Alternatively, just grab a free toothpick from a restaurant and use that to clean the port.
Toothpicks are WAY too thick. A sewing needle did the job for me though
The old Reddit trope
The real LPT is in the comments
Kinda, you really want to use a soft brush and 90% isopropyl. A tooth pick is only useful if you are EXTREMELY gentle. Otherwise you might cause more damage.
Are a worrying amount of people going at the charger port hammer and tong?
Lemmings really don’t have a lot of common sense do they
What are the black sticky things for?
Looks like a cover for the port
I see it now! Thanks for helping my autistic dumb ass.
You can regularly blast the port with compressed air to minimise the build up of crud which necessitates this, but the time comes to all.
Wireless chargers as your bedside charger will also reduce wear on your charge port so if thats the weak point of your phone that will help it last longer
And if that doesn’t work, take it to a shop to replace the port.
Don’t thow out a perfectly good phone just because the port stops working…
i never trust shops to fix a phone after working for one. they will purposefully damage other components or take your OEM screen and put an aftermarket screen.
I don’t understand how it could be worse than a phone that you can’t turn on?
They will harvest what they can (not talking Louis Rossman types) and then either A)offer either OEM or aftermarket and be honest with the part replacement or put aftermarket and claim it’s OEM parts.
Also, how come they need to unlock the phone to replace the battery … like, I guess they’re running diagnostics?
But like, can do that without getting access to bloody everything on my phone?
they will usually find an excuse to unlock your phone, also, they will have tools to dump what they can as well. they can even do it without unlocking your phone, but good luck proving that.
Yeah :/ my password manager and everything is accessible! I have no defenses!
The thing is my phone is already in a dire state by the time they get it. I can’t pre-emptively wipe my phone :(
hmm fair. what model is your phone?
Oh, the last one I took to the shop was my Pixel 7 with water damage. I traded it for a Pixel 10 now.
Oh perfect there are repair guides for that. So if you ever need to fix it, you can get all the tools yourself and fix it!
If you have tech-savvy friend, try ask them a good repair shop.
Sometimes, Google review or any online review are not helpful as most of the reviewer are casual users that might be get tricked by the shop.
i am tech-savvy. and again, after working for a phone repair shop, i would never trust one to fix my phone.
Why would that be? Getting parts replaced and/or broken? Or would it be a matter of trust with your phone/data?
they take genuine parts from the phone you bring and put in aftermarket or shit ones that are almost on their way out, and they will (especially women) dump any data they can get from the phone.
Really good to know. Thanks for the quick response!
if you can, try to make friends with someone you can trust to fix your phone, and if you do, anything sensitive, backup and delete from your phone and cloud. if you want me to really be specific, im talking about photos, but i didnt want to sound gross.
Impossible for iPhone users
- sent from my iPhone that I regret buying in some ways
Doubtful. This might be an issue in countries that don’t require iPhone to use standards or that have terrible anti-consumer laws.
In any case, if that’s you, its not impossible. Just need to take it with you the next time you go on a trip overseas to a country that isn’t run by corporations
Or better yet don’t buy some anti consumer locked down phone that’s intentionally made hard to repair by a shitty company, I’m going back to android in the future where something as basic as replacing a port would never be a issue, but with Google fucking with the sideloading in android I’m concerned they are on a path similar to Apple, I wish some truly open source phone OS would be available like Linux so is for PCs
Google’s fuckery is impotent against phones without Google.
Just install your own OS and don’t jnstall gappa (by default its absent) and Google can’t stop you from installing apps from third party app stores.
My last phone had this issue that sometimes it wouldn’t charge. Tried different cables but it still sometimes wouldn’t charge. Bought a pcb with antennas and charging for my phone, replaced it. Sometimes still had this issue but much less. I kept this phone til it couldn’t compute anymore. Twice shattered screen, twice replaced.
4 years. Not a flagship, but had a decent hardware. In the end it couldn’t do anything. Wifi worked half assed. 5g couldn’t connect sometimes. Android Auto would reboot constantly or outright not work. Battery would occasionally begin to loose charge rapidly and even charging with a power bank phone would still lose charge. It almost like I got an update that cut my phone’s balls and removed organs. But in the end, 400euro for 4 years - not so much. My new phone is better at less than half price. Hope it’ll work next 2-3 years no issues.
When wifi stops working, that’s a reasonable reason to retire a phone.
But not screen or port breakages
Hey thanks for all the tips in the comments, I’ve got these brand new stiff-ish cleaning brushes and this one worked really well to clean out my charging port and now there’s no more beach sand grinding noise when I shove my cable into the charging port.
You don’t want to be too rough on it. There’s electrical contacts that can get blocked by dust, lint, and crap, so cleaning helps, but the contacts themselves aren’t that thick, so you don’t want to wear them down too much while cleaning. A cleaning solution helps loosen up everything with less force and a softer brush/pad is less likely to knock bits of contact off.
So just be careful because that brush might be like blowing in nintendo cartridges (clearing dust but leaving saliva specs that would wear the contacts), where it helps in the short term but makes things worse in the long term (resulting in more blowing and an acceleration of the process).
I use the pick side from one of those dental flossers to clean mine. Works great and easy to replace.
I came into the comments to say this. I keep one in my drawer, trimmed down a bit so it can go all the way around inside a usb-c port. They’re perfect since they’re very narrow and since they are soft you won’t damage the port.
I can only get a bent staple into the USB-C port on mine, which makes me nervous but does the job. Will have to see if a pick works.
Lol you just saying that made me nervous. Using a staple would make it easy to accidentally break a contact off entirely, and I’m not sure if there are any consequences for shorting any of the USB pins to each other. Even a twist tie would be better, since it has another material to do the rubbing and the metal is less stiff than a staple.
Edit: there’s another comment further down saying the risk of a short isn’t an issue, but I’d still avoid using a staple just because of the hardness probably being higher than the contact.
a simple sewing needle does the job
I would not use metal simply because its hardness is going to be similar or higher than the hardness of the contacts themselves, which means there’s a chance it could scratch or break the contact entirely.
You generally won’t be touching the contacts much, since most gunk like lint can just be scooped out. Just be a bit gentle and you’ll be fine.
I use a toothpick as the metal could potentially short something
You really won’t short something, and wooden toothpicks are at risk of splintering and leaving more behind than getting out if you’re not careful.
You’re not going to short anything.
The power pins (VCC) on your phone’s USB-C port aren’t “live” at all times, the standard requires communication over CC1 and CC2 to negotiate which side is receiving power and at what voltage. Otherwise, a specific value of resistor needs to be in place between those pins and GND to get “dumb” charging at the original 5V usb standard.
The ideal tool is going to be thin and rigid so that you can get to the base of the port and free up impacted dust/lint. Small enough plastics are going to be to flexible to be effective, anything too thick is going to increase the working time and risk putting pressure against the center tab, potentially damaging it.
I fix consumer electronics for a living, my tool of choice is a pair of ultrasharp tweezers I use for microsoldering. Far as household items are concerned, a real small sewing needle is definitely it. The eye can even be used to catch and pull out fluff.
The port should detect shorts and stop working, atleast on waterproof phones
Sure. But that’s intended to detect shorts caused by water, and water is a much worse electrical conductor than a piece of metal, and so less damaging in the time it takes to detect a short.
Even if phones have some level of protection, why risk damage when you could use something wooden or plastic and just not risk it at all?
why risk damage when you could use something wooden or plastic and just not risk it at all?
Because fuck it.
In all seriousness, my toothpicks didn’t fit the last time I tried so I just grabbed a needle and has worked fine for me, just be a bit careful
flat wood toothpicks are a thing.
Also, metal needles or equivalent can raise contacts and do their damage. I cut the toothpicks with a cutter so that they are wedge shaped.
That is probably the correct way. But I just collect the dust at the bottom with the needle. Only plastic there. Sure, the side of the needle may come in contact with the pins, but it’s round so not likeley to snag on a pin.
I see seven things in that photo. Please explain what each one is and what they do.
The two butt plugs should be self explanatory
Instructions unclear. Phone is now stuck. Please advise.
The top two stick to the back of the phone and provide a rubber cover for the USB c port. Everything else either scrapes away debris or wipes the port clean with isopropyl alcohol. Bottom right appears to be fashioned from a zip tie and probably didn’t come in the kit.
If we had Atari cartridges in 2025 kids would be buying kits to clean them and blow into them.
The specs of saliva that go along with blowing corrode the contacts over time, so it is actually better to find an alternative with a soft brush and non/less-acidic cleaning solution.
Nintendo sold cartridge cleaning kits in the 90s (maybe even the 80s).
No one bought those. By the time any corrosion occured, you mastered the game.
No need to waste money on a “kit” for such a basic task.
Yeah, a toothpick or even a toothbrush will do the trick if you’re careful. And without creating unnecessary waste.
It needs to be a hard material though. Soft plastic or wood can sometimes bend and break before getting anywhere.
Soft is good because you want the cleaning tool to break before it can apply enough force to break or scratch the contact. Use a cleaning solution to soften the gunk instead. Doesn’t have to be a part of a kit, just make sure it’s safe for metals, like isopropyl alcohol.
You can loosen up the dust with the bristles and then pull it out with the toothpick. I wouldn’t recommend using metal tools.
I feel like if you need more than a plastic toothpick to clean your charging port, you need to reevaluate how and when you’re using your phone and maybe should invest in paper towels to wipe your hands after eating.
“I’m rich and people who touch dirt for work are poor low lives”
Literally exactly what I said, thank you for clarifying.
“And those poor low lives should stop being poor”
When I cleaned mine out recently it was very clearly dust and skin cells in there, meaning just the crap the builds up on and around anything by existing
I have a cheap pack of plastic Walgreens tooth picks that are perfect for this. My phone case has a rubber cover for the port so I don’t have to do this often.
As an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure I recommend those tiny rubber stoppers you see in the photo. They have a peel and stick part that goes under your case which retains the plug on a strip of rubber. That strip might wear out in a few years and rip, but they cost almost nothing to replace (and in fact come in packs).
Phones used to have these things built in, then they stopped in the smartphone era because they didn’t look as sleek and futuristic I guess. Now, if you have a case, it once again makes hardly any difference to the appearance.
That was also when a single charge lasted for days or a week. Now we use our phones too much and multiple charges a day isn’t uncommon for people. I couldn’t imagine having to remove a little plug to charge my phone as often as I do.
My problem is that my battery case has stopped charging along with my phone. Phone only charges with high wattage chargers, and phone case only charges with low wattage ones. Still get like 3 days charge on the case, but now takes like 16 hours to fully charge. Also, taking the phone case off so much eventually opened the back of my S20fe. Fixed that with S7000.
Cleaning can still help if it only slow charges (if you mean it used to be able to use high wattage ones).
Gunk prevents a strong connection, which can mess with the handshake. Charger will say, “yeah, I can fast charge, check out these amps!” but not all of it gets through and the case will decide the charger is a liar and just go with slow charging. Don’t assume that something getting through at all means the connection is fine because USB has fallback options when conditions are sub-optimal.
A 1¢ toothpick works 99% of the time.
Who’s wasting money on 1 cent toothpicks?
LOL, that’s the value of them—not the price of them.
YSK that OP is now mad at wasting $9.99
For the missing 1% use isopropanol.
