Troubleshooting · Charging

Won't charge, or charges painfully slowly.

Don't pay for a repair yet. Most charging problems have a free cause, and the ones that don't are cheap to fix — if you diagnose them in the right order. Here's that order.

The honest headline: a large share of "my phone won't charge" cases are lint in the port or a dying cable — both free to fix. A genuinely broken charging port is real but it's further down the list. Work top to bottom and don't pay for step 4 before ruling out steps 1–3.

Diagnose in this order

Each step is cheaper and more common than the one after it. Most people never get past step 2.

01

Lint in the port (free — fixes the most cases)

Pockets and bags pack lint into the bottom of the charging port over months. It compresses into a felt-like pad that stops the connector seating fully — which reads as "won't charge" or "only charges at a weird angle." Power the phone off, then gently work a wooden or plastic toothpick (never metal) or a dry anti-static brush from the back of the port outward. People are routinely surprised how much comes out. This single step resolves a very large share of charging complaints at zero cost.

02

The cable and charger (cheap — second most common)

Cables fail internally near the connector long before they look damaged — especially budget USB-C/Lightning cables. Test with a different known-good cable and a proper wall charger (not a low-power laptop port or car USB). Slow charging specifically is very often just an underpowered charger or a worn cable, not a phone fault at all. Rule this out before you suspect the phone.

03

A quick software sanity check (free)

Force-restart the phone and try again. A frozen charging controller occasionally clears with a restart. On iPhone, also check Settings → Battery for any messaging; on Android, check whether a recently installed app is holding the device awake and burning charge as fast as it comes in. This is the limit of what software can do here — if it's still failing, it's hardware.

04

The port itself, or the battery (this is the paid repair)

If a clean port, a known-good cable, and a restart still won't charge it, you're now into an actual repair. The two candidates are a damaged charging port (bent pins, corrosion, a loose solder joint — common after liquid exposure or hard cable yanks) or a degraded battery. This is the point to see a shop — they can tell port-vs-battery apart in minutes with the right gear, and guessing wrong here is how people pay for the wrong part.

Salt-air note: if you're near the coast, charging-port corrosion is more common than inland — the port oxidises and contact gets intermittent. It still follows the same diagnostic order; it just makes step 4 (a real port fault) more likely. Worth a professional clean before assuming it's the battery.

What the paid fixes cost

If you've reached step 4, here's an honest 2026 Australian independent-shop guide:

  • Port cleaning / minor service: often free or a nominal bench fee — many shops won't charge much to clear a port if that's all it is.
  • Charging port replacement: roughly $90–$190 depending on model. Soldered-port designs cost more than modular flex-cable ones.
  • Battery replacement (if it's actually the battery): roughly $69–$149 for most models.

For your exact model, the cost calculator and the model pages give per-device ranges, including which models use the cheaper modular port.

DIY, honestly

There is exactly one DIY step here and it's step 1: cleaning lint out of the port with a non-metal tool on a powered-off phone. That's safe, free, and fixes a surprising number of cases — do it.

Beyond that, we won't walk you through a charging-port replacement. On many phones the port is soldered to the logic board, meaning microsoldering — a genuinely specialist skill where a slip damages the board and turns a $120 repair into a dead phone. Even modular-port models involve a deep teardown past the battery. If lint and a new cable didn't fix it, this is a shop job. The diagnosis alone (port vs battery) is worth the trip — paying to replace the wrong one is the most common expensive mistake on this fault.

In Newcastle or the Hunter? Port-vs-battery is exactly the diagnosis a good local shop sorts out in a few minutes — and coastal corrosion makes a proper clean worthwhile here specifically. Our Newcastle repair guide has honest local pricing and a workshop we're happy to point people to.

Common questions

It only charges if I hold the cable at an angle — port or cable?
Usually lint or a worn connector. Clean the port (step 1) and test a different cable (step 2) first. If a clean port plus a known-good cable still needs a specific angle, the port contacts are worn and it's a step-4 repair.
Is it safe to clean the port myself?
Yes, with the phone powered off and using only a wooden or plastic pick or a dry anti-static brush — gently, from the back outward. Never use metal (it can short or bend pins) and never use liquid. This is the one repair step we actively recommend doing yourself.
Charging got slow after an update — is that the cause?
Occasionally an update changes battery management and a restart settles it (step 3). But far more often the timing is coincidence and the real cause is an ageing battery or a tired cable. Work the order — don't assume software.
How do I know if it's the port or the battery?
Rough guide: intermittent charging, angle-dependent, or dead-but-battery-health-fine points to the port. Charges fine but drains fast or shuts down with charge left points to the battery. A shop confirms it properly in minutes — and that confirmation is exactly why step 4 is a shop job rather than a guess.

Next step

Cleaned the port, tried a new cable, still nothing?

Then it's a real repair — and worth knowing the price before you go in. Check your model's port and battery ranges.

Open the cost calculator Other symptoms