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Why can't iPhone charge while powered off?

iPhone DOES charge while OFF

ratbatblue said:
I've had my iPhone for a month now, and have experimented 3 times with charging while turned off vs. asleep. I can say for sure that it charges MUCH more slowly while turned off, although I cannot say why that should be. Logic says it should be the other way around.
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Not so true, I'm sorry...

I've had my iPhone since January and actually I just tested it.

I drained the battery, while listening to music via Wi-Fi, till it switched off by itself.

Then I plugged it in, it charged for a while before turning itself ON.

I then turned it OFF and kept it charging.
After 40min I switched it ON just to check the battery and it shows 50% charge.
So I guess that in about 1 more hour, it will be FULLY charged.

But yeah, I agree that it should show some sign of being charged, like the iPod does, showing the battery filling up or some kind of led that could blink or light up while charging. For example "red" charging, "green" fully charged.

Well...it does actually! But only when the battery is fully drained, then it just switches ON again...:-\
 
Battery Life

I had this same question about my iPhone charging while it is turned off. I am a flight attendant. I had an apple developer on a flight. I asked him about this issue and was it charging while turned off. He told me that apple has build a blank screen into the programing of the iPhone to encourage you to have your iPhone on while charging. It extends battery life and stops charging at the correct time in the charge cycle of the phone.

Also there is a thread about turning off the phone to reset the sim. I have yet to turn mine off. It goes into airplane mode and stays there until the end of the flight. I go through every major and little whistle stop cities you can imagine. I have never had a problem yet. That is over 700 different cities (domestic USA and international) and an uncountable amount of towers each year.
 
sounds like a fair question

siurpeeman said:
that's interesting. that's something i hadn't noticed before. but i gotta ask, why would you ever want to turn it off??
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Why wouldn't anyone think NOT of turning it off.

It could be argued that it's counterintuitive for users of certain electronic gadgets charges faster when the unit is off.

One of my previous cell phone would recharge faster with the power off.

It's a learning curve, the iPhone's different device.

Or is condescension the usual and acceptable behavior?
 
kevinwiz said:
Is it me being stupid or does the iPhone not charge when its powered off (not sleep but actually powered off). If you power it off then place it on the charging dock, it turns on and starts charging. Then if you power it off while its charging, it stops charging. Am I doing something wrong?
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Not that I can see. Some of those other answers you got seem to involve more effort, and the simplicity of turning it off is overlooked. So I ask those who say "why would you turn it off" to reveal more of their knowledge (or preference) by going a little further and telling us "why would you not turn it off" when all you want is sleep without interuption. What is gained by leaving it on? When we know the alternative side, questions like "why would you turn it off" gain a little credibility.
 
swizard101 said:
Not that I can see. Some of those other answers you got seem to involve more effort, and the simplicity of turning it off is overlooked. So I ask those who say "why would you turn it off" to reveal more of their knowledge (or preference) by going a little further and telling us "why would you not turn it off" when all you want is sleep without interuption. What is gained by leaving it on? When we know the alternative side, questions like "why would you turn it off" gain a little credibility.
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Simply put it in Airplane mode. You would want to leave it on since it will only charge properly while "On". In Airplane mode no calls, or messages are fetched. AND you can have your alarm to wake you up! Or go to sleep with some wind chimes or surf sounds!
 
I looked this topic up to se if you guys had answered the question too. I am testing my iphone now. It had 10% left, i turned it off and plugged it in to the wall. The phone turned on. I turned it back off and I will tell you guys how the charging went.

As for why would people not turn off their phone? Maybe it's because they can't live without that tweet at 3 a.m. that says "I just heard Tina likes Billy!" or the Facebook post that says "Just wanted everyone to know I just took a crap." FRIGGIN SOCIAL NETWORKS. People don't talk face to face anymore.
 
So the iPhone will charge even if you power it off after connecting to USB/charger?
 
kevinwiz said:
when i sleep i don't want any email, text, or call to wake me up and its annoying to put the ringer all the way down everytime
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Why don't you just put it into airplane mode? It's at the very top of the main page in the Settings app so it's the easiest of all the settings to get to (easier than setting the ringer) and it would stop all comms until the morning.

- Julian
 
Lougle said:
the closest thing to charging the iphone while off would be charging the iPhone in airplane mode. This would also stop your emails and other messages from coming in during the night.
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...and eliminate the need to wait for a 2 minute start up from off.
 
strnge said:
As for why would people not turn off their phone? Maybe it's because they can't live without that tweet at 3 a.m. that says "I just heard Tina likes Billy!" or the Facebook post that says "Just wanted everyone to know I just took a crap." FRIGGIN SOCIAL NETWORKS. People don't talk face to face anymore.
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I've got a fairly draconian, but pretty effective solution to this. If you really don't want the tweets and the wall posts, just ditch the social networks for which you harbor such disdain.

Or the airplane mode suggestion works nicely as well, while still allowing you to use the phone as an alarm clock.
 
I actually can't believe that this thread exists, rage, how do you think the phone boots up when you've run it completely out of battery, oh thats right, you plug it in, and it starts (dare I say it) Charging! hence like any other mobile phone, the iPhone does charge when turned off, amazing isn't it! just one of life's little mysteries solved for you... -_-
 
scuzzbug said:
I actually can't believe that this thread exists, rage, how do you think the phone boots up when you've run it completely out of battery, oh thats right, you plug it in, and it starts (dare I say it) Charging! hence like any other mobile phone, the iPhone does charge when turned off, amazing isn't it! just one of life's little mysteries solved for you... -_-
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Maybe you'd have less rage if you actually read the OP's post. Your answer doesn't address his quesion.

Of course, it's from way back in 2007 so I'm assuming the OP is dead by now and probably doesn't need our help anymore.
 
scuzzbug said:
I actually can't believe that this thread exists, rage, how do you think the phone boots up when you've run it completely out of battery, oh thats right, you plug it in, and it starts (dare I say it) Charging! hence like any other mobile phone, the iPhone does charge when turned off, amazing isn't it! just one of life's little mysteries solved for you... -_-
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Thanks for a great laugh today. Note the date on threads you are replying to from now on. You’ll have much less “rage” then.
 
i3igsmooth5769 said:
haha i just noticed that lol...so funny when people dig up these year old threads.
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This post is full of people not answering the question and trying to find solutions for the poster. That's so annoying but the data provided helps enough. I'm glad it got revived a little bit, so I created an account here to add my 2-cents to the question...

I have the 3gS and I was wondering the same thing. This was the most in depth discussion I've found so far.

So...

First and foremost the difference some people might not understand, is the device is not OFF when you hit the top POWER button. Seems strange I know, but the device is still fetching information, reestablishing data connections, ETC. What other term would describe a device who's screen is OFF but power is still ON - SLEEP. The device is in SLEEP mode. The method customers go about performing a RESET involves actually turning the device OFF. Sliding the POWER BAR to OFF after holding the POWER button for several seconds is how you turn the device OFF.

When you turn the device OFF, and provide it THEN a power source, the device automatically boots up. Why? Somebody asked Apple, and most obviously it's in Apple's design to keep customers from turning the device OFF completely. This would directly interfere with the linear experience and functionality of the device as a SMARTPHONE.

So of course somebody asks, WHY? Why would you want to turn the phone OFF and not into SLEEP for any reason? Others point to the fact that when the device is completely dead and plugged in, it will boot up, as empirical evidence it draws power while OFF. This seems logical but neither answer the inquiry at all.

I want to know because I just installed a brand new battery that is completely dead into the phone and charging the phone has been a strange game of OFF and ON and boot screens and 1% reads. Again, it just reset and I wonder : If I can get the device to boot to 1%, what's to stop the software from draining itself dead with GPS/GSM/WIFI before a real charge could be grabbed by the phone unless it is OFF? I turned Airplane mode on but it keeps happening. My next test is going to be... You guessed it, letting it boot up at 1% then turn the device OFF to continue charging. There's your reason I Google'd it. It's easier than sitting around waiting an hour... Geez.

A few people tested it and found that if you plug the device in THEN turn the device OFF, yes it does indeed charge the device. Some report charging is slower and some report charging is faster. It seems very strange to me that it would be slower, and would call that a design flaw if I wasn't apt to believe the right software could speed up the charge process. Regardless, that has not been my experience thus far with a 0% battery. I now have the device turned OFF and charging... In about an hour I'll know if my new battery is a dud.

Thanks everyone!
 
The problem is, some of us need to be able to be reached via phone 24/7, so the ringer needs to stay on. But we don't want to be awakened by an email from AT&T at 3:30am telling us our bill is ready. So neither Airplane Mode nor the vibrate/silent switch is a solution. You can turn sounds off of most things while leaving the ringer on in a few steps by turning off notifications, but that doesn't kill all sounds. Turning the volume down as low as possible seems the best of a handful of half-tail solutions.
 
jive turkey said:
The problem is, some of us need to be able to be reached via phone 24/7, so the ringer needs to stay on. But we don't want to be awakened by an email from AT&T at 3:30am telling us our bill is ready. So neither Airplane Mode nor the vibrate/silent switch is a solution. You can turn sounds off of most things while leaving the ringer on in a few steps by turning off notifications, but that doesn't kill all sounds. Turning the volume down as low as possible seems the best of a handful of half-tail solutions.
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1) Turn off e-mail sounds

2) Get the free app 'boxcar' and set it to alert you when you get e-mail with its own sounds

3) Program boxcar's 'quiet hours' to only play sounds during the times you want and to be silent during the times you don't want to hear the e-mail

(This solves the e-mail...I admit I don't have a solution for texts other than to yell at any "friends" who decide to text me at 3 AM. That's really not a problem for me so I've never thought about it much.)
 
I clicked on this thread and at page one was thinking.. why the BAM picture with a iPhone 2G in it. Oh, OLD thread.
 
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