- If your iPhone is not charging after iOS 26 update, first try to perform a force restart and try again.
- If that didn’t work, inspect the charging port, cable, and power adapter for damage.
- You can also try restoring your iPhone using DFU mode.
- If your iPhone can’t charge to 100%, it’s because of the Optimized Battery Charging or Charge Limit feature.
Several users have reported that their iPhone has stopped charging after iOS 26 update. There are some fairly mundane reasons why this might happen, and they’re generally easy to solve.
Why is my iPhone not charging after iOS 26 update?
A bug in iOS 26 might be preventing your iPhone from charging. If there is a hardware problem, it’s much more likely that the issue is with the charging port. Other reasons include broken charging adapter or power cable.
Verify that your iPhone is not charging
Before you start troubleshooting, first confirm your iPhone is not charging. Connect your phone however you usually do to charge it — wirelessly, plugged into wall outlet, plugged into a computer’s USB port — and check the phone’s display. If the battery is already dead, leave it to charge for about two hours and then check on it.
You should see a lightning bolt in or beside the battery icon at the top right of the iPhone’s lock screen. If there is no lightning bolt in sight, it’s not charging.
Wireless Charging: A Temporary Fix
While you work on fixing your iPhone, you may still be able to charge it wirelessly. Almost all iPhones running iOS 26 supports wireless charging with Qi-certified chargers. Place your iPhone on the center of a Qi wireless charger and see if starts charging.
If it does — that’s great! However, we still need to address the problem preventing your iPhone from charging with a wired connection.
If your iPhone won’t charge wirelessly either, follow the step-by-step guide below.
How To Fix An iPhone That Won’t Charge After iOS 26 Update
Here are eight ways to figure out why your iPhone is not charging after iOS 26 update and how to fix the problem:
1. Force restart your iPhone
Anytime you are troubleshooting charging issues on an iPhone, it’s a good idea to start by performing a force restart and see if that fixes the issue. Here’s how:
Quickly press and release the Volume Up button. Quickly press and release the Volume Down button. Press and hold the Side button. Keep holding the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
When your iPhone restarts, try to charge it again.
2. Inspect your charging cable
iPhone cables are prone to damage — the rubberized outer sheath breaks from repeated bending, and the wires become exposed. If your cable looks like that and it isn’t properly charging your iPhone, throw it away and get a new cable.
But USB-C cables get a lot of abuse, and problems aren’t always apparent to the naked eye. Sometimes wires can break while they’re still inside the sheath. And inexpensive third-party USB-C cables have been known to spontaneously stop working, often because the power regulator chip inside the cable has failed.
There’s no good way to see any of this visually, so the best way to test your USB-C cable is to simply try a different one — ideally, a fully-authorized cable from Apple that’s brand new.
3. Try A Different iPhone Charger
If your iPhone won’t charge, try a different adapter. If your iPhone charges with one adapter and not the other, then your charger is the problem. Buy a high quality charging adapter for your iPhone.
4. Check where your phone is plugged in
On the long list of potential problems, you should also check your power source. If you’re charging your iPhone from a computer’s USB port, make sure the computer is fully awake (not in sleep or hibernation mode). Also try a different USB port, in case the USB port you were using has failed. Don’t try charging from a USB port built into a keyboard or USB hub — connect it directly to a USB port on the computer itself.
If it still doesn’t work, plug it directly into a wall power outlet with an AC adapter.
You should also check for firm connections between your charging cable, USB wall adapter, and wall outlet or AC power cable, or try a different outlet.
5. Brush The Gunk Out Of Your iPhone’s Charging Port
If your iPhone isn’t charging, your next stop should be to inspect the USB-C port. There are no covers on your phone’s charging port, meaning it’s exposed to every bit of dust, dirt and debris it encounters. Every time you slide your phone into your pocket, your phone will be susceptible to pocket fluff and if, like me, you’ve got pockets filled with detritus from accidentally washing your jeans with old receipts in the pockets, then that’s asking for trouble. And that’s to say nothing of the cookie crumbs. Do not ask me why I have cookie crumbs in my pockets.
Day by day, this won’t be a problem, but those tiny bits of dust and fluff will build up inside your charging port over time you have your phone, compacting each time you plug in your charging cable until it forms a solid barrier that stops your charger from going all the way in and allowing it to connect and charge.
It’s a simple task to unclog your phone’s port. You’ll need a cocktail stick, toothpick or other thin item that you can poke in to the port to scrape out the grime. Wood or plastic is better as it’s less likely to scrape against anything inside and potentially cause harm. I’ve done this using a metal SIM removal tool and the pin on the back of an earring and while it worked well, it’s not the safest option for your phone.
Insert your tool of choice into the charging port until it won’t go further and gently start scraping away. You should scrape around the charging connector, which sits in the middle of the port.
Eventually you’ll start to work the compacted debris loose and you’ll be able to encourage the dislodged material out of the port. It’s a satisfying process and you might be surprised at how much stuff actually comes out. Gently work on the sides of the port, too, but be careful not to scrape hard against any of the metal charging connectors.
Eventually you’ll have pretty much all of it out. It’s difficult to check for sure if you’ve gotten rid of it all as it’s tricky to see inside the port, even if you have a good light handy. But once you’ve got a good amount of debris out, you can try your charging cable again.
Hopefully it’ll plug in more securely now and begin charging. If not, keep trying to extract more dirt and then test the charger again. If that still doesn’t solve the issue, move on to the next troubleshooting step.
6. Don’t charge it wirelessly
Most iPhone models running iOS 26 supports wireless charging. If you are using a wireless charger to charge your iPhone, stop using it and plug the phone into a power source with a USB cable. Again, check to see if it’s charging. If it is, congratulations — you solved the problem. There’s some sort of problem with the phone’s wireless charging solution.
You might need to take your phone to an Apple store for service (or replace your wireless charging case) but in the meantime, you can keep the phone charged the old-fashioned way, with wires.
7. Put Your iPhone Into DFU Mode And Restore
When experiencing charging issues after an iOS update, it’s a good idea to perform a DFU restore.
You’ve eliminated the possibility of a simple software problem and taken a look at your USB cable, charger, and the iPhone itself, so it’s time for a last-ditch effort — the DFU restore.
A DFU restore is a special kind of restore (when you restore your iPhone, you erase everything on it and restore it to factory settings) and, hopefully, eliminate any iOS 26 glitch that may be preventing your iPhone from charging. Check out GeeksChalk article to learn how to put your iPhone in DFU mode.
8. Take your iPhone in for service
If your iPhone still won’t charge, it’s pretty likely that there’s something wrong with the phone itself. You should contact Apple or go to an Apple store for service.
See also: iPhone Won’t Turn on After iOS 26 Update? Here’s What to do