If your iPhone or Android phone won’t charge when you plug in the power cable to the USB-C port, there may be a number of reasons why. From damaged plugs and tired, old charging cables to ruined broken charging ports in your phone, it’s not always easy to pinpoint the problem. Some of these issues can be resolved simply by testing your phone using a different cable or swapping out the charging plug. Others may be more difficult — or expensive — to diagnose and fix. 

One common reason for faulty charging is simply that your phone’s charging port is clogged with fluff, dirt and other debris from inside your pocket, and all that compacted rubbish is preventing your cable from properly connecting. 

This can easily happen with any charging port, whether that’s Lightning on the iPhone 14 Pro or older iPhones, or USB-C on the more recent iPhone 17 range and Android phones such as the Google Pixel 10 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

However, this is one of the simplest and cheapest charging problems to fix. Here’s how. 

Why is my charging port blocked? 

There are no covers on your phone’s charging port, meaning it’s exposed to every bit of dust, dirt and debris it encounters. Every time you slide your phone into your pocket, your phone will be susceptible to pocket fluff, and if, like me, you’ve got pockets filled with detritus from accidentally washing your jeans with old receipts in the pockets, then that’s asking for trouble. And that’s to say nothing of the cookie crumbs. Do not ask me why I have cookie crumbs in my pockets. 

Day by day, this won’t be much of a problem, but those tiny bits of dust and fluff will build up inside your charging port over the months or years you have your phone, compacting and building up each time you plug in your charging cable until it forms a solid barrier that stops your charger from going all the way in and allowing it to connect and charge. 

If you’ve had your phone for more than a few months and you’re gradually finding the charger becoming less and less stable (particularly if you have to wiggle it around to get it to begin charging or if the cable won’t go in all the way) then it’s highly likely that dirt in your port is the culprit. 

How to clean out your phone’s charging port 

Unclogging your phone’s port is simple. You’ll need a cocktail stick, toothpick or other thin item that you can poke into the port to scrape out the grime. Wood or plastic is better, as it’s less likely to scrape against anything inside and potentially cause harm. I’ve done this using a metal SIM removal tool and the pin on the back of an earring, and while it worked well, it’s not always the safest option for your phone. 

Insert your tool of choice into the charging port until it won’t go further and gently start scraping away. With an older iPhone’s Lightning port you can scrape back and forth, but with USB-C you’ll need to scrape around the charging connector, which sits in the middle of the port. 

Eventually, you’ll start to work the compacted debris loose and then remove it from the port. It’s a satisfying process, and you might be surprised at how much stuff actually comes out. Gently work on the sides of the port, too, but be careful not to scrape hard against any of the metal charging connectors. 

Soon, you’ll have pretty much all of it out. It’s difficult to check for sure if you’ve gotten rid of it all, as it’s tricky to see inside the port, even if you have a good light handy. But once you’ve got a good amount of debris out, you can try your charging cable again. 

Hopefully, it’ll plug in more securely and begin charging. If not, keep trying to extract more dirt and then test the charger again. If that still doesn’t solve the issue, it’s time to consider other solutions like a new cable or charger.