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You connect your iPhone or Android phone to the charger and… nothing happens. Big sigh. From broken or rusted charging ports to damaged power cables, there are many reasons why your phone might not charge and not all of them can be easily repaired at home. A common reason for faulty charging is simply that your charging port, whether Lightning on the iPhone 14 Pro or USB-C on the latest iPhone 15 Pro or Android phones like the Google Pixel 8 Pro either Samsung Galaxy S24 UltraIt’s clogged with months’ worth of pocket lint and the cord no longer fits.
Don’t worry: this is one of the easiest and cheapest charging problems to solve. That is how.
Why is my charging port blocked?
There are no covers on your phone’s charging port, which means they are exposed to all the dust, dirt, and debris they encounter. Every time you slide your phone into your pocket, your phone will be susceptible to pocket lint and if, like me, you have pockets full of debris from accidentally washing your jeans with old receipts in the pockets, then that’s asking for trouble. And that’s not to mention the cookie crumbs I have in there. Don’t ask me why I have cookie crumbs in my pockets.
Day after day, this won’t be a problem, but those little bits of dust and lint will accumulate over the months or years you own your phone, compacting each time you plug in the charging cable until they form a solid barrier that stops . your charger comes in fully and allows it to connect and charge.
A wooden cocktail stick is a great tool for this job, as the wood won’t damage the internal parts.
If you’ve had your phone for more than six months and are gradually finding that the charger is becoming less and less stable (especially if you have to move it around to get it to start charging), then there’s a good chance that dirt in its port is to blame.
How to clean your phone’s charging port
It is a simple task to unclog the port on your phone. You will need a cocktail stick, toothpick, or other thin object that you can poke into the port to scrape up any dirt. Wood or plastic are better as they are less likely to rub against anything inside and cause damage. I did this using a metal SIM removal tool and while it worked well, it is not the safest option for your phone.
Insert the tool of your choice into the charging port until it can’t go any further and start scraping it gently. With the Lightning port on an older iPhone, you can scrape back and forth, but with USB-C you’ll have to scrape around the charging connector, which is in the middle of the port.
Put it in there.
Over time, it will begin to loosen the compacted debris and you will be able to move the dislodged material out of the port. It’s a satisfying process and you’ll be surprised at how many things actually come out. Also work carefully on the sides of the port, but be careful not to harshly scrape any of the metal charging connectors.
In time you will have practically everything. It’s hard to check for sure if you’ve gotten rid of everything, as it’s hard to see inside the port, even if you have a good light on hand. But once you’ve sorted out a lot of the nonsense, you can try the charging cable again.
The satisfying removal of nonsense from your phone’s charging port.
Hopefully it will now connect more securely and start charging. If not, keep trying to extract more dirt and then test the charger again. If that still doesn’t solve the problem, it’s time to consider other solutions, such as a new cable or charger.
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