Slow Charging, Not Charging, Thunderbolt Charging Symbol Not Appearing

I would like to share this with all of you as I did not see this in the Internet anywhere. It may help some of you now or in the future. I did not get this type of specific information either from Apple Customer Service over the phone.

Background

From the time I upgraded to 11 iOS (thereabouts), charging my iPad Pro was getting to be a bit “fickle-minded”. I had to wiggle it in a certain way then I will again see the thunderbolt charging symbol. So it is charging while in use. Nonetheless, charging seemed slower than usual. If the thunderbolt charging symbol is not present but I do not use the iPad, it manages to charge itself although slow. Then I upgraded to iOS 11.3.1 the other day, and my iPad Pro will not charge whether it is in use or not in use. All cable accessories are Apple, no third-party cable accessory. The only third party accessory am using is the Logitech CREATE backlit keyboard case. I saw in the Internet a thread of some people having charging issues and were blaming the Logitech keyboard.

So all this time, I’ve been blaming the iOS11 as I’ve seen in the Internet a lot of charging issues being linked to iOS11.

Diagnostics

As a non-tech person, what I did were the following:

1. Disconnected my iPad Pro from the Logitech keyboard case - did not work; iPad Pro still was not charging

2. I connected my iPhone cable to the iPad Pro charger - did not work; iPad Pro still was not charging (note even my iPhones have same charging issue; but to me was not a big deal as it is still charging though slower than usual)

3. Called up Apple customer service over the phone - they gave me the instruction how to reload the iOS fresh (i.e., into its manufacturer setting) as it may be the software that is causing the issue; there may have been some corrupted file while the iOS was loading when I upgraded it. Fortunately, I did not have to follow the instructions as my iPad Pro was down to 9% charge.

Solution

What an Apple store personnel did was we tried with a different cable. He enlightened me on how a cable could have started becoming defective. I never thought about my cable being defective as it did not have any tear or crack. Apparently, those wrinkles or “turtleneck” that I encircled in red are signs of defective cable. As I never became conscious of when those “turtleneck“ started appearing so I took it all Apple cable are like it. Second picture shows the ideal cable, i.e., absolutely no wrinkle or “turtleneck”. In my case, I just changed the cable, used the same old adapter that came with my iPad Pro. And voila, bingo, eureka - issues of slow charging, no charging, missing thunderbolt charging symbol are all gone. (This must be same issue with my cell which I will try in a little while. As my iPhone cells’ cables also already have the wrinkle.)

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Picture below is ideal - no wrinkle, no turtleneck.

Apparently those wrinkles are caused by the heat when it is charging, and the wrinkle are the shortcuiting that is happening. These wrinkles start when you keep on moving the iOS device as it is charging. Ideally, the iOS device should not be moved, jostled while charging whether they are not in use, or in use while charging.

Am back as an Apple loyalist when it comes to tablets and cellphones. I was close to losing it.