It is typical to find that your phone does not charge when you connect in your charging cord, and there are several possible causes. From broken power cords to damaged charging ports, some problems may be fixed by simply changing the cable, while others may be more expensive to repair. However, one of the most common causes of improper charging with your iPhone or Android phone is that your phone’s charging port is blocked by pocket fluff, which prevents your cable from properly attaching.
This may easily occur with any charging connector, whether it’s Lightning on the iPhone 14 Pro or previous iPhones, or USB-C on the more modern iPhone 16 range and Android phones like the
Google Pixel 9 Pro, or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest and cheapest charge issues to resolve. Here is how.
Why is my charging port blocked?
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Your phone’s charging port has no covering, so it is open to all dust, grime, and debris. Every time you slide your phone into your pocket, your phone will be susceptible to pocket fluff, and if, like me, you have pockets full of trash.
If you mistakenly wash your pants with old receipts in the pockets, it’s asking for disaster. And that’s not to mention the cookie crumbs. Please do not ask me why I have cookie crumbs in my pockets.
This will not be a problem on a daily basis, but those tiny bits of dust and fluff will accumulate inside your charging port over the months or years you own your phone, compacting each time you plug in your charging cable until it forms a solid barrier that prevents your charger from going all the way in and connecting and charging.
Putting a cocktail stick into an iPhone’s charging port
A wooden cocktail stick is an excellent instrument for the job because the wood won’t
Internal components may be damaged.
Andrew Lanxon / CNET
If you’ve owned your phone for more than six months and the charger is getting increasingly unstable (especially if you have to jiggle it around to get it to charge), dirt in your port is most likely the problem.
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How to Clean Your Phone’s Charging Port
It’s simple to unblock your phone’s port. You’ll need a cocktail stick, toothpick, or any small thing that you can insert into the
Scrape out the dirt using the port. Wood or plastic is preferable since it is less likely to scrape against anything within, perhaps causing injury. I tried this with a metal SIM removal tool and the pin on the back of an earring, and while it worked, it is not the safest choice for your phone.
Insert your preferred tool into the charging port until it cannot go any further, then gently scrape away. With an older iPhone’s Lightning port, you can scrape back and forth, but with USB-C, you must scrape around the charging connector, which is located in the center of the port.
A cocktail stick into an iPhone’s charging port.
Put it in there.
Andrew Lanxon
Eventually, you will begin to work the
Loosen any compacted debris and you’ll be able to push it out of the port. It’s a rewarding process, and you might be shocked by how much material comes out. Work gently on the port’s sides as well, taking care not to scrape too hard against any of the metal charging connectors.
Eventually, you’ll have pretty much everything out. It’s difficult to tell for certain whether you’ve removed everything because it’s difficult to see inside the port, even with a good light. But once you’ve removed a significant quantity of trash, you may try your charging cord again.
Close up of dirt cleared from an iPhone’s charging port
It is nice to clear debris.from your phone’s charging port.
Andrew Lanxon / CNET
Hopefully it’ll plug in more firmly now and begin charging. If not, keep trying to extract more dirt before retesting the charger. If that doesn’t solve the problem, it’s time to look into other options, such as a new cable or charger.