After a recent update, Apple products like MagSafe wireless charger and Airpods are no longer charging when connected to a Windows laptop’s USB C Port. However, this can be resolved by disabling a HID device in device manager and charging will start working again.
Disable HID device in Device manager
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Open Devices and Printers in control panel (For Windows 11, open Settings, under Bluetooth & devices click “View more devices” and then scroll down and click “More devices and printers”)
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Right click Apple MagSafe Charger(Or Airpod) and open properties
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Go to Hardware tab
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Select HID-compatible-vendor-defined device (1st one worked for me)
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Click Properties
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Click Change settings (if applicable)
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Go to Driver tab and Disable the device.
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Unplug and re-plug the MagSafe/Airpod
MagSafe charger and AirPods should start charging again now.
Background
Apple MagSafe did work with windows before Microsoft broke it sometime in late 2021. After the update, even completely reinstalling the OS won’t fix this issue. Only option is to use the workaround.
Interestingly this issue affects only older laptop and in my case it was a Dell with 7th gen Intel i5. I got a new laptop recently with Windows 11 and Apple MagSafe is working without the workaround even though it still gives error “USB device not recognized”. So this issue is specific to a model or older generation USB controllers. Many users have posted about this in Microsoft forums and reddit, but Microsoft is yet to fix this even after 1.5 years.
The idea behind the workaround is the Apple devices need only power from the laptop and doesn’t need the drivers to be working. For some reason Windows is disabling power delivery to the device. This was apparent when the charging was working during computer boot time and gets cut off as soon as login screen appears. So the idea of workaround was to stop Windows from find out about the device by disabling it. Now windows don’t see the device and power delivery continues.
This worked for me when running Windows 10, but since upgrading to Windows 11 my case still won’t charge after applying the fix, an ideas?
Have you tried the additional steps for Windows 11?
My HP with 10th Gen Core i5 won’t allow a right click access to the Apple MagSafe Charger Device. Is there another way to see the device and get to Hardware?
Try Device manager. It should show up somewhere in there.
First thank you for your advice.
The Apple Mag Safe Charger appears under Bluetooth View Other Devices, but it did not allow right click access.
Your reply encouraged me to try accessing other listed components such as my HP printer and HP additional monitors and they are similarly unresponsive to a right click.
So, I then went to Desktop> Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Devices and Printers where the Apple MagSafe Charger appears under “Unspecified” from there your process worked exactly. The first HID-Compliant vendor defined device was the one. It showed three options. It then required Clicking on the Change Settings button which has a Shield in front of it. Afterwards when one follows this route the Bluetooth & Devices>Devices shows the Apple MagSafe Charger as “:Driver error” but it is charging my iPhone, which is what I wanted.
I am not very skilled at this and your instructions were clear and your follow up.excellent. Thank you.
Thanks for the detailed update and glad it worked for you.
@mkerala: Thanks for this short but sweet workaround. It had been bugging me for several months now.
Funnily, my laptop is a 6 months old Dell XPS 15 9520 running W11pro. So it appears to still affect new laptops too.
Thanks for sharing the info. My new laptop is from Mi. The old one I had this issue was also Dell. So may be it is specific to Dell devices?