Chosen Solution

The connection between my charging cable and the phone is very finicky. I have to wiggle the cable to start the charging process. The slightest bump, and charging stops. The phone is over two years old and the problem started in the last few months. I have tried different cables but nothing seems to help.

Another tool you can use is a wood tooth pick, if you are still having problems replace your dock connector.

Try raking the bottom of the lightning socket with something thin and stiff, such as a thin paperclip (or use the Probe and Pick Set) to remove the lint. I had a similar issue with my iPhone 5S and the Apple Store guy took it back for 3 minutes and came back and all was well. One giveaway is that the white plastic collar (for lack of a better term) doesn’t sit flush against the phones body when the lightning cable is plugged in. Once that lint was removed, it was flush again and charging was back to normal. [Update] TL;DR Toothpicks (wooden tools) are safer but may not tough enough. I used metal tools but was careful not to mess with the metal pins.

Yes, a toothpick (or anything wood) is certainly a lot safer than metal tools. The toothpicks I’ve used aren’t hard enough to break up the cruft at the back wall of the port. You could use a teflon spudger as an in-between that’s stronger than wood but can’t do damage like a metal pick would. That being said, I recently had to clear out the lightning port a second time (on my iPhone 6s) and I used my metal tools without issue. The pins are located on the floor/ceiling of the port chamber so I mostly kept clear of the pins by sticking to the back wall to break up the packed cruft.

THANK YOU! I had exactly the same problem where my iPhone 6 Plus would no longer charge unless the USB cable was twisted to an extreme angle that was damaging to the cord. The advice to use a wooden toothpick to clean-out lint and dust from the Lightning charging port completely fixed the issue. Thank you for this simple, fast, and effective fix that is totally obvious but I did not think of!

The hint about the connector not fitting flush to the case was invaluable. Yep, using a lighted magnifier revealed “pocket fluff” packed against the back wall of the socket. I used a modellers knife to whittle a toothpick to a flat blade and carefully removed the packed lint with that. I was able to break up the lint with the toothpick enough to get it past the pins without damaging them. I strongly warn against using any metal tool as any contact with the pins could result in a short circuit of the Li-ion battery, which would not be pretty!

I cleaned out the port and it still wont charge unless its at an angle :/

What I suggest is just lightly blowing on the charge port. If that doesn’t work, use a wooden toothpick (or a plastic one) and just very lightly take all the lint out. If none of these options work, i’d suggest taking it to the Genius Bar. (or whatever your phone company does)

This happened to my 6s. Tried several cords, squares, outlets, same problem. Took the phone to Apple, they checked it over and decided that several pins inside the charging port were damaged and the only option left was to trade in the phone for a new one. So 30 minutes and $250 later, I walked out with a new iPhone 7. My advice, don’t try to clean the port yourself. You will just end up damaging those fragile pins inside the port. Take it somewhere where a professional will clean it.

I had to replace the charging port after unsuccessful attempts at cleaning the port out. This however still did not fix the issue, the issue for me was a connection on the motherboard that needed micro-soldering. Cost about £30 but been fantastic ever since.

I would suggest getting a new charge port fitted

ive had this problem for about a month now. ive tried several cords and even cleaned it out many times. the port is clean and theres no lint, yet it still wont charge unless at an extreme angle.

I had similar issues with my iPhone SE for months where the charging kept staying on and off whilst charging. I had to hold the cable in for it stay charging. Very frustrated !!!. I then realised that there was something maybe at the base of the charging port preventing my charging cable to be fully inserted. I powered off the phone completely. I then used the sim card removal pin (It’s metal of course) and placed it right down to the bottom of the charging port. I gently scraped the bottom left to right and right to left 5 times. I pulled the pin out and sure enough some rubbish fallen out. I repeated this process two more times until there was no rubbish fallen out of the port. I then powered up the phone and tested my charging cable. It charges immediately without me having to hold the cable in. The charging cable is working for the last two weeks now without any issues whatsoever. I may have to do this whenever, i have issues with intermittent charging problem. CAUTION NOTE: Do not insert anything in the charging port without POWER OFF your phone completely.

Toothpick worked! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It’s been driving me nuts!

Paint brush or even tooth brush would work too :) Less invasive than metal/wood.

I tried the toothpick solution but I found whatever was in my charging port needed something sturdier to dislodge it, so I risked using the metal pick that comes with the phone for popping the SIM card slot. I turned off the phone to be safe but I’m not sure if you can still short the phone with a metal implement even if it’s turned off so I was just careful to avoid touching the sides. I guessed that my problem was that there was some hard-lodged gunk in the far end of my charging port as my charger only seemed to work when I really forced it in (and at a slight angle too). Sure enough after scraping round for a few moments all sorts of compacted gunk started coming out (this was after I’d previously tried using toothbrushes, toothpicks, compressed air etc so it must’ve been really compacted into the port!). Anyway I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely perfect now but it’s charging without having to force the cable in at a funny angle and more importantly it keeps charging even if I move the phone around a bit (before the smallest movement would’ve caused the phone to stop charging which was driving me mad!).

i have an iphone 6s and i’ve tried different chargers and outlets, and my phone still won’t charge… can someone please tell me what can i do….

Omg I used a dry fingernail. It’s soft. I cleaned it for 3 min, plugged my charger in, it’s working perfectly! THANK YOU!