You plug the charging cable into your iPhone or Android phone and… it doesn’t charge. Boooo. From damaged charging ports to broken power cables, there are numerous reasons why your phone won’t charge, and not all of them can be easily fixed at home. A common reason for faulty charging is simply that the charging cable doesn’t fit properly into the charging port because it’s clogged with months of pocket junk.
This common problem can occur with any charging port, regardless of whether Lightning is on the iPhone 14 Pro or older iPhones or USB-C on the newer iPhone 15 Pro and Android phones like the Google Pixel 8 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Luckily, this is one of the easiest and most inexpensive charging problems you can fix. Here’s how.
Why is my charging port blocked?
Your phone’s charging port isn’t covered, so it’s exposed to every particle of dust, dirt, and grime. Every time you put your phone in your pocket, it’s vulnerable to pocket lint, and if, like mine, your pockets are full of dirt from accidentally washing your jeans with old receipts, then that’s a problem. And that’s not even mentioning the cookie crumbs. Don’t ask me why I have cookie crumbs in my pockets.
On a day-to-day basis, this isn’t a problem, but over the months or years of owning your phone, these little bits of dust and lint build up. Every time you plug in your charging cable, they compact until they form a solid barrier that prevents your charger from going all the way in and connecting to charge.
A wooden cocktail stick is ideal for this purpose as the wood does not damage the internal parts.
If you’ve had your phone for more than six months and notice that the charger becomes increasingly unstable over time (especially if you have to wiggle it back and forth to initiate charging), the cause is most likely dirt in the port.
How to clean your phone’s charging port
Unblocking your phone’s port is quite simple. You’ll need a cocktail stick, toothpick, or other thin object you can stick into the port to scrape out the gunk. Wood or plastic are better as they’re less likely to scratch anything inside and potentially cause damage. I did this using a metal SIM removal tool and the pin on the back of an earring, and while it worked well, it’s not the safest option for your phone.
Insert your tool of choice all the way into the charging port and gently begin to scrape it. With the Lightning port on an older iPhone, you can scrape back and forth, but with USB-C, you’ll need to scrape around the charging port, which is in the middle of the port.
Bring it in there.
Eventually you will start to loosen the compacted debris and you will be able to move the loosened material out of the port. It is a satisfying process and you may be surprised at how much actually comes out. Also work carefully around the sides of the port but be careful not to scratch too hard on any of the metal charging ports.
Eventually you’ll have pretty much everything out. It’s difficult to check for sure if you’ve got everything out because it’s hard to see inside the port even if you have a good light handy. But once you’ve got a good amount of the nonsense out, you can try your charging cable again.
The satisfying removal of nonsense from your phone’s charging port.
Hopefully it will now plug in more securely and start charging. If not, keep trying to remove more debris and then test the charger again. If that still doesn’t solve the problem, it’s time to consider other solutions like a new cable or charger.
