PSA: I was cleaning my phone's charging port wrong for years

I always used a toothpick or a paperclip to dig lint out of my phone's charging port. My Pixel 6 started having connection issues last month, and a repair guy in Phoenix told me I probably scratched the pins inside. He showed me how to use a soft plastic dental pick instead, which won't cause damage. Anyone else have a better tool for this that's safe?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.robert4d ago

Totally agree with Brian here. That plastic dental pick stuff sounds like overkill to me. Been using a bent staple for ages on all kinds of phones and never had a single problem. You can feel the difference between scraping out lint and actually gouging the metal.

brian_taylor154d ago

That repair guy in Phoenix is just trying to upsell you. I've used a metal paperclip on every phone I've owned for the last decade and never once damaged a port. You'd have to be jamming it in there like you're trying to start a fire to actually scratch those pins. Plastic picks are too soft and won't get the packed lint out.

fisher.thomas3d ago

My old Galaxy S8 stopped charging because the port was totally packed with pocket lint. A friend told me to try a can of compressed air first, and it actually worked like a charm.