I recently updated my iPhone SE (2020) to the iOS 27 beta, and initially the experience was excellent. The phone felt noticeably faster and more responsive, and I was genuinely impressed with the update.
However, after about a day of usage, I started experiencing a charging-related issue.
One night, I left my phone connected to the charger before going to sleep when the battery was at 55%. The next morning, I found that the battery had dropped to 42% instead of charging. I checked all connections and confirmed that the charger, cable, and power source were properly connected.
When I disconnected and reconnected the charger, the charging lightning bolt icon would briefly appear, then turn grey after about two seconds, and finally disappear completely a couple of seconds later. The phone would not charge.
Assuming it might be a faulty charger or cable, I tested with:
- A different Apple charger
- A different Lightning cable
The same issue persisted.
Next, I connected the phone to my Mac. Surprisingly, it started charging, and Finder recognized the device normally. Over the next few days, the behavior became inconsistent:
- Sometimes the phone would charge.
- Sometimes it would not charge at all.
- Connecting to the Mac worked most of the time, but occasionally even that failed.
I also noticed another unusual behavior:
- If I unplugged the Lightning cable from the iPhone and plugged it back in, the charging symbol would briefly appear.
- However, if I left the cable connected to the iPhone and unplugged/replugged only the USB end from the power adapter, there would be no response whatsoever—no charging sound, no charging icon, nothing.
I cleaned the charging port, cable connectors, and charger contacts, but the issue remained.
At that point, I realized the problem started immediately after installing the iOS 27 beta. To verify whether it was software-related, I restored the device back to iOS 26.5.
After downgrading, the charging issue completely disappeared, and the phone began charging normally again with the same charger and cable.
Based on my testing, this appears to be a software-related issue introduced in the iOS 27 beta rather than a hardware problem. I am posting this in case other iPhone SE (2020) users are experiencing similar charging behavior after updating to the beta.
Device: iPhone SE (2020) Issue: Intermittent charging failure after updating to iOS 27 beta Status: Resolved after restoring to iOS 26.5
