How to Clean iPhone Charging Port

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 7 Mar 2020

Clean iPhone Charging Port

Your iPhone’s charging port is bound to collect a lot of dust and lint over an extended period of time. There can be many reasons behind this including the environment where you live, where you work, and more. A lot of dust and lint can also accumulate in the charging port if the pocket or bag where you keep your phone in is particularly dirty. A dirty charging port can cause your iPhone to not charge or create issues when using accessories.

Since the inside of the charging port of the iPhone is not easily accessible, it is not that easy to clean it. If your iPhone’s charging port is dirty and you are looking to clean it, check out the steps below.

How Does Your iPhone’s Charging Port Get Dirty?

There are a number of reasons as to why your iPhone’s charging port has become dirty. Depending on where you live and work, dust particles and lint can easily get inside the port. While one day out in the dust might not matter, over months and years, it can have a notable impact. Another way your iPhone’s charging port can get dirty is if you end up dropping it in dirt or frequently expose it to mud and other dust particles. They can easily clog up your iPhone’s charging port.

How Does a Dirty Charging Port Affect Your iPhone?

A dirty Lightning port will lead to accessories not connecting to your iPhone properly. Similarly, the Lightning cable might not fit properly leading to your iPhone not charging properly. Or there could be a loose connection that could lead to data transfer failing when you connect your iPhone to your PC.

This can also cause plenty of other issues and it is recommended that you always keep your iPhone clean, especially since you use and carry it with yourself everywhere.

Read: How to Disinfect your iPhone

What Do You Need to Clean Your iPhone’s Dirty Charging Port?

You will need an analog air blower (buy now), a piece of cotton, and toothpicks (buy now) for the entire process. Do not use any kind of liquid to clean the charging port as it could damage your iPhone permanently. You can, however, use 95% or higher alcohol for cleaning purposes, though this is not really required. Make sure you are in an area with plenty of light as otherwise, you will not be able to see the area surrounding the Lightning connector properly. Apple recommends not to use compressed air on your iPhone so make sure to avoid it.

Clean Your iPhone’s Charging Port

Step 1: Turn off your iPhone. Do not try to clean the charging port with the device switched on.

Step 2: Take a toothpick and a piece of cotton. Wrap the cotton around the toothpick and insert it into the charging port. Do not jab the toothpick inside the port. Do it slowly and steadily as otherwise, you could end up damaging the port.

Step 3: Move the toothpick around to clean the port as much as possible. You will have to move the toothpick around multiple times to catch all the residual dust.

Step 4: If you ordered the analog air blower, use it to blast air inside the charging port. This will clean all residue dust and lint that was still leftover, though you might have to do this multiple times.


What issues did you face with a dirty charging port on your iPhone? Did this guide help in cleaning the charging port of your iPhone properly? Drop a comment and let us know!