The iPhone 15 series launch was not as smooth sailing as Apple would have expected. Not only the phone experienced some overheating problems, but it also saw a unique problem with one set of owners, looking to charge their phones in the car.
BMW owners with iPhone 15 recently found out that their brand-new phone end up broken when they try to charge with the vehicle’s Qi-chargers. The NFC chips in the new iPhone 15s were rendered useless and in most cases, necessitates an outright replacement of their phone from Apple.
Apple acknowledged this problem and with the new 17.1.1 update, they have released a fix that hopefully can fix this issue. The original problem was that the wireless Qi charging tray in the recent model BMWs would force the iPhones into data recovery mode (white screen), reboots, and once the boot is complete, the NFC chip in the phone will no longer function for payments.
The iOS 17.1.1 update addresses a BMW wireless charging problem and a bug with the Weather Lock Screen widget. Apple’s full release note for the patch is as below:
This update provides bug fixes for your iPhone including:
– In rare circumstances, Apple Pay and other NFC features may become unavailable on iPhone 15 models after wireless charging in certain cars
– Weather Lock Screen widget may not correctly display snow
The iOS 17.1.1 weighs in at 1.26GB.
iPhone 15 owners may want to update their phones to 17.1.1 as soon as they can. However, it is also rumoured that Apple’s release of update 17.2 is just around the corner and for those who would like to wait for a bigger patch, maybe it is a good time to wait.
iOS 17.2 is expected to bring Wi-Fi connectivity fixes, the Journal app, new AirPlay settings for the Apple Vision Pro headset, collaborative Apple music playlists, new weather widgets and enhancements to the Contacts app.