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Humans and phones have become basically attached in today's modern society; you'll never find a person without their phone with them. So with that, you can imagine just how devastating it would be for a person if suddenly their phone wasn't charging. Practically their whole world would be up in the air waiting for this to be fixed!
In this scenario, you have an iPhone and – for some reason – it won't charge anymore. You're desperate and, to be honest, a little all over the place trying to figure this out. But don't worry! Wirefly has many solutions for you to try, and one of these should fix your problem. After trying these solutions, you'll be back on your iPhone in no time.
Make sure to read each and every option before beginning so you don't jump to any drastic choices right away. Go into this calmly. The last thing you need is to stress yourself out too much and cause more damage to your phone when the issue could have simply been a faulty cable.
The most typical first thought when a phone won't charge is that somehow it's the battery's fault. In theory, it makes sense. Everybody associates the battery with the phone's ability to charge, so it's natural to assume that's what is at fault when something goes wrong. However, this is not the case. Believe it or not, the charger port isn't even connected to the battery!
Here's why your iPhone's inability to charge more than likely has nothing to do with its battery: the phone's software is actually the mastermind that tells your phone whether or not to charge. Because of this, it's usually a problem with the software compared to a problem with hardware when the battery won't charge. (Even if there were a hardware problem, it would more likely have to do with the charger port itself and not the battery.)
If it's a software problem causing your iPhone not to charge, the reason is surprising. It looks like your phone has died and is stuck on a black screen. This happened because your iPhone actually crashed while your screen was off, making it so you couldn't turn it back on or see whether or not it was charging. When this happens, the phone isn't even actually off to begin with. It's still on underneath the crash!
Your iPhone could be not charging for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are so simple you might not have thought of them right away, but that's okay! We're going to cover all the possible reasons why your phone isn't charging, from the simplest to the more in-depth.
We've already briefly covered that a software problem could be the issue. Some other reasons your phone might not be charging range from a faulty cable or faulty plug to a gunked up charging port. The following fixes will cover all these reasons and then some, so at the end of reading you'll have a working iPhone ready to use again!
Hard resetting your phone is the perfect fix for when a software issue is the reason your iPhone has suddenly stopped charging. You can perform a hard reset on your phone by pressing a combination of buttons. This combination depends on which version of iPhone you own.
If you own a newer iPhone (the iPhone 7 or newer), you'll hold down both the power button and the volume down button. For the iPhone 6s or older, you'll hold down the power button and the home button instead of the volume down. Regardless of which version you have, you'll want to hold the designated buttons down until the Apple logo shows up on your screen. This could sometimes take up to 15 seconds or more, so be patient and keep holding.
When your phone turns back on after the hard reset, it should be ready to charge again. If it's still not charging, don't worry! All hope is not lost. This simply means that it wasn't a software issue. If this is the case, the answer is actually much easier than performing a hard reset.
The most common cause of an iPhone no longer charging is due to the lightning or charging cable being damaged. Don't feel bad if you find yours with a bit of wear and tear after a little bit; this is actually a very common disadvantage of using Apple's lightning brand cables. Although guaranteed to work with your phone, they're very prone to damage along the cable. The most vulnerable spot is the part of the cable right before where it plugs into your phone.
If you see any signs of damage on your cable, this could be the reason your phone isn't charging anymore. The most common type of damage you'll find is something most people refer to as the "turtleneck" effect. This is when the cable near the point where it plugs into your phone bunches up and resembles the neck of a turtleneck sweater.
There are a couple of solid ways to check if your cable is the issue when your phone isn't charging. First, try plugging the cable into the USB port on your computer rather than the wall adapter. (Or, if you usually charge your phone on the computer, try plugging it into a wall adapter instead.) If it works in the other place, it wasn't the cable that was the problem.
If it still doesn't work, however, try using a different cable to charge your phone. If the new cable works, it's pretty clear that your old charger cable was causing the issues with your phone. All you need to do now is replace the cable, and you're good!
On the other hand, if you tried the above method to test the cable and the original cable worked with a different adapter, that's the issue! Depending on what method you use to charge your iPhone, that method is what's keeping it from working now. This could be a faulty computer's USB port, a car charger port not giving out enough power, or even the adapter itself simply not working anymore.
If you've checked the adapters and your phone charges on different adapters or power sources compared to one in particular, then you know that the one not working is the issue. Depending on what the faulty one was, you might just need to buy a new power adapter. If it was a USB port or car charger adapter that works in other cars but not yours, repairs get a little tricky.
If neither the charger nor the cable are the issue and you already eliminated a software problem as well, another possibility could just be that your iPhone's charging port is dirty. A lot of gunk built up inside the charger port could keep your charger from fully connecting, therefore keeping it from charging and leaving you without a phone!
The best way to figure out if a dirty charging port is your issue is to take a flashlight and shine it up there. To be safe, you should clean it out even if you can't see any visible blockages. There could be a buildup of dust or sand that you can't see. Just because you can't see it, though, doesn't mean it's not there!
In order to clean out the charging port on your phone, you're going to want to use something that won't damage any of the electrical components inside the port and also something that won't conduct electricity. It may be shocking, but the perfect tool to use for this a new toothbrush! Make sure it's new, you don't want to put a dirty toothbrush up there and make the situation worse than it already may be.
Simply take the toothbrush and brush it through the charging port. Do this gently so as not to damage any of the connections inside. If you don't want to use a toothbrush, you can also order work-specific anti-static brushes on Amazon for pretty low prices. Both tools will get the job done just as well as the other, however.
If you've tried everything else on this list so far and nothing has worked, use this fix as a last resort. Performing a DFU restore on your phone will erase everything on your device and revert it back to its factory settings. Although a bit drastic of an option, this is a great solution for more severe software issues that a regular old hard reset wouldn't necessarily fix – that is if a software issue is the cause of the charging problem.
Before starting, you should back up your phone to iTunes on your computer if possible. It's important to note that trying this fix will restore your entire phone and everything in it. You will lose everything! This is why you should use this option as a last resort if nothing else works.
Another risk of performing a DFU restore on your iPhone is that it could permanently break your phone if it has suffered from water damage. Even if your phone was usable before, doing this could potentially make your phone completely unusable. If there is any chance your phone has experienced water damage, it may not be the best idea to try a DFU restore unless you prepared to buy a new phone if yours permanently stops working.
If you've read all that and still want to try the DFU restore, here's how to do it. First, plug your iPhone into the USB port on your computer and bring up iTunes. Your phone can be either on or off; it doesn't matter. After your phone is plugged in, press and hold both the power button and the home button together for eight seconds. Set a timer if you have to in order to get this timing right.
Once 8 seconds has passed, release the power button but keep holding the home button. Keep holding this until iTunes on your computer notifies you that it has "detected an iPhone in recovery mode". Once you release the home button, your phone's screen should be black. If not, try again because you have not successfully entered DFU mode. Then follow iTunes instructions to restore your iPhone.
Another last resort fix is to simply bring your phone into a shop and have it repaired. This can be costly, so make sure you try other options first. Depending on where you go to have the fix done, it could cost you over a hundred dollars.
It is highly suggested to find a place outside of Apple, as Apple is most likely going to tell you to buy a new iPhone. They'll also probably tell you that all your data is gone if the device can't charge and you haven't backed it up. If you want to get around this and not buy a completely new phone, find a third party phone repair store to do the job for you. There are many places that can have it done in the same day for you, making it so you don't have to send your phone out anywhere for multiple days at a time.
Now that we've covered all possible fixes, you should have a working and charging iPhone ready to be used! Remember that the most common problem that causes an iPhone to stop working is simply a damaged cable, so always check that first before getting into anything too heavy.
Luckily, however, you won't have to worry about this anymore, and if this were to happen to you again, you'll already know how to handle it! No need to stress over your iPhone mysteriously not charging anymore, because you've got all the fixes right here.
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