How to Clean Your Phone’s Charging Port Effectively.

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At the shop, we get a lot of customers in asking for a charging port replacement on their phone. The first thing that we ALWAYS do is take it into the back and clean it out. No matter what. Even if it doesn’t look dirty. 99 times out of 100, and I do mean that literally, after we clean out the charging port it works again.

People get all kinds of lint, debris, gunk, and what-have-you in the charging ports of their phones. This is a very common occurence. Even I have to clean out my charging port every few months or so to keep it working well. After a certain point of that build-up your phone’s charging port will cease to work completely. Whether it’s Apple’s iPhones or Samsung’s Androids no one is safe from this.

What this does to your phone.

Once the gunk blocks a contact inside the charging port you’ll either notice slow charging or no charging at all. Sometimes if you hook your phone up to your computer it won’t be able to transfer data like photos. The biggest tell though is that when you plug in your charger, it doesn’t fit firmly and comfortably.

What should you do?

If you find that you’re in this predicament and your charging port has stopped working, the FIRST thing you should do, NO MATTER WHAT, is clean your charging port. I seriously mean it, even if you shine a light in there and it looks clean, looks can be very deceiving.

All you have to do is grab a fine pair of tweezers with a pointy or curved tip. If you don’t have any you can find some at your nearest grocery or dollar store. This part is not necessary but if you can I would recommend getting 90+ percent isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will help to clean the charging port and loosen any gunk inside that has hardened up. (DO NOT USE ISOPROPYL THAT IS LESS THAN 90 PERCENT IT CAN CAUSE WATER DAMAGE). You can find this at your nearest drugstore like Walgreens or CVS and it is very cheap for a large bottle.

How to clean the charging port for your phone.

With your alcohol and your tweezers (if you don’t have the alcohol then just with your tweezers), pour a little alcohol into your charging port. This will not damage it as long as you have 90+ percent, this is because the alcohol evaporates and doesn’t leave minerals and buildup behind like water does. And with your tweezers dig into your charging port and lightly scrape up the sides.

For Apple iPhones I recommend scraping up each of the four corners of your charge port. For Samsungs and Androids I would recommend lightly scraping along each of the walls of your charging port and avoiding scraping the connector in the middle. The charging ports aren’t super fragile so don’t be afraid to give it a couple of goes in each spot.

One you feel as though you’ve effectively cleaned out your charging port, if you used alcohol I would blow in it a few times and let the sun shine on it to let all of the alcohol evaporate. Once it looks like the alcohol is gone (it evaporates very easily) plug the charger back in and test it out. Pay attention to how it feels when you plug it in. Does it fit tight and comfortably? If it works I wouldn’t worry if it doesn’t fit completely, but if it still doesn’t work and it doesn’t fit nicely, I would repeat the cleaning process one or two more times to make sure all of the gunk is out. Like I said looks can be deceiving when it comes to charge ports.

Summary.

If you find that your phone isn’t charging, or your computer can’t properly connect to it I would absolutely recommend cleaning it out first before attempting to repair it or have it taken in to get repaired. To clean it use a pair of tweezers to dig out any gunk inside and try the charge port again.

Let me know how it worked!