Big Problems With Little Mophie Battery Pack?
10:49 pm, July 9th, 2009, Pete Mortensen
After my post yearning for more battery life out of my iPhone 3GS and hoping that the Mophie Juice Pack Air might hold the solutions to all of problems, a reader, who shall remain anonymous, tipped me off to some unresolved problems with the current generation fo the combination iPhone case/battery pack.
At left is one of two screenshots he sent me purporting to show the Juice Pack Air refusing to provide power to his iPhone (which kind of defeats its purpose). He bought one, was told it was defective, was given a replacement, and found it had the same troubles.
Here’s his explanation:
“It only happens if you discharge your iPhone to 20% warning. Then allow the Mophie to charge your iPhone 3GS until its depleted. Once it’s at zero charge the errors happen in the iPhone 3GS every time. I think those errors even crashed the phone once, but this is unconfirmed but feel its right since it was left to charge, placed in an outer mesh pocket of a laptop bag and found unresponsive later until removed from the Mophie and hard reset. Sigh.”
Anyone else seen these issues? I’ll admit, it has me back in a wait-and-see mode again…
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Hardware, Top stories, iPhone 3G S | Comment on this article
I have the Juice Pack air with the 3GS and have not experienced this problem. I have depleted the iphone and recharged using mophie to depletion without this error. The only issue I have had with the juice pack is the Micro USB port seems to be a little loose and finicky at times.
Joe Mathis, on July 9th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
This has happened to me. But isn’t it just because the battery pack is out of juice and therefore can’t charge the device without any remaining juice? Seeing as it only happens when the battery pack is depleted…
Just suggesting that it may not be a problem, it’s just that the pack is still on and ‘charging’ the phone without any juice.
christyxcore, on July 10th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Using the Incase Power Slider on my 3Gs I get the error message
.
“This device not meant to be used etc” I used it on the 3G no problem.
As it happens I went to my local Apple Genius Bar today and told the ‘tech’ what was happening…he knew nothing about it, not surprising
The good news is, all I do is unplug the phone from the charger, plug it back in and MAGIC.. it starts charging and no error message.
Steve S, on July 10th, 2009 at 1:06 am
I let my iPhone battery do a total discharge while
installed in a Juice Air. With both the Air and iPhone
totally discharged I just used common sense and
removed the iPhone from the Air and charged them
seperately.
Haven’t had any problems since.
Bill henning, on July 10th, 2009 at 3:54 am
I had a Juice Pack Air w/ my 3G, recently upgraded to a 3Gs. The Mophie does charge the 3Gs, although it doesn’t seem to last as long. When the power is down on the Mophie, I get that warning that the accessory is not compatible.
I use it when the Iphone is fully charged and have the Mophie charging as I use. Then I can remove the Mophie when it’s drained and just have the iPhone at full power.
I have yet to have to hard reset it, but then I have rarely left it alone to charge for long enough to drain the Mophie w/out being aware the “end is near”.
ecu9697, on July 10th, 2009 at 4:04 am
I got that error message, although just once. It didn’t crash the phone and worked fine afterwards, but it was a bit disturbing.
Lesley, on July 10th, 2009 at 4:32 am
I am having the same problem with the iHome and an iphone 3G. I am also sometimes getting another message… telling me that this device is not build for the iphone and asking me if I would like to go into airplane mode.
The iphone gets recognized sometimes, and charges, but doesn’t play, sometimes it works fine and sometimes it doesn’t connect at all.
madeline yakimchuk, on July 10th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Wow, I thought that I was the only one that this happened to. I’ve gone through two of these in a month. The first time I think that I left the mophie battery on while I charged the phone from the outlet. The second one is holding up, but I haven’t had to use it to charge my phone much. It would make sense if the juice pack air’s battery is anything less than twice the voltage of the iphone’s battery and I’d be curious to see what mophie has to say.
Chris, on July 10th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I have the Mophie Juice and I have connected it when my iPhone is 20% or less and it has worked fine without any problems. The problem you mention has actually happened to me when I tried to charge it with a car charger. I have one of those chargers the USB cable is detachable, so I hve tried connecting the mophie USB to charge it in my car and it gives me the compatibility problem. Another problem a friend of mine has had (which I haven’t) is that when the Mophie battery is depleted it starts making funny noises as if you were connecting and disconnecting the charger continously, this can be fixed by turning off the Mophie but it’s a little bit of a pain. As I said on my previous comment, I definetely recommend Mophie, it has saved my life many many times.
Plegaria, on July 10th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Yep I see this issue. It does not seem to be that much of a problem, it just means you need to charge the Juice Pack Air. I plug it in and carry my iPhone without it for an hour or two.
Is there something more sinister I should worry about?
Kelly Looney, on July 10th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Me, too, but worse. Got a warning when my iPhone 3GS battery went down to 10%, but wasn’t worried because it was snuggly in my Mophie Battery Pack. Came down in the morning to find the screen on my iPhone completely white and that is the way it has stayed for days. Too bad the place I bought my iPhone and Mophie are a three hour drive.
Merry Lee, on July 10th, 2009 at 9:48 am
So if i’m reading this right the problems are only on the 3Gs?
Tom, on July 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
[...] lezer van de Cult of Mac heeft een vreemde foutmelding. Op zijn iPhone 3GS krijgt hij de onderstaande foutmelding in beeld [...]
iPhone Blog, on July 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I have the battery pack with 3GS and have experienced the same issue, but it does not prevent the solution from working – the message only appears as you suggest, but I have had no issue with the solution working.
Nick, on July 11th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
i have been having the same issues and my iphone is 3G not even 3GS. when my iphone 3G battery is below 20% it does not charge and keep giving me error messages.
Mophie what is the issue and we going to get a refund or what ?
Albert, on July 13th, 2009 at 7:22 am
it gets worse, when I returned a bad battery case to Mophie, they contend it was NOT intended for 3G, and they don’t support use with 3G. So they F+++ me out of the money for nothing.
WATCH OUT is all one can say, it’s you not them when it don’t work
Bill Gilliam, on July 15th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
do i have to have the Mophie on “ON” or standby when i charge it with the Iphone in it?
Solano, on July 15th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
[...] Big Problems With Little Mophie Battery Pack? (cultofmac.com) [...]
iPhone 3GS thoughts at chromewalker, on July 18th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I had the same problem the day I picked up my 3GS and the Mophie Juice Pack Air. Both were fully charged and I was getting this error message. Fortunately I was able to narrow down that the Juice Pack Air was faulty. Swapped my friend’s phone to my JPA and his 3GS threw the error. I slid my 3GS to my friend’s JPA and it was fine.
Brought back to the shop and I had an immediate replacement.
Something new I experienced though, I just tried 2 days back to bring my 3GS from 40% up with the JPA. It charged up to 90% and the JPA went flat. The strange thing was the 3GS started to bounce between charging / not charging. I couldn’t charge up the JPA with the 3GS in the it. Had to separate them and charge up the JPA. After that, things went back to normal.
Jason, on July 19th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
[...] Big Problems With Little Mophie Battery Pack? (cultofmac.com) [...]
New Mophie Juice Pack Air leaves a lot to be desired. : The New Dork Times, on July 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am
What about using the Mili?
http://www.gadstyle.com/apple-iphone-itouch-3g-3gs-2g-mili-power-battery-charger-station-p-226.html
I am using with no problems so far.
Jonathan, on August 2nd, 2009 at 6:44 am
[...] Big Problems With Little Mophie Battery Pack? (cultofmac.com) [...]
Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone and iPod Review at chromewalker, on August 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
the message is because the Juice Pack is out of juice…and therefore the phone doesn’t understand this so it says that it is not compatible…
I had this happen a few times and then I haven’t had it happen again…it’s just the phone thinking you have plugged in something that it doesn’t recognize
the company even sent me an RMA but I told them that it doesn’t happen when the juice pack is full only when it is empty…and I didn’t want to go without it…
but I have saved the RMA number and if it does it regularly I will get it replaced…
it’s not a big problem…it’s just two electronics from two different companies not seeing eye to eye once in a while…
no big deal…I adore the juice pack air on my 3GS and I feel weird when I don’t have my iphone in the JPA…cuz it seems so small…hehe
Alexis, on August 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
i received error message advising the device was not compatible and asking whether i wanted to adopt airplane mode ?
i emailed mophie helpline 2x, no reply ! how rude. now i understand, it is a major problem. a uk supplier said it only happens to 4% of the products, he sounded genuine but, i guess i’ll wait for something else ? by the way this is a v useful site
mfc52, on September 9th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Just to throw in my two cents. I have a 3GS and experienced this exact problem. I’m taking the advice here and recharging them separately. Hope this fixes the issue.
Stan
Stan Scott, on October 3rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Think it’s the software issue. Some iPhone 3GS experience this while charging with the orginal cable
Tenga Sex Toys, on October 17th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
i sent a not to i Tunes, but no responce. they endorse the mohpie, so they should have an imidiate answer to the problem. i purchased the mophie battery pack air, connected it to both of my laptops and did not work with either one. i took it back to best buy for a replacement and the new one does not work either. i am just glad it did not damage my 3Gs. as i see it now, there is very poor support from apple to correct the problem.
armando, on October 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I have the same problem! Here’s the photo taken from mine:
http://i45.tinypic.com/33ek9y8.jpg
I get this error using the original Morphie USB cable if I plug it into anything besides a PC USB port. For example, my iPhone 3gs came with a Apple branded AC to USB adapter. It charges the iPhone just fine, but if I plug in the juice pack air micro USB into it I get the error message.
James, on December 13th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I have gone through two Juice packs .Both dead on arrival. They don’t change properly and when the phone draws current, from an Edge of 3G burst,the pack goes dead and will not charge or light up until the pack is plugged in again. I have also seen the unsupported problem too. Basically, they a a piece of junk with the 3GS. Mophie says they will replace mine with a JuicePack Air, but I suspect the same problem will happen. It’s too bad really, then are a nice design, but for this price… shame on you Mophie.
mrkovach, on December 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I had the same issue also, I assumed it was because mophie pack was not made by apple, until someone showed me they have the same pack with no issues or errer messages, i also had issues with the mophie pack messing up my volume controls and key clicks. I returned it back to the AT&T store and they orderd a new one, it now works purfect! No issues whatsoever, I Think the first ones they came out with were defective, THE MOPHIE PACK WORKS, if yours doesn’t take it back for a new one, not the old ones that’s been sitting on the shelf,
Isaac w, on December 20th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
what is the best way to take the micro usb cord out so it does not damage the port..i am on my 2nd mophie because of the port having a melt down…does anyone know the trick to having the micro port staying in working condition??
grace, on December 27th, 2009 at 6:22 am
I actually have 3 new Iphone 3GS that I got for Christmas with 3 Mophie Juice Pack air’s. I have this issue on 2 of them, i can switch any of the 2 i know that fail with the phone that I know it works fine with and it still fails. I’ve tried the failing Mophie with an Iphone 3g and i do not see any of the errors. Going tomorrow to get to brand 2 new 3GS and 2 brand new Mophie’s. The 3G with the Mophie Juice pack air has been running like a dream, no issues what so ever. We shall see what happens when I get all the equipment replaced.
Lee, on January 4th, 2010 at 11:53 am
My issue with the Mophie is that after several uses my battery life rapidly from 100% to about 77% in a hour or so. I think its actually damaged my 3Gs battery.
Chaz, on January 25th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I to have a 3gs and while I love it’s features, hate the short battery life. After purchasing the Mophie Juice Pack, the other day I noticed that even though the Juice Pack was not switched on, when I was listening to online radio, that the Juice Pack got very HOT!!! I removed the phone, let both pieces cool down and will bring it back to the Apple store tomorrow.
When the phone had a 10-20% charge left and I turn on the Juice Pack only brings the phones charge to 70%
One last thing that I dislike about Mophie is the cases they offer. The 3gs phone has a magnetic compas and their cases, that are made specially for the iPhone, have a magnetic clasp. This messes up the compas. When I mentioned it they acted like they had never heard of the issue. They should use a velcro clasp. The belt clip is also too short on their cases.
ask4norm, on February 2nd, 2010 at 2:24 am
New Job, boss buys new 3GS’s for 4 of us and brings in Mophie Juice Air packs for each of us…EVERYONE OF US received the alert “not compatible with this device!” I brought it home and my son put it on his 3GS and instantly got the same message. 5 out of 5, hmmmmm? Sad that you have to resort to a malfunctioning battery life extender on a new phone who’s battery life is sad to begin with. That’s a lot of money for poor products. Love the iPhone period, just wish the battery life was more than half a day (with everything off). One of the selling points of the phone is 3G and yet we have to DISABLE it to keep the phone alive! Best news in this story…I have a new job and a generous boss!
chacha, on February 9th, 2010 at 9:15 am