You plug your charging cable into your iPhone or Android phone and nothing happens. Sigh. From a broken or rusty charging port to a damaged power cable, there are lots of reasons why your phone won't charge, and not all of them are easy to fix at home. A common cause of a poor charging experience is simply when your charging port gets clogged with months' worth of pocket fluff, making it too hard for the cable to fit through.
This common problem also occurs in Lightning: iPhone 14 Pro or USB-C on older iPhones, or the more recent iPhone 15 Pro and Android phones like the Google Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Thankfully, this is one of the easiest and cheapest charging problems to fix. Here's how:
Why is my charging port blocked?
The charging port on your phone doesn't have a cover, so it's exposed to all kinds of dust, dirt, and debris. Every time you put your phone in your pocket, it's easy for pocket lint to stick to your phone. If, like me, you accidentally washed your jeans with old receipts in them and your pockets are full of debris, you're asking for trouble. Not to mention cookie crumbs. Don't ask me why you have cookie crumbs in your pocket.
While this isn't a problem with daily use, over the months or years of owning the phone, these tiny dust particles and fluff can build up and compress every time you plug in your charging cable, forming such a solid barrier that your charger won't plug in all the way to connect and charge.
If you've had your phone for more than six months and your charger is slowly becoming less stable (especially if you have to jiggle the charger to get it to start charging), dirt in the port is very likely the culprit.
How to Clean Your Phone's Charging Port
Unclogging a port on your phone is easy. You'll need a cocktail stick, toothpick, or other thin object that you can insert into the port and scrape out the dirt. Wood or plastic are better because they're less likely to rub against and damage what's inside. I've done this with a metal SIM removal tool and a pin from the back of an earring, and it worked, but it's not the safest way for your phone.
Insert your tool of choice into the charging port as far as it will go and gently begin scraping. On Lightning ports on older iPhones you can scrape back and forth, but with USB-C you'll need to scrape around the charging connector in the center of the port.
Eventually, the stuck debris will start to loosen and you'll be able to expel the dislodged material from the port. This is a satisfying task, and you might be surprised at how much material actually comes out. Gently work the sides of the port as well, but be careful not to rub the metal charging connector too hard.
You'll end up removing almost everything — and it's hard to tell for sure if you've removed everything, because it's hard to see inside the port even with a bright light handy — but once you've removed a significant amount of junk, you can try your charging cable again.
Hopefully it should now be safer to plug in and start charging, if not try removing more dirt and then test the charger again, if that doesn't work then consider other solutions like a new cable or charger.