It'd gotten bad enough that I couldn't reliably transfer data over usb. Now the cable fits snugly again

I just used a small sewing needle to pry out the lint. I tried using a toothpick at first, but it was too big to reach the bottom.

I don't even remember when I last cleaned out my charger port. I normally have to do it fairly regularly, but idk, for some reason the fluff just doesn't seem to accumulate as quickly. And yeah, needles work great for this.

You got lucky.

Never use a needle to clean the charge port.

The pins in the port are tiny and fragile. It's very easy to bend them and destroy the port.

I use a SIM card tool, big enough to clean out a USB-C port, but small enough that it wont touch the connector in the middle. Followed by a blast of compressed air

The port on the device has flat metal contacts which a needle shouldn't hurt.

I've never heard of people cleaning out the cable part of the plug since it isn't kept in your pocket, but that part has small springy wire contacts which are probably fragile.

I think most people who go digging in their usb-c port know enough to be sort of gentle.

I 3D printed some purpose-made picks that are thin enough to get down there.

The pins are flat, a sewing needle is tapered so you’d have to go in at a steep angle and be particularly aggressive to get under them and lift / bend them. It’s actually the ideal tool for this purpose.

I should probably try that next time. What material did you use?

Not the case with modern USB-C ports

Congrats. (Yes, a period, not exclamation mark because this is Dullsters). 😆

May I recommend some alternatives to transferring data with USB: Syncthing, Resilio Sync, FolderSync.

First two have similar functionality, while FolderSync simply enables building sync jobs using standard network protocols: SMS, (S)FTP(S), NFS, web drives, etc.

Since these all use the network, and can be fully automatic (or used somewhat manually), they provide a more consistent and robust file transfer mechanism than MTP which is not the best.

PLA but those should work fine with almost anything.

Ayyyy, I just did that last month with a safety pin! After months of fiddling, trying to get my charger to connect, and then using a wireless charger (that was less convenient), I finally took a few minutes to try and fix it

Now my phone connects and charges with a satisfying "click" of the cable. Dunno why I put up with it for so long, but now I'm stoked every time I plug it in