Problems Charging iPhone

[sjldt]

I previously owned a mk6 golf and used the 12V power socket to charge my iPhone 5S with a 2.1A belkin car charger. It charged it nice and fast which was great as I used my iPhone as a sat nav on my dash.

When I plug the same 2.1A car charger into the 12V power socket in my new mk7 (which has inconveniently been relocated to next to the electric handbrake - but that's another thread ), my iPhone charges so much slower. I have bought a new charger and it hasn't made a difference.

Can anyone provide any advice as to why/what I can do to charge my iPhone faster in the car? I know I can connect it to the infotainment system but I don't want to (because I can't have the iPhone on the top of my dash without the door being open from the centre console). I just want to charge my iPhone out of the 12V power socket as before, but for some reason, it just isn't charging very fast on the new mk7.

A friend has mentioned it may be to do with the output from the socket on the mk7 now being DC rather than AC which it may have been in mk6.

Any help much appreciated. I feel completely at a loss.

 

[Fanis1]

Don't know about changes regarding power sockets, but a general rule is that your phone will charge twice as fast if in flight mode... You could use this tip, if you just want to charge it quickly but you don't need to actually use it...

 

[Talk-torque]

Definitely no AC/DC change, so you can rule that out (Your friends not a car expert, is he?). Are you trying to charge the phone with the ignition off? The power sockets on the Mark 7 are, as standard, only live with the ignition on. I don't know if the Mark 6 was different. There is a simple mod to make the sockets live with ignition off, which I have linked to here.
HTH

 

[sjldt]

@Fanis, I need my phone on normal mode unfortunately so I can make/receive calls and to use my satnav on it

@Talk-torque. My friend is no car expert, but he's a physicist! (never the same Thanks for the link, I'm unfortunately experiencing the slow charging while I'm driving. In two hours it may charge 15%. Before, on a 2 hour journey, it'd charge my phone fully. Very frustrating!

Anyone any ideas?

 

[kevin1]

I've got a mk7 and use my iPhone 5s as sat nav and as a Bluetooth music source. I've never looked at the charging rate as it's never been an obvious issue. If I plug in the iPhone with hardly any charge, it is typically nearly fully charged in an hour.

 

[sjldt]

Hi Kevin

Really helpful to know - what charger do you use? Do you plug it into the infotainment system or to the 12V socket by the electric handbrake?

 

[kevin1]

Hi Kevin

Really helpful to know - what charger do you use? Do you plug it into the infotainment system or to the 12V socket by the electric handbrake?

I plug into the 12v socket near the Electronic Handbrake.

I bought the charger in the Apple store, but it's nothing special -
Search "just wireless car charger" on Amazon. The brand name confusingly is "Just Wireless"

I use it with a official Apple Lightening cable.

 

[mrlapou]

Noticed the charger socket is only live when ignition is on.

 

[sjldt]

No luck with the charger from the apple store according to caraudiocentre who I just called, apparently it's a problem with the wiring in some golfs which means the output on the sockets is lower than others

 

[Chr15b]

Try charging with the iphone switched off. I'm sure they've changed something

 

[Talk-torque]

USB chargers for car sockets are rated for power delivery. Most are rated at 5 Volts, 1 Amp, and are suitable for charging iPhones or iPods. This one is rated at 5 Volts, 2.1 Amps, and is suitable for charging iPads. This should be able to charge your phone as quick as ever, unless it's battery is goosed! Have you tried charging the battery at home using one of the conditioning apps, such as Battery Life?

I can't believe your problem is that the output of the power sockets has changed, or is lower on some cars. The power to heat a ciggy lighter is considerably more than that needed to charge a phone.

 

[Chr15b]

Something has changed, my iphone for the last couple of months will not charge from USB unless the phone is powered off. It used to work in the car fine, now it doesn't.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dosa]

I just got my car a few days ago and my car charger doesn't work for my samsung note 4. I came from a 2012 Audi S4 and had that charger plugged in all the time and it was working fine until I switched to the GTI

The 12V outlet lights up white and the charger light is lit as well but no charge.

I'll see what happens once I plug in my GF's charger >;|

 

[rmappleby]

I was also seeing very slow charge from a 2.1A charger plugged into the power socket by the electronic handbrake. If I was using the phone's data connections at the same time as a call then I could sometimes see the charge going down, not up. The charger *was* supplying 5v to the phone, and the phone *did* see the charger, but it didn't think it was connected to a charger - it thought it was connected to a computer USB port. And that was the problem for me.

Devices can charge (according to the USB specs) using their USB port at one of two rates ... a maximum of 0.5A, or a maximum of 1.5A. In practice, manufacturers interpret this as "connected to a computer USB socket", and "connected to a wall-charger". They limit themselves to 0.5A (to prevent damage to the computer) unless they see that they are attached to a wall-charger. Many manufacturers assume that if they are attached to a wall-charger, it's their bundled wall-charger, and that they can draw as much current as they like - hence manufacturers bundling chargers that can supply 2A or more.

In the battery settings of my Android phone, it will report "Not charging", "Charging (USB)" or "Charging (AC)" depending on what it thinks it's connected to. It believes it's connected to a wall-charger ("AC") if two of the wires in the plug are connected together. When connected to my car charger, my phone was reporting a "USB" connection.

The solution to this (for non-Apple kit) is to buy what is known as a "dedicated charging cable". The wires in the cable have been connected internally to indicate that the device should draw the maximum possible power. If you have Apple kit then I believe you will need an additional adaptor that can signal to the Apple kit how to charge at the right rate.

Long and the short, these guys make stuff that ought to solve most of these problems: http://www.portablepowersupplies.co.uk/ You can buy direct, or through Amazon. I have no affiliation with them, beyond being a happy customer. There are probably other companies creating similar products that may or may not be better. Your mileage may vary