Comments on: Mophie Juice Pack – iPhone 3G

By: Tommy Wasserman

Tommy Wasserman — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:42:20 +0000

WARNING FOR THIS PRODUCT! The UBS connection is very poorly made, so that it goes haywire very easily. I broke one, got a new on warranty, but that stopped working properly soon too.

By: sheila

sheila — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:53:12 +0000

I cant seem to find this black witht the green on the inside mophie battery pack. I did see it on Amazon but it was out of stock. Do you know were I can purchase?

By: Steve C

Steve C — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:31:03 +0000

I have had my Juice Pack for a week and i’ve had exactly the same problems as described by Jerry. Charge from wall or laptop all is fine. Once plugged into my phone, Juice pack goes dead.
Only way to wake it back up is to briefly connect the USB cable to Juice pack. Completely useless if i’m away from my laptop or a power socket for any time (the precise reason why i got the darn thing in the first place). nyone had any joy understanding the issue here?

By: Cal

Cal — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:21:54 +0000

As for a problem I had with the newer Juice Pack Air for 3G/3GS, it can not power my iPhone 3G under constant use with my baseball streaming app. The Juice Pack Air is useless for heavy draining streaming apps because it can’t keep up power with use and you just end up with two dead batteries simultaneously or you have to wait to recharge you iPhone with with what little Juice Pack Air charge is left before you can use your phone again. To try to solve this problem, I just purchased the previous model, the original Juice Pack, this month to again attempt to use it with my baseball radio streaming app and have already had a new problem.

Having read a review that since the original Juice Pack (non Air version) doesn’t have the Air’s on/off switch (useless for my streaming needs), it has the benefit of “powering” the iPhone. I thought, great, I can connect the fully charged Juice Pack to my fully charged iPhone. This is supposed to allow me to “fully power” my iPhone and fully drain the Juice Pack battery FIRST. Then, after the Juice Pack battery completely drains then the fully charged iPhone battery can take over continued use from the now dead Juice Pack. Problem…. now as I’ve read here, my new Juice Pack intermittently just quits working completely! It just shuts off or goes dead. It can be fully charged with full led lights, be attached to the iPhone showing the iPhone “charging” icon or powered with the “power plug” icon and then just stop working! No charging, no power, and even worse no led light response when pressing the button on the back of the Juice Pack.

As someone here mentioned, you have to plug the powered USB cable into the Juice Pack port to reset it and get it’s power and led lights working again. Again, this makes the device completely useless on the road under use. While this may be a manufacturing defect, now I have to get replaced just like the others who here mentioned having this problem.

I know I read that the competing, (and still discontinued.. grumble.. grumble…) Incase Power Slider had some users frustrated with signal degradation but a friend of mine has owned two of the Incase Power Sliders and both of the darn things have had no problem charging his iPhone. Is that too much to ask for?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:49:22 +0000

I just purchased the Mophie Juice 1800 mAh today. I charged it for about 2 hours before using it. When I got ready to use it I hooked it to the phone and nothing happened. The IPhone 3Gs 32 did not recognize it. When I pushed the green button on the back to check the charge no lights came on at all – even though earlier it had been fully charged. I plugged the Mophie back into the computer with a USB cord and all 4 lights came on showing it was fully charged. I immediately disconnected it and the button on the back now worked and showed a full charge. I hooked it to the phone and the phone then recognized it and it began charging. I used it for about 1/5 hours and it worked great. The phone was fully charged and the Mophie still showed 3 green lights. Now, about 4 hours later the button on the back of the Mophie didn’t work again, acting like it was dead. A quick connection with a computer USB cable immediately “woke up” the battery and it worked fine. Just a few minutes later, the button on the back showed nothing again. What’s up? Anyone else have this problem? I plan on charging it overnight and trying again tommorrow.

By: Juiced Up: Mophie Juice Pack Air

Juiced Up: Mophie Juice Pack Air — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:46:07 +0000

[...] best iPhone accessories that I have reviewed and gotten the most use out of has been the original Mophie Juice Pack. It is the perfect companion on long trips such as flights and car rides. My main issue with it was [...]

By: Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:56:46 +0000

I just experienced the same issue Mike mentions above. Mophie was working great for two months and now, suddenly, with no change in how I charge the phone or juice pack, the device will no longer take a charge.

I plugged it into an outlet, surge protector and MacBook. Nothing. I’m moving on with the rest of my day off the shear luck that the device was at 75% capacity or so and my iPhone was at half. I’m now recharging my iPhone with the juice pack and by tomorrow who knows where I’ll stand.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:54:02 +0000

Loved the Mophie UNTIL it stopped taking a charge all of a sudden. I plug the Mophie into the wall by itself, and NOTHING. I left it plugged in for hours just to see if it was picking up any residual charge, and it still doesn’t charge. I’ve only had it just over 90 days. What a total waste of money if this thing is dead after only 3 months. Please let me know if there is something I’m missing or a trick to getting it back to accepting a charge.

By: Jann

Jann — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:11:49 +0000

@Mauricio, The answer here is convoluted. When the iPhone 3g is plugged into the Mophie Juice Pack and the BOTH of them are plugged into the wall using Apple’s *newer* usb wall-wart (the one that is about 1″ square and TINY) the iphone charging “chime” will play once, the screen lights up and begins charging, then a second later the NOT charging “chime” (deferentiated ONLY by the fact that the same chime plays and the charging indicating icon is GONE) plays then 1 sec later, does the same loop again. The answer is that the MINI wall-wart made by apple does NOT provide enough power to charge the iPhone 3g AND the Mophie at the same time. If both the iPhone and the Juice Pack together are plugged into the computer, this does not happen. It charges correctly. The only thing I can come up with is that the MINI wall-wart does not provide the 1000 mA required to charge both at once…while the MacBook Pro I am using DOES provide the necessary amperage.

If charged from the MacBook Pro, the system works as it should and is, indeed, great. However, since you cannot charge them both from the wall wart (and even Mophie admits this in their FAQ) this is lousy for travel.

By: Lead.Wrist

Lead.Wrist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:07:49 +0000

@Mauricio

Had the same problem, when connected to wall wart it won’t charge the iPhone 3G S only the Juice Pack Air. Wall Wart was the Zune charger 5v 1.5amps. Anyway I grabbed my Motorola charger that uses the same micro USB connector and it was 850mAmps and now my iPhone 3G S charges as well as the Juice Pack. Conclusion is that that depending on the wall wart you using it may not send the correct signal to the iPhone to tell it to charge.

By: Mauricio

Mauricio — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:40:06 +0000

oh i forgot to mention, when the iphone + pack are connected to the wall, the iphone doesen´t charge, but the mophie does.

By: Mauricio

Mauricio — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:38:40 +0000

Ok, i just got the mophie juice pack air, and i seem to have a problem…The pack works fine when i am out on the street or whatever, if i need a charge, i just switch to green and it works. But when i get home to charge it…i plug the mophie with the ipod in, and the pack charges but not the iphone. The iphone makes no recognition at all that its being charged by the mophie pack. Only when i take the connector out of the pack, with the green button on, it charges the iphone. But having the iphone with pack, plugged into the wall with the switch on green, it doesen´t charge my iphone. So now i am ahving to charge my mophie through the wall, and my iphone through my computer, which sucks. Does this mean my mophie is messed up, or is that how its supposed to be? I dunno, maybe it charges the mophie full, before even getting to charge the iphone, i dunno….:(

By: david

david — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:10:37 +0000

I love it however

There is no doubt that the mophie air juice pack interferes with reception in marginal areas. In great barrington ma in a marginal area my friend had identical phone, 3Gs and he had reception and I did not. I took off the battery pack and then I had one bar. Battery back on, no service. When I travel on the Mass Pike from Boston to Lee MA, same thing, lots of dropped calls with battery pack, none with naked phone

possible cord problem, synch with macbook pro disrupted, rare. reboot phone and computer, no problems so far.

weak micro cord female attachment to air juice pack, wiggle out don’t pull, apple replaced one that ripped out, weak design, hard to put in too, takes some searching around, unlike ease of USB port, annoying

Still I love it

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:37:02 +0000

The juice pack has worked terrible. If your iphone is close to being dead and your mophie is all drained (which will happen every day because you are using them both) when you plug the juicepack (with iphone) into the wall to charge over night it keeps beeping and buzzing and will not hold a charge. I have had it for a few weeks now trying to get it working but it will not. Sending back to the company.

By: bob

bob — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:30:21 +0000

Is there a juice pack for the blackberry storm???