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After weeks of being silent about the issue, Apple finally acknowledged an issue causing the NFC chips in the iPhone 15 units to break when charged on BMW wireless charging pads.
Though not addressed to the public, the Cupertino giant disclosed the matter to its technicians and Apple Authorized Service Providers. According to an internal memo the company shared (via MacRumors), technicians were informed about the issue and given a suggestion on how to fix the problematic NFC.
The memo generally lacks the exact reason behind the problem but says that it is affecting the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max models. As per Apple, the issue concerns a “small number” of wireless charging pads in recent and specific BMW and Toyota Supra models.
However, unlike former reports about “broken” NFC chips, Apple’s explanation says the issue only temporarily disables them. As such, it advised technicians to restart the NFC chip using a software tool in its Apple Service Toolkit 2. On the other hand, the iPhone maker said that if this doesn’t end the issue, a hardware repair would be the next resort. (Before this memo instruction, users who first experienced the problem reported that their units with damaged NFC were replaced by Apple.)
Unfortunately, as we stressed in a previous report, the fix for this via a software update is still unavailable. This means despite updating to iOS 17.1, your iPhone 15 NFC will still be susceptible to the issue. Hence, it is suggested to continuously refrain from wirelessly charging your iPhone 15 using the pads of the vehicle models mentioned above.
On a positive note, Apple is expected to resolve this via a software update later this year.
The severity of the situation and the number of affected users are currently unknown. The problem reportedly starts when users wirelessly charge their units of a BMW’s charging pad. After this, affected users shared that their new Apple smartphones underwent recovery mode with just a plain white screen. Ultimately, the Apple Pay chip will no longer work after the reboot. As a result, the Apple features the NFC chip supports won’t be able to work. According to reports, units with the said issue will display a Wallet error that reads “Could Not Set Up Apple Pay.”