iPhone 12 shows charging but does not

[charliecbp]

I thought I saw a thread on this some months ago, truck is a Limited, I'm using an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the wireless charger, I have the phone pushed all the way to the right with the bottom of the phone facing to the driver, phone shows that it is charging but it does not or if it does it barely keeps up especially while using CarPlay, its the same with or without the case.
Anyone else have this problem or remember the thread?

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[xtraman122]

That’s just a result of the combination of the weak power of wireless charging and the power draw of CarPlay. I have an aftermarket wireless charger in my truck and it’s pretty much useless, after a 30 minute drive I might go up 2-4% at best.

Wireless charging is just sucks compared to what a cord can deliver for now. Regardless of the power of the charger, any iPhone won’t pull more than 7.5W unless you have a 12 and are using Apple’s MagSafe charger, which will go up to 15W and actually charge comparably to most corded connection methods. I use one for overnight when I’m sleeping, but any other time I actually need some juice quick it’s always plugged in. Newer versions of the phone will hopefully upgrade to a higher wattage for wireless charging, but for now it’s pretty tough to do much more than maintain your battery while on there, especially once you’re past the 80% mark where it shifts to the lower charge rate.

I just have a cord plugged into the port inside the armrest/console and leave it sitting near the cup holder, my phone can just just sit on its side in the skinny little slot between the shifter and the cup holders and be plugged in without being in the way.

 

[BLoflin]

I thought I saw a thread on this some months ago, truck is a Limited, I'm using an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the wireless charger, I have the phone pushed all the way to the right with the bottom of the phone facing to the driver, phone shows that it is charging but it does not or if it does it barely keeps up especially while using CarPlay, its the same with or without the case.
Anyone else have this problem or remember the thread?

History/Details for those interested... (for simplification the most general numbers are used in some cases, for example, when I refer to a 10Watt adapter it may actually have been a 12Watt with some implementations, etc).

USB-A (that skinny rectangle connector that has been around a long time) started at 0.5A max (i.e. 2.5Watt power delivery) and then quickly moved to 1.0A (or 1.1A) for 5W delivery and stayed there a long time. Finally it was updated to 2.1A, for a 10W max delivery. This is all at 5Volts. There are implementations that have higher Voltage possible, but lower Amp, so power in watts comes back to the same max.

USB-C is the latest and has capability of 20W (and now even higher).

First iphones came with the little white cube wall adapter and that was 5Watts.

Later phones (and in particular iPads) came with a 10Watt adapter.

Then with USB-C support the ipads came with 20W adapter, iphones with a USB-C cord and expected you to supply your own adapter.

Now on the wireless charging models, started with usually about 5W max, with better charging products a maximum of 7.5Watts. Now with MagSafe (on iphone 12 models) IF you also have an actual Magsafe adapter you can get 15Watts (not all magnetic wireless charging adapters are actually MagSafe spec'd, so max is about 7.5Watt).

I don't know what the max charge power is in the built in Ford, but I KNOW it is not MagSafe so probably 7.5Watt max.

For wireless charging the max is the max under ideal conditions. Any misalignment or space (due to phone cover thickness) will be degraded from max.

Finally, for power usage. The radios in a phone (all the combination of Cell, WiFi, GPS Sats, Bluetooth, etc) are one of the highest power draw. However, MOST of the time they are not in continuous use. Other high power draw is the display (depending on brightness setting) when on, and then processor usage (like when decoding/display a video, or playing a video game).

So using Google (or Apple Maps) for Navigation (i.e. with phone tracking and supplying route information continuously) is a high power draw. Streaming just music thru bluetooth connection to car audio, is not very power hungry. I'm not sure of CarPlay (even without using Nav), but since I believe it is using WiFi also, will be higher than just streaming music with car audio being the "headphones". Of course actually talking on the phone (does anyone do this anymore?... ), also uses more power.

I'm just guessing but based on my experience over the years, streaming music, using Google Maps Navigation, with display on continuously (on the phone) it takes a 7.5Watt power connection to keep up (or very very slowly add some charge). With a MagSafe connection to my iPhone 12 Pro Max, I can nav & music & display and still add charge as I go.

So in my opinion, if your just jumping in and out of your car on errands and not using Navigation, and you charged your phone up at home, just maybe music, and occasional calls/texts (only when stopped at lights, of course...), dont' really need to bother with hooking up (wire or wireless) charging. If on a trip and using Nav, charging of some sort is needed, or you will have a dead phone in a few hours, even if the charging ONLY maintains against the power draw.

 

[xtraman122]

Good write up on all the different charging speeds. I believe the wireless charger in there may be 10W capable, but all you’re going to get from it on any iPhone will be 7.5 like you said.

Wireless CarPlay does indeed use WiFi (In addition to Bluetooth for certain things), it sets up an ad-hoc WiFi network between the car and the your phone, so it does end up being a power hungry combination to be using CarPlay with navigation, especially if streaming as well. You’re using GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular data concurrently.

 

[GolfR]

I experience the same thing. Between waze running, streaming music and if the screen staying on, the wireless can’t keep up. If I manually shut the screen off I get a few percent (maybe) an hour. Worse than the charging is the fact that my phone shits down due to overheating after a couple hours. None of this is Fords fault, it’s more of an Apple problem. Things seem to be a little better if I take the case off.
Like others, I keep a cable plugged in to the center console and plug the phone in if I’m spending any time in the truck. It doesn’t take very long to kill the battery with CarPlay running And the phone in your pocket.

 

[BLoflin]

Here's my setup. I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max (i.e. the largest and heaviest) and it stays put (and I don't drive like a g'ma, just ask my wife).

This is in my 2015 (still waiting on 2021!). I have the suction base sitting on the cover panel for the space behind the shifter/cupholders and the power wire into the power connection inside that space.

It's a MagSafe Charger (15 Watts) with good magnets. Then also a MagSafe case (it repeats the magnets in the phone, in the case, so it is a strong as using phone without the case, for magnetic attachment.

Phone Case: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NFDS7Z5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Charger: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Q3LV881/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1