Toothpicks are WAY too thick. A sewing needle did the job for me though

The old Reddit trope

The real LPT is in the comments

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.

Impossible for iPhone users

• sent from my iPhone that I regret buying in some ways

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.

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?

I came into the comments to say this. I keep one in my drawer, trimmed down a bit so it can go all the way around inside a usb-c port. They’re perfect since they’re very narrow and since they are soft you won’t damage the port.

I came here to say this. I bought a cleaning kit but all the tools were too thick. The plastic dental pick was perfect. I used a drop of 90% rubbing alcohol to loosen the lint first.

I can only get a bent staple into the USB-C port on mine, which makes me nervous but does the job. Will have to see if a pick works.

For the missing 1% use isopropanol.

YSK that OP is now mad at wasting $9.99

Who’s wasting money on 1 cent toothpicks?

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

I use a toothpick as the metal could potentially short something

I would not use metal simply because its hardness is going to be similar or higher than the hardness of the contacts themselves, which means there’s a chance it could scratch or break the contact entirely.

I’ve always used wooden toothpicks because

1. Common
2. Made from cheap soft wood: more likely to deform or destruct against metal than most plastics
3. Cut with the grain: especially soft to anything raking against the sides (like delicate pins)
4. 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

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.

You don’t want to be too rough on it. There’s electrical contacts that can get blocked by dust, lint, and crap, so cleaning helps, but the contacts themselves aren’t that thick, so you don’t want to wear them down too much while cleaning. A cleaning solution helps loosen up everything with less force and a softer brush/pad is less likely to knock bits of contact off.

So just be careful because that brush might be like blowing in nintendo cartridges (clearing dust but leaving saliva specs that would wear the contacts), where it helps in the short term but makes things worse in the long term (resulting in more blowing and an acceleration of the process).

Looks like a cover for the port

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.

I did this but the magnets started to lose their “magnet-ness?” They didn’t snap in right and would look plugged in but not charging.

Felt like I traded one quirky cord not going in, for another.

Do you have a preferred brand?

I had no idea these existed and they look amazing!

Where do you buy these that isn’t under boycott?

I used to use these, but I think they contributed to my charging port failing, so I just try to use wireless for everything. I’ve read of other people that had the same issue. I think the cause was electrical arcs when attaching and detaching. Or maybe ferreous shavings getting in the pins. Whatever it was, it damaged in the charging circuit.