Recently, I’ve had TONS of trouble with my iPhone 7 lightning port. The cable kept falling out, and was loose and wiggly. This meant that I would sometimes find my phone completely uncharged because something in the connection wasn’t working right. I was getting really frustrated, and was thinking I would need to bring my 1 year old phone in for a repair.

I had been told that sometimes lint can get in there and cause issues, but every time I fished around with a toothpick or paperclip I wouldn’t see anything or get any results. Then today I decided to do one more Google search. I found a commenter who said to check to see if the lightning cord plug fits flush against the body of the phone. If it doesn’t, then you actually have lint CAKED against the back of the port. Sure enough when I checked, my lightning cord stuck out from the phone body 1-2mm. Even though it felt somewhat secure, it wasn’t actually seating correctly.

I grabbed a cubicle wall stick pin and started poking against the back wall of the port. To my surprise, there was a TON of caked on lint at the back of the port. When I had looked into the phone before it looked just like the back wall of the port, but it was actually a layer of solidified lint. I scrapped the port out completely, and the picture below is how much stuff I got out. I was shocked at how much crap was in there.

A couple notes of caution! ALWAYS make sure your phone is off when doing this. Also, if you’re using a metal tool be VERY careful to not scrape the top/bottom of the port with the sharp end of the tool. That’s where the connectors are. If you have a plastic toothpick, that’s even better.

It’s like I’ve got a new phone. The cord locks in to place securely, and no matter what, I can’t wiggle it out of place. I’m beyond relieved that this was a simple fix. Happy charging!