Submitted 10 months ago by Stamets@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/27e8550a-17a6-4ebb-82fc-e2310626b7e8.jpeg
As well as the other suggestions, was discussing this with someone just yesterday and they suggested filling the port with PVA glue (like the stuff used at school, not super glue or epoxy!) and a bit of thread, then pulling it out with all the crud once it’s set.
No idea how effective it is personally, when I got my current phone I got some plastic usb c port covers and that stays in place whenever I’m not charging, so far it’s done the job.
That’s a tiktok thing. In the videos it’s satisfying to pull out all the glue and pre-staged gunk from the port in one solid go, but in reality you have no idea how much dried glue is being left behind or how it’s going to interact with the lint and dust in the port. You could potentially render the port unusable. Better to go with a soft pick and some compressed air.
Don’t do this, just clean it out gently with a small scraper.
Have you tried cleaning the port out, mostly it’s crap built up in the port.
Take a tooth floss pick and dig all the pocket crud out of it, both the top and bottom side. try a fresh cable, if that fails try some deoxit on the port
Yep, cleaning the port works most of the time. Lint and crap get caught in there and prevents the cord from plugging in all the way
Do this. It worked for me.
What the hell are you people doing to your ports?
Pocket lint + port with no cover = clogged ports that chargers can’t plug into all the way. It’s very common.
I almost completely ruined the charge port on my last phone by digging out lint and scratching the contacts. I don’t use cases without port covers anymore.
My phone started doing the thing, where, if I let it discharge to 18% before setting it up to charge, it doesn’t charge unless I turn it off and on again.
No, Restart does not work.
That usually indicates battery wear. Phones doing weird things at specific charge levels is almost always battery wear, especially powering off above 0% or failing to charge under certain circumstances
I see. So I’ll have to buy one again 😒.
Well, my fault for keeping it on the handlebar while riding at noon
I was happy when usb c came out because it looked like it had to be a significant improvement over micro usb, in terms of longevity and reliability.
It’s looking like it’s only a slight improvement though, which sucks.
Idk what cables and devices youve been buying but ive seen an insane difference in durability going to micro to c.
For a start, none of my usb c cables have lost their gripping strength, one of which ive been using daily for over 6 years.
None of my usb c devices have had the central pin blade thing fall off or fatige to the point of not making a connection,
The one down side ive seen to usb c is that when i accidentally rolled my chsir over a connector, it did crush the oval inwards but i pried that open again and stuck it in my desk mic and its been working fine since.
I only used Apple for a very short time, but their connector seemed pretty neat. Small and with satisfying haptics. Too bad they are so shitty about patents and standards.
I have yet to have a USB c port be ripped out of a device, I have had this happen to two USB micro b devices (ultra cheap). (USB c cords die relatively frequently though)
I’ve never had any issues with micro usb, yet no usb c on a phone survived for more than 2 years. It’s ridiculous.
Remember when the little chil that held the pins in the middle would get obliterated?
That’s the beauty of the Fairphone shop.fairphone.com/…/fairphone-4-usb-c-port-25
Ugggg I was so close to pulling to trigger for one on my last phone death. But I was doing all this comparison and pricing, and at the end of it all, realized they arent sold in my shithole country and had like a extra 200 hundy shipping price. So im still android and the ogle. But next time… pretty sure itll be fairphone.
By the way, any users of the Mint mobile service who have a fairphone who see this comment, please respond to me. Im still only like 90 percent sure I use one with that plan.
As long as the parts are available.
Haven’t needed them myself, but I’ve heard stories where they couldn’t get a replacement part because it was sold out. Which kind of defeats the purpose.
Still, it is such a robust phone.
Now if only the hardware wasn’t subpar and the OS unusable…
How is the OS unusable when you can always install a custom rom?
Fairphone even encourages it.
For me it works perfectly fine. I don’t need a super computer in my pocket
And had an audio jack
Rip.
Good luck buying a new one with all of * gestures at everything * this going on.
I just started buying cheap xiaomi phones. Mine cost 120€ and it can do everything I want it to do.
Wireless chargers
Say what you want about Apple, but MagSafe is amazing.
You can get magsafe cases for basically any phone these days
If there is a problem with capacitance then this won’t help, but if it might just be dirty then power it down and clean the charging port with a can of 99.99% compressed alcohol electronics cleaner, then use a can of air duster, repeat a couple of times. Afterwards, press the case firmly to ensure it’s still held together. Leave to dry completely before trying again.
If you want a sketchy but simple solution you can use the back of a sewing needle to poke the stuff out of the port. Be careful tho, you can very easily break the port.
Toothpick. Wood only. Never do this with metal.
This is the way
I’ve had that for 2 years. It’s no big.
Im still rocking my galaxy s10+ and it’s had this issue for about 2 years. Otherwise its great. I’m gunna keep hangin on. ✊🏼
s10 here reporting for duty.
Every time I’ve had that happen, it’s been the cable going bad, not the port.
I had one phone where it was the port, but I’m pretty sure it was water damage. It took one too many falls into puddles while fumbling with kids, carrying stuff and opening doors all at once
In my case it was actually the port, well not really the port, but a lot of pocket dust had gotten into the port. I spend some time with a toothpick to clean everything out and it was fixed. When you think you got it all there is probably more.
The cable is designed to break before the port.
Or the port is just full of pocket lint
i literally just finished a usb-c charging port repair on a relative’s phone.
The plastic “tongue” inside the port was gone, and the metal pins normally embedded in it were standing in empty air.
You can break it if you really want to :)
This is why I try to use my wireless charger when I don’t need fast charging, reduces the strain on my charging cable and the USB C port
increases strain on your battery tho
I have exclusively charged my phones wirelessly for about a decade. My batteries typically end up healthier than my wife’s.
How is it worse on the battery than wired chargers? I’m guessing heat?
Caused by gunk in the charge port. It naturally accrues over time. Local repair stores will have the specialized tools to fix it.
Toothpicks work great. They are wood or plastic so they won’t conduct electricity.
Can confirm. Clean these out all the time. about 75%-80% of the time this is the cause of this exact issue.
Toothpicks are not exactly specialised tools
I’ve done a little bit of okay cleaning with a toothpick, then much better cleaning from the repair shop.
I use a sewing machine needle, works great, just don’t go crazy and break shit.
Plastic dental flosser with a pick. Cut the tip flat. Easier to reach the edges and less likely to damage the port.
Me too, alcohol and toothpick
I wouldn’t recommend using that toothpick while drunk, my dude.
Can confirm rubbing alcohol can improve your experience with failing phone charge port. I got to the point with one where it wouldn’t charge unless I applied a minuscule amount of alcohol around the metal prong in the phone with a shaved down toothpick before plugging it in. This tip is mentioned exclusively for those trying to extend the life of an end-stage phone and I take no responsibility for any fires or harm to the phone.
That said, there were never any problems when I did it and it extended the phone’s life maybe 8 months, and after a few months it didn’t even need the alcohol. Maybe it improves conductivity or used the charger head to over time clean the phone port. This was a USB-micro charger because I like using 8 year old, $60 phones.
Same, but with my laptop. 😔
This happened to me a few times but it turned out it was actually the charging cable.
I had crinked the cable enough times trying to charge things at weird angles.
Oh. I’ll have to get that checked at some point.
go give business to your local repair shop.
or gimme a fiver and a toothpick
This happened to my old Nintendo Switch :'(
sharp pair of tweezers or a needle or a toothpicks should be able to help. tons of instructions on how to do it in this thread, but I will add my 2 cents as a phone tech and say that if it’s a lightening port, you want to keep your tool as vertically in the middle of the port as possible while scraping horizontally. for USBC, keep your tool as close to the walls as possible while avoiding the center “tab”. this is so you don’t scrape the contacts. if you do that, you will need a port replacement (usually 80-100$ on most devices). once you scrape as much as you can out. you can use an old toothbrush or whatever works to brush the port clean with some isopropyl to clean any dirt on the contacts, which will come off easily now that it’s not being supported but the other debris you cleaned out with the tool.
Why not use plastic or tooth pick and start with alcohol?
whatever works best! it’s just kinda hard to find something plastic that skinny and sharp, and I use tweezers as it’s the most efficient (but also the most prone to damage if you make mistakes I guess).
starting with the brush/isopropyl is not a bad idea for cleaning the contacts (and should be the first thing tried if a device isn’t charging) but it usually doesn’t actually get stuff out of the port. if a port is only charging at a specific angle, it’s cause there’s debris stuck in there. in my experience it’s usually very hard to get with a brush as it’s been compacted and cemented over however long you’ve had the device.
even if it were broken, this would be such an easy fix if phone companies wouldn’t make it impossible to repair their phones. its freakign infuriating.
I think you could do this repair at home with no prior experience on a lot of androids. for an iphone you have to remove the motherboard though which is pretty obnoxious
Look into magnetic charging adapters. I’m just putting them on my wife’s devices out of the box now.
Possibility 1 the port is full of crap, clean the port with a thin stiff piece of plastic.
Possibility 2 the port is broken, treat your equipment better.
Possibility 3 the cable is bad, replace the cable and treat your equipment better.
Charging ports wear out if used often, which is why I usually charge wirelessly and keep a lint cap on my port.
Huge thanks to people in this thread. USB-C stopped charging reliably on my phone a few months back, tried clearing the port with compressed air but no joy, so I started using wireless charging. Spent 5mins today picking out a surprising amount of lint with a narrow toothpick and it works like new!
If it makes you feel better, my phone just did the thing where it installed an update and now everything is running noticably worse.
Mine started the same thing a few weeks ago. I tried cleaning out the charging port but after a while of scrapinc I gave up since nothing was coming out and I couldn’t see any more lint in there. The problem persists. I am confident that no one in the world has it as difficult as me right now.
USB C? See if it isn’t full of garbage accumulated inside. I had to use a needle to scratch it out. Shit was so dense it was pretty difficult to clean. Eventually, I managed to clean it and I got rid of the problem.
Until I found the problem, I ended up buying bs. Another charger and an inductive charger.
Try with a different/new cable.
The contacts on a USB-C cable can become fatigued and lose the tension needed to maintain a solid connection, which can cause this issue.
I am sorry for your loss…
Most of the time its because you use your phone too much when its charging, never happens to my phones cause i leave em alone to charge.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
I had the same thing.
Turns out the charger was too weak. Getting a 2A (Ampere) charger fixed it.