If you’ve had your phone for some time, a blocked charging port might well be a problem.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

A common fault with your iPhone or Android phone is that it might not start charging when you plug the power cable into the USB-C port. From damaged plugs or power cables to broken pins in the port, there are a number of things that could be causing it and not all of them are easy to diagnose. Some of them are easy to troubleshoot — try a different plug or cable and see if that fixes the issue. Others may be more difficult to resolve.

A very common reason for faulty charging is that your phone’s charging port is clogged with fluff, dirt and other debris from inside your pocket, preventing your cable from connecting properly.

This can easily happen with any charging port, whether that’s Lightning on the iPhone 14 Pro or older iPhones, or USB-C on the more recent iPhone 18 Pro lineup and Android phones such as the Google Pixel 11 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra .

However, this is one of the simplest…