I've been having a frustrating issue with my iPhone 16 where it refuses to charge via USB-C. It detects when it's plugged in and indicates it's charging, but my battery percentage keeps dropping instead. Wireless charging is perfectly fine though. I took it to the Genius Bar, and they couldn't figure it out, so they gave me a replacement device. Initially, it seemed to work at the store, but later that evening, the exact same problem happened again. This started with my old device on iOS 18 and continued on the new one running iOS 26.
I went back for another appointment, but they were puzzled again. They noticed blue corrosion on the port, suggesting water damage, but my phone hasn't been wet, nor have my cables. To be sure, I brought my charging cable with me, and they said it was fine because it charges my other devices without issue. I'm worried about this new replacement and trying to figure out what's going on. I've done multiple resets and even set it up as a new device, hoping it was a software glitch, but no luck. Interestingly, I met a customer at my bar who reported having the same issue with his iPhone 16. Has anyone experienced something similar? What could be the cause?
2 Answers
It sounds like a real hassle! Since this issue has happened on two different devices, I wonder if it might actually be related to the charging setup at your place instead of the phones. Have you tried different cables or chargers from other sources? Maybe those are the culprits.
You might want to look into a software diagnostics test. There was a similar issue with the iPhone 15 that was resolved that way. It’s also possible that your backup could have some corrupted data that’s causing the problem, transferring it across devices.
That could be worth exploring! They did run a diagnostic scan when I was at the Genius Bar, and we set up the new phone without restoring from my backup. Do you think a corrupted backup could still affect the phone after a factory reset?
I’ve tried it all! I took my main charging cable to the Genius Bar, and they confirmed it was working fine with other devices. I’ll definitely get a new plug and cable for the replacement, but I don’t think that’s the actual issue.