iPhone 5 lightening cables are useless!!!!

Savage Tyrant

CJmasgrande wrote: »

I stated earlier the old classic and its cables are still going strong in my house too!

It's only an issue with the newer lightening cable for iPhone 5 and then on.

I disagree... The 30 pins I used during iPhone 4 cycle were way worse than the current lightning cables.

challengemaster

Mine must be magic too. Still using the same lightning cable that came with my 6 on launch day over a year ago. The only time its ever 'acted up' was not cable related at all, but was from fluff in the charge port.

Probably have 20+ dead 30 pin cables though. Those were useless.

DubDJ

challengemaster wrote: »

Mine must be magic too. Still using the same lightning cable that came with my 6 on launch day over a year ago. The only time its ever 'acted up' was not cable related at all, but was from fluff in the charge port.

Probably have 20+ dead 30 pin cables though. Those were useless.

Same thing happened to me, my iPhone 5 stopped charging properly. After a lot of twisting and turning of the cable I eventually realised it was the port. A quick clean with the sim ejector tool and it was perfect again. A lot of dust builds up in there surprisingly.

Greentree_uk

Plugging my iPhone and Mrs iPhone and daughters iPhone and two iPads into my cables, they are always loose and never tight, and always pull from the connector and not the cable, going strong since my iPhone 5... It's all about how you handle them. My cables hang from the wall and have plenty slack when plugging in, I suspect a lot of people hang the cable from the iPad if you get my meaning.

ozmo

Greentree_uk wrote: »

I suspect a lot of people hang the cable from the iPad if you get my meaning.

I dont want to say people are holding them wrong... but... I see people bending the cables tight behind the iphone and up when using them while charging.

Someone should make a right angled charging cable like they do right angled HDMI cables.


Also wonder if some cosmetics are reacting with the plastic and cause it to weaken and split...

ArielAtom

I'm still on my original cable for my 5s, 2 years on and it's still working. A bit frayed and a little tape to cover it but still working. My kids go through spurious leads at an alarming rate!! Due mainly to tugging and dragging them

sKeith

I broke a spurious cable by pulling cable. My hands ar far too big to be able to grip tiny connector. Resoldered the cable and super-glued the cable to sleeve. I have 2 spurious and one origional. Pull them all by cable and not by the connector. All still working fine, except the 'unknown accessory' error message that appears.

biko

Had to throw another out yesterday.
I had taped the connectors so this one broke above the connecter, possibly from lying in an awkward angle or something.
POS cables.
Heads off to buy a braided cable.

faceman

I agree the old and new charge cable is very poor when it comes to durability. I have given up buying official cables as I get just as long out of the €5 cables.

Cables should have to be treated like fine china, they are cables after all.

I also have a Samsung phone that I use for work. As much as I dislike it, the one reliable thing it comes with is the charge cable. I'm using the same one I got 2 years ago without issue.

snor

I have suddenly started getting the 'unsupported accessory' message on my iPad and iPhone but not iPod. It is the apple charger! Any way of overcoming this. Devices charge fine on the €6 charger from One of those cheapie shops. Thanks.

stimpson

You should all pick up one of these - http://www.znaps.net

MagSafe style adaptor for lightning cables.

Bummer1234

The apple cables are abit of a mess defintly but if you take care with it you will have it for years. Perhaps OP you should get a longer cable for the kids, Sounds like there using the phone while its on the charger...

Im a easy user of the cables myself but gave my cable to my GF for a week and got it back ripped near the connector. I was raging and won't be giving away to cable many times again!(PS it was in good shape before it was used).

People either stretch it to hard or use it on there chest and make the cable kink....Im ok where I charge my phone on my office desk or at night time beside my bed. But its usually the impatient people whose cables are breaking and can't let the phone down.

Edit: Also some people may find this helpfull - Sugru..I think its a irish company, Stick abit beside the connector and should do the trick
sugru.com

laraghrider

CJmasgrande wrote: »

I never bothered getting replacements from Apple. Wouldn't make any difference anyway they are all crap. I'm determined not to purchase any more we can switch to android I've had enough

So just to see if I have this right. You have replaced official cables (albeit ones that "failed") with cheap chinese (or whatever) copies and because your kids can't use them without abusing them you've had enough of apple and justify a move to android?

I don't mean to burst your bubble but I've seem, broken and gone through way more crappy cheap usb cables for android devices than I have for ios devices. Cheap cables are cheap cables irregardless of them going into an apple or other product. Why not just tell your kids to stop wrecking them?

sKeith

Apple have evloved from old con job, my charger is unique, you have to buy my charger, which was stamped out by the EU, to my cable is unique and you have to buy my cable. They have added a micro circuit so the phone can tell if it is an apple cable or not. This circuit adds to the price of the cable, but the clone cables had copied the circuit within weeks.
Its sick selling a 1euro cable for 25euro. 5 euro would be a more acceptable price for a official apple usb cable.

They sell the 5W power adapter for 25euro also, but luckily the are quite durable, so a complete charger is 50euro.

Sad Professor

I have to add my voice to the chorus of people who have never had an iPod, iPhone or iPad cable break. I've never been particularly gentle with them either, but I don't yank the cable out as I see many people doing.

And I generally don't use the phone while it's plugged in — in fact I don't understand why people do this. When you are near an outlet and not using your phone, plug it in. When you need to use it, plug it out. There's no need to wait until the phone is almost totally discharged to go looking for an outlet or wait until it's fully charged to unplug it. Get one of those small Anker battery packs if you have to.

Annie_Oakes

Sad Professor wrote: »

And I generally don't use the phone while it's plugged in — in fact I don't understand why people do this. When you are near an outlet and not using your phone, plug it in. When you need to use it, plug it out. There's no need to wait until the phone is almost totally discharged to go looking for an outlet or wait until it's fully charged to unplug it. Get one of those small Anker battery packs if you have to.

Huh... plug your phone in every time you're beside an outlet? Why would you do that? That's excessive. What happens if you need to send a message or you receive a phonecall? You've to plug and unplug your phone multiple times a day... madness.

Creamy Goodness

sKeith wrote: »

Its sick selling a 1euro cable for 25euro. 5 euro would be a more acceptable price for a official apple usb cable.

How do you know that what you get from Apple is a 1 euro cable? Have you done a cost of all the parts, added in R&D, manufacturing costs, shipping, stock costs and i'm sure there's more.

I'm not trying to defend the price but without Apple telling us how much they cost to manufacture, calling them a 1 euro cable is not accurate.

Sad Professor

Annie_Oakes wrote: »

Huh... plug your phone in every time you're beside an outlet? Why would you do that? That's excessive. What happens if you need to send a message or you receive a phonecall? You've to plug and unplug your phone multiple times a day... madness.

I said when you aren't using it. You should know your own usage and when the best time to do that is. But obviously if the battery is 70-80 percent or more there's no need to do that.

DubDJ

Sad Professor wrote: »

I have to add my voice to the chorus of people who have never had an iPod, iPhone or iPad cable break. I've never been particularly gentle with them either, but I don't yank the cable out as I see many people doing.

And I generally don't use the phone while it's plugged in — in fact I don't understand why people do this. When you are near an outlet and not using your phone, plug it in. When you need to use it, plug it out. There's no need to wait until the phone is almost totally discharged to go looking for an outlet or wait until it's fully charged to unplug it. Get one of those small Anker battery packs if you have to.

That seems a lot more inconvenient to me too. I wouldn't always have a charger on me either and carrying a battery pack is something I'd do if I had to go out and knew my phone was running low, not all the time. Sometimes you'd have to go looking for a charger in another room too unless you had multiple.

I only ever charge my phone at night or when the battery is low during the day. Some days with less usage I could have more than 60% battery left so I wouldn't charge it that night and use it thoughout the next day.

I'll often use my phone when charging, I used to use my iPad a lot while it was charging, playing a lot of games but I got one of those Griffin extended cables for that anyway. They are a lot more reinforced compared to the standard Apple ones.

Flaccus

If they are cheap cables then often they are not apple mfi certified so don't have the authentication chip, which is why since iOS8 apple push an update to disable the cable. I wonder if this is what is happening when people buy cheap cables and reckon they are borked ?

faceman

I think I've found an iPhone cable brand that does a far better cable than Apple. Swedish company Happy Plugs. I've been using their lightning cable for a few weeks now and it's a definitely a more durable build than the brittle Appke ones. So far so good.

I picked up the 2m cable for €25 in a Three Store but I'm sure you'll get it cheaper elsewhere.

https://happyplugs.com/

june2015

Highly recommend this cable. Reinforced at the areas that generally fail . Up to 5 times more durable than the apple cable. Read the reviews.


Anker PowerLine Lightning Premium Cable (3ft) Apple MFi Certified... http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B011KOQ8HS/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_udp_awd_OaczwbMS7VWK1