Do Phone Grips Block Wireless Charging?

The short version: a grip mounted in the middle of the back of your phone will stop wireless charging, whether it is magnetic or adhesive. A grip mounted below the middle usually will not. Almost everything else people believe about this is a misunderstanding of what is actually blocking what.

It is distance, not metal

Wireless charging moves energy between two coils by induction. Those coils have to be close together and reasonably well aligned. Efficiency falls away quickly as the gap grows, and iPhones simply refuse to charge rather than trickle power inefficiently when the gap is too large.

A grip is typically five to fifteen millimetres thick. Putting one between the phone and the charging pad is asking the coils to work across a gap many times larger than they are designed for. Nothing about the grip needs to be magnetic or metallic for that to fail. A block of plastic does it just as well.

This is why the question "will this grip interfere with the magnets" is the wrong question. The magnets are not the problem. The thickness is.

Which grips still let you charge

Adhesive grips placed low on the phone are the clean answer. The charging coil sits roughly in the upper middle of the back of an iPhone. An adhesive grip stuck in the lower third of the phone is outside the coil area entirely, so the phone lies flat on the pad and charges normally. This is the one configuration where you never have to think about it again. The trade-off is that a low grip is slightly less comfortable to hold than a centred one, and adhesive grips are semi-permanent.

Magnetic grips attach exactly where the magnet ring is, which is exactly where the coil is. They will block charging every time. The fix is to take the grip off, which takes a second, but it is a second you spend several times a day.

Ring grips that fold completely flat sometimes work on a flat pad if they are genuinely thin and sit outside the coil, but most do not fold flat enough and most sit centred. Treat charging through one as a bonus rather than a plan.

Grips on a magnetic charger never work, regardless of thickness. A magnetic charger needs to snap into alignment against the phone's ring, and a grip occupying that ring makes alignment impossible even if power could cross the gap.

The thing people actually get wrong

The common assumption is that a magnetic grip and a wireless charger can coexist because both are magnetic and they will simply stack. They do not. They compete for the same patch on the back of the phone, and the outer item in any stack holds far more weakly and aligns far worse than the inner one.

The same competition applies to wallets. You have one magnet ring and three things that want it: the grip, the wallet, and the charger. Pick which two you can live without at any given moment. We go through that trade-off in can you use a MagSafe wallet and grip together.

Choosing based on how you charge

This decision is genuinely about your habits, not about product quality.

If you charge overnight with a cable and rarely use a pad, a magnetic grip costs you nothing. Buy whichever one is most comfortable and enjoy detaching it roughly never. Our MagSafe grip guide covers the options.

If you drop your phone on a pad several times a day, on a desk, a bedside table, a car mount, a magnetic grip becomes a small tax you pay repeatedly. An adhesive grip placed low is the better engineering answer, even though it is less fashionable and harder to undo.

If you are not sure, start with a magnetic grip. It is reversible. An adhesive grip is not, and removing one from a soft-touch or printed case usually takes some of the finish with it.

A note on heat

Even when charging does work through a thin accessory, it works less efficiently, and the energy that does not reach the battery becomes heat. A warm phone charges more slowly, and a hot one stops charging altogether to protect the battery.

So a setup that technically charges through a grip is often still a bad setup. If your phone is noticeably warm when you pick it up off the pad, remove whatever is between it and the charger and see whether the problem goes away.

Frequently asked questions

Does a PopSocket block wireless charging? If it is mounted in the middle of the phone, yes. If it is stuck low on the back, below the charging coil, the phone lies flat on a pad and charges normally.

Do magnetic grips block wireless charging? Yes, because they attach exactly where the charging coil is. They come off in a second, but there is no configuration where a magnetic grip and a wireless charger work at the same time.

Can I put a wireless charger on top of a magnetic grip? No. Magnetic chargers need to align against the phone's magnet ring, and a grip occupying that ring makes alignment impossible even before you count the extra distance.

Where should I stick an adhesive grip so charging still works? In the lower third of the back of the phone, below the charging coil. You keep wireless charging and lose a little comfort compared with a centred grip.

Why does my phone charge slowly with a case and grip on? Because every millimetre between the coils costs efficiency, and the lost energy turns into heat. A warm phone charges more slowly still, and a hot one stops entirely.

Is it bad for the battery to charge through an accessory? The charging itself is not harmful, but the heat it produces is what ages batteries fastest. If the phone is noticeably warm coming off a pad, remove whatever is in between.