I’ve been using magnetic USB cables and adapters on my devices for years. I occasionally need to clean their connection, but otherwise they work well. Found one I liked and purchased a bunch of them. Now the car, house, office, etc. all have one of the magnetic cables nearby.
They charge a little slower, but that’s better for my battery long-term anyway.
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.
I had no idea these existed and they look amazing!
Where do you buy these that isn’t under boycott?
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?
Fucking magnets. How could they stop working???
I hear that happens when they get wet.
And don’t even get me started on the sharks.
Word you’re looking for is magnetism or polarity.
you could get a magnetizer and run it through that a few times. even something cheap like this should do the trick: https://ebay.us/m/18o4zx
magnets just lose their strength over time and repeated use. the Samsung flip phones use magnets to detect when it’s open or closed, and a lot of the time they’ll lose strength and the phone won’t detect that’s it been opened or closed. I have pretty much that exact magnetizer and I run the magnets through that a time or two and everything starts working again lol. I assume the same concept should work for you.
I use the [N. NETDOT Gen 10 Magnetic Charging Cable] (https://a.co/d/ijM37pD). I have thrown away a few of the magnetic tips that physically broke from abuse, but for me that’s cheaper than a device repair.
When they stop connecting properly, I usually clean them with a toothpick (or other good suggestions from this thread).
Solid tools to have in any case. I wouldn’t buy a kit as I already have all that from other projects.
Just now got the USB port covers! Have a crappy light on my little .22, lost the cover immediately. Put on of those on and have hiked for miles, banged in around, wiped it off during general cleaning several times, still perfectly stuck. Little finicky getting it seated, well worth it for the perfect seal. $.86/ea. on eBay.
100% did the same thing on the charging port for my infrared scope after the rubber connecting it to the scope, snapped. $1,300 scope saved by a tiny rubber plug you prolly cant even buy one at a time anymore now that the penny is gone lol (not that you ever could just saying they could be more than a penny each to make.)
I’m surprised the glue has held this long for such a cheapo product!
So, what’s the scope? I got a couple of cheapies off Amazon and eBay, thought my cheapness was the problem. Posted on lemmy asking about options and it seems no matter the price, the FOV is going to suck, even for the $50,000 military models.
Got some 9V-battery powered infrared strobes for cheap, to be used as trail markers. Super neat and super cheap! But I have to point directly at them to pick them up. All I want is a monocular I can walk around with.
Alternatively, just grab a free toothpick from a restaurant and use that to clean the port.
Toothpicks are WAY too thick. A sewing needle did the job for me though
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I wouldn’t use metal to clean it. A sewing needle is surely hard enough to scratch the coating on the pins. Plastic or wood would be less destructive for repeated use.
The old Reddit trope
The real LPT is in the comments
Kinda, you really want to use a soft brush and 90% isopropyl. A tooth pick is only useful if you are EXTREMELY gentle. Otherwise you might cause more damage.
Are a worrying amount of people going at the charger port hammer and tong?
Lemmings really don’t have a lot of common sense do they
By all means try a tooth pick and pure alcohol, if that doesn’t work a professional might get you set straight.
Repair shops can do a better job cleaning than a home option. I had a data and charge problem, bought a kit and tried 3x times; it didn’t work . Bought new cables just in case that was the issue. Brought it in for repair fully expecting to pay for a port repair. Repair shop did a through cleaning charged me $15 and sent me on my way with everything working.
Gotta be careful as well with USB-C ports. I managed to break off the middle section while cleaning a couple of times. Not a good thing, luckily phone battery was already dying at the time.
Please, not just any alcohol. Go with isopropanol, ethanol or methanol.
Shit. I used Baileys. Is that bad?
Depends, were you drinking it from a shoe?
Not as bad as cholesterol.
My charging port died and I’m so pissed. 2 year old Google pixel. Never buying pixel again. I looked up how to desolder the charging port and it’s a pain in the ass. It has this like weird shield over it and I have no idea how to desolder this thing. Why can’t it be straight forward
You sure its dead? My 2 year old pixel was also having issues charging, but I simply used SIM tray tool to poke around the charging port and got A LOT of lint out of it and its as good as new
I tried that. It didn’t help. I even cleaned it when I had the phone apart with some 99% alcohol. No luck
Shouldn’t a Pixel that new support wireless charging? I’m surprised at how many people still rely on plugging their phones in to charge them these days. At the very least, it’s a workaround for a broken port.
It has wireless charging but I have a few on call situations and diabetes that I prefer a plugged in charge just in case I accidently knock the phone off the charger at night.
Android has had wireless charging for like 10 years. I can’t remember the last time I plugged in my phone (for charging)
Why the fuck would they solder the charging part to the main board? That’s just actively malicious.
It’s not just soldered there’s like a shield with anchor pins surrounding it that makes it hard to desolder
I recently got a replacement battery and also the usb c circuitry. Got it replaced for $15 (everything included). Phone is effectively new now.
Can you share any instructional material you used to learn how to change the battery and charging port?
i paid a repair shop for the swapping. ($15 includes everything, battery itself is around $10 port is around $2). Whole swap took around 20 mins. though this is a third world country, so double or triple that.
but for my device, there was full repair guide available online (ifixit). the only reason I did not repair my self is because I am kinda scared doing anything battery (it was partially swollen, and i do not want lithium fire). Other major reason is I do not have screw driver bits for phone. I can do laptop repairs myself, but phone screws are even smaller, and use fancy heads, so I can not use a pointed knife’s edge to unscrew.
If your device has a ifixit guide, that would be the easiest way, they hand hold all the way through. If not, find replacement parts, see what it would cost, and maybe ask a repair shop for a price. if their quotation is within reason, then they can do a good job and you would not even need any other tools.
In fact, if I would have done it myself, I would have not repaired the port, as that required a bit more work than battery.
A filed down toothpick is really good at cleaning that USB port.
What are the black sticky things for?
Looks like a cover for the port
I see it now! Thanks for helping my autistic dumb ass.
You could also set up wireless charging and put the phone down for a bit.
Or magnetic USB-C adapters. Keeps the gunk out of the charging port while still retaining functionality (including fast charging). There’s also charge-only adapters, which are handy for travel when you don’t trust the port the phone is connected to.
This is the answer.
I’ve used them for close to 10 years. Started because one phone had a touchy port. Glued the adapter in the right position and never had a problem.
The last time I plugged my phone in to charge was … Well, never with this one.
It has a 3.5mm and a Qi charging and sharing rig. I wish I could have this phone forever.
I had a phone that I put the charging cable in backwards, and the port was completely broken. Bought a wireless charger and never had any problems.
(Whoever decided to standardize phone chargers on that connector should be put into prison.)
Heathen!!!
For whoever isn’t aware, you can just add wireless charging to a device. It’s a paper thin cord and a pad that goes under whatever case you have. You won’t even notice it’s there under your case. They work well.
So you missed the part where I explained I need it for my constant glucose monitor which perpetually drains my phone battery creating the whole battle of the port?
Or you saying im not being a risky enough diabetic leaving my phone out of Bluetooth range for the 8 or more hours it takes to charge a zfold5 on a wireless charging pad? Cuz say the word and ill go hypo-g right the fuck meow, son. /s couldnt pass on good diabeeetus joke lol
You posted this as a “You Should Know” clean your port before getting a new phone. Just because you have a need for constant charging, does not mean that wireless charging is an invalid option for the audience you’re taking to.
A 1¢ toothpick works 99% of the time.
For the missing 1% use isopropanol.
YSK that OP is now mad at wasting $9.99
Who’s wasting money on 1 cent toothpicks?
LOL, that’s the value of them—not the price of them.
Hey thanks for all the tips in the comments, I’ve got these brand new stiff-ish cleaning brushes and this one worked really well to clean out my charging port and now there’s no more beach sand grinding noise when I shove my cable into the charging port.
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).
Also, replacing the battery is pretty cheap compared to buying a new phone.
I see seven things in that photo. Please explain what each one is and what they do.
The two butt plugs should be self explanatory
Instructions unclear. Phone is now stuck. Please advise.
The top two stick to the back of the phone and provide a rubber cover for the USB c port. Everything else either scrapes away debris or wipes the port clean with isopropyl alcohol. Bottom right appears to be fashioned from a zip tie and probably didn’t come in the kit.
Not my precious charging port dust bunnies! I once had one that could’ve easily won the fat dust bunny contest
As an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure I recommend those tiny rubber stoppers you see in the photo. They have a peel and stick part that goes under your case which retains the plug on a strip of rubber. That strip might wear out in a few years and rip, but they cost almost nothing to replace (and in fact come in packs).
Phones used to have these things built in, then they stopped in the smartphone era because they didn’t look as sleek and futuristic I guess. Now, if you have a case, it once again makes hardly any difference to the appearance.
That was also when a single charge lasted for days or a week. Now we use our phones too much and multiple charges a day isn’t uncommon for people. I couldn’t imagine having to remove a little plug to charge my phone as often as I do.
