How to Fix iPhone Not Charging: 8 Easy Steps (2026)

If your iPhone is not charging, the fix is almost always one of four things: lint packed into the charging port, a cable or adapter that has failed, a phone that needs a restart, or a battery and port that have worn out. Start with the port, because pocket lint causes more of these calls than anything else.

How to fix an iPhone that won’t charge takes about fifteen minutes if you have a second cable and a flashlight. The steps below run in the order that costs the least and rules out the most, so you are not paying for a repair that a restart would have fixed.

Table of Contents

• What You Need
• How to Fix iPhone Not Charging: Step-by-Step Guide
  • 1. Check the Charging Cable and Adapter
  • 2. Try a Different Outlet or Charging Method
  • 3. Clean the Charging Port Safely
  • 4. Restart or Force Restart the iPhone
  • 5. Check for a Software or Update Problem
  • 6. Check Battery Health and Charging Settings
  • 7. Test With the iPhone Unlocked and Screen On
  • 8. Decide Whether the iPhone Needs Repair
• Common Mistakes
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Why does my iPhone say liquid detected and won’t charge?
  • Why is my iPhone charging but the battery percentage isn’t rising?
  • Can I clean my iPhone charging port myself, and is it safe?
  • Why does my iPhone stop charging at 80 percent?
  • Should I get the charging port fixed at an Apple Store or a third-party shop?
• Conclusion

What You Need

You need almost nothing, and that is the point. Before you start, put together whatever of this you have to hand:

• A second charging cable you know works with another phone, plus a second wall adapter if you have one
• A clean, well-lit surface and a small flashlight or phone torch
• A dry wooden toothpick, a soft-bristled brush, or a dry cotton swab
• Access to iPhone Settings, which needs the phone passcode

You do not need tools, screwdrivers, or the willingness to open the phone. If a step below asks you to do that, it has already reached the repair stage.

How to Fix iPhone Not Charging: Step-by-Step Guide

Work through these in order and stop as soon as the charging icon appears and the percentage starts to move. Each step lists what to do and how to tell whether it worked.

1. Check the Charging Cable and Adapter

Plug in a different cable and a different adapter. This single test tells you more than anything else you can do at home, because it separates your phone from everything in the chain between it and the wall.

Look at the metal connector on the cable end. Peeling insulation near the plug, a bend in the wire, a connector that wiggles loosely in the port, or brown or greenish marks on the tip all mean the cable is finished. A cable that only charges when the phone is lying flat on a table has a broken internal wire, not a port problem.

It worked: the charging symbol appears within a few seconds of plugging in the known-good cable.

2. Try a Different Outlet or Charging Method

Move to a different wall outlet, ideally in another room rather than the same power strip. Adapters and multi-sockets fail quietly, and a phone connected to a dead one looks exactly like a broken phone.

Then try charging from a computer USB port or a power bank. If the phone charges from one source and not another, you have found your problem and it is not inside the phone.

It worked: the phone charges from at least one other outlet or source, so the original outlet, strip, or adapter is the fault.

3. Clean the Charging Port Safely

This is the most common fix by a wide margin, and the most commonly done wrong. Pocket lint packs into the port over months and forms a dense felt that stops the cable from seating fully, even though it still feels like it is in.

Switch the iPhone off first if you can, then look into the port with a flashlight. A healthy port shows bare metal contacts. A grey, brown, or fluffy ring around the inside of the port is lint.

Use a dry wooden toothpick or a soft-bristled brush to lift it out gently. Never use a paperclip, needle, pen, screwdriver, or anything metal. Never use compressed air, and never pour liquid into the port. Turn the phone so the debris falls away from the opening rather than deeper in, and keep working slowly with a light touch.

It worked: the cable now sits in the port without being pushed, and the charging icon appears.

4. Restart or Force Restart the iPhone

A stuck charging controller is a real failure mode, especially after an iOS update. A normal restart is Settings, then General, then Transfer or Reset iPhone, then Reset, then Restart. If the screen is unresponsive or the phone is too dead to reach Settings, force restart it instead:

• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and later, including the second-generation iPhone SE: press and quickly release Volume Up, release Volume Down, then hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears.
• iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: hold the Side button and Volume Down together for about ten seconds until the Apple logo appears.
• iPhone 6s and earlier: hold the Home button and the Top or Side button together for about ten seconds until the Apple logo appears.

It worked: the Apple logo appears, the phone boots normally, and it charges on the next attempt. Give it about half an hour on the cable before deciding the restart did nothing.

5. Check for a Software or Update Problem

Go to Settings, then General, then Software Update. If an update is waiting, install it, then restart. Charging behaviour is sometimes broken by a bug and restored by the update that fixes it.

If the phone refuses to update, charges only after you restart it, or started misbehaving right after an update, that pattern points to software rather than hardware. Resetting Settings from Transfer or Reset iPhone clears any corrupted preference without touching your data.

It worked: the phone charges normally after the update and restart, and the charging icon shows a steady current.

6. Check Battery Health and Charging Settings

Open Settings, then Battery, then Battery Health and Charging. The percentage shown is the battery’s maximum capacity compared with when it was new, and anything under about 80 percent means the battery is worn out rather than merely old.

Look for Optimised Battery Charging in the same Battery screen. It deliberately holds charging near 80 percent, waits for a lower overnight level, then finishes to 100 percent before you wake up. On iPhone 15 and later you may also find a charge limit setting with an 80 percent, 90 percent, or 100 percent option. None of these is a fault, and turning them off in Settings, Battery, Battery Health and Charging immediately unsticks a phone that seemed dead.

Older models do not show a battery health percentage at all. On those, check Settings, Battery, Battery for the cycle count and whether the phone drops unusually fast, and expect a service visit once the endurance is visibly shorter.

It worked: the percentage climbs past where it was sitting, and the charging icon appears as soon as the cable goes in.

7. Test With the iPhone Unlocked and Screen On

Keep the screen awake, unlocked, and in view while you plug in. A phone that is asleep, showing a black screen, or displaying a failed-unlock attempt can draw power without showing the icon, which makes a healthy phone look broken.

It worked: leaving the screen on makes the charging symbol appear every time you plug in, which means the port, cable, and battery are all fine and the issue is the lock screen or display.

8. Decide Whether the iPhone Needs Repair

Stop the DIY work and book service if any of these are true after the steps above:

• The cable only charges when held at a specific angle, or falls out on its own
• The port is loose, bent, or visibly damaged inside the opening
• The screen lifts away from the frame, which means the battery is swollen
• A liquid detected alert persists after the port is bone dry
• The phone charges wirelessly but never by cable, and a known-good cable also fails
• Battery health is under 80 percent and the phone dies within hours

Wireless charging is a genuinely useful test here, and it is the one most guides skip. If a Qi or MagSafe charger takes the phone from flat to charging while the cable port does nothing, the port assembly is the fault. If neither method charges it, suspect the battery, the charging board, or both.

Apple repairs a damaged port as a component service where possible, though on older or out-of-warranty phones a full-device service is sometimes quoted instead. Third-party shops are usually cheaper and often faster, but use genuine parts and check whether the repair voids any remaining coverage. A swollen battery is the one case where you stop charging the phone entirely and stop using it until it is replaced.

Common Mistakes

Using metal tools in the port. A paperclip or needle can scratch the contacts, bend a pin, or leave a metal shaving that shorts the port. Wood and soft bristles only.

Putting the phone in rice after a liquid alert. Rice does nothing, and starch gets into the port. Turn the phone face down, let it air dry for at least 24 hours in a dry room, and only retry when the port feels completely dry to a light touch.

Buying a new cable before testing. If a second cable does not fix it, the money is spent and the port is still dirty. Test first, buy after.

Ignoring a battery health warning. Below 80 percent is a service point, not a setting to argue with. Continued heavy use wears the battery down faster.

Jumping straight to a repair. Software problems and charging settings cause a surprising share of failed-charging cases. Finish the restart, update, and settings checks first, then decide.

Two habits prevent most of this coming back: keep the port covered when the phone is in a pocket, and untangle cables loosely rather than wrapping them tight around the phone. Lint arrives in the pocket regardless, so a quick flashlight check every few months is cheaper than a repair.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start at the port, then the cable and adapter, then the outlet. If those pass, restart, update iOS, and check the battery and charging settings, because those three cause more false alarms than most people expect. Once every step has been tried and a known-good cable still gets you nothing, wireless charging tells you whether the port or the battery is at fault.

Stop using the phone entirely if the battery swells, the screen lifts, or it has taken on liquid. In every other case the problem is a loose cable, a dirty port, or a worn battery, and each of those is fixable without a new phone.