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
I wouldn’t use metal to clean it. A sewing needle is surely hard enough to scratch the coating on the pins. Plastic or wood would be less destructive for repeated use.
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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
I use a toothpick.
Do the same with your butthole. Thank me later
Genuine curious question (assuming you are from the west): Why do you guys use toilet paper to clean your butt instead of a jet spray like we do in the east?
Jet spray. Toilet paper is just for drying off afterwards. Or dressing like a mummy
You must appease the Machine Spirit. You have to chant the prayers to the Omnissiah, burn the holy incense, and rub the phone in purified oils.
The Machine Spirit must be appeased.
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
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.
Not my precious charging port dust bunnies! I once had one that could’ve easily won the fat dust bunny contest
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.
I mean I cant speak for the fancy new oil-less compressors but dont you lubricate your compressor and run oil thru the lines to protect your tools and prevent broken airlines?Plus the chance of forgetting to lower the psi before spraying the port cuz I’ve never done that ever before 🤣 idk man, id prolly test it first on an old broken screen phones before I started blasting phone holes lol.Ohhhhhhh shit your talking about the aerosol cans of compressed air hahahaha fuck im an idiot lol
People don’t try cleaning their charging port before buying a new device? Thats crazy. I really have a hard time believing people don’t try cleaning before buying a new device.
One of the lads at work was freaking out because he had tickets to a festival on his phone, and it wouldn’t charge. I spent three minutes digging in the port with a wooden toothpick and wouldn’t you know there was fuck all wrong with his phone.
They just need an excuse to buy a new phone.
Cheese and rice theres a lot of responses jumping to accusations of people too lazy but I’ve never heard someone too lazy to clean a phone port for $1000 savings.
100% of the people im surrounded by in my family/friends would be to afraid of breaking it beyond trade in value towards the new phone. My case was extreme but since the screens got better id have to guess charging issues is up there for one of the biggest reasons people trade their phones in.
Some people are just absurdly lazy.
Also what kind of kit does op have? A sim card ejector, a metal brush, a q tip thing, half a zip tie, and some adhesive things? Any thin plastic shim will work perfectly, and sometimes even a stiff plastic bristle brush works well.
Not all are lazy, some just don’t know.
My in-laws didn’t clean the dust out of their PC for almost a decade because when they purchased it, no one told them to clean the filter on the front.
He said “some people,” not “all people.”
I don’t think plate manufacturers have to tell you to do the dishes. Everything needs cleaning, how do people not know this?
Well yeah because the plate looks dirty and its because you purposefully put food on it.
No one is purposefully throwing dust at their PC, and if someone doesn’t know that their PC is pulling in air, they wouldn’t know it needs any cleaning besides dusting off like other furniture.
I wouldn’t put anything conductive in there.
Wood toothpicks worked great on lightning ports, usbc is a little trickier and more fragile so I use a plastic spudger from an old screen replacement kit.
Most people buy a new cell phone long before the charger stops working.
I’m weird. I’ve had my cell phone since 2020. But MOST people buy one every 2-3 years. Just because the newest latest and greatest just came out.
My 5 year old phone still has no issue charging. And when the battery starts dying, MY battery is user replaceable.
Don’t believe this person, they’ve clearly lost their mind.
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I mean, it’s one phone, paper_moon. What could it cost? $1000?
I’d believe it, especially with all the propaganda from big corporations and the fomo they push with new technology. Looking at Apple and their fucking yearly phone cycles.
Don’t forget to consume more! Buy two just in case! Consume! CONSUME!!!
I replaced a damaged USB C port (module) and degraded battery instead of replacing the whole device.
Those people must have a lot of disposable income.
I will admit, this makes sense, up to a point. I have 2 pixel 4a’s just sitting in a drawer because the screens got damaged, showing just a black screen. And it was the same price or cheaper to buy another used phone than buy just the screen for it, $120+ in most cases on eBay, when i was looking. So I bought another, newer phone instead of fixing the device, for around the same price.
That’s one reason why we really need right to repair. A screen shouldn’t be the same price as the entire device.
Sounds like you haven’t met very many people.
i found out weed smokers regularly use a glass pipe until it’s clogged and then just throw it away….
also, if you go dumpster diving around the first of the month you can find trash bags full of useful things that people abandon and landlords throw out.Lol this one is truly unbelievable to me. Its glass! Soak it in soapy water, vinegar or bleach, for gods sake…
it’s true… i’ve found them like that and my friend told me that’s why….
also i’m in california and everyone smokes weed and glass pipes are cheap and everywhere.
i really hate the “disposable” usb-c rechargeable vapes that can’t be refillable by law….
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.
For the missing 1% use isopropanol.
YSK that OP is now mad at wasting $9.99
Yeah… be incredibly careful about shoving something with metal bristles into your charging port.
Maybe once a year I get a bit of gunk in my port (hey-oh!). Samsung (presumably all usb c androids?) are generally really good about losing their shit and yelling at you to remove the cable immediately and clean your port.
So when I get home? I just get one of my flossers (for teeth) that tend to have a cheap plastic toothpick attached to it. Works perfect, no liquids, and very minimal risk of damaging the port.
All bristles were nylon-ish material. All plastic no metal. The brushes were held by thin metal wire but so thin it was like throwing a hotdogs down a hallway.
I’ve always used wooden toothpicks because
- Common
- Made from cheap soft wood: more likely to deform or destruct against metal than most plastics
- Cut with the grain: especially soft to anything raking against the sides (like delicate pins)
- The uneven “splintery” sides happen to be pretty good at snagging tiny fibers of lint to pull them out as one big ball, requiring fewer swipes
More techniques:
- clean with port facing straight down to get gravity assist
- blow across the opening of the port: mild negative pressure + agitation inside cavity vs blowing directly into port (which is generally warned against explicitly)
- focus on “pinning” lint up against each of the two corners and holding gentle pressure during extraction: these corners of the port have no exposed pins, and happen to be where lint tends to accumulate anyway
I’m not saying anyone should follow my example, and in fact I’m probably saying no one should follow my example… but I have definitely used a metal glasses screwdriver to clean my charging port before
I use a scalpel.
A push pin is my go-to.
This is all very horrifying when reading with the childish mindset of what “charging-port” can be an euphemism of.
Your phone’s charging circuit almost certainly has short protection built in.
Shorting isn’t the problem as much as metal against metal bending things. Those contacts are fragile. Plastic or wood and being gentle won’t hurt anything.
No need to waste money on a “kit” for such a basic task.
The plugs homie. I bought the plugs. They came with the jankey cleaning kit that changed my life hahah
We seem to have very different lives.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
10 USD??? I justo walk into a phone repair shop and ask them if they can clean it. they do it in under a minute for free
That is not how Verizon stores work in the US. They dont even fuckin carry Samsung OEM charging blocks at my local Verizon wireless store. They havent done anything tech support related in a very long time. You basically go there for them to use your phone to call their customer/technical support to ultimately tell you to take it to a You Break IT We Fix IT store.
Walk into a store? I just use a toothpick or a needle
My toothpicks are not that thin.
I usually pass various phone shops on my way to buy groceries, so it’s not an inconvenience
Use a knife to thin it. I used to have a box of thin ones, but had to buy larger sturdier round ones, so last time I just sharpened it with a knife and it worked like a charm.
I use a plastic one - the ones that have a floss “D” on one end and a pick on the other. They’re very thin and can also be bent to form a bit of a hook.
Do not use a needle. Use something wood, like the toothpick you suggested, or plastic. The needle might damage the port.
Last time I used a needle I caused a short. Cost me 120 euros to have it fixed
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.
As I told another person with similar reply, the purchase was for the adhesive plugs to prevent this from happening in the future as i prepped to buy a new phine but the plugs happened to come with a jankey cleaning kit and turned my frown upside down. The plugs are as much of the take away as the cleaning the port.
