The Dust

I've had trouble charging my phone for some time now.

Thought the cable might be going bad - or the USB socket on the phone, and was about to switch to a new cable the other day for starters, but figured I'd try cleaning the socket with a toothbrush first to see if maybe the contact area was just dirty.

Soon went from toothbrush to toothpick, and started digging out bits of compactly layered dust from the bottom of that socket, and you won't believe how much dust there was there! Holy shit. Fragment after fragment of dust - each expanding drastically upon contact with the outside air when released from their tightly and incrementally - with each charge occasion - packed socket prison.

And the phone's charging fine now!

Better than I remember it ever charging before.

Was there dust already there when I first bought the phone? Did I somehow manage to press in a square centimeter or so with the charger the first time I used it?

Probably not, but apparently it really amounts. Even if you don't notice. And there's room for more residue than you'd believe. If the charger gets progressively all the more difficult to use, but just little by little, at such a slow pace there doesn't seem there's a reason for it...

Try clearing out that dust.