I used to shock and amaze people when I'd pull out half a cottonballs worth of pocket lint and get their phones working again.
And don't waste $10 on a kit. A toothpick and canned air does everything you need.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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At the very least get a toothpick and get the lint out. Like, come on Jamal, there's a reason your charging cable doesn't go all the way in anymore.
You could also set up wireless charging and put the phone down for a bit.
Or magnetic USB-C adapters. Keeps the gunk out of the charging port while still retaining functionality (including fast charging). There's also charge-only adapters, which are handy for travel when you don't trust the port the phone is connected to.
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I had a phone that I put the charging cable in backwards, and the port was completely broken. Bought a wireless charger and never had any problems.
(Whoever decided to standardize phone chargers on that connector should be put into prison.)
Heathen!!!
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Literally just use one of those toothpick flosser things. The end is usually a plastic pick, which is perfect.
My phone is a Galaxy Z-Fold5, not new but not old enough for me to replace since the Fold7 just shipped.
Was hell bent sure the issue causing my phone to begin not accepting charging cables* was something Samsung was doing with their software updates. (*It charged fine with contactless chargers if youre ok with it taking 10-14 hours to charge)
It was too much of a coincidence that the phone charged 100% fine with any and all cables. Download a software update (not android update, this was samsung delivered update) phone doesnt charge with a cable after that for 2-3 weeks. Im T1Diabetic who uses wifi connected glucose monitor, so it fuckin drains battery juice 24/7 with very little setting controls to mitigate it. So I spent 2-3 weeks battling with it to charge on charging pads.
Didn't change a thing with what I was doing and BAM another Samsung update, weirdly close to the last update and fuck me running if the phone didnt start charging very very tenderly with charging cables again.
Eventually figured fuck it, if its hard to do the phone is broke if its easy enough to do then maybe it will help and bought a pack of adhesive rubber type C port plugs from Amazon that came with a super cheap cleaning kit. It wasnt anything special. It came with the picture pointed and spaded q-tips, a flexible wire brush, then I used my own zip tie that I shaped, a sim card tool and a cloth for cleaning glasses. AND WENT TO FUCKING TOWN.
Everytime you plug in your charger to your phone, any dust that is in there is getting buttfucked into the back of the phone's charging port like its a muzzleloaded gunpowder. Lol a bit hyperbplic but you get the point.
Finished cleaning the port. Plugged it in. First fuckin try, no fighting it, no switching chargers, no "charging but not fast charging" bullshit, no more voids in guessing my blood sugar, no more watching tv holding charger into phone. AND $1,000+ THAT IS STILL IN MY FUCKING ACCOUNT.
I gotta assume this is the #1 driver for phones needing to be replaced ever since the screens stopped shattering everytime you sneezed. The adhesive rubber plug is amazing. It is hardly noticeable and stays in the charging port even with my opening and closing of screens. It never pops out.
Honestly the smartest $10 I think I may have ever spent.
TLDR: Phone not charging? Buy $10 type C cleaning kit from amazon, watch 5min video on tips for cleaning, clean charging port for night and day results. Not difficult, very hard to fuck up your phone unless you jackhammer the port cleaning it. Saves you the cost of a new phone.
And obviously this isnt a fix all for all charging issues.
Get a magnetic charge cord. There’ll be a tiny dongle that you plug in once, then the complementary cable has a magnet end that snaps to.
They’re cheap and easy, though not all of them are interchangeable with each other, so figure out how many device you want to use and in how many places, and buy everything at once.
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If that doesn't work it's probably the battery, which is also about $15
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My charging port died and I'm so pissed. 2 year old Google pixel. Never buying pixel again. I looked up how to desolder the charging port and it's a pain in the ass. It has this like weird shield over it and I have no idea how to desolder this thing. Why can't it be straight forward
You sure its dead? My 2 year old pixel was also having issues charging, but I simply used SIM tray tool to poke around the charging port and got A LOT of lint out of it and its as good as new
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Why the fuck would they solder the charging part to the main board? That’s just actively malicious.
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An old toothbrush and isopropyl alcohol works fine.
This but I prefer using a dedicated brush. Call me paranoid but what if an old toothbrush has bits of food stuck in it, wouldn't want that to get into the phone.
I recently got a replacement battery and also the usb c circuitry. Got it replaced for $15 (everything included). Phone is effectively new now.
I always use wireless charging, and have a silicone plug in my phone's USB port to stop dirt getting in there. Very similar to these: https://a.co/d/aFWuSI3 (just standalone plugs with no adhesive). I see some in the photo with adhesive to stick them to the phone, but that seems like it'd look ugly.
In the rare case that I need to plug something into it, the port is completely clean.
Just get a bit of plastic packaging or something similar. Cut thin long rectangle. Then cut a small chunk out near the tip to form a small hook. Scrape along the bottom of the port in all directions. Pull out fluff, then repeat until no more fluff comes out. Then go again as you won't have got it all out even if it looks like it
A filed down toothpick is really good at cleaning that USB port.