Weird USB Charging Issues

Have a 2014 Tacoma with the touch screen radio interface, I think it's called entune or whatever. Very randomly I will plug my iPhone 6 Plus into the USB port and it will buzz and show that it's charging for about half a second and then stop and no more charging. If I unplug it and plug it back in it doesn't do anything at all. If I hard reset the radio by holding the power button down it'll do the same half second charge then nothing. I can turn the car off and back on and it'll just do the half second charge thing again. But I've driven for an hour or so, turned the car off to get gas and when I start it back up it'll mystically start working again. I've also driven the car all day and after multiple shut downs and starts throughout an entire day of driving it won't work. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Won't charge and won't connect to play music or anything either. Sometimes it'll be a month or more before it does it again but when it does it, it drives me insane. I've tried multiple cables and several different generations of the iPhone and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Everything else seems to work fine minus the iPhone connection and charge. The infuriating thing is most of the time it works totally fine. Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance guys.

 

At least yours does work eventually. Mine did this from day one and never worked. The only thing that ever worked correctly was that the bluetooth synched properly and would allow a handsfree call.

I finally ditched the factory entune head unit and put in a Pioneer double din. I kept all the same features I had before and gained a few extra things too.

 

Ryan,

I also have a 2014 and mine is doing exactly what yours is doing. It wasn't always that way, but it's been doing this for about 6 months or more now. Sometimes if I simply restart the truck it works.

I have noticed that if my phone battery is down below 60% it seems to work most of the time.

 

My '13 has the same problem intermittently.

 

I have a 2015 and a galaxy s5 phone. Would not charge or recognize phone unless it was plugged in before the engine was started (even power off/on the radio wouldn't get it to kick). Was frustrating trying to remember to plug phone in first every single time. Got a 2.5 amp 12v charger with 2 slots and it works anytime the truck is on and charges 2x as fast, plus my wife doesn't unplug my phone to charge hers as it has 2 slots! My name is also Ryan . . . so maybe it's just the universe trying to tell us something.

 

Anybody ever figure out what all this nonsense is about? Dealer wouldn't help me with the warranty at all because it would do it when I was there.

 

Stupid but thought I ask.
Did you try another cord?

 

I may be wrong .... loooong pause ... but I believe the USB is memory (play) only. Although I have never plugged anything ibn to charge I do not believe it charges. This is what I keep in it anyway ... The owner's manual just talks about playing music with it. ...

 

From what I understand it's data only. It does give off some electricity. But our cellphones have sensors which will keep them from trying to charge a battery when there isn't enough juice flowing, to prevent damage. The Tacos USB hovers right around that threshold which is why the phones will very intermittently charge.

Do yourself a favor, get a 2.1A charger for your lighter plug.

 

I've tried multiple cords, the odd thing is that it does work most of the time, just not all. If it's data only maybe I'm just lucky that it does charge sometimes.

 

Agree ... see previous post ... ... got this off ebay ... removed one of the 12 volt caps ... this sits flush ... you don't even notice it.

 

The charge is going to be very very slow when it does. Depending on how much power your phone is using, you might still even lose power, albeit at a lesser rate. You're looking at 10-15 bucks for a dedicated charger.