It’s not just you: iOS 7 has seemingly killed off support for some unlicensed, third-party Lightning cables.
We’re seeing numerous reports from users that iOS 7 has blocked support for many knock-off Lightning chargers. When you plug them in, iOS 7 will warn you that the cable is unlicensed and may not function properly, and will then fail to sync or charge. This does not appear to be universal, some cables are still working fine despite the warning. But a large number have been rendered non-functional.
I can confirm this myself. I have a short, three-headed hydra of a cable that I love to use with an external battery pack when I’m on the go: when head is a Lightning charger, the next a 30-Pin, the final one a micro-USB. Since iOS 7 officially dropped, the Lightning adapter has stopped working, while the rest of the cable syncs and charges just fine.
You might recall that when the earliest iOS 7 betas hit, iOS 7 would warn users when an unsupported Lightning cable was plugged in, but otherwise didn’t take any action. Unlicensed Lightning cables would sync and charge just fine. Starting with the GM, however, Apple has apparently started enforcing compliance with its MFi licensing program for all third-party cables… and shutting out anyone who dares to release a Lightning knock-off without paying Apple their share.
However, some devious third-parties have already figured out how to fool Apple’s detection mechanism. It’s possible that some of the unlicensed cables that still work implement this crack.
Although I have had no luck getting this to work with the third-party Lightning cable I have here, some users are having luck with this workaround:
1. Turn on USB power.
2. Plug in Lightning cable to iPhone.
3. Dismiss any warnings.
4. Unlock your iPhone.
5. Dismiss any remaining warnings.
6. Now with the screen turned on, unplug the Lightning cable.
7. Plug it back in.
8.Dismiss warning again. It should now charge.It should be no surprise that Apple is officially ending support for third-party, unlicensed Lightning cables. The fact that counterfeit cables can now be detected using Lightning’s advanced chip detection was a major reason why Apple shifted to the standard to begin with.
Still, this is a big bummer to me, and no doubt a lot of other Apple customers. It might not be licensed, but my tri-headed hydra of a cable served me well, and there’s nothing licensed that does the same thing. Fingers crossed someone fixes this, and soon.
Is your unlicensed Lightning cable still working after the iOS 7 update? Is it broken? We’re trying to gather more data. Let us know what cable you have, and if it’s still working in the comments.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
29 responses to “iOS 7 Killed Off Some Unlicensed Lightning Cables, But Here’s A Fix That Might Work For You”
This greedy shit with the charging cords is the final straw for me. So sick of apples bullshit. iOS 7 looks fucking terrible. The keyboard is shorter and very time I hit space I get a period when searching in safari. My search engine changed from google to yahoo on it’s own last week. And I can never type swear words without autocorrect popping up trying to replace ‘fucking’ with ‘ducking’ nor do I get to decide as an adult to add swear words to my phones vocabulary so this happens EVERY time I swear which, with this phone is quite often. And if I’m browsing the internet and want to see flash? Fuck me. Fuck that shit. And every time they sell us this shit like “this iphone’s camera is better than the last iphone” that may be but it’s NEVER better or even competitive to other cameras on the market! And every time I buy one I have to buy a $60 otterbox case for this fragile shit in addition to their phone and now EVERY charger will have to be apple brand as well at $40/ea in order to ensure my sub-par phone can hold a charge for a full 18 hours and that’s only if it’s set to it’s lowest brightness setting to conserve energy.
Totally agree. iOS7 looks grossly obnoxious.
Although, you can use shortcuts to change ducking to fucking each time (I also got annoyed at this, haha).
This happens with the original cables to me now. Just started today. But the workaround works…
My chargers just stopped working 2 weeks after. It is a Belkin.. Thought it was apple approved but now it says it’s not!
F#kc Apple and its licensing agreement. It’s a damn monopoly!!!
People want reliable yet Inexpensive lightning cables but can’t find it since those 3rd party cables won’t work anymore. I’ve wasted enough money on this Not-supported 3rd party cables and had to splurge whenever I find a Supported cable version on discount or sale price!
It’s no wonder that CrApple has made lots of enemies amongst the general public, though its iSheep still loves the company regardless of what it does or produces.
how do you turn on usb power? i do not see that option anywhere on my phone
apple lightning cable have an authentication chip. I think when you plug in an unlicensed lightning cable, the device will send that cable id to apple. When that cable is unlicensed, apple will instruct the device to disallow the use of that cable. This is regardless of ios version. I have a device with version 6.1.3 and the cable will work for first few days, then that warning message appears, and the cable wont work anymore.
I wouldn’t be so frustrated with the authorised cable issue if my Apple items didn’t break so frequently. I’ve had my iPhone 5 since it was launched and have used many cables. I use an adapter now as the cables have become so unreliable.
I like Apple, but am considering switching to a device with a micro USB charger as the ease and convenience of the iPhone is slowly fading.
im using CDR king’s newest release of lightning cable.. and there is no warning at all;)) fast charging and fast data transfer.. haha great work for cdrking no.1 copy manufacturer at Philippines haha! and i bought it for about 60pesos almost 1dollar if i convert it to U.S. currency;) hahahaa!!!
I have lots of third party cables. One each in my car, my wife’s car, work and home desks, nightstand. I got only warnings with IOS 7, but now none of them work since IOS 7.1. This has dramatically diminished my view of Apple as a user centered company.
I had something worse happen. When plugging a third-party lightning connector into my MacBook Pro, it caused the machine to shut down and stop working. After taking a trip to the Apple Store, they confirmed that it was because of the third-party cable. The only way to turn it back on is to have the battery unplugged and plugged again. This can only be done by Apple because they have a proprietary screw.
I’ve found the one reliable way to charge your iphone with other charging cables, is to plug in the wire to a power outlet, and turn OFF your phone. Charge may be a little slow but it does charge with any only when phone is OFF.
in the months that I have had my iPhone 5s (since it was released) I have replaced more lightening cables than the phone costs. Just having discovered that this is just another of Apples exclusivity hacks, I plan to try the one alternative that seems (in theory) to work well. That’s to just buy an adapter for the old 30 pin cables and use them as they are not part of this hack that apple is using to defeat every cable I have ever purchased (not to mention that the original as well as the other 6 legitimate apple cables have all stopped charging as well, including the above message. So, if they have found a way to defeat cables (their own included) isn’t this some kind of legal issue that is forcing consumers to replace cables when there is no problems with them? Isn’t there some entity watching this and trying to get them to drop the hack they are using. It’s definitely NOT good business practice to make cables stop charging after a month or two of use.
I guess they are ok with all this being public and that the fact that this same hack defeats their own AND licensed cables in the same time frame as knock-offs. I would like to see a serious test of these cables so that it might be printed, showing the lifespan of these cables versus the same manufacturers 30 pin cables. Maybe all they need is more bad press to stop this, it seems that the electronics sector is not overseen by anyone as many aspects of the industry are making the same kind of decisions that when all is said, just cost the consumer more money than what they should be paying. The video game area is ripe with these problems, but I guess they are making so much money that everyone looks the other way. What a shame, I guess it’s going to take some event that actually shocks a lot more people to put an end to all the deceptive practices currently being used to suck the max. money out of customers with no consideration for their reputation or future sales.
The cable in my car would not charge, it used to work with out a warning, but my older cable that always gave the warning is charging at my desk.
Simple n short. Apple CEO are so greedy,thier service and customer view are at the lowest .MIGHTY PISSED