Why You May See a “This Cable is Not Certified and May Not Work Reliably” Error on iPhone & iPad
Rarely, when you plug an iPhone or iPad into a particular Lightning charger cable you’ll see a pop-up or lock screen message on the device that says something to the effect of “This cable is not certified and may not work reliably”. This usually prevents the lightning cable from charging the device as well. Though most users will never see this error, if you do see that message, there’s almost always a reason why.
We’ll cover the three most common reasons you’ll see the “not certified” message on an iOS device, and also what you can do about it.
Perhaps before anything else, try pulling the cable out of the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then putting it back in. Also, try plugging the cable into either a different USB port on a computer, or into a different all outlet. On rare occasions where the message is displayed erroneously and for no good cause, this can be a solution, which is probably indicative of a power issue with the source, and not the cable. These situations can also sometimes lead to an appearance of a device that refuses to turn on, though in such a situation just plugging it into a different outlet can be the remedy.
So assuming that is not the case, here are the most likely reasons why you’d see the “This cable is not certified and may not work reliably” error message with an iPhone or ipad.
The Cable is Junk or Poor Quality
The first and most obvious reason to see the error is when a cable is not certified by Apple, which is often the case with a cheap replacement. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, when they don’t work is when you’ll see the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.” error message show up.
Because the iPhone and iPad Lightning USB charger cables can be expensive, many users will turn to the third party offerings to replace a torn or frayed cable, and these cheap low quality replacements are the most common causes of that error message. Those cheap cables are not recommended for exactly that reason.
Rather than risking it and throwing away money, just buy a cable that will work. If you don’t want to spring for the Apple cables, the AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning Cable from Amazon
are cheaper, stronger, and work really well.
While I like the Amazon brand, any certified cable should work, and a legitimate Apple Certified cable will usually have a “Made for iPhone / iPod / iPad” branding logo on it, kind of like a stamp of approval from Apple (you can read more about that here).
The Cable is Damaged
You may also see the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone” error message with a damaged cable. This is particularly common if the charging cable has been submerged in water, corroded, or obviously damaged in any way, with fraying or chew marks that are clearly visible. If that’s the case, you’ll want to replace the cable anyway.
Again, the Amazon brand cables are good replacements and reasonably priced.
Less Likely, Something is Obstructing the Cable Charger or Port
A much less likely reason to see the error message, but still a possibility, is that something is physically obstructing the port or the charger. Basically if something is stuck or obstructed just enough to send a signal but not work properly, you may get the error message.
Most commonly however, is that something like pocket lint or pocket crud gets jammed in the port and will prevent charging from happening entirely, and in those situations you usually don’t get an error message at all because the port is so jammed that no current or signal is passed. This is more likely to happen with an iPhone, but I’ve seen it on an iPad where carpet lint and even Playdough was jammed in the charger port, and causing a periodic “not certified” message to show up. So check the ports and clean it out if you see anything in there, in some situations it can be a simple solution.
I get the little pop up message only on my iPod 5th generation, and it won’t charge, but I don’t get it on my phone, and it charges my iPhone 6. I tried different cables, outlets, turned off the iPod turned back on, cleaned the charging port, and still nothing!!!
It’s happening to me! All new iPhone cables and they don’t work😡 Only one I can get to charge is a cheap gas station find
I’m getting the message repeatedly on my iPhone 6 with 89% battery charged and with no cable attached. any ideas
Getting this too. At the same time that the phone locked into headphone mode without headphones in. Apparently the cause for both is either debris or slight moisture inside the respective ports (my pants got pretty wet in a rainstorm last night with my phone in the pocket so guessing that’s the source). But I used compressed air to remove any foreign material and put it in a bag of silica gel packs over night which resolved the locked headphones issue, but not the cable message that keeps popping up.
OK, so I started getting the message with the stock lightning cable (iPhone 6 plus). Unplugged it, restarted the phone, checked for stuff in the charging port, checked the lightning connector, everything seemed fine. Tried different plug outlets, tried my USB on my laptop, still got the message.
Put it back in the wall outlet, then after about 2 minutes of the phone just sitting there (never moved it) I hear the ding and it’s charging again… screwy technology.
It’s my iPhone not apples, I own the phone… The message says it MAY not work reliably, that’s just a lie, it does not work, surly as it is MY phone and not apples I should decide what I charge it with.
Richard, I know what you mean. I would like to charge my iPhone with a burrito, and Apple won’t let me plug the burrito into my iPone. Unbelievable! It says it may work, but it’s a lie, no burrito charging for my iPhone!
Sincerely, Mike the iPhone Guy
in my iphone 5c this error come when i put cable into iphone in wrong direction, you can insert this cable in normal even in reverse??? not like usb if you get me.
I am using a ANKER changer and have been for a while and randomly today it stopped working and start showing a message similar to “This Cable is Not Certified and May Not Work Reliably” could you tell me why this happens I checked if my ANKER device is broken or not by trying to change my friends phone and it was working if it helps I am trying to change a iPhone 5
My 5s won’t charge while the phone is on even with an original Apple cable and charger port. Always this msg: “this accessory may not b supported” but if I turn the phone off, it charges. But never charges while phone is on. Any solution, anyone? Nobody seems to understand what is going on with it.
I have used the same car charger for two years and now I am getting the message as well. A lot of other people are having the same issue all of the sudden. I am never buying another apple product, this is ridiculous that you have to have apple certified charger that of course cost more.
Well please explain why im getting this message with my brand new charger that came in the box with my iphone 6s. This is ridiculous!! Im moving to S7
I’ve been using a Duracell 6 foot charger since my brother got it for me for Christmas, here it is may and I’ve only just began getting this message, I don’t see any obstruction and it won’t charge, or like earlier I plugged it in and it jumped up 2 percent so I thought it was charging and came back 10 minutes later to find it right back where it was
I tried a fake charger and it was working just fine so I went to sleep when I woke up the next morning my phone wasnt charging and the original apple charger didnt work as well
We are having some electrical issues in our older home and I’m getting the error message. I’ve tried all the fixes, and now think our electrical problems are at minimum a factor, if not the cause of our problems – may not be an apple issue at all.
I’ve started getting this message with the Modal cable I’ve been using all the time. I suspect Apple is trying its proprietary bs.
I started getting this message on my iPad Pro using the cable that came with it new, and connecting to an Apple Thunderbolt display USB port. Cable is less than 4 months old.
This happens a lot on iPhones 5s. Poor QA on apples part all to make 15 bucks on a dollar cable. The mark up on these things are herendous. Just check out how Best Buy makes its profit. HDMI cables are marked up 400%
It happened to me on 2 different Iphone 6s Plus with the original Apple cables ! Tried cables on both phones via the 1) original Apple cubes, 2) charging via my Imac, 3) via my MBP, 4) via USB outlet, not charging at all and I get the error message.
Used the Amazon cables and both phones are charging without any issues.
It has to be the cable ……
had the same issue with my iPad 4, the cause was the power source, I unplugged the charger adapter from the power socket and plugged it back….it worked just fine
I am having the same problem as well. I just recived my phone less then a month ago. This was a brand new charger and it’s already messing up? I have tried resetting my phone and I have tried moving my USB plug into different ports. Please help me.
I haven’t skimped on cheap cables but am still having this problem. Every couple months, my cables just stop working. If I buy another cable, problem solved for another couple of months. Usually, when I start getting the error message, the cable is within a few days of just being rejected by my phone. Getting tired of spending all this money.
I have this problem too in my iphone 4.
My problem came two days before by using the charger (which is not original).
So I bought a new Case Charger, and it says the same problem.
What to do now?
Tobuy original charger of Apple??
Please help me.
This is only bull. I have a Apple cable, it is OK but this iPad shit just doesn’t recognise it as a cable and does not charge. Apple has allways been and will allways remain, anything else.
I believe it’s not the cable but the iPhone. Suddenly almost all my power cables are not certified for my iPhone6 and they were oke a couple of days ago and still charging my other Apple gear (like 2 iPads) with no problem / message.
It’s in the construction of slot on the iPhone. I also switch to Samsung because of being tired to hassle around with cables and because of battery life is going down after each upgrade I now often have to shut my mobile (??) iPhone to save power.
The article mentions “clean” at the end, but perhaps the mention of Playdough makes most think their phone is clean since there may certainly be no Playdough or anything like it near their phone, ever.
Seriously, just putting the phone in pockets etc, and very easily lint etc can collect in that lightning connector slot. And every time a cable is inserted, this further compacts the stuff in there, until eventually getting a connection is questionable, and eventually, may never occur.
Turn the phone off and use something small and thin to poke around carefully in there and watch how much junk you can pull out. Something non-conductive is safest, but I cleaned mine out with a fine pin.
(I am not responsible if you wreck your lightning connector or somehow cause damage by shorting something in your phone; so use common sense and be careful. That being said, I was surprised how much junk managed to get into my phone, and this cleared up all device/cable connection issues for me).
I’m switching to Samsung for one reason: Apples cables. Tired of buying new ones.
Only one reason this message comes up; because apple are greedy and they make a TON of money selling their poor quality cables. They just want people to keep buying them.
I bought a $5 Amazon branded cable that is high quality and problem free, Apple made $0 on that. I recommend buying a third party cable if you keep ruining Apple cruddy cables. Some of the Apple cables destroy themselves with gradual usage I have noticed too, the Amazon cable is just much tougher and stronger.
Got this message for two days in a row. I tried turning on low power mode in the battery settings and problem was solved. Hope it helps.
First I had the hijacking of my text messages with the iMessage when I switched to a Samsung phone. Now this stupid cable thing. I used to work in telecom/computer cable design and manufacturing. There is only one reason for Apple to do this – greed. You don’t hear about these issues with mini-USB cables. Apple has a proprietary cable for a reason- money. There’s no performance advantage to the lightening connector. Exactly the opposite, in fact. I guess it is time to completely cut the Apple cord.
Here is what worked for me (my 1-yr-old iPhn 6 started displaying the “this cable or accessory is not certified and may not work…” message after the latest iOS update).
I backed up my iPhn via iTunes.
I wiped out the iPhn.
I restored it via iTunes.
Battery is charging and the pesky message is gone!
I’m getting this message with no cable plugged into my phone except for headphones and its disrupting and kicked me out of the show I was watching. NO CABLE IS EVEN PLUGGED IN.
I have had IPhones since they came out and I never had a problem until the cords switched to the 8pin. My iPhone 5 wouldn’t charge with the cord from Apple, right from the box. I now have an iPhone 6 and I have the same issue. It will charge sometimes and quit randomly or not charge at all. I e taken my phone in and they say it’s a problem with the cord. I have yet to get any replacement from Apple. I buy them online and it doesn’t matter if it’s an actual cerified cord or a cheap one. It doesn’t charge. These cords are getting expensive to replace. I don’t want to but I might just switch to android.
I receive this error message even when I don’t connect cables. What should I do?
This is written by a mental midget
Do you have low self esteem Matt? Why do you deride your comment like that? Is it because you saw the “This Cable is Not Certified and May Not Work Reliably” error message? Perhaps you can try Sudoku puzzles on your iPhone so you can work your mental muscles.
I experienced this just now after downloading the new iOS9!
My cable is an Apple original.
Will try some of the suggestions above.
This is simply a technique used by Apple to force you to buy their product, nothing more!
I am currently having this same issue. Literally as I type, the message has popped up, but it is not plugged in… 5 or 6 times over the last 2 hours and yet it hasn’t been on charge since 6:30 this morning.
Im having the exact same problem! did you figure it out??? please help!
My battery drained. And all my iPhone5 does is blink and the logo of what is I belive is the insert charger keeps popping out. Is it the cable or is it the phone that has a problem. And yes I removed all the lint inside the charging port. And my cable works perfectly when I plug my iPad mini. And I’ve already done the force reset amd reset all settings still wont charge.
I’ve also tried turning off my phone and plugging my phone. It will turn on eventually but wont charge… I really need your help guys thanks in advance.
thank you so much! I really panicked before i found this.. I simply connect it to my laptop then putting it back to the charger port..
I have a lightning cable and apple cube but still get that message when i try to charge my phone, any suggestions?
I keep getting this stupid message even when no charger is plugged in!
I’m using the official charger that came with the iphone 5s box. I have other lightning connectors and thought maybe switching them would fix it but it hasn’t.
Is there something wrong with my 5s? Do I need to clean the port on the bottom of the phone? I’ve only had the 5s for about a week. I am using official apple chargers.
This started happening after my batter drained and I put the phone on charge. Is it a software bug?
Any help would be appreciated to solve This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably error.
P.s. The message ONLY appears when it is not on charge. Which is studpily weird.
Here is an article I found that directly addresses the error message and what you can do about it:
https://osxdaily.com/2015/02/12/cable-is-not-certified-error-message-iphone-ipad/
If you see the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably” error, that is what I would do, I did it, it worked for me.
I, too, have had the experience of error messages when using a non-Apple certified cable and yes, it was both annoying and frustrating! Also, after having purchased several replacement cables that would only work for a few times and then “die”; I reverted back to my childhood curiosity and started asking A TON of questions and Googled the matter ad nauseam! My persistence paid off and I found my answer – not that I liked it all that much but now I understand why using an Apple original 8-pin connector is probably better in the long run.
There are a few really good reasons why I will only use the Apple certified cables and the first one is because it will ensure that my iPhone/iPad batteries charge properly and thus last longer. I paid A LOT of money for my devices and I wish to keep them in good working condition for as long as possible and the battery has everything to do with how well the device functions, which is the second most important reason I want to only use the Apple MFi (“Made For iProducts”) certified cables: I need my device to work!!! It’s not just inconvenient when my iPhone isn’t working – my whole day can become chaos especially when I need to actually use my phone to MAKE A PHONE CALL (I know!? Who does that anymore, right?!)! I don’t know phone numbers by memory anymore! And I’m not “directionally challenged” but, damn, I would be literally lost without my phone!!!!
Anyway, it’s a good idea to protect your investment by using the cables that are MFi certified which are designed to communicate specifically with ALL your Apple products.
*Disclaimer: I have a patent-pending on a strain relief design which I have applied to all of my Lightning to USB cables. I have been using the same Apple cable for over two years with my design applied to the areas where these cables tend to fray and break. The trademarked name of the product is SPHRYNX™ and the company name is the same; I am planning a crowdfund campaign to launch later this year and hope my product will restore people’s faith in these charger cables!
Ms. Sphrynx, perhaps you didn’t notice. Many people are complaining about MFI cables. So what you said are meaningless other than shameless self-promotion of you own upcoming product.
I have been getting the I-Phone warning over the charge lead that then leads to trying and retrying until the lead carries on working. The lead I have (Mitec) doesn’t fall into the ‘cheap’ category and I had found it a more durable cable than the I Phone cable. The fact that it has worked well for so long suggests, to me, that I-Phone company is actually blocking the use – all-beit on on relative short-term basis. Any thoughts on this??
I just bought a longer charger than the one I had before. It was one from the iHip woven series and was using it for a few days before I had a problem. Now, it doesn’t work no matter what I try. I have plugged it into different outlets and into my phone and iPad. I even tried different cubes. I don’t know what is going on but I paid so that I could have a charger that works and now I have nothing.
Did you mean charger or cable? How can a charger be “longer”???
Cleaned ports of genuine Apple lightning USB adapter which was working fine to upload photos from DSLR to iPad Air before update to 8.0.3 Decided to buy ANOTHER genuine lightning adapter and still getting message this cable may not be supported/certified..charging works fine, I just can’t upload photos, which is the main reason I bought this iPad..It is the update that messed this whole ordeal up..Did the update change some settings I may be unaware of for photo uploads? Emailed Apple support and they sent me a link to do a diagnostic, which I did, but no response or results given back..WTF?
It happened to me after the last iOS update. I had a third party black cable, and right after the update, it worked, thereafter is did not. Funny thing – it still worked for the other device that was not yet updated. (and still does).
This is another attempt of Apple to force users to buy overpriced (and crappy) lightning cables from them.
This strikes me as an unlawful uncompetitive activity, and I am curious how many of you attorneys out there agree with me.
What doesn’t make sense is its obvious the cable cant be a proprietary patent, so how is it impossible to duplicate? Its like saying someone could invent an extension cord that is special.
Why is it that this message pops up even when I have no charging cable or anything plugged into my phone?
I have the same thing – nothing plugged in and the message pops up randomly! Did you ever resolve this? many thanks in advance!
I’m pretty sure that this is due to fluid damage. My wife managed to spill tea near the phone and although it was in the cover, I’m getting this message as well as the problem that the speakers will only work in headphone mode .
Naturally enough it was my fault for leaving the phone there !! She also broke my favourite cup into the bargain.
Both problems have only been apparent since the incident.
I have been at my 3rd cable. At the end of my second cable if I move it, the battery switch from on and off charging. It’s annoying! And I’m getting the message cable not working when NOTHING is plugged in.
Try a hard reset. Home and off button held down for 30 seconds at the same time.
I’m getting these messages very frequently, even when there isn’t even a cable plugged in. They just appear randomly. Anybody else having this issue?
I’m getting this problem on all three of our devices- two iPads and an iPhone. It’s driving me nuts. The official Apple charger works mostly (only one of ours has survived, the others all disintegrated within a matter of weeks), but the two Amazon cables are basically defunct, despite working just fine up until recently. None of the cables are damaged in any way and the devices are all relatively new so I can only assume it’s a software issue. One semi-working cable amongst three devices…oy vey.
I’ve heard that if you hook the phone to a computer and do a hard reset then it will recognize the cables again. What doesn’t make sense to me is how a third party dependable works for 2 months then stops. The cable is in perfect shape, apple must have their head up……
Apple sucks – hands down. People go on and complain that why would other people want to buy a cheap lightning cable when you pay all that money for an apple product? Well, it is simple. In my case, the lightning cable was breaking apart – yes, the “certified Apple” right out of the factory accessory that came with my iPad. Apple builds stuff cheaply, expects people to buy their products, and do what they can to prevent third parties from developing reliable products for their devices. I hope there will be a class action lawsuit against Apple.
I’m getting accessory not accepted. I thought it was my cable so I bought another one, and I’m still getting the message. Sometimes it won’t charge at all. Sometimes it charges to 100% and then the message displays. I plug the cable into the cube, I almost never charge from my laptop or tablet. Maybe that’s the issue… But I’m getting the error along with my phone not charging more frequently now in the last month.
I have replace my charger with several apple products that just break and pull apart. I’ve had my third party charger for almost the entire time i’ve owned my phone and only recently has is started displaying the “This cable is not certified and may not work reliably.”
Do you know any ways around the “warning”?
I had the same error message come up periodically and at odd intervals. I found out that my error message only occurred when I had the USB charger plugged into the wall outlet adapter that was plugged into a power strip with APC/UPC or surge protection override.
I noticed that the charging cable icon was flickering some and it dawned on me that the surge protection might would be the demon…and it was. I now just use the wall outlet adapter with the USB cord, plugged directly into an outlet.
Truly sinister…I could see if high speed communications required an expensive cable, but charging? Ridiculous…Apple should hang their heads in shame.
We’re on a beach vacation in Florida, and now both my iPhone 6 and my wife’s are giving this message with three different apple cables, whether they’re plugged into a wall or a portable battery. It must be the humidity and salt air, but even that doesn’t make sense.
I am getting this message on my iPhone 6 and I don’t have anything plugged into my phone. How can a non existent cable be defective?
I am getting the same message but nothing is plugged in. Any suggestions out there?
I would try a hard reset. Push off and home button for 30 seconds simultaneously. Might work for ya.
Apple lightning cable = poor quality! The rubber near the USB plug is weak. Not allowing people to use third party cables that are of better build quality is really wrong!
I have an iPad Air 2 bought in Dec. 2014 and needed the longer cable so picked up an Apple certified one from Best Buy despite the ridiculous price. March 2015 and it won’t charge and the iPad says it isn’t certified.
This has been happening to me with the supplied cable from Apple. But the cable is two years old and started fraying on the end. If I pull it out, turn it around, and plug it back in it’s OK.
But I ended up getting a new 3rd party cable that is made better.
Sometimes on apple brand lightning cables, the contacts develop a corrosion type condition on the contact slivers. I use a staple to scrape the individual contacts and then it starts to work again. I’ve only noticed the apple brand ones that do this.
Thank the lord for you my friend, i did what you said and it solved my issue.
This also did the trick for me!
Using some cheap 3rd party cables and chargers could be hazardous to your health. They are not U.L. certified and could cause a fire or electrocution. Not worth the few dollars you save. Every Apple cable I’ve used has never given me that error message so if you get that with your Apple cables I would have your phone checked out at an Apple store because that shouldn’t happen.
To be clear, you are not going to be electrocuted by a defective or 3rd-party iPhone or iPad cable. Only low voltage runs through those cables provided they are plugged into a certified power supply.
However, if you have a third-party, non-certified power supply, that could send potentially dangerous voltage down the cable, whether that cable is certified or not.
Semi, it is not voltage that kills, current kills.
The main issue I’ve encountered is that even if you plug your iPad into a powered hub, one with enough amps to charge it, no powered hub implements the (proprietary) Apple protocol. Thus, even though the iPad will charge and sync, there’s still an error message.
If Apple would license or give away there proprietary protocol, or if Apple would have their own powered hub, this wouldn’t have to happen.
Surprisingly, I have also had good luck with simply flipping the phone over and plugging in the lightning connector “upside down.”
Lightening cables are the most defective part made by Apple. Did Apple do this intentionally ? Almost everyone who uses the cable with any frequency has them become defective by the first year.
NOTE: Apple must replace these cables during the one year warranty or two-year AppleCare coverage. Contact them if this applies to you !
Beat me to it….
I’ve never had an issue with a lightning or 30-pin connector. Sucks to be you.
Ditto. I have owned many Apple iOS devices and have never had a defective cable nor has one ever broken or become defective with use. I think most cases are rough handling. Maybe there needs to be the “Otter Box” heavy duty lightning cable at a higher price for those who need them. If this is such a problem it seems like some enterprising individuals would make such a device and this would become the deficit standard for those needing a heavy duty cable. Interestingly, I have not seen anyone (or company) step up.
Oops…”defacto standard”, not deficit. Auto correct got me again!
Great mature, response John!
What a dickhead response.
Didn’t your mom teach you that if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything?
This is why I like the Amazon Lightning cables, every Apple cable I have has frayed or worn out within a short amount of time. The Amazon cable has been rock solid, no fraying, no damage at all. I just use mine on my desk too, can’t imagine how short the lifespan would be in a heavy use area like a car. Why can’t Apple make a quality cable that lasts? (That’s rhetorical of course, just look at buggy iOS and OS X and you know why). Every iPhone cable I’ve ever had has torn and frayed, meanwhile I have a Nintendo controller from 1988 and the cable is good as new. Go figure. Apple needs to step up the quality, totally unacceptable to have a product component fail in a few months.
I have seen that message but only with Apple’s charger cube. It went away by reconnecting the cables. So who know – lint or lint in the software. So far it hasn’t been fatal.
About Apple’s charger having a trickle charge state. I don’t think that is credible. A usb cable into almost any standard USB jack gets 5 volts from the generic power supply, usb bus, etc. So if there is a trickle charge function it is built into the phone. Just my $.02
You’ll have to dig for other sources. It’s the circuitry inside Apple certified chargers that once the battery is 80% charged the charger then goes into trickle mode for the remaining time up to 100%. My Mophie Juice Pak Air literature made specific mention of this circuitry. If the iPhone doesn’t sense this circuitry then it trips the wires and displays that message.
You are mistaken. I hope that you this piece I wrote to be informative:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5299563?tstart=0
This happened even with the cable right out of the Apple phone box. So, another possibility – defective messaging.
Interesting, you got the message with a new device and new charger? Nothing obstructing the port? Usually it’s something that will interrupt the charge.
that makes no sense ;)
This is happening to me too! I have purchased new cables and chargers. I have only one cord that works! I have done a complete reset with my phone. Either some of the stores are selling defective products (even though is says Apple Certified and came in the box) or something else is going on, as none of the above apply to me and the techs at Apple are now stumped too! It happened after the recent upgrade! Two new cables right out of the box!!!
Funny how many articles there are concerning this problem. It is obviously a bad design and a defect unaddressed by apple. Did the quality die with Jobs?
YES!!!
Just happened to me on an iPad Pro that is less than a week old. No obstruction. Unplugged, re-plugged, gone for now.
By the way, it was with the cable and charger that came with the iPad Pro.
This is either the 4th or 5th time it has been charged.
Same thing here exactly! iPhone 6S! Hate it so much now! the 4S I was using is just too old but never had a trouble with the charger!!!!
No, this is purely hardware issue. They planted a tiny authorization chip inside the connector. So tiny they would be fried by even common mistake such as wobbling your car USB charger pretty fast. Only slight voltage fluctuation needed to render this cable useless. I burnt this cable 5 times just by fixing USB connector seating to my power bank USB slot.
What I did to fix this problem was turned off my phone. Completely, letting it power down. Then turned it back on, went into General > About then wiped the phone clean, I did not restore from iCloud. I left the cable in the phone while it was restoring, I took the cable out for a few minutes to see what would happen. Low and behold when I plugged the cable back in the message no longer showed up.
I also bought a 7$ iPhone cable the one that fits the 5 and up. I bought it from Batteryship.com that was a big mistake. I showed the guy at apple the cable and he noticed a slight difference in the pins that connect to the phone. Case in point, always make sure to check the cable out of the box. Make sure it matches the apple cable or you may have a fake cable. I plugged the fake cable into my Mac Book Pro and it said the cable was using “too much” power. He told me to just toss the cable out and never plug into my phone again.
This also happened to me. I ordered a new iPhone charger from apple, I took it out of the box and plugged it into my phone and the message displayed and didn’t charge my phone. I have tried cheap cables from amazon or eBay and they work fine.
I had this same problem in the past and so switched to only lightning qualified cables through Amazon. Today I had all my cords stop working (3 of them) whether i was trying to charge my iPhone 6 plus or my iPad. I was reading this when something in here made me think to unplug my charger block from the AC and then to plug it back in and then try the cords again. Now there is no problem. From an electrical view point (electrical engineer) it is hard to see why this would make a difference. Obviously it is something in the circuitry in the charger block. In any case, this will be my future go-to process for getting them to work again if need be.