5 easy steps to cleaning your iPhone’s charging port
Wave goodbye to those dust bunnies.
We carry our iPhones everywhere with us so it’s no shock to hear that they’re subjected to dust bunnies just like our homes.
It’s nothing to be embarrassed about but unlike your living room, Mrs Hinch isn’t going to fix this one.
A clogged charging port is one of the reasons your iPhone may not be charging, and we want you to be back up and running.
We don’t accept any responsibility for any damage caused to your iPhone and the absolute ideal in this situation would be taking it to Apple to get it fixed by a professional.
If this isn't possible, we’ve got 5 easy steps that you can follow to clear out your iPhone’s charging port, but before we get onto that, try blowing in your port to loosen any dust and dirt.
You might be tempted to shove a safety pin in there, an old hair grip or, for some of the more desperate, to suck your charging port – and we advise against all of these methods.
Sticking anything sharp and pointy in your charging port may actually damage the delicate electronics which will permanently damage it and leave you without your iPhone completely.
All you’ll need are a few toothpicks, a torch and a can of compressed air. Compressed air sounds like something complicated, but it’s pretty much what it says on the tin.
It’s basically a can, like a big deodorant looking can, filled with air that has been compressed. You can pick it up at big supermarkets, Amazon, eBay and loads of other places too.
1) Power off your iPhone.
Make sure you power off your iPhone completely – turning it off like you ordinary would.
2) Fire the compressed air.
Hold the compressed air can upwards – this is important as you want it to shoot our air only, not wet propellent.
Carefully fire a few bursts into the port. Turn your mobile back on, plug in your charger and see if the magic happens. Fingers crossed this works, and you can stop at step 2.
3) Bring in the toothpick.
Who knew toothpicks would be useful for more than picking meat out your teeth? Power off your iPhone again, following the instructions in step 1.
Gentle insert the toothpick into the port and scrape it against the wall. You don’t want to apply too much pressure here and damage those pins we were talking about.
4) Compressed air time.
You’ll now want to go back in with your compressed air. Like before, fire a few blasts into the port – while holding the can upwards.
This will help to clear out any of the dirt and dust that you’ve just picked out.
5) Power back up.
Turn on your iPhone and try to charge it. Fingers and toes crossed that you’re back in business, but if it doesn’t work, repeat the first 4 steps.
The key with this process is being careful and gentle – and having a lot of patience. It’s fiddly work but we’ve got faith.
If your iPhone has decided it doesn’t want to co-operate with any of these steps and you’re in the market for a new one, we have you covered.
We’ve got deals on the very best from Apple, including the latest iPhone 12.
