Iphone 5 lightning port charging problem - SOLUTION!

Sentient Paradox wrote:

You know, there is a much simpler solution that doesn't involve any cleansers, spray, or inserting foreign objects into your ports. This problem, contrary to popular belief isn't usually caused by dust or debris. It's caused by a very thin layer of corrosion on the contacts. Believe it or not, this nearly microscopic layer of corrosion can almost always be polished off by doing nothing more than repeatedly reseating the cable plugs in such a way that literally rubs the corrosion off. be sure to do this with all the connections, even any extensions.

iI've been using this method for decades on everything from headphone jacks to PCI cards, cpu's, etc. and from my experience if this doesn't work, the problem is almost always more serious than any cleanser or toothpick can solve.

+1 for Sentient Paradox! Yes, this worked for awhile, for some cables I have... Gold does not corrode, but there could be a film (probably finger oils?) on the contacts. Inserting and removing the Lightning connector helped for awhile, but eventually they failed completely. It begins when the device will charge up to about 98% then give the “not charging” error message. Some cables may have a problem with the gold plating. On another site, there were photos of microscopic defects in the very thin gold plating on the contacts. The gold plating actually flaked off. More likely with cheap aftermarket cables, but also seen with some genuine Apple cables.

If there are defects in the gold plating on the contacts, eventually the cable will fail. For genuine Apple cables, an Apple Store can give you a free replacement, if you ask nicely.

Thank you! I was close to giving up on the phone and having to replace it.

Went from problematic to connect/charge to not working at all.

I thought i'd cleaned the port out but having read this thread went back in and pulled out a chunk more lint.

Phone went from not connecting at all to connecting first time... *phew*

You, sir, are a genius! 5 mins with a toothpick just saved me hours at the Apple store! MANY thanks 🙂

Thank you so much dude. Took some effort but it worked! And all this while I was waiting for over 20 minutes to be put in a chat with customer service, after being told the wait was only 2 minutes, and realizing the only thing they'd tell me is "You'll have to buy a new phone" They never got in contact with me, but this has proved more useful than they could ever be!

I love you OP. Thanks.

Thanks it worked

Just to say it totally worked. Thanks a lot!

Thank you..i faced same problem since 3 months...after seeing your post i cleaned charging port dust with pin...Now it perfectly working. thanks

Thanks man. a toothpick just saved me about 600 bucks, I've tried so many different chargers and was finally just going to replace the phone. your post helped a ton.

Thanks I was having the exact same issue and your solution worked great! There was a ton of lint stuffed in there...used a wooden toothpick to get most of it out. Took 2-3 tries (there was a LOT of it in there) but I eventually got it to charge normally (without bending the Lightning cord at all). It immediately starts charging 99% of the time I plug it in now, as opposed to less than 10% before.

By the way I keep my iPhone 5 in my tight jean pockets all the time so that's where the lint must have come from. I got the iPhone 5 right after it came out a little more than 2 years ago and the charging (lint) issue with the Lightning port started to happen and get increasingly worse about 1 year into use.

Thank you TnD1w. This worked very well for me. Powered down my iPhone 5. Took off the case. Cleaned gently the lightening port with a flat wooden toothpick. Sprayed with electronic contact cleaner using the included straw. Cleaned again with a flat wooden toothpick. Several small bits of lint removed. Waited for 1 minute. Powered on. All good !! Phone will now charge again. Many Thanks.

Thanks - the toothpick trick seems to have worked perfectly. I was surprised at how much lint came out of the port!

This whole issue got me thinking that it would be really helpful if iOS provided an audible alert when power gets disconnected from the device, just like it does when power gets connected. Such an alert would have saved me numerous hours of frustration after realizing that my device was NOT charging when I thought that it was. After doing some searching on this, I came across a tweak called Unpower that seems to provide exactly this functionality, but it only works on jailbroken phones.

Apple should really redesign the Lightning port somehow so that this issue doesn't occur. It's one of the most frustrating things ever, especially to people who don't know how to fix it or even why it's happening at all. And from the amount of people who have responded in this discussion, it's easy to tell that this issue happens to a lot of people out there.

Like several in this discussion have said already, I never once experienced this issue with any 30-pin dock connector iPhones. And I stuck those into my lint-y jean pockets just as much as I do the newer ones with Lightning ports.

Thanks! - like so many on here, the toothpick worked perfectly, removed a huge amount of lint, and all is well.

I also used a toothpick, moved it around in there for 5 minutes or so, got a bunch of lint out and it works perfectly now. I also thought I had a hardware problem, glad I found this post and the related comments. Thanks!