Got myself a Fairphone 5 just a few weeks ago. With this, switching the charging port is a 20€ + 10min time investment.
i dont have a fairphone-amount of cash lying around, but I’m seriously wondering if it doesnt end up to be cheaper in the long run for those who do.
how long does it get security updates?
It’s the Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness, often called simply the boots theory.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
– Men at Armsi already know that one, big pratchett fan, lol. But keep sharing it, this is good stuff. Makes the internet better to have it around.
Personally I’ve started buying generation or two behind high-mid range phones as refurbished. I get a highish end phone for about what I used to pay for a lower end phone. There are better materials which go into higher end devices (I learned this when I worked for a phone manufacturer. Kinda shocking but also makes perfect sense at the same time)
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/9979180437393-Fairphone-s-Operating-System
They promise 8 years (possibly 10), so at least until late 2031.
Im pretty sure it will end up being cheaper for me on the long run, especially compared to an iPhone. Im kind of amazed that its not more expensive considering they probably spend like twice as much for the components (or rather for the conditions they are produced under), while still being more or less competitive. But I guess its possible if you dont go for 200% profit margin.
Yea, I bought one of the induction chargers cause this happened to me about a year ago. My phone still works so i see no reason to buy a new one and quite frankly i just don’t want to. Gonna ride this bad boy out until it dies.
Have you tried cleaning the port out, mostly it’s crap built up in the port.
Caused by gunk in the charge port. It naturally accrues over time. Local repair stores will have the specialized tools to fix it.
Toothpicks work great. They are wood or plastic so they won’t conduct electricity.
Toothpicks are not exactly specialised tools
I use a sewing machine needle, works great, just don’t go crazy and break shit.
Something nonconductive seems the safest choice, so you can’t accidentally short anything.
Plastic dental flosser with a pick. Cut the tip flat. Easier to reach the edges and less likely to damage the port.
I’ve done a little bit of okay cleaning with a toothpick, then much better cleaning from the repair shop.
Can confirm. Clean these out all the time. about 75%-80% of the time this is the cause of this exact issue.
Me too, alcohol and toothpick
Can confirm rubbing alcohol can improve your experience with failing phone charge port. I got to the point with one where it wouldn’t charge unless I applied a minuscule amount of alcohol around the metal prong in the phone with a shaved down toothpick before plugging it in. This tip is mentioned exclusively for those trying to extend the life of an end-stage phone and I take no responsibility for any fires or harm to the phone.
That said, there were never any problems when I did it and it extended the phone’s life maybe 8 months, and after a few months it didn’t even need the alcohol. Maybe it improves conductivity or used the charger head to over time clean the phone port. This was a micro-USB charger because I like using 8 year old, $60 phones.
I wouldn’t recommend using that toothpick while drunk, my dude.
Mine started the same thing a few weeks ago. I tried cleaning out the charging port but after a while of scrapinc I gave up since nothing was coming out and I couldn’t see any more lint in there. The problem persists. I am confident that no one in the world has it as difficult as me right now.
i am also convinced that no one in the world has it as difficult as you. sending condolences.
This is why I try to use my wireless charger when I don’t need fast charging, reduces the strain on my charging cable and the USB C port
increases strain on your battery tho
How is it worse on the battery than wired chargers? I’m guessing heat?
yep! it’s just less efficient than wired charging and whatever is lost in the process is turned into heat, which is particularly poor for your battery. batteries are consumables anyways and it seems like most people get it replaced at least once in a phones lifespan, so it doesn’t really matter if you’re ok with that. from my experience fixing phones over the years I can definitely confirm that using wireless charging consistently, particularly if you’re doing anything intensive at the same time, will lower the lifespan of your battery significantly.
Wireless charging generators a lot of heat. I’m sure I’m wrong, but I thought it had to do with the energy loss from the wireless powershare causing extra heating.
How, from the heat?
I have exclusively charged my phones wirelessly for about a decade. My batteries typically end up healthier than my wife’s over a long period of time.
So sorry about your wife’s battery
other factors like usage time, intensity of use, and charging habits also have effects on the lifespan, so it’s hard to compare one person’s experience to a single other persons and draw a conclusion that’s anything other than anecdotal without some very specific controls.
what i do know for certain is that the heat generation from wireless charging has been long studied, and so has the effect of those heats on li ion batteries.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b00663
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1002007118307536
I only ever had this problem with micro USB. Thank god we abandoned that shitty connector
USB C? See if it isn’t full of garbage accumulated inside. I had to use a needle to scratch it out. Shit was so dense it was pretty difficult to clean. Eventually (~20 min of intensive scratching), I managed to clean it and I got rid of the problem.
Until I found the problem, I ended up buying bs. Another charger and an inductive charger.
I worked as a carpenter until a few years ago. My charging port would constantly get filled with sawdust, plasterdust and whatever other dust happened to be around that day. I ended up buying an induction charger and it has been the absolutely best purchase I’ve ever made.
I tried solving the problem with those small cover things you can put in the port, but they would constantly fall out.
Consider one of those protective cases that has the flap that covers the charging port. Yeah, a minor annoyance when you want to plug the charger in, but it keeps the port crud free. I’ve used variations of that style for years and it keeps the phone in good shape even when it’s collecting rust- or sawdust in the shop.
As well as the other suggestions, was discussing this with someone just yesterday and they suggested filling the port with PVA glue (like the stuff used at school, not super glue or epoxy!) and a bit of thread, then pulling it out with all the crud once it’s set.
No idea how effective it is personally, when I got my current phone I got some plastic usb c port covers and that stays in place whenever I’m not charging, so far it’s done the job.
Don’t do this, just clean it out gently with a small scraper.
That’s a tiktok thing. In the videos it’s satisfying to pull out all the glue and pre-staged gunk from the port in one solid go, but in reality you have no idea how much dried glue is being left behind or how it’s going to interact with the lint and dust in the port. You could potentially render the port unusable. Better to go with a soft pick and some compressed air.
Most of the time its because you use your phone too much when its charging, never happens to my phones cause i leave em alone to charge.
Try with a different/new cable.
The contacts on a USB-C cable can become fatigued and lose the tension needed to maintain a solid connection, which can cause this issue.
Same, but with my laptop. 😔
This happened to me a few times but it turned out it was actually the charging cable.
I had crinked the cable enough times trying to charge things at weird angles.
Oh. I’ll have to get that checked at some point.
I just checked it by trying the cable on other devices, and didn’t cables set the phone
Ah, gotcha.
If it makes you feel better, my phone just did the thing where it installed an update and now everything is running noticably worse.
Enforced obsoletion. Android is really good about those updates.
Charging ports wear out if used often, which is why I usually charge wirelessly and keep a lint cap on my port.
go give business to your local repair shop.
or gimme a fiver and a toothpick
Possibility 1 the port is full of crap, clean the port with a thin stiff piece of plastic.
Possibility 2 the port is broken, treat your equipment better.
Possibility 3 the cable is bad, replace the cable and treat your equipment better.
