Most times, our devices spend a lot of time in places where they can get easily dirty and could affect their charging port. A couple of phone pouches come with a covering at the charging port area, but not all phones come with a covered charging port, nor does everyone use such pouches. If your phone charging port gets dirty, it won’t charge properly, so you have to clean it. But the question now is how can you clean the charging port of an Android?
Use a bright flashlight to inspect the charging port. Once the dirt or dust is confirmed, turn the device off and clean it accordingly. You can use a compressed air can, toothpick, or cotton swab to get the dirt out.
When dirt is in your charging port, and you keep using it without cleaning it, you push whatever is in the charging port deeper, making it more difficult to remove. In such cases, you wouldn’t be able to charge your device properly, or it would take longer than usual.
This article discusses safely cleaning any dirt from your Android phone or tablet charging port.
How To Safely Clean Your Android’s Charging Port
While we recommend taking it to a professional technician, you can clean it yourself. When cleaning it, ensure you are gentle as the charging port can easily get damaged, especially when you use very hard or metallic tools. You don’t need anything too complex; you can use tools found at home. Below, we elaborated on two ways you can clean your charging port.
Method #1: Using Compressed Air
Compressed air canisters have air compressed in them. So, when you press the nozzle, it shoots out fast streams of air which can be used in many applications. These canisters were not purposely made for cleaning dirt out of charging ports. Their original use was in hammers, sprayers, and so on. Still, they have other uses, such as cleaning the charging port.
Here’s how to use compressed air to clean your charging port.
- Turn off your device.
- Direct the nozzle of the compressed air can at the charging port and press it to clean out the charging port.
- Shoot a few short bursts and see if any dust falls out.
- When using compressed air, ensure you’re holding the can upright to avoid water inside the port.
Method #2: Using Cotton Swabs or Wooden Toothpicks
Another way to clean the charging port on your Android is with a cotton swab or wooden toothpick. A cotton swab is wrapped around one or both ends of a short rod made of wood or plastic. The cotton swab is used for first aid, cosmetics application, and cleaning tiny particles.
Here’s how to use a cotton swab or wooden toothpick to clean your charging port.
- Before you do anything on your device, ensure you turn it off.
- Take a bright light to inspect the charging port area.
- Take note of the type of dirt in the charging port to know whether a toothpick or a cotton swab best cleans it.
- Use a toothpick if dirt is tightly logged in the charging port and a cotton swab if the dirt is not logged tightly and looks somewhat oily.
- Insert the cotton swab or toothpick gently into the charging port to prick the dirt out.
- Keep poking at the dirt until you get them all out.
- You can dip the cotton swab in rubbing alcohol to clean the charging port to get rid of it properly.
Avoid using sharp metal objects like safety pins, paper pins, clips, forks, or knives. These can do more harm than good to your charging port. It would be best if you did not use metal objects to clean metal, as in the case of the charging port, to prevent scratches of delicate components or even chips and breaks of the charging port.
Conclusion
So, when going out with your device, avoid dust and dirt from getting into it by covering the charging port. If you have a pouch that covers the charging port, that will be a great buy. But if you don’t have one, keeping your phone in your pocket or purse most of the time may be your only solution to genuinely keeping dust and dirt out of your phone charging port.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can tell your charging port needs to be cleaned when you find it challenging to charge your Android. When you try to plug your charging cable into your Android, but it feels like something is blocking it from entering properly, it is a sign it needs to be cleaned.
Using a needle to clean your charging port is not encouraged as it can damage parts of your charging ports. In particular, you should use anything metal to clean the charging port of your Android.
