0.2m Lightning to 30-pin adapter incompatible with Apple Leather Case for 5 / 5S

[darkgoob]

Just a warning: The new Apple Leather Case for the iPhone 5 / 5S does not work with the 0.2m Lightning to 30-pin adapter cable that Apple sells. I bought the cable and took it to my car to hook it up and the end is too fat to fit inside the hole in the case. I did not have this problem with the Lightning cable that was included with the iPhone 5S since it has a slimmer plug.

I wish Apple didn't do things like this. I wish they didn't make only a 0.2m cable that costs $200 per meter. I wish they made a 2m long version. It should only be $20, max. It should work with all their official-branded accessories. I'm kind of surprised they didn't check this before issuing the cases.

 

[Radiating]

Just a warning: The new Apple Leather Case for the iPhone 5 / 5S does not work with the 0.2m Lightning to 30-pin adapter cable that Apple sells. I bought the cable and took it to my car to hook it up and the end is too fat to fit inside the hole in the case. I did not have this problem with the Lightning cable that was included with the iPhone 5S since it has a slimmer plug.

I wish Apple didn't do things like this. I wish they didn't make only a 0.2m cable that costs $200 per meter. I wish they made a 2m long version. It should only be $20, max. It should work with all their official-branded accessories. I'm kind of surprised they didn't check this before issuing the cases.

They did check and chose not to support the lightning adapter because a tighter fitting case looks better.

I will agree though that Apple should have made a lightning adapter that didn't have an oversize connector and should have made it longer. However this is easily solved with a properly fitting lightning extension cable:

http://imod.co/shop/lightning-extension-cable-for-ios-7/

Note: I don't guarantee that this particular one is compatible with the Apple case, but I'm sure that somebody makes a lightning extension cable that is the smaller size.

 

[Fry-man22]

Just a warning: The new Apple Leather Case for the iPhone 5 / 5S does not work with the 0.2m Lightning to 30-pin adapter cable that Apple sells. I bought the cable and took it to my car to hook it up and the end is too fat to fit inside the hole in the case. I did not have this problem with the Lightning cable that was included with the iPhone 5S since it has a slimmer plug.

I wish Apple didn't do things like this. I wish they didn't make only a 0.2m cable that costs $200 per meter. I wish they made a 2m long version. It should only be $20, max. It should work with all their official-branded accessories. I'm kind of surprised they didn't check this before issuing the cases.

Works fine for me...

 

[darkgoob]

Works fine for me...

There must be two versions of the cord then...

----------

They did check and chose not to support the lightning adapter because a tighter fitting case looks better.

I will agree though that Apple should have made a lightning adapter that didn't have an oversize connector and should have made it longer. However this is easily solved with a properly fitting lightning extension cable:

http://imod.co/shop/lightning-extension-cable-for-ios-7/

Note: I don't guarantee that this particular one is compatible with the Apple case, but I'm sure that somebody makes a lightning extension cable that is the smaller size.

imod.co's is just a Lightning-to-Lightning adapter. That's not what I would need. They don't offer anything longer than 0.2m either, for the Lightning-to-30-pin adapter. It makes me wonder if there's an impedance issue.

 

[DollaTwentyFive]

There must be two versions of the cord then...

----------



imod.co's is just a Lightning-to-Lightning adapter. That's not what I would need. They don't offer anything longer than 0.2m either, for the Lightning-to-30-pin adapter. It makes me wonder if there's an impedance issue.

Interesting you mention an impedance issue. I also have the 30 pin to lightning adapter. I have my lightning cable in the car at the moment. I purchased the 5s dock and for the past couple of days I have been using it with the 5. Since my lightning cable was in the car, I grabbed one of my 30 pin cables and plugged the light ing adapter into it and then plugged that into the 5s dock. Error message - this accessory is not supported.

Then I plugged the adapter directly into the phone and it charged.

So it would seem that the 30 pin to lightning connector may be presenting different impedance and that does not make the 5s dock happy.

 

[Richdmoore]

I wanted to thank everyone for this thread. I was planning of using the .2m adapter with the apple leather case, it did not occur to me that they may be incompatible.

Because my phone is on backorder, I would not be able to test the adapter until after the return period expired. Seeing this thread allowed me to return the adaptor while I can, and look for other solutions (or wait to see if the adaptor's are modified with smaller plugs.)

Thanks again.

 

[darkgoob]

I wanted to thank everyone for this thread. I was planning of using the .2m adapter with the apple leather case, it did not occur to me that they may be incompatible.

Because my phone is on backorder, I would not be able to test the adapter until after the return period expired. Seeing this thread allowed me to return the adaptor while I can, and look for other solutions (or wait to see if the adaptor's are modified with smaller plugs.)

Thanks again.

You're welcome. It took me a wasted trip to Best Buy tonight to get the 0.2m adapter before I realized, "Oh sh- this thing doesn't work with the darned case!" Luckily they let me back inside after closing so I could return the cable. The Geek Squad lady did not sound like it was the first one of these she's seen come back.

I suppose one could take a file and widen the hole, but I can't bring myself to do this.

----------

Interesting you mention an impedance issue. I also have the 30 pin to lightning adapter. I have my lightning cable in the car at the moment. I purchased the 5s dock and for the past couple of days I have been using it with the 5. Since my lightning cable was in the car, I grabbed one of my 30 pin cables and plugged the light ing adapter into it and then plugged that into the 5s dock. Error message - this accessory is not supported.

Then I plugged the adapter directly into the phone and it charged.

So it would seem that the 30 pin to lightning connector may be presenting different impedance and that does not make the 5s dock happy.

Yeah, since the cable carries power, the current would be affected by the length of the cable, just like with USB. If you already have a 30-pin cable that's the maximum possible length it can be, then if you introduce additional length and adapters to the cable, it could cause the power level to fall too low by increasing resistance in the wire. The same thing happens if you have a USB cable that's too long.

And I think it would be properly called resistance, not impedance, actually, since we're only dealing with DC power here.

 

[DollaTwentyFive]

You're welcome. It took me a wasted trip to Best Buy tonight to get the 0.2m adapter before I realized, "Oh sh- this thing doesn't work with the darned case!" Luckily they let me back inside after closing so I could return the cable. The Geek Squad lady did not sound like it was the first one of these she's seen come back.

I suppose one could take a file and widen the hole, but I can't bring myself to do this.

----------



Yeah, since the cable carries power, the current would be affected by the length of the cable, just like with USB. If you already have a 30-pin cable that's the maximum possible length it can be, then if you introduce additional length and adapters to the cable, it could cause the power level to fall too low by increasing resistance in the wire. The same thing happens if you have a USB cable that's too long.

And I think it would be properly called resistance, not impedance, actually, since we're only dealing with DC power here.

Interesting point. How do they account for this on the new 2 meter lightning cables?

 

[zhenya]

You can file the adapter down with a dremel or hand file very easily to make it compatible with almost any case. I've done this with a couple of them. There are relatively few cases that cover the bottom that would be compatible with the cable as it ships.

 

[ian2000]

Works fine for me...

Me too - still waiting for my 5S, but I just tried the 0.2m Lightning to 30-pin adapter with my iPhone 5 in the new Apple leather case for 5/5S, and it fitted perfectly with no modifications required.

 

[Richdmoore]

I wanted to thank everyone for this thread. I was planning of using the .2m adapter with the apple leather case, it did not occur to me that they may be incompatible.

Because my phone is on backorder, I would not be able to test the adapter until after the return period expired. Seeing this thread allowed me to return the adaptor while I can, and look for other solutions (or wait to see if the adaptor's are modified with smaller plugs.)

Thanks again.

Just to update, I finally received my iPhone, and went out and purchased the .2m adapter, and although the head is larger than the usb cable, it does fit.

I wonder if apple made 2 versions of the .2m lightning adapter? Anyway, the part number is MD824ZM/A. I hope this helps.

 

[Yoursh]

I believe the issue is that there is a slight variation of the connector hole in the leather cases themselves. I picked up a Project Red leather case and the lightning to 30-pin adapter to use in my car. The connector snags on the top part of the case but does connect to the 5S with a little force on the case. Works for me but I do see this wearing a notch into the lip of the case opening. I had the chance to test the cable with my coworker's 5S, since he had just purchased the Tan case for his. The adapter plugs fine into his phone without hitting the edge of his case. My guess is that it's a tight fit with little tolerance and that the cases aren't cut to an exact same size. I think that is why some people are having issues and some aren't.

 

[joec1101]

It's not the adapter - it's the Apple leather cases. The production on these is very sloppy at best. I've bought and returned four of them because of defects. However, I can confirm that the adapter *did* fit through the hole on at least one of the cases. On another case, the hole was not centered on the lightning port, so the adapter would not fit through.

Hopefully, the quality control will improve on them in the near future.