Update IOS Now to Solve Your IPhone Charging Problems.
At WWDC 2026 next week, Apple will almost certainly unveil iOS 27 for the first time. But even in the days leading up to that announcement, the company continues to actively update iOS 26. Keen observers may have noticed a new update, iOS 26.5.1, released for iPhones on Monday. While it doesn’t offer the same feature-rich features as iOS 27, it does contain important bug fixes for all owners of the latest iPhones.
What does iOS 26.5.1 do?
According to Apple’s iOS 26.5.1 release notes, the update fixes just one issue. It appears that a “small number” of iPhone 17 (i.e., iPhone 17, 17 Pro, or 17 Pro Max) or iPhone Air users are experiencing a wired charging issue. Apple states that when the batteries of these devices are “almost empty,” iOS may block wired charging. This means that if your iPhone’s battery is about to reach 0% and you connect it to a power source, nothing will happen, and your iPhone will gradually fail—at least until you connect it to a wireless charger.
Apple may claim this issue only affects a small number of iPhone 17 and iPhone Air users, but it was serious enough to make headlines a few months ago. Back in April , I reported how some iPhone 17 and iPhone Air users were unable to charge their phones after their batteries died—unless they tried wireless charging. The bug iOS 26.5.1 aims to fix is almost certainly the same one affecting these iPhone models, though it’s surprising it took Apple so long to release a fix.
The good news, at least, is that this was clearly a software issue, not a hardware one. When I first wrote about this oddity, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion; if it had been a hardware issue, Apple would have had a much more difficult time. But now that the charging issue can be resolved with a simple software update, iPhone 17 and iPhone Air users experiencing this problem will be completely satisfied.
How to fix an iPhone 17 or iPhone Air that won’t charge
The solution is simple: update iOS to version 26.5.1 (or later). To do this, open the Settings app on your iPhone, then go to General > Software Update . Here, let iOS search for an update, then follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the latest version.