How to fix "This accessory is not optimized for this iPhone” error?

Clean your dock connector with isopropyll alcohol very well, maybe for a minute or two, cleaning the pins very well. See if fixed. If not, repeat and clean again with isopropyll alcohol. If you are sure no more cleaning could help then, I would replace the dock connector itself. This problem of "This Accessory blah blah" is most commonly a dock connector problem. Clean that port well.

Good luck,

Brad

Its as easy as this, just blow out the sockets with High pressure air!

Fixed mine, its just a dust and grime issue. all this about hard re-setting is exactly that! get some canned air if you need to, its that easy. dont bother with apple they wont help. its got nothing to do with water ingress.

Hope this helps

I fixed the issue by opening the iphone. the indicator sticker where all red so a clear sign of water damage. I disasembled all parts and cleaned them all with alcohol. Esecially all connectors. The replacement of the complete speaker, microphone, dock connector didn't do the trick.

Tried all the recommendations here - connecting & disconnecting the headphones, cleaning with isopropyl alcohol etc.

The only way I could get rid of the accessory... error was by connecting & disconnecting the Iphone with USB AUX player in my minivan which I was using prior to having this error. It seemed to have fixed the problem for now. The volume control is fine in IPOD mode w/o headphone etc.

toothbrush will do for cleaning :D

--aBBe (abe05phl@yahoo.com)

i started having the same problem since yesterday. i realized i had removed my hone from docking station with out pausing or stopping phone from playing. so the sound controls where gone.

i also realized i had change the volume from docking station before removing. so i put the phone back on docking station and change volume to what is was before (max) and phone is working fine now.

hope this helps.

I seem to have conquered it (and yes I did spill a cup of tea and get the phone a little wet) with blowing a hairdryer on COLD into the USB port. So far, so good.

Hope this helps.

Some people just don't read the original post and just posting unrelated problem solutions!

I have the exact same problem as the guy who started this thread. Some water came onto the connector, it corroded over time and now im stuck with a constant stream of pop-ups which tell me this accesoiry isn't optimized for use with this iPhone. Now i can live with these messages, but the worst part is that i keep missing my calls because the $@^& thing won't make any sound!

If you are at the same stadium as me please stop with trying to dry the iphone with rice, hairdryers or other junk. The damage is already done and we are trying to find out how to reverse it.

I've been looking over the internet and tried some methods of getting these green eroded contacts back to work. Corroded contacts are allergic to white vinegar. But the problem with white vinegar is that it is a fluid which won't dry quick enough to not activate the white indicators in the iPhone.

So i'm afraid this won't work if you still have the iPhone under warranty. < Waterdamage is outside warranty, also opening the iPhone! I want to do this inside my warranty!

Alcohol is a substance that WILL dry quick enough without activating the indicators but it won't (or hardly) clean eroded contacts.

I've also tried scraping the contacts with a fine needle. Some greenisch gunk came loose but it didn't do the tricky.

So i'm still stuck with the pop-ups, but my quest won't be over and i will keep trying to find a sollution to this problem. When i find it i'll update this post!

UPDATE: Well, the new IOS 5.0.1 update seems to get rid of the pop-up. Still no sound though. :)

UPDATE 2: Allright, i've got the sound working again. And here's the trick.

To clean the contacts without opening or activating the waterdetectors you need a small pipe-cleaning stick. Like this: http://tinyurl.com/85hvy2w They come in two variants. Brushy like a toothbrush and a softer one with some kind of cloth. I used the cloth-one.

First apply some alcohol to get most of the junk out. I've dipped the small end of the stick into a 70% alcohol which you can buy at your local farmacist.

Brush the pipe-cleaner strongly at the side which holds the connectors. The other side (the smaller one) doesnt has connectors. And this way you avoid hitting the water-detector-thingy.

In my case the pipecleaner turned a little black. Indicating there was some smudge in the connectors.

Repeat this till you get all the black smudge out.

Then get some White Vinegar (just in case, i don't know this helps, it's said to remove corrosion. ) and repeat the first step. Don't be afraid to bend the connector its pretty firm and can take a lot of force.

Then when you're sure you had every connector het a hairdryer and blow the connector dry.

This way we are sure you won't activate the waterstamp-how-do-you-call-it-thingy.

For the last step, get some contactfluid. Spray it on the pipe-cleaner and brush it firmly alongside the connectors. Contact-fluid cleans and protects your contacts against further corrosion. When some of the cloth comes of the pipe-cleaner; take a toothbrush and brush the connector.

Dry the connector with the hairdryer and it should be fixed!

If not, repeat these steps all over. It can take a while but it saves you a lot of money!

I had two connecters corroded looking all greenisch, but after this treatment i've got them all gold again. Took me 30 minutes and left the iPhone on the entire process.

Hope it works for others.

I got my iPhone wet during a rainstorm while walking. It was exposed to a decent amount of water because I had to use a GPS app to find my way around town. Luckily I was using my Magpul iPhone protective case available at any firearm or tactical store.

My phone started to loose it's charge while plugged in and then the next morning a dialog started to pop up about an unsupported device. At first it was only happening hours apart but as the day went on it appeared like clockwork every minute or less.

I was very upset and began to research. At first I put my phone into a bag of dried rice for 4 hours but was disappointed when that did not fix it but made the issue worse causing the dialog box to appear every thirty seconds roughly.

I looked inside the docking port for the USB cable and it appeared to be clean. I took it upon myself to investigate anyways and stuck a thumb-tack I found and started to dig around. To my delight I found several small pieces of lint and some material I could only nearly associate with an ear wax consistency.

Removing all the foreign debris which I'll admit albeit kind of fun was the solution that fixed this error. I'm still not sure if this was coincidence or water damage had attracted lint or moved prior lint gathered from before a few thousands of an inch and into an area of conflict.

Anyways the moral of the story is to invest in an iPhone case or carrier to stop any dirt or water into your phone and if you have any issues do clean your docking port thoroughly with an object small enough to scrape even the tiniest micron out.

I hope this may have helped someone as this helped me!

I just dropped my Iphone 3g in a bowl of water by accident. I'm 14, I don't know how to take apart an iPhone and I'm not going to risk messing my phone up. You all were talking about drying, cleaning and etc. The minute I read dry, I put my my phone in front of my fan and it fixed the problem. Just dry your iPhone's the minute you get them wet.

My iPhone was exposed to a "small" amount of water as result of placing it next to my bathroom sink. This immediately produced the "this accessory is not optimized for this iPhone" error message. I resolved the problem by repeatedly connecting it to and disconnecting it from the charger. The presumably cleaned the connector which is consistent with other recommendations to clean the connectors. No reset needed.

I was getting the same error on my 3Gs and I didn't even know that this prohibits the speaker from working. I tried to play a song and sure enough, the volume control wouldn't even show up and there was no sound.

Looking at the posts, I took a dry toothbrush and gently began cleaning the dock connector. Within seconds, the volume control showed up. I played the audio and it worked.

Thanks all for your tips. The error is most certainly due to problems with the dock connector.

Rushabh

I started getting the same message last week and my 3G phone never got wet. What I did was charge it thru a USB port (USB 1 I think) on an old Thinkpad. I've charged it thru my battery charger since then and the problem still exists. Moisture isn't the problem. The message has to do with an actual device but it's not recognizing that I am not using that USB port anymore and I need that message to go away.

You may want to try and clean the connector on the accessory. The copper corrosion (green stuff) can get down in that as well. Think back to the old NES, there was a cleaner pad for the game and for the console. A small wooden toothpick soaked in alcohol can get in there and clean the connection if your careful not to break the toothpick (Its very humid where I live, this happens all the time and I got tired of buying new iphone cables).

White Vinegar was the key for my problems with connecting to other devices like whithings bloodpreassure monitor or my BMW... so its now working again!!! Befor all works just these two not!!

i have a good solution if you can't get it just quite clean enough. what you have to do is trick your iphone. first plug your iphone into the accessory, then put the phone into sleep mode (top button) then without "waking" the phone back up push some buttons on the accessory. this will send commands through the phone before your phone can block these commands with our little error message. if done properly the error message will wake your phone up and blam audio will maically work. i know it sounds a little far fetched but it keeps working for me im using a scoshe car transmitter mind you i will try this on other docks to confirm (just figured this out a few minutes ago)

I too was having issues with this same error popping up, but wasn't aware of any mosture or water getting into the phone. I didn't take the phone a part but took a can of pressurized air and liberally sprayed it into the both the phone jack and the dock or charger connection openings. And, it suddenly worked. The keystroke sounds could be heard as well as other unmistakeable and sometimes annoying sounds associated with apps were now audible.

Thanks for the tips as I tried the least invasive one first and it worked.

-C-

My Iphone4 has been showing this message and is on the increase for a few weeks now. Now the message is on every time i connect it to charge.

Ive replaced the battery. Message continues...now will be replacing the dock.

I just clean the input jack on my iphone with small brush and problem is solve.

i saw many dust or other thing inside the iphone input cable place (cable jack)

probably it doesn't allow the charger cable to get full connection with device board.

the problem is fix for me 100% :)

Here the way to fix this. It worked for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvqulM5M...