Someone took the USB-to-Lightning cable from my home, and I need to return it to my workplace. She now says her dog damaged the cable, so I need to get a replacement. I still have the original box, iPad, and power adapter, but I also have a convincing-looking third-party cable and cannot tell which one is genuine. Are there any markings, codes, or reliable checks that can confirm whether a Lightning cable is an original or properly certified Apple cable?
4 Answers
The practical solution may be to buy a reputable replacement and provide the receipt to the person who damaged the original. A cheap cable can work, but quality and certification matter if it needs to charge reliably or connect to the iPad.
Lightning cables generally are not individually serialized, so there usually is no unique code you can use to prove that a particular cable is the original one. You can only check whether it appears to be genuine or certified.
If the cable charges the iPad and supports data transfer without warnings or intermittent connections, it is probably usable. Still, choose a properly certified replacement rather than relying only on appearance.
Look for the usual signs of an uncertified or counterfeit cable: poor connector construction, uneven contacts, incorrect proportions, weak strain relief, or charging and data-transfer problems. These checks can show that a cable is suspicious, but they cannot prove which specific cable came with your iPad.
That makes sense, but I was hoping there would at least be a marking on the cable since I borrowed it from work and need to return the right type.