iPhone 5s 'This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably...' help?

For your protection!!!!! Forcing you to buy a product at a greatly inflated price is not in anyone’s interest and is anti-competitive.

Just an update: I went to Singtel (reseller) and they sent the iPhone to Apple. Only after paying S$ 831 deposit. This week I received a textmessage that the iPhone passed the evaluation test and is eligible for replacement. I'll receive my deposit back.

Regarding the thread: I am a very heavy Apple user for 10 years now. Not only iPhone, but also MacBook, iMac, iPad and Apple TV. The reason: Apple offers a very easy and stable ecosystem. Hardly any trouble with syncronising, updates, etc.

Last week I bought a Windows Laptop for my work (because of the software) and since then I only faced problems. For example: InterExplorer seems to ignore Google as standard search engine. If I want to change Bing for Google, I have to program in a "Dos text box" with commands like I used in the '90's! Or the fact that I have to restart my laptop nearly twice a day as programs don't respond anymore. And for your information: I bought a very fast laptop with 8GB internal memory with Intel 7. The latest configuration.

My point: every system has it's advantages and disadvantages. It's a matter of which system offer most benefits and take the disadvantages for granted (but keep critical!). And if this means that I have to buy genuine cables, I'll do this as long as Apple tells me why. And somehow this seems to be a problem sometimes.

@SeanTown

What product are they forcing you to buy at a greatly exaggerated price? What does that even mean? Apple wants you to use MFI certified chargers..period. I use more than one Rocketfish short chargers in my car, and with a 12 foot usb extension from the back of my computer with no issues.

As someone stated in an earlier post if you are having this problem with charging and it is a software issue, or in some cases a dmaged cable. That's it.. it's sad how people keep making this to be some sinister plot by Apple to force you to ONLY use their charging accessories.

Also for all these people that are claiming that Apple will do nothing I have to step in here and disagree. I had an issue back in January with a rep at my local Apple store over an appointment to get my girlfriends 4s replaced for the 3rd time in a week. This rep decided he was going to make a stand that day and not help me without an appointment. No matter that I showed up at the Apple store 10 mins after opening, so employees were just standing around. Told him I was there for a simple exchange, since we had only gotten the phone 2 days prior. No matter how much I explained the situation, and showed my anger and dissatisfaction, this guy would not budge and was telling me that I needed to come back at 8:00pm that evening for an appointment! It was absolutely ridiculous.

So I left the store and called Apple directly.. Spoke with the first level rep and explained my situation. he immediately escalated my call to a senior advisor. She started a case for me, as well as called the store directly to make the genius reservation for me. Somehow magically she was able to make an immedaiate appointment for me, with email confirmation as we spoke on the phone. She also extened the replacement phones warranty, since my GF's original phone warranty was set to expire in about a week. I received all of this in writing via email as we spoke. She also offered to upgrade the phone if we had anymore issues, as she had the ability to go above and beyond the normal protocol to remedy the situation.

She also gave me her schedule and direct # if I had any further issues, rather than deal with the store. My point to all this is.. this doesn't seem like a company that is out to get it's customers. Yes they are a business, and yes they want your money as a customer. I feel like poeople that aren't getting this remedied need to see this as a shortcoming of the genuis rep that they are dealing with, or that particular store, not Apple as company.

A funny part to this whole post was going abck got the appointment and having the same guy that gave me a hard time check us in, then the manager came out and got us, had us sit at the genius bar while he replaced the phone and got everything set up.. I thought the guy's head was going to explode! 🙂

Apple branded products - cheaper products are your choice to buy and you should not be penalised by the phone manufacturer if you do. This problem started with them chipping the lightening cables to talk to the phone and pop a warning if no chip was found. A bug in iOS instead of just popping a warning also refused to draw power (even from an Apple cable) effectively killing the phone.

As to your experience, well done I am pleased your issues have been fixed.

As to my own and the thousands of others still suffering, Apple did nothing and continue to do nothing.

I wasn't looking for praise for resolving my issues, I was pointing out the level of Apple's customer service. I also mentioned that I personally use two non-apple "Rocketfish" brand Best Buy 6in charging cables that work without issue. They are MFI certified and also cheaper than Apple brand sync cables. I use these with the iphone 5.

There are thousands with this issue upset because that Apple is doing nothing. I can counter and say that there are millions without the issue, I am one of them...

I wasn't replying to argue, I was trying to give advice and point you and others to call Apple and get this resolved. I also strongly believe that the approach you take with the rep you deal with will help your cause. Call them ranting about Apple being greedy, and how they don't care about customers choices you may be left hanging. Call with a calm tone and explain the issue you may get what you are looking for.

As I said My GF's 4s was a little less than a week before being out of warranty, and the rep I spoke with was able to extend that for this particular instance to make sure we had a product that wasn't going to fail again.

That doesn't change the fact that cheap knockoff lables have been know to start fires, electrocute people, fry the innards of the device.

Since there is not way to inspect every cable made everywhere, and there are no idustry standards for producing those cables, there is no way to distinguish the really really bad ones from the ones that are good. Apple has provided several Certified vendors that you can purchase from if you don't want to purchase from Apple, but those are the only ones that they have been able to test to the level that they have determined they are safe to use and not detrimental to the User of the Device.

So, no one is removing your freedom to go out there and purchase some cable off the street and to try it on your exepensive iPhone 5, if you wish. Just understand the risk, and if the Apple Device has the intelligence built into it to protect you from yourself, you should be grateful...

Cheers,

GB

Thank you for missing the point!

I am for Apple protecting people from cables that are substandard - but when that protection is the cause of your phone dying and you being charged £250 (in my case) to get it replaced, I think Apple should do more - especially when we all pay a premium for their products to safeguard against this in the first place!

Sean

I'm completely fed up with this accessory message. The quality of the cable is irrelevant, how many "knockoff" USB cables are there out there? Is a lightning cable any different or special? NO. Apple is telling us that a simple MicroUSB cable is substantially more robust than lighting and that they think they have found another way to increase profit margins. This is the kind of apple ******** that makes the 5s my last ******* iPhone. It is also how apple lost to Microsoft in the 80s. Will Apple return to $1 per share? Probably

Yeah - well when your phone bursts into flames, or somone you care about gets electrocuted, then maybe you won't be so sceptical about the need to have some controls here. How many "knockoff" USB cables are out there? (and BTW - this issue is more around the charging cable, not the USB cable....), but anyway, how many? How many factories in China that can generate hundreds of thousands electronic accessories per day are out there? No standards, no oversight, profit being the biggest driver.

Do you use extension cords in your house that are not UL approved?

The quality of the cable is not irrelevant - it is everything. Crappy cable, fire hazard. Crappier cable, shock hazard. Crappiest cable, total meltdown of the interior of your device, fire, and electrocution....

What can I tell you? Apple is protecting themselves as much as you here. If they don't stop people from using any old piece of crap off the street to charge and power up their devices, you can believe they will be the first ones hauled into court to defend themselves against people who want to blame Apple for their own bad decisions.

So, Apple just took it out of their hands. Because 9 times out of 10, the person is going to go the cheapest route possible without remembering "you get what you pay for". So, when they "get what they pay for" they want to blame someone else. Apple doesn't want to be on the receiving end of that absurd litigation.

Cheers,

GB

Okay, I am agreeing with you!

That said, the warning that you are using a non certified cable should not pop every time it is plugged in - there should be a box to tick to say you've read it (to protect Apple against a lawsuit) and to not keep annoying people. The same protection should also not cause the phone to fail and the manufacturer should fix it at their cost, not the consumer.

Let's hope this is the last time we are all complaining about Apple!

Regards

Sean

I am getting this message with an apple original cable and charger. Does that mean that the cable is bad or counterfeit? Or is that a glitch, cannot charge my iPhone, no one nearby carries the original apple cable. Is it safe to just get a generic non apple cable?

thank you

It has nothing to do with the cable. Read earlier posts. LOTS of us have had the same problem with the original cable. I rebooted my 5s and still had the message. The next day it was gone and I have no idea why. It leasted less than 24 hours. I have several Apple stores nearby and wanted to take this issue to the Genius Bar but it was gone a few hours before my appointment.

There are no solutions yet. Be sure to update to the latest iOS version and hope for a fix.

I'm seconding caljim here: it has nothing to do with the cable. I had the problem and have never used anything but official Apple cable. The problem is apparently software, and it **may**, according to the genius bar, be caused by updating an old phone. The genius bar had me change the battery. That didn't work. We restored the phone. That didn't work. I had to replace my phone. Rebulding from scratch **might** work, but it didn't for me.

I think that in my case it's a faulty or maybe a counterfeit cable? Just tried with another cable (apple) and it worked.

I finally bought a certified belkin cable and the problem is gone.

It is a pity that the original cable I had does not worked while a third party one works.

many thanks for your swift replies.

cheers

Wrong angle: this is not about "protection", this is not about "cheap".

This is about licensing and market control, plain and simple

Not even Heaven-alike-Apple and its devoted believers should be empowered to decide if I buy cheap or not.