(Pocket-lint) – Apple’s lineup of iPhones contains some seriously impressive phones, and they all still use the same Lightning port as their main charging mechanism, along with the option of wireless charging.
If you’re finding that plugging your iPhone into a lightning cable that’s connected to power isn’t charging it up, though, there are a few avenues you can explore to figure out why it’s not working.
How to fix a broken iPhone charger cable
If you’ve tried the cable connected to multiple different power sources (be they laptops, portable batteries or a charging plug), then you might be increasingly confident that the cable is at fault.
In this circumstance, for most people, the simplest thing is to throw away the cable and getting a new one – you can buy replacement cables from Apple if you want a guarantee of quality, but there are also plenty of third-party lightning cables available through the likes of Amazon.
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Sometimes cables will degrade so that they work intermittently, or only work in certain carefully-arranged positions, and if that’s the case for you, we’d advise buying a replacement before you find it doesn’t work at all, and before it risks causing electrical damage.
How to fix your iPhone charger connector
However, if you think you want to try something before you give up on your Lightning cable, one thing you can do is clean the connectors on the end of the cable that plugs into your phone.
If these are dirty, that can be an issue for charging, but using a cotton swab and some isopropyl alcohol can make it very easy to quickly wipe the connector clean. You’ll want to wait until the connector is 100 per cent dry before connecting it to your phone or power, though.
If you think there’s muck in your phone’s port, rather than on the connector, then you could try cleaning this out with a can of compressed air or a gentle, non-metal pick or toothpick.
How to fix a broken iPhone charging plug
If you’ve checked the port on your phone, and have a charging cable that you’ve verified is working, but the phone won’t charge, the next step is probably to check if the charging plug itself is still working. These can fail after a few years, after all.
You can check if it’s working by trying to charge a different device, and cleaning out its ports gently. If that still leaves you with nothing, but the socket on your wall can provide power to other devices you own, the charging plug might be a goner.
These plugs are sadly no longer the sort of thing you can open up and quickly rewire for a new lease on life – you’ll have to dispose of it and get a new one. Again, you can order replacements from Apple, or source a better-value option from a third-party brand like Anker.
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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills.
