Apple Admits to BMW Wireless Charging Issue With iPhone 15 Lineup, Promises Fix Later This Year

[MacRumors]

Apple today acknowledged a BMW wireless charging issue affecting the iPhone 15 series, and promised that it will make a fix available later this year.

In an internal memo shared with Apple Authorized Service Providers, Apple said charging an iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max with a "small number" of wireless phone chargers built into certain recent BMW and Toyota Supra models may temporarily disable the NFC capabilities of the device. The memo does not provide a specific reason for the issue, which we first reported earlier this month.

In an iPhone, the NFC chip powers features like Apple Pay and digital car keys. Users affected by this issue may receive a "Could Not Set Up Apple Pay" error message in the Wallet app, even if they have already set up Apple Pay.

Apple said the issue will be addressed in a software update coming later this year. Given the memo was put out hours after iOS 17.1 was released today, it appears the update will require a subsequent update, such as iOS 17.1.1 or iOS 17.2. In the meantime, Apple advises affected customers to stop using in-car wireless charging.

There are some complaints about this issue across the MacRumors Forums and X, formerly known as Twitter, but it is unclear how widespread the problem is. Affected customers said the iPhone goes into a data recovery mode with a white screen, and the NFC chip is no longer functional after the device reboots. There is no way for customers to fix the problem, so a trip to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider is required.

Apple says technicians can attempt to restart the NFC chip in an affected iPhone by using a software tool part of Apple Service Toolkit 2. If this step does not resolve the issue, Apple advises technicians to initiate a hardware repair.

To book a service appointment, visit the Get Support page on Apple's website.

Article Link: Apple Admits to BMW Wireless Charging Issue With iPhone 15 Lineup, Promises Fix Later This Year

 

[AeroEd]

It just works... When it works of course

 

[BarrettF77]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

 

[t0rqx]

You just charging it wrong. Wired is the way to go. This and other reasons are why you should use a wire.

 

[mannyvel]

Wonder why it's limited to BMW and Supra models. What's with their chargers?

The annoying thing is that even if they are out-of-spec Apple has to fix it, because the problem is whacking Apple's phones.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

Wonder why it's limited to BMW and Supra models. What's with their chargers?

The annoying thing is that even if they are out-of-spec Apple has to fix it, because the problem is whacking Apple's phones.

Edit: looks like the trolls are up late.

The modern Toyota Supra is based on a BMW vehicle platform, so it's something to do with BMW.

 

[prefuse07]

It's hilarious that when this was first posted there were scores of apologists defending apple, and blaming BMW.

Where are they now?! 🤣

 

[B4U]

Wonder why it's limited to BMW and Supra models. What's with their chargers?

The annoying thing is that even if they are out-of-spec Apple has to fix it, because the problem is whacking Apple's phones.

Edit: looks like the trolls are up late.

The current Supra is just essentially a Z4 coupe.

 

[GMShadow]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

Worldwide BMWs are a very tiny number of vehicles sold...so they aren't lying when they say it's a small portion of users.

They should just say owners need to pay a subscription to use their NFC, BMW owners won't have a problem with that.

 

[frenchcamp49er]

Kinda weird this only affects BMW's, doesnt sound like an Apple issue at all.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

So looks like this will require update on BMW’s part meaning you’ll likely have to take the car to BMW dealer to get it updated. Which is not going to be cheap considering the labor costs.

 

[marzbarz]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

what

lol. unless you have evidence to prove otherwise, it's literally a small number of chargers compared to the tens/hundreds of thousands of different chargers out there and they are literally taking ownership of the situation by replacing customer's phones out of their own pocket

too much complaining. ridiculous.

 

[555gallardo]

I think it's just BMW trying to desperately distract from those Check Engine lights

 

[wanha]

It just works... When it works of course

Tell me an exception to this anywhere in technology

 

[wanha]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

Just curious... what does "taking ownership" in this situation look like to you?

 

[swingerofbirch]

That's what people get for buying budget cars and budget phones.

/s

 

[TVreporter]

Apple unintentionally delivers annother epic First World problem..

 

[Moukee]

Always interesting how Apple seems to be able to fix what are seemingly hardware bugs in software.

 

[dreamcast]

My iPhone 15 Pro Max with Apple clear case wouldn’t charge at Houston airport wireless seat chargers.. What is weird is my co workers had the IPhone 14 pro and theirs were charging.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

Refuse? They just acknowledged that there is a software problem on their end and stated they are working on a fix. When this first came up, given that it didn’t appear to be widespread, wouldn’t it make sense to first investigate to see what was causing the problem? Since it appears to just be affecting a limited number of car models, you could have made the argument that something about the chargers in those cars was causing the problem. They looked into it, and it sounds like a fix is coming. The term “admit” used in the title is incorrect as I don’t recall Apple formally declaring that they had nothing to do with the issue, or that they tried to hide something.

 

[fede777]

What does "may temporarily disable the NFC capabilities of the device" mean? Does it come back later by its own?

 

[flexwithmarius]

I’d love to know what’s actually causing this. Frequency? Voltage? And why just BMW?

 

[Analog Kid]

I’d love to know what’s actually causing this. Frequency? Voltage? And why just BMW?

Yeah, I'm in the same boat-- this one has me a bit mystified if they can fix it with a software update. I doubt we'll ever hear what the problem was, but it's these kinds of problems that are the most interesting.

 

[flexwithmarius]

I love how the minimize a small number and we will fix it later. Apple should be ashamed and do better.

They refuse to take ownership sadly

No, refusing to take ownership would be “take it to BMW, not our problem”

As for “fixing it later”…I bet they don’t even know why this is happening. And it’s not exactly easy to test the fix on every single affected BMW model.

Sorry, but sucking up to the customer is one very small part of the issue in the grand scheme of it. It’s a bug that doesn’t affect a majority of users and it’s not a security vulnerability so it gets low priority. That’s how it works.

 

[Analog Kid]

What does "may temporarily disable the NFC capabilities of the device" mean? Does it come back later by its own?

I'm guessing it can be reset.

Anyone know if the NFC payment systems have a security layer that locks down if they sense they're being tampered with? Qi has some communication in the charging standard, I wonder if it could be crosstalk or something causing the NFC to lock?

It doesn't seem to be what people feared, which was that the charger was damaging the NFC chip.