Pocket Lint

Pocket lint....pocket fuzz....whatever one calls it. I just had an issue with the stuff in regard to my smart phone. So I just thought I'd pass the info along and perhaps save someone from paying for a phone repair.

Several months ago I had been having some difficulty getting my phone to charge. Had to wiggle the cord and connection to get it just so. Finally the thing quit charging. What to do? I guess if I lived in Kona, Waimea, or Hilo I would have gone to the nearest cellphone store and paid for a repair (or begged a local friend to look at fixing it, if he could). But being 1 1/2 hours away from a repair store and phoneless, I tried some home style diagnostics. 

Using a different electric outlet didn't work better. Trying a different cord didn't work. Using hubby's iPhone charger in place of my own wasn't any better. I tried looking into the phone "hole" and saw nothing. But being curious and a do-it-yourselfer, I decided to poke a toothpick into the charging port. Since the phone seemed broken anyway, I figured a toothpick wouldn't make it worse. To my surprise, I prodded out a wad of fuzz. More prodding brought out even more fuzz. Then when I plugged in the charging cord, things worked just fine. Could that have been it? Simple pocket lint? 

(Above, a close up of the black phone, a needle, and a pile of fuzz that came out.)

Today the phone once again exhibited charging issues. I grabbed the nearest pokey item on hand, an old medical needle, and cleaned out the charging port. Yup. A wad of pocket lint! Phone repaired once again.