How to tell if a cable is official or Apple MFI certified

The battery of the devices is one of the aspects to take into account when deciding to buy one product or another. In addition, a handicap that Apple has had with its products has been the presence of the Lightning connector, exclusive to its products, as well as the magnetic charging cable of the Apple Watch. Continuing on this path, Apple has published a support document where it analyzes the main problems of an unofficial cable and gives us some recommendations to recognize if a cable is official and authorized by them Oh no.

What is IMF certification?

In the new support document, Apple reiterates a fairly logical recommendation: It is recommended to charge devices only with chargers manufactured by Apple or chargers that have obtained Apple MFI certification and use the badge Designed for X. But to put all the concepts in context, let’s start with the first thing: IMF certification.

There MFI certification (Designed for iPhone/iPad/iPod/Apple Watch is an Apple certification program that guarantees the compatibility of accessories and devices with the company’s products. In other words, this program allows accessory manufacturers to obtain official approval from Apple so that their products meet the quality and compatibility standards of the Big Apple. This is how you can be safe using a cable not marketed by Apple, For example.

In fact, Apple placed a lot of emphasis on the MFI badge because allows the user to quickly detect whether the accessory is of quality and has been certified by Apple or not.

How do you know if a cable is official Apple?

The main recommendations that Apple makes to us to detect if a cable is official or certified by MFI are the following:

• Genuine Apple-made charging connectors are white. Some chargers have regulatory and textual markings on the charging cable.
• Chargers not manufactured by Apple may have different colors, text, or other designs on the surface of the charging connector.
• In the case of the Apple Watch, the charging cables created by Apple bear one of these numbers on their surface: A1570, A1598, A1647, A1714, A1768, A1923, A2055, A2056, A2086, A2255, A2256, A2257 , A2458, A2515, A2652, A2879.

On the other hand, it also gives us signs for determine the cable manufacturer via our Mac. We connect the cable to our computer and open the Apple menu  > System Configuration then click on General in the sidebar. Next we click About on the right, then System Report and select USB. We select the cable that we have connected, which is usually named: “Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable”, in the case of the Apple Watch for example, and at the bottom the manufacturer that should appear is displayed. Apple Inc. if it is made by Apple.

And how do I determine if my cable is MFI certified?

If what you have is not an official cable, then you need to make sure you have one MFI certified cable which meets Apple quality standards. To do this, you have several options:

1. Make sure the cable’s original box has one of the symbols created for the MFI certificate, which you see in the image at the top of the article.
2. Go to the official MFI certified website where you can search for the accessory by name, brand or code and view a list to check if the accessory has been certified by Apple.

What happens to my device if I don’t use a certified cable?

In the support document Apple assures that if we use a counterfeit charger or not certified by them Your Apple Watch may experience slow charging, repeated ringing, and reduced battery life. In fact, this is not an invention since we have all been able to observe on numerous occasions the differences in charges and their quality with unofficial cables from our friends or relatives. Hence the importance of have quality cables and accessories certified by Apple, with the aim of increasing the useful life of our devices.