If you have an iPhone 15 and drive a BMW, it might be best to avoid charging the device with the vehicle’s wireless charging pad for now.
Over the past week, some BMW owners have complained that their iPhone 15’s NFC chip no longer works after charging the device with their vehicle’s wireless charging pad, according to comments shared on the MacRumors Forums and X, formerly known as Twitter. Affected customers say the iPhone goes into a data recovery mode with a white screen, and the NFC chip is no longer functional after the device reboots.
In an iPhone, the NFC chip powers features like Apple Pay and digital car keys. Affected users receive a “Could Not Set Up Apple Pay” error message in the Wallet app, and there does not appear to be a way to fix the problem. Some customers say Apple replaced their iPhone after confirming the NFC chip failed, but the replacement iPhone is then vulnerable to the same issue, so there is currently no permanent solution.
While complaints so far have come from iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users, it is possible the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are also affected, so owners of any iPhone 15 model should proceed with caution until this issue is sorted.
It’s unclear what the specific cause of the issue is, how many customers are affected, and which BMW models are affected. We’ve reached out to an Apple spokesperson for comment, and we’ll update this story if we receive a response.
BMWs wireless chargers are terrible. I had one in my previous one and all it did was make my iPhone hot. I didn’t order it in my current BMW. That’s pretty much the consensus on the BMW forums too.
Edit: I’m wondering if it’s the heat these things produce while charging. They’re supposedly a software fix coming, but mine gets pretty hot sometimes while I’m using it and charging at the same time .
Wireless charging makes my iPhone 13 really hot in my Audi.
Same in the Cupra Ateca I rented in Europe.
Same in the Model 3 I rented in Phoenix.
Wireless charging is pretty inefficient in general. Pumping in electrical energy on one end and getting significantly less out the other means it had to have been converted into some other form of energy. Heat.
I am wondering why it’s mostly cars that are heating up though…
They’re only 5w. And you need them aligned correctly to get the full power from them. So they’re basically perfect for warming up your phone and giving you 2% more battery.
Wireless car chargers suck right now. Qi should fix that a little bit. But, it will probably take a long time for cars to adopt that. Car manufacturers are slow AF.
Removed by mod
I’ll start giving a fuck when they start giving a signal
Interesting. Qi charging is around 200 kHz, while NFC is around 14 MHz. They shouldn’t interfere, but if somehow a faulty wireless charger is emitting much higher frequencies, I can imagine how that fries an NFC chip
Came here to ask what’s different. Does BMW not use the Qi standard?
Pretty sure they’d have to, otherwise they couldn’t charge phones that use it
Regular iPhone 15 here. There’s an issue with the NFC in these.
People have been complaining over Reddit that Apple Pay doesn’t communicate with the terminals and I’m affected too. Not heat or wireless charging related, NFC just dies. Start saying “Hold near reader” and nothing happens. Can’t use Apple Pay.
Not exclusively related to BMW or wireless charging because I don’t have a BMW, but it could be something that contributes to the issue
I’m sure Apple will release a statement any day now how they’re just holding it wrong.
“We will release a patch to completely disable NFC and prevent any NFC issues from occurring”
Good thing I drive a dodge journey.
LOL, my car is a 2002 and my truck a 2004. I have no idea what’s going on with these failed car tech posts.
