Your charging port is full of pocket lint
A phone that stops charging is often just compressed pocket fluff in the port. A two-minute fix — and one wrong tool turns it into a repair bill.
People whose phones stopped charging, working out why in public. Where they warned each other about tools the warnings were lopsided rather than split, and this page follows them rather than averaging them — including the one about wooden picks, which an earlier draft of this page had left out.
Before you buy a cable, a battery or a phone: a very common reason a phone stops charging properly is not a fault at all.
It is compressed pocket lint at the bottom of the charging port, holding the plug a fraction of a millimeter away from the pins. Months of fabric fibers pushed to the bottom every time the phone went into a pocket, packed down into something like felt. Nothing has broken. The connection just cannot be made.
The tells are familiar: the cable has to be held at a particular angle, or wiggled, or pushed unusually hard; charging is slow, or stops if the phone is nudged; a new cable behaves exactly like the old one. That last one is the giveaway, and it is usually the point at which people decide the phone is finished.
Getting it out
Phone off first. Then something non-conductive, and gently.
A wooden or plastic toothpick is the standard answer, with one caveat people were firm about: wood can snap off and leave a splinter in the port, so split it thin or use plastic. Several people preferred a floss pick turned around and used handle-first, because that tip is thinner and has enough give to curl into a small hook, which lifts the whole plug of lint out at once. Something sticky — a blob of putty pressed in and pulled straight out — has its own advantage, which is that it takes debris away rather than risking pushing it deeper.
Work along the sides and floor of the port, scraping outward. Do it over a pale surface, because what comes out is genuinely surprising and it is satisfying to see the reason.
Compressed air helps with whatever is loose. Keep the can upright so it cannot spit liquid, use short bursts from slightly back rather than a long blast, and know that a hairdryer is not a substitute — it has nowhere near the pressure.
If it is still not charging
Then the thing worth knowing is the price of the alternatives.
Having a shop repair a charging port costs a small fraction of replacing a phone, and that is not always the advice offered at a counter. A port is a component. It can be replaced.
The same is true of the headphone socket and the microphone hole, which collect the same lint from the same pockets and get written off the same way. Before you accept that a socket has died, look in it.
Two years of pocket fluff is a cheaper explanation than almost anything else, and it is the one to rule out first.
Common questions
What should I use, then?
Three things people recommended, all non-conductive. A wooden or plastic toothpick, which is the standard answer — firm enough to scrape, blunt enough not to score the contacts. One caveat people were firm about: wood can snap off inside the port, and a splinter down there is harder to remove than the lint you went in for, so split it thin or use plastic. A floss pick, used handle-end first: several people preferred it because that plastic tip is thinner, has a little give, and can be curled into a hook that lifts a compacted plug of lint out whole. And something sticky — a blob of putty or poster tack pressed in and pulled out — which has the advantage of removing debris rather than risking pushing it further in. Work from the sides outward, gently, with the phone switched off.
Why does this happen at all?
Because a charging port is an open socket that lives in a pocket, and a pocket is full of fabric fibers. Every time the phone goes in, a little more gets pushed to the bottom, and it compresses over months into a felt pad that sits between the plug and the pins. Nothing is broken — the connection simply cannot be made. USB-C ports came up as particularly prone to it. If you work somewhere dusty, one person's habit was to keep a dummy plug in the port when it is not in use.
The same thing on my headphone socket?
Same problem, same fix, and worth checking before you conclude a socket has died: audio jacks and microphone holes collect exactly the same lint, along with makeup and, in one account, plant matter. Non-conductive tool, phone off, gently.
Full tip: https://findangel.org/tips/your-charging-port-is-full-of-lint · FindAngel.org — free, always.