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Released September 16, 2016. Models A1661, A1784, and A1785. Available in 32, 128, or 256 GB configurations in Rose gold, gold, silver, black, jet black, and (Product)Red.

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Lightning port too loose?

Looking for suggestions or similar symptoms to diagnose.

Lightning cables will just not stay in this phone if either is even shifted to the slightest. Unscientific measure; I used to be able to pick up the dropped phone by the cord alone without disconnect. Now ANY pull or pressure and the cord comes out. I don't see any debris in port, but my eyes aren't perfect. I can't tell if there are pressure levers or contacts that I see inside on left and right, and maybe one is bad?

YES, it still connects to laptop.

YES, it still charges fine.

YES, i tried original cable.

YES, i tried a NEW original cable.

YES, the cables 'pop' in/ fully seat.

NO, there is no case.

YES, i tried with a passthrough case.

help?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Worked for me. Thank you. I found that the lightning port was about 25% packed with lint. Pulled it out and now it works.

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Pretty slick....... thought it was a tech repair or replacement! Just like new!!

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I had this happen before I think because I keep it in my pocket. I used a plastic toothpick and out came the lint. Not a ton. Blew in it. Some more came out and finally pulled more out. Don’t think I got it all but same as y’all charging cable in, Apple car play came right up and it’s not slightly loose!!!

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Perfect Solution! Thanks.

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Boom! That did the trick!

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Okay, I had been facing the same issue since the past couple of months with my more than 2 yrs old 6s. Today, just moments back & out of curiosity & boredom combined, I took a tooth pick & started scraping the inside of the phone’s charging port. To my surprise, a shitload of debris started dropping out. After about some ten minutes of ‘not so careful’ scraping, the port looked clean. Post which I checked for charging, & the “lose port” problem disappeared. Contrary to my belief as per which, more the debris inside the port, tighter should the connection with the cable upon plugging in become, cleaning gave that rock solid port-cable grip back. Apparently, the base of the port starts getting deposited with debris, & hence, the cable does not fully go in, which results in a fragile connection. Do give it a shot!

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I will try on my iPhone 4. this sounds logical

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I thought I posted this myself long ago, but I was wrong. I scoped it, no dirt. I brushed it, no dirt, i aircanned, no dirt. Then one day a massive hunk of micro-debris, pitch black, came out on its own. I had checked for exactly this and never saw it. 3 pickings and 2 phones later, same method fixed all. Not sure what tool i would recommend to do this. do they still make those flat wooden toothpicks (NOT round)? plastic floss stick?

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Yes ! this worked

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Worked for me. Thank you. I found that the lightning port was about 25% packed with lint. Pulled it out and now it works.

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Just tried this. Worked like a charm!

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This is what I removed from the lightning port (not the dime)

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Yep worked for me too. It’s like belly button lint build up. I used a flat tipped plastic toothpick. The port is deep... Keep digging!

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CRAZY! I too thought it didn’t make sense that stuff in the port would make it seem loose but it’s true! I used a toothpick, scraped pretty hard for two minutes and it’s perfect! I can’t believe I’ve battled with poor charging for months, thrown away charging cords that I thought were the problem and was about to pay $85 for a Apple “technician” to repaire it. What a rip off! It took a free toothpick from a restaurant and two minutes and DONE! Thanks for the help!

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Perfect! works for me

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Brilliant tip. I got a load of fluff out of the port them the charger fitted straight back in. Thanks!

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Thanks! I carved a wad of yuck and lint from hubby’s iPhone 7 lightening port. He whined about its flakey charging for 6 months. Last night it refused to charge and I took it to fix.

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IMHO after 50 years of being involved with electronics, the lightning port is not a really good design in the service for which it is intended.

- picking up fluff/grit and hiding it (yes I have had this)

- very little tension on the eight very small contacts

-quite large forces can be applied to the contacts in the charging port by the connector being pushed up & down or from side to side, damaging the innards of the port.

-leads are replaced by after market leads which may not meet the mechanical requirements causing insufficient contact tension ( some after market leads that I have had, have little or no gold plating)


All this will lead to non charging and or the “may not be supported” message.

Solutions.

Do NOT buy the cheapest replacement leads. They will fail early & give you nothing but trouble.

Do NOT put pressure on the leads. Preferably do NOT use the phone when you are charging it.

See if some enterprising manufacturer in China will come up with a after marked rubber bung that blocks the charging port when not in use.

If a new, good brand replacement still gives you a problem, change the charging port (easy & not expensive if you do it yourself).

Lee






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Good advice, always stick to reputable brand leads that have the MFi certification which is the made for iPhone iPad iPod logo certification on the packaging of the charging cable.

These cables have gone through testing through apple and have the proper surge protection unlike the aftermarket cheap charging leads which can damage your phone as they don't provide protection against power surges which happens a lot with car chargers.

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I have had great success with Amazon Basics branded iPhone Cables. Its about half the price of original Apple, but mine lasted me 2 years whereas the original cable barely lasted me 10 months.

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id start with a dental pick or needle point tweezers, in order to pick out poket lint, which is the number one cause of this. (taking it to a repair shop, they will charge a benching fee for some time, and do it properly.)

further down the road, if picking out the lint doesnt fix the issue you would need to look into the quality of the cable, and replacing the component.

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The answer of cleaning the port out with a toothpick worked perfectly. I was on the verge of getting a new phone based on this issue alone and chalked it up to obsolescence. I thought for sure the charger port was loose. Cleaning it out stopped the wiggling of the cord and allows for a direct charge.

Thank you for sharing and saving me some money.

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Yup toothpick works. But safety pin is more precise and faster. Issue resolved

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Prateek. It’s people like you that truly make the world better! Thank you sir. You have solved countless large and small issues, with one simple post.

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Thank you so much for the help. I was afraid I had to get the whole port replaced. The port was full of crap. I used the sim card ejector to clean up the port. Now that I've removed everything the cable fits perfectly. I can't be grateful enough. Thanks a lot.

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Holy moly! I never would have guessed. The lint was so packed in I thought I was scraping the back of the socket with the toothpick. I tried sticking a needle in to find the bottom was soft. Fixed!

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Yes, this is more often the case than not… I thought I had cleaned my lightning port socket completely but it still didn’t work. I took it to someone who (1) knew what they were doing and (2) likely had a plastic tool to get it done, and they brought me out my “Like New” device minus the lint for FREE! The amount of lint that they collected was incredible, no wonder the plug did not seat! The plug is now like new.

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You can actually see the back of the port if you look with a light. My wife and I had the same issue and the pointed wooden toothpick fixed both and a bunch of lint came out. But 2 days later, out of my wife’s came even more lint. Other people have reported this happening as well. As a side note, the lint is coming from your pocket…..my wife and I both keep our phones in our pocket…we know another person who keeps their phone in their purse and their charging port was lint free.

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OMG THIS WORKED. My iPhone 6 will survive another year, BLESS YOU KIND SOUL.

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Just stumbled across this and was really skeptical as I couldn’t see anything looking inside it. The cable wouldn’t stay in and it would not charge no matter how much pushing and twisting i did.

I got a safety pin and pulled a small amount out then finished off with a toothpick.

Unbelievable the lightning cord actually snaps in and really works as it should

ThANK YOU

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This really helped me. thanks so much for posting such great tips.

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You can get a charging port for this phone for about 5 dollars and install it. Jessa from ipad rehab 8 year old son has changed them. It's not that hard to do. Ifixit has them in stock and has a video to show you how to do it, if they don't YouTube has multiple videos on how to do it.

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I didn’t have a toothpick but my wife had a piece of metal she uses for beading like a thin pin but not sharp and abrasive. I used it to clear out the lightning socket of my iPhone X, and was surprised how much lint I got out. The socket works fine now.

Thanks very much for this solution.

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Not a good idea to use any sort of metal pick.

There will be a connections to the phonez internal battery and a short circuit may cause internal components to fail or potentially cause a battery explosion fire.

Metal scrapers will/can cause the very thinh layer of gold to become damaged, which then caused oxidation of the contacts resulting a very rapid failure.

I use a wooden tooth pick or the end of a plastic tooth flosser which I buy fro Aldi. plastic

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Worked perfectly, I love a simple fix. It was gross to see what builds up in side the charging port from being in your pocket.

Thanks again

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Yes, this worked! I tried a toothbrush several times, looked in it, couldn’t see anything, finally turned it off and used an metal needle-like dental pick, carefully, because I didn’t have any kind of tooth pick. This might not be smart, but it did work, and this big hunk of link came out that was otherwise invisible. Now fits super-snugly again. NEVER would have guessed this was the cause. I do carry it in my pocket.

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This post has really proved invaluable! Thank you for assisting so many of us, not to mention saving us a fortune and saving us continued frustration.

THANK YOU!!!

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It works. Quite some garbage came out. Safety Pin / Paper Pin works better than a toothpick- pins are more accurate and do the job faster.

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Like others I’m amazed how quickly and efficiently this works - phone is back charging properly after picking the lint out with a pin

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scottbernardis will be eternally grateful.
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