September 29, 2010
Some users have reported an issue in which the iPhone displays the message “This accessory is not optimized for this iPhone…” despite the fact that no accessory is connected to the phone.
Fix
In many cases, this issue is caused by debris in the iPhone’s dock connector. As such, you can try cleaning the dock connecter using a soft toothbrush or a dry cotton swab.
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates, follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates, follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
How do I view full version of a web site instead of mobile version on iPad
David C: My iTunes account was hacked and in apps purchases...
Paula French: I've spent 5 hours trying to connect my new (today...
Nancy: Thanks! The first one worked for me.
I went to ...
Amro: Hey guys if your phone is jailbroken install face ...
Fraser Wilson: I have had the same issue with my sons Ipad 2 and ...
Nicholas on 
Lawrence Alonzo on 
rickyc on 
Carnghamcats on 
Deb Santagata on 
MARK on 
Shafqat Zaman on 
AppleID:( on 
July 22, 2011 at 2:14 AM
Compressed air fixed it for me i tried everything else too beforehand so it could be a combo of all of it.
July 22, 2011 at 10:17 AM
I used a toothbrush to clean the port, on brush and the message was gone and the audio worked perfectly!
July 23, 2011 at 3:49 AM
The toothbrush works !! I cleaned it under the bathroom lights (heat lights). I could see every bit of dust in the charger dock on the phone. I had an alcohol swab that I put in their first then used a dry old toothbrush to pick it all out!! I cleaned the charging docking station too as it’s collects a bit of dust (being on my bedside table) just in case. All back to normal after 4 or so months!!
July 23, 2011 at 3:50 AM
The toothbrush works !! I cleaned it under the bathroom lights (heat lights). I could see every bit of dust in the charger dock on the phone. I had an alcohol swab that I put in their first then used a dry old toothbrush to pick it all out!! I cleaned the charging docking station too, just in case. All back to normal after 4 or so months!!
July 25, 2011 at 7:38 AM
A couple of wipes with a toothbrush at the charge port plus a little gentle digging with a toothpick got a fair amount of lint out of my 3GS and problem solved!
Thanks!
July 25, 2011 at 8:56 AM
Well…… I poured Coke on mine – Yeah it was an accident. Dried it and all seemed to work except speaker. Put in bag of rice for two days – all works but getting message – ” This accessory not optimized for this iPhone ” and ” charging not supported with this accessory ”
Anyone have any suggestions ?
July 30, 2011 at 10:12 PM
Accidentally put it in a cup with an inch or so of water in my cup holder in my car and got the message later. Did a combo of rice-dunking for about an hour, then hit it with some compressed air and it’s good as new… Good luck!
July 31, 2011 at 12:48 AM
The Toothbrush method works!! Thanks everyone!
August 1, 2011 at 7:52 PM
The cleaning out thing seemed to work for me but only after I took a toothpick and shaved it down thin enough to get in on the skinny side of the connector plug inside of the port. I’d tried it a few times just getting to the easy parts but, apparently, that was where the gunk was that was shorting out its little brain. Problem solved (so far)… The toothpick is a good solution as the wood is softer than the metal inside of the port and, as such, is less likely to damage the printed metal connections than a metal paperclip would be-
August 3, 2011 at 11:09 AM
Hi guys,
i just had this problem in the last 24 hours and it has been annoying the hell out of me.. i connected my ip4 to my car radio and was listening to some music on a delivery, i took the iphone out did my delivery, reinserted the usb cable into the dock i then realised that the floor of the car was wet where i had the dock part of the usb cable resting. this message then started displaying. thanks to the cleaning suggestions here the problem seems to be resolved (touch wood)..
i used a small (unused) toothbrush to clean out the headphone jack area and the dock area, mostly the dock area because i think this is where the problem stemmed. it worked immediately and has been for the last 20 mins, whereas the message displayed every 2 mins or so leaving the phone untouched. so my tip is to GIVE THE IPHONE DOCK A GOOD CLEANING!!!
thanks guys
August 3, 2011 at 3:24 PM
NOthing has worked for me.
HAVE GENTLY BRUSHED THE ADAPTER SOCKET TO DEFLUFF IT. GENTLY BLOWN INTO IT AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY FREE OF DIRT AND FLUFF.
HAVE REBOOTED IT, RE-INSTALLED THE SOFTWARE, BLOWN INTO THE HEADPHONE SOCKET, STUCK IT RICE TO ABSORB ANY MOISTURE (NEVER BEEN NEAR ANY). AND THE MESSAGE STILL APPEARS.
NONE OF THE PINS ARE DAMAGED.
I RECKON IT’S THE LAST SOFTWARE UPDATE.
SO WHAT WILL APPLE DO ABOUT THIS WHEN I CALL THEM? TELL ME TO GO TO MY PHONE SUPPLIER, WHO’LL TELL ME THEY HAVE TO SEND IT TO APPLE NO DOUBT LEAVING THE CONSUMER (YOU & ME) RUNNING AROUND BECAUSE OF AN ERROR NOT OF OUR MAKING!
August 4, 2011 at 5:24 PM
I dropped my iphone 4 in ketchup after only owning it for about a week. I was getting this stupid message like every minute as soon as I dismissed it the message would pop back up. I cleaned the dock with a toothbrush and cotton swab and rebooted it. After one day the message has not come up. I think I fixed it. Who knew ketchup is bad for an iphone
Thanks everyone for the helpful tips
August 7, 2011 at 5:37 AM
in ma case i plugged it for charging .. but it was the wrong time i guess.. bczz the voltage was fluctuating… wen i uplugged it to attend a call n wen i hang up the message started to pop up…. gosh..!!! such an irritatin thng…!
i cudnt gt the beep sound wen i lock or unlock the phone, der is no click sound wen i type smthn…! well i thnk its workin fin nw…!!!!!
August 13, 2011 at 4:06 PM
Used my toothbrush worked great that you
August 17, 2011 at 10:40 AM
Yeah i cleaned out the port, got all the dust out and its still popping up.I was very sure that cleaning the port out would work beacuse there was so much dust and lint in the port, but sadly it didnt work. thanks a lot apple
August 18, 2011 at 6:16 PM
Yea!!!! Cleaning with a soft cotton ear bud also works perfectly..
August 22, 2011 at 7:23 AM
I didn’t drop my iphone in water or anything, but it started to give me the message whenever it was near humidity. I thought the port was clean even after I tried the toothpick. Didn’t fix it, so I tried the toothbrush and I couldn’t believe how much dust came out. Solved the issue in about 2 minutes!
August 23, 2011 at 6:06 PM
Just a dry toothbrush worked for my IP4 to have the sound back and message disapear.
August 28, 2011 at 1:10 PM
omg it worked! I’ve been getting the same error and my audio would cut out most of the time. Tried the qtips and that didnt work, but the toothbrush did!!! I’m so excited!!! Thank you for all the tips, you just saved me a lot of money : )
August 29, 2011 at 4:56 PM
I’ve been running using my iPhone in an arm band (TuneBand) to listen to music and so I can call for a pickup if I overdo it. Sweat got into the dock connector and is causing this message. I’ve tried using compressed air to blow it out. I’ve tried a soft toothbrush. I tried turning it off and on. I just tried the forced reboot by pushing the two buttons (although, I’m not sure how that’s different from powering it off and on). I can’t get it to clear. When I click the side buttons to change the volume, the volume meter doesn’t show up under the volume graphic. I’m not getting audio in certain apps. It’s driving me crazy.
September 1, 2011 at 10:52 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88DhoYhQf24
this link is a video , it can help to fix error
it worked for my iphone
September 3, 2011 at 8:07 AM
what a great tip phone now working perfect
Thank you very much
Terry
September 4, 2011 at 8:16 AM
thanks friends it work…. brushing it worked for me
September 7, 2011 at 3:16 PM
I am so delighted – the toothbrush trick did it for me too!!! No more infuriating pop up messages about applications and non attached chargers and cellular noise. Brilliant.
September 8, 2011 at 1:16 AM
i never liked my toothbrush more than today… thank god it worked! thanks so much!!!!
September 8, 2011 at 7:12 PM
What a simple solution !
Many thanks !
September 11, 2011 at 6:55 PM
I was quite skeptical of this advice, but reluctantly cleaned the phone with a toothbrush and it worked!! Clicks are back, no more annoying pop up errors…
September 11, 2011 at 7:14 PM
OMG this error message was so annoying…!!! I did the factory reset thinking it would go away which it did but only for a little while. When it started up again it happend every 30 seconds Ughhhhh Did the toothbrush thing and it worked..!!! Yay
September 13, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Mine started as soon as I drove out of the parking lot from the store where I got it! so far cleaning and air have not fixed the problem.
September 17, 2011 at 2:04 AM
Now I have a problem with the tooth paste everywhere… just kidding, the tooth brush worked as well..
September 18, 2011 at 7:42 PM
Waters spilled on my iphone. used a dryer and cleaned the docking part of the iphone and works good now. Thanks heaps guys
September 19, 2011 at 5:25 PM
A couple of swipes with a Q-tip and problem solved!
The Q-tip fits into the headphones port.
September 23, 2011 at 6:16 PM
Toothbrush worked!
October 3, 2011 at 2:30 AM
wow i cant believe toothbrush…. awwwww really awesome… yipeeeeeee… now olryt.
October 3, 2011 at 2:35 PM
Well, I spilled a little bit of coffee on mine a little bit ago and just tried it… fingers crossed the qtip/toothbrush does the trick….
:-0
October 6, 2011 at 8:13 AM
I took my iphone to bits, stuck it in the washing machine on one hr wash, but no spin. Then dried the parts on an open fire, then glued back together. This didn’t work for me, so I don’t advise this method.
October 8, 2011 at 10:41 AM
I just blew into the headphone plug and it worked. There was something in there that was giving me that message
October 10, 2011 at 6:11 AM
Thank you! Nothing since the toothbrush clean so fingers crossed!
October 11, 2011 at 9:43 AM
Tried toothbrush and qtip and toothpick…..nothing worked….sooo mad!!!!
October 15, 2011 at 9:22 AM
I Took A Piece Of Cotton And Start Wiping The Inside Of Where I Charge And Now It’s Working Great
October 18, 2011 at 5:59 AM
Nothing works, what should i change? The dock assembly or jack?
October 27, 2011 at 4:19 AM
I’ve tried the dry toothbrush,compressed air and it worked for a short time now the message is back again. I can’t seem to solve this issue! Any help plz??!!! Cheers
October 27, 2011 at 7:01 AM
Nooo it doesnt work on my iPhone… Y? I cleaned the dock with A perfume and cleaned with dry toothbrush and toothpick..buh doesn’t work. When somebody calls me then sound work.. But not get sound in Playing music, it work only in headphones…plz help me…
November 6, 2011 at 3:49 AM
Me too having same shit problem..i am gonig crazy. it is so annoying..plz help….
November 5, 2011 at 8:20 PM
I have the same problem. making me crazy. i have tried to clean up with toothbrush and blow up with compress air everywhere stil the same. i feel headphone jack is the problem…. Please help…
January 5, 2012 at 4:03 AM
I just used a needle cause nuthen else worked for me and just gave the terminals on the side a gentle scratch so yeah give that a try
February 2, 2012 at 5:30 AM
A piece of tissue and a little alcohol worked for me in the second try.