Over the past few weeks, I've received quite a few messages from people who have had problems charging their Apple devices in the cold, winter weather.

iPads, MacBooks, and iPhones suddenly stop charging, and the owners try different chargers and cables with no success. They start pointing fingers at the battery and think it's time for a replacement (battery or device).

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And then, later in the day, the device suddenly starts charging again, and everything seems fine.

It's like the problem just fixed itself.

So, what's going on here?

The common element in all of these messages is temperature, specifically low temperatures. People left the device in a car or garage or outbuilding, let the device get really chilled, and then tried to charge it.

If the device still had charge, then it could run off charger power, but if the battery was already dead, then the device itself would also play dead and not switch on.

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But bring the device into a "room temperature" environment and leave it there for a bit, and the device will start charging again.

This is not a bug but a feature.

Rechargeable devices have an operating temperature range, and there's an upper and lower limit, beyond which the battery goes into a sort of "safe mode" to protect itself from damage.

Apple publishes this data:

Phone, iPad, iPod, and Apple Watch

• Works best temperature:32