Spent 4 hours troubleshooting a phone that wouldn't charge before realizing the port was just packed with pocket lint

I kept swapping cables and chargers and even pulled the battery before a friend said 'did you check the port with a toothpick?' and thirty seconds later it was fixed has anyone else had this happen or am I just painfully slow.

3 comments

3 Comments

andrew8543mo agoMost Upvoted

Used to think people who blamed pocket lint for charging problems were making lame excuses, but then I dug a solid clump out of my own phone and felt like an idiot. It's wild how much dust and debris can pack in there without you even noticing until the port stops working completely. Now I check mine every few months just to save myself the headache.

benk263mo ago

Same here. That "solid clump" feeling is exactly what I got. Used a toothpick to fish it out and it was like pulling a grenade pin - phone charged perfect again. Now I just blow the port out with compressed air every couple weeks.

blairj551mo ago

The part nobody talks about is how this pocket lint buildup can actually damage the charging port over time if you don't catch it early. I had a friend who kept jamming his charger in there harder and harder thinking the cable was bad, and he ended up bending the little metal tab inside. Had to get the whole port replaced. Seems like the lint packs down so tight that it acts like sandpaper when you force a plug in and out. A little compressed air and a plastic toothpick once a month would have saved him a hundred bucks at the repair shop.