Is the NFC chip in your iPhone having issues after charging the phone on a wireless charging pad of your BMW? If so, you’re not alone.
This is a known problem Apple plans to fix via an iOS software update later this year, as per an internal memo shared with its authorized service providers.
Apple released iOS 17.1 just yesterday, but the update doesn’t contain a fix for the BMW wireless charging issue. In the meantime, Apple advises stopping using BMW’s wirelessly chargers with iPhones until this problem is resolved.
BMW’s wireless charging may stop your iPhone’s NFC chip from working
The problem only affects the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max devices, which don’t seem to work well with a “small number” of wireless chargers built into specific recent BMW and Toyota Supra models.
The NFC chip in the iPhone isn’t just for mobile payments via Apple Pay but also controls other features like digital car keys and even NameDrop.
If you see a message in the Wallet app saying the device “Could Not Set Up Apple Pay” even though it’s already set up, there’s a solid likelihood you recently wirelessly charged the device on a BMW’s built-in wireless charging pad.
There are some complaints about this issue across the MacRumors forums and X, formerly known as Twitter, but it is unclear how widespread the problem is. Affected customers said the iPhone goes into a data recovery mode with a white screen, and the NFC chip is no longer functional after the device reboots. There is no way for customers to fix the problem, so a trip to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider is required.
Does that mean that BMW’s wireless chargers break the iPhone’s NFC chip beyond repair? Of course not. That would indicate a severe hardware design problem with the latest iPhones that might warrant a product recall.
In the memo, Apple advises restarting the NFC chip with a special software tool available to authorized service technicians. But if this doesn’t fix the problem, technicians are advised to initiate a hardware repair.