Wireless Charging Problem With Otterbox Defender

[ColumbiaR]

I've racked my brain over this and can't understand the science of it, so I turn to you for help.

My wife has a brand new iPhone 11, so we got an Otterbox Defender protector for it. We noticed that putting the iPhone on the wireless charging pad in our new Tesla 3 (got it on 27 June) didn't work. Hmmm.

So, first thing was to take the Otterbox off the phone and test the bare iPhone on the wireless charger. It worked. Wireless charging was automatic.

I put the iPhone in just the back of the Otterbox, thinking maybe the Otterbox was thick enough that it held the phone out of the charging current. Nope. That wasn't it - the iPhone and wireless charging working great with just the back of the Otterbox Defender on the phone.

Snapped the front of the Otterbox onto the back and tried again. No joy. The wireless charging would not work.

I don't get it. Why would snapping the plastic top piece onto the plastic bottom piece of the Otterbox affect the wireless charging?

Any ideas? Anyone else have this problem with the Otterbox Defender?

 

[grmdl3]

Unfortunately, I believe wireless charging requires a very tight, close coupling with the phone's "antenna." So anything that increases the gap is going to either reduce efficiency or ultimately cause it to not work at all.

I don't know if there are boosted chargers capable of charging across a larger gap or not.

 

[GenralSpecific]

It probably only just barely worked well enough with the back part on to let charging begin, something about the front part tipped it over the edge. Who knows what Apple’s criteria are for wireless charging...

 

[Roadrash]

Yup, I thought something was wrong with my charger and realized my Otterbox case didn’t work. My daughter has some amazon knock off otterbox looking case and it worked. I ended up getting the thin apple brand case and no problems since

 

[mike8472]

I worked for Apple for 5 years as a genius....the otter box cases cause more problems than it’s worth. Great protection but not phone friendly for other stuff. If you really need the drop protection, look at Lifeproof cases.

 

[PlutoJoe]

I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max with an Otterbox Defender Plus. Initially it did not work charging on a Anker Wireless Charger, PowerWave 7.5 Stand. I verified that it was the Defender by taking off the rubber case and placing it on an Anker Wireless Stand/Cradle and it worked. I had bought the Anker Charger, previously, for my iPhone XR and worked flawless with it's Otterbox Defender Plus Case. So, I just expected that I would just use the Apple Lighting Cable for charging. Since Anker Cradle was just sitting there, I turned my iPhone upside down and placed it in the cradle, The charging light turned green. I disconnected the lighting charger and it is still charging on the cradle. So, it's not elegant, but it works.