Apple acknowledges BMW wireless charging issue with iPhone 15s: Report

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple has acknowledged a BMW wireless charging issue affecting the latest iPhone 15 series and promised to bring a fix later this year.

A number of users have been reporting that their iPhone 15’s NFC chips were failing after using BMW’s in-car wireless charging.

Apple has issued an internal memo to Apple Authorized Service Providers, warning that using wireless phone chargers built into certain recent BMW and Toyota Supra models to charge iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max may temporarily disable the NFC capabilities of the device, reports MacRumors.

Apple stated that the problem will be addressed in a software update later this year.

The tech giant also advised affected customers to discontinue use of in-car wireless charging.

Customers who have experienced this issue claim that the iPhone enters a data recovery mode with a white screen and that the NFC chip no longer functions after the device reboots, the report said.

BMW appeared to acknowledge the problem earlier this month when the BMW UK X account responded to a complaint, stating that the company is working with Apple to investigate the problem.

"Hi Matthew, thanks for your post. The topic is currently being investigated together with Apple. We can’t offer a timeframe but we hope to get an update soon," the company wrote.

Meanwhile, Apple has fixed a vulnerability in its iPhone software that allegedly came with an iOS update which was launched in 2020.

The feature in iOS 14 would prevent nearby wireless routers and access points from gathering an Apple device’s unique MAC address, reports TechCrunch. A device’s MAC addresses can be used for tracking.

The tech giant has fixed the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-42846, with the release of iOS 17.1 and iOS 16.7.2 for older devices that can run iOS 16.