My iPhone 4s will not charge

well go figure, the contract on my 4s is up in 28 days and this happened to me last night.

when my phone is not on it will charge. but not when the phone is on.

Hard to deny that this isnt related to OS.

For me, I cleaned out the charging port and charger meticulously. Nothing. But i've noticed the more I have stored on my phone the more apps shut down mid-play and other errors. So, I deleted a bunch of pictures and a couple apps and VOILA, it charges again!!

I and the same issue with a iPhone 3, updated software and would not take a charge. just updated my 4S to the new software, now it will not hold a charge.

If some one finds that Apple is doing this they will be very wealthy.

JAZ

Like tens of thousands of others, I found this thread after a perfectly functioning old iPhone suddenly would not charge. At first I admit I was tempted to Wonder what Apple might be playing at !

However, I got lucky I think - a friend offered a very old ipod cable to try and it worked immediately. That led me to go looking closely at the connector end of both cables to see if I could spot anything - sure enough the dud cable connector looked rather dirty - in fact there was some Black that looked suspiciously like soot from a burn out.

In my case we are talking an inherited 3 year old iPhone4 (I bought it new for my son who now has an iPhone 5) which has been dropped and suffered 2 front screens broken and one back, but which has nevertheless withstood careful amateur intervention/TLC and still remarkably plays ball :-)

Closer inspection under a magnifier showed me that actually that 30 pin connector only uses 6 live pins or should we say 6 live sprung sliding contacts.

Counting from the left with the connector logo downward and peering into the connector mouth, these pins are numbers 1, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27.

The connector on the iPod cable I was given was in very good condition and the 6 contacts are bright and copper coloured and easily visible under the magnifier. I'll have to be careful with my "new" cable however, because at both ends where the cable joins the connectors the rubber covering has parted exposing frayed coaxial underneath :-(

My dud cable seems to have maybe 2 or 3mm of contact number 23 burnt off.

That led me to wonder what caused it. So I looked using the magnifier with some trepidation into the phone port. There sure enough I found all the tinder material I needed to start another fire! More fluff than anyone ever finds in an unkempt navel! So with the phone off and gentle use of a toothpick, I teased out the fluff so hopefully it won't be happening again in a hurry!

I am hoping no serious damage has been done to the phone port by what was surely a short circuit of some kind (touching Wood I have not noticed anything weird with the operation of the phone), but I wouldn't mind suggesting that the build up of pocket fluff in the port with age is quite likely a principal cause of most of the problems that bring stumped owners to this thread.

Hope this helps, and commiserations to those whose problems are less easy to solve and prevent happening again.

I had the same problem after I updated the os to iOS8. First the battery decrease so fast, then it hangs a lot that I needed to reset/restart my phone often. I tried to delete some apps that occupy most of the space on my phone yet it didn't help. I tried to use different cable, charge it through computer, clean the data, even the port yet it didn't help any.

I admit I made mistakes by not charging it directly to the wall, I used to charge it on the extensions, use it while charging, etc.

My phone is dying so fast so I tried to search for any solution till I find this thread.

To anyone having the same problem, try to charge it directly on the wall with your phone off and wait until it charge automatically if it still didn't work I think better bring it to any apple store to help you.

I did this and my iphone4 started to charge and I managed to at least see a turned on screen. I did find some tiny feathers inside! However, now it keeps the same low charge and does not seem to be progressing..

This is extraordinary. We all have an expensive Apple product that is faulty. I feel ridiculous not being able to do something as simple as charge my phone. Have to start looking at Samsung smartphones. Fairly happy with my Macbook, but even that just stopped working one day... we know HP and Sony laptops are better and hold a charge without a cable. Way too much money spent on this rubbish over the years, nothing but dodgy problems time and again, and Apple don't give a hoot.

Ok so I've had my phone for 2 years too. Im almost ready for upgrade. I can't charge my phone. I can't shut off or like restart my phone. But what's weird is my battery has been at 64% for awhile. Now I just noticed this tonight. If anyone has a solution please help. I don't know whats happening

Do your Home and Power buttons both work? If they do: Hold them both down at the same time until the Apple appears (up to 30 seconds - really.....30 seconds....if the Slide to Power Off bar shows up, ignore it - wait for the Apple).

If the Apple appears, your device is resetting, and the Slide to Unlock Screen will display shortly.

Cheers,

GB

I woke up today to a dead Iphone 4s even though it had been on charge (ipnone charging cord) all night. Tried holding bot sleep button and home button and all I got was an outline picture of an empty battery. Now have it plugged in to computer and after about ten minutes the computer recognized it. It had charged up to 2 % so I turned it off hoping it will charge completely. Was planning to upgrade to the 6plus soon but not today! Hope I can back up my stuff.

Do you have Wifi and an iCloud account? If you do, you should set up your device in future to do automatic iCloud backups (Settings>iCloud>Backup>iCloud Backup = ON.

That way, any time your phone is plugged in, locked, and connected to Wifi it will create a backup that you can use to restore to a new device.

Best of luck,

GB

hi have same problem as lot of people iphone4 keep crashing back to apple logo done restore same problem shutdown phone and will charge but still crashes back to apple logo. Q if I download IS07.1.2 last version for iphone4 will that help or when I restore phone is that done anyway.

regards

noel😕😢

It's just such a scam to have a working fine iPhone one day and then for it to be unable to charge. It's all well and good for companies to create products that are great without addressing a few weak points so the whole thing is unusable within a couple of years. But I'm stranded in a third world country with no phone, no money to buy a new one and was given absolutely no warning that the last half decent thing in my life, a gift from a friend, their old iPhone 4s, was going to stop charging and be irreparable. This phone was helping me to help people. Now I can't even make a phone call. Think it's time to just curl up in a ball and cry. We are forced to rely on these ridiculous products and spend all our money on them in order to function reasonably in the greater part of society and I am 100% over it. A quality, reliable, repairable product is so much more important than features and apps.

If you will tell us exactly what your issue is, and what you have tried, we probably can help you. What happens when you try to charge your phone? Do you get an error message? If so, what is it? Have you tried cleaning out the ports? Tried a different cable? There are many troubleshooting steps that can be tried in a "Phone won't charge" situation. But you have given us absolutely nothing to go on. Please provide us with some information so we can see if you can be helped.

Best of luck,

GB

Thank you, I honestly really wasn't expecting anyone to read or help me. My phone didn't give any error messages. I just plugged it in and it was charging then stopped and then kept charging then stopping. I kept hearing it making that ding sound when the charger is unplugged so I thought the cable had been bumped but it was fine. I have an Apple cable and have tried charging it with a number of Apple cables and different chargers and my laptop. I have tried cleaning the ports. I also took it to a place that replaced the charging part of the phone. They got it to charge up to 100% once but then when they tried it again it wouldn't charge anymore and now my start button isn't working so I have to use that button that they put on the screen itself. So the people who tried repair it, even though they seemed like they knew what they were doing, probably just make things worse. So there it is. Still not much to go on I'm afraid. I've done everything you find when you Google this issue. I'm at about 60% now and it looks like when this runs out that'll be the end of my iPhone.