iPhone is a very popular smartphone that’s used more here in the US than in any other country and just like any other phone.

It can be faulty or malfunction. Sometimes iPhone charging port may not be working or even the charger itself.

The phone may say it’s charging and the battery percentage will be going down or not increasing.

This is not specific to some iPhone versions but common to iPhone 5, 6, and 7 and can as well occur in iPods and iPads.

Causes of iPhone not Charging

While the charging problem is generally related to all phones, I’d focus on iPhone 6 or similar series today.

The iPhone lightning charging port is small but very important. If it’s becoming loose, it can cause the iPhone to be charging slowly or takes forever to charge.

When you now start using it again, the battery drains quickly and dries fast.

Has your iPhone been charging for hours but won’t turn on or just stuck on the charging screen?

How to Identify the Problem

The first thing is to find out whether it’s your charging port, the charger cable, the phone battery, or the socket but you can easily know if it’s the socket that’s faulty by plugging other electrical appliances.

Find another original iPhone charger and try it with your iPhone, if the phone charges and everything work fine, then the problem is only with your charging cord.

However, if it doesn’t, it’s either your battery is no more good (In a rare case), there’s a problem with the phone software or the charging port is having a problem.

How to Solve iPhone not charging Problem

The first step is to simply reboot the phone to refresh the software and if it doesn’t charge, try to hard reset the phone putting your phone in DFU mode.

The first thing is to backup your iPhone into iTunes to avoid losing data without being able to get it back.

Now, press and hold the power button (iPhone 6 or lower) and the home button or the volume down button (iPhone 7 and higher) together at the same time until the Apple logo appears on your screen; and the message that iTunes has detected an iPhone in the recovery mode.

Relieve your fingers from the home button and now, the screen should be completely black ( This is not the iPhone black screen of death, so, don’t panic).

Your phone has now been reset and the phone should start charging properly if the charging problem is with the iPhone software responsible for charging.

If you’ve just bought the iPhone and it’s still under warranty, you can just save yourself from stress by reporting to your store and Apple will replace the components under the warranty if they’re not yet damaged.

Rarely but do occur that, cheap and non-apple cables may not be compatible and work well.

Even though some do work, it’s advisable to use an Apple charger cable and never mind the cost.

If your iPhone is not yet charging, then you can now try cleaning the lightning port as this might’ve got clogged with lint in your pocket or dust in the air.

You can clean it with a metallic paper clip, wooden toothpick, or small toothbrush, with alcohol to remove the dirt.

If you’re afraid to strike the port with these materials, you can blow air into the charging port since dirt or little moisture could obstruct the charging flow, otherwise, you can buy a compressed air duster/cleaner to clean the charging port and you can get this from Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress and other for $15 or more.

These are the common ways to fix the charging port and you can also get your phone to charge faster.

However, you need to be careful here to avoid any damage as Apple may not replace it for you if it’s broken, you’ll have to bear the repair cost.

However, if your iPhone displays a low battery image and is unresponsive to charging when plugged after trying these cleaning methods, it’s possible the dirt is sticky and can not be easily removed.

You can try using a pin and remove it gently or better take the phone to an engineer for help.

If after trying all these and the phone is not charging, the iPhone won’t charge unless turned off or it’s dead or unless it’s restarted, it’s much likely the problem is with the hardware and the phone is damaged.

There are several ways your iPhone could be damaged, falling frequently, falling into liquid and not completely dried off, and others.

You’ll have to take it to a certified iPhone engineer for repair and advice if the need be to buy another iPhone