging in the car and leaving the cable plugged into the charger with the connector resting on a slightly damp carpet, my concern was verified. That was the first of them to go this way. Sadly, despite trying to remember to unplug the charger every time I leave the car, I have now destroyed 4 of them in exactly the same way. Doh.

An imperfect design.

It has nothing to do with moisture or touching other items or wet carpet in the car. It is a design flaw. By now it has become obvious to everyone even the most casual observer: the Lightning Cable is a complete failure of a product design. It is the Achilles heel of the iDevices.

The Lightning Cable has the worst customer satisfaction ranking of any Apple product, you need to go no further than the Apple Online Store to see this and read the reviews. This is not limited to a few oddball or unfortunate customers. The lightning cable is a farce.

I can't tell you how many lightning cables I have been through where the contacts have blackened/burned off etc. Meanwhile, all my old gen Apple iDevice cables work fine - I have never needed to buy replacements for the previous cable design. I will not be buying any new Apple products that use the Lightning cable - I will wait for the inevitable next iteration of cables to come along before I resume buying - or maybe become an Android fan if it takes too long for Apple to correct course.

Not only has the corroding lightning cable been source of frustration getting my device to charge since the terminals have corroded but it has caused the middle contacts on my IPhone to corrode down to almost nothing. I had to order a replacement connector and the tools to fix it for over $60!.. Here is a link to the replacement part:

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-5-Dock-Connector-and-Headphone-Jack/I F118-003-1

I have the Ipad 3rd gen and a Iphone 6 Plus and I have been going though many cables because of corrosion. It does not matter what device I plug the cables in or what computer or what power outlet or even if I unplug the cable from the power source first then from the devices, they always corrode. At first I thought it was burnt marks. To date, I have been though 12 lighting connectors and I am on my 13th. They seem to corrode or get burnt marks ever 3 weeks.

I don't know what to do anymore. I am tired of going though and paying $20.00 a cable as I am a full time RIT student.

I've looked inside the devices and I don't see any viable marks of any kind. I am using only apple approved chargers. Oh and they are not near any forms of liquid or in high humidity. They are in a climate controlled room so I don't know how they are even corroding.

Because of going though these cables, I am to scared to buy any accessories such as docking stations.

I just thought about it, I have spent over $260 in cables since owning both Ipad and Iphone 6 plus.

Someone please help me.

i am a master electrician and repair electronics and one of my responsibilities is to have manufacturers own up to their warranties. At this point it seems as if my technical expertise had hit deaf ears at the "genius bar" at apple. My phone stopped charging for good last night, I noticed corrosion on the charger before

but cleaned if off with contact cleaner and a toothbrush . this actually wasn't corrosion at all but carbon deposit left from arcing and overheated conductors. I agree with the others on here the charger plugs in without enough pressure and too loosely into an aluminum framed phone which expands contracts with heat and cold more then almost every solid metal and bends too easily. My charger just doesn't have enough pressure and even when new, could not charge fast enough to run Google maps.

Yesterday afternoon it just wouldn't charge past 7 percent and died. I thought perhaps my charger was no good anymore after charging it and tried my wife's brand new charger she purchased for her iPhone six plus. It almost held a charge but I could feel the cord overheating in less then a minute, pulled it out to find carbon marks and green corrosion from the arcing electrolysis. I cleaned it off and didn't mention it to her.

I called apple care and they told me likely that they would replace the phone because it was a manufacturer defect.

I went into the Apple Store today, the customer service rep told me it was likely they'd replace the phone under warranty. He came back and said, for 300 We can replace it because the warranty doesn't cover corrosion. I told him take it back in the lab the phone is bone dry. He did and the phone was dry but he said corrosion is not covered. At this point I could feel my blood pressure raising. They still had no hypothesis as too why the pins were melted clean off the inside of the charging point and the inside was covered in carbon.

I told him ," the phone was always dry, it's not corrosion its carbon deposit. The corrosion or carbon is a symptom of the arcing"

He went and got his manager.

the manager was very nice but had no intention of understanding the technicality of the issue and basically was there to say he had no power to replace my phone because of the technician in the back of the genius bars findings. I explained to him I read this thread and the issue is a loose connection. He agreed but shook my hand and listened to me waiting for me to calm down and leave. I can not recall being this angry in a long time. I left with my broken phone I purchased just 6 months ago and the burnt charger cable.

Not knowingwhat to do next I contacted apple care again and they basically told me that the genius bars decision is final and cannot be overrided. He said in their notes that the warranty was not honored due to user misuse. I was not told this in store. The notes had no explanation as to why two of the pins within the phone were completely melted off and again the contacts within the phone had carbon marks.

I spoke to Apple cares supervisor and surprise surprise she didn't even know what an electrical arc was and she couldn't do anything not transfer me to anyone who could help me. This is a major customer service failure on Apples part. A company with such a giant profit margin should have no problem owning up to their own engineering and manufacturing oversights. From this thread it is obvious to see I am not alone.

Hred dress the kicker, my wife emailed me telling me her new iPhone 6 plus lightening charger was broken and it wasn't my phone. I said no , my work phone is charging fine, which is an iPhone six , with my car charger. Turns out, just plugging it into my phone for five minutes destroyed a brand new charger. Even after I cleaned the contacts. And get this, she just got home after buying a new charger, and guess what now her iPhone 6 plus is dead and won't take a charge, I looked at the inside of her phone and bingo, carbon marks. Apple you better own up to your warranties, don't think your too big of a company too lose public trust, because you've severely disappointed me. I'm a professional in the electronics industry and you cannot fool me.

I've now seen this problem for the first time since starting to use Lightning cables 2.5 years ago. A user brought me a faulty cable, and I got it working by scraping black stuff off the middle two contacts on both sides of the Lightning connector. Three of the contacts are very deeply pitted, so I assume they're now down to the copper and will corrode quickly, so I gave her a new one.

We've got 80 iPads and 80 iPhones here, and have recently changed all the iPhones over from 5's to 6's, so there are 240 Lightning cables around the place. If this is the only one this happens to then I'm ok with this failure rate. This particular cable lasted the user about 6 months. If it's her phone causing the problem then it'll happen to the new cable too. I'm hoping it's not going to be widespread among all the iPhone 6's, as we're only 6 months into a 2 year contract.