Don’t know what happened. Maybe dropped it in the dirt or something. Charging cord won’t go in and engage. I’ve got 27% battery left. Tried cleaning the port out, blowing with compressed air, little brush thingy from an old electric razor, plastic Swiss Army Knife toothpick. Got some mung out. Cord will not go in (and stay).
After about 20 minutes, and much jimmy-jacking, did get it to start charging, but not unless you hold it in very forcefully. Now I got the phone standing up on end, with its weight on the cord. A tricky balancing act, and not something I want to do long-term. Hopefully I can get it charged enough to last the weekend and maybe take it to ‘The Phone Store’, but I have no idea what they can do that I haven’t done already.
Better Idea: Epoxy a popsicle stick to the end of the charging cord, perpendicular to the port. Use a rubber band to hold it in securely. Yeah, I’m a High-Tech guy.
Personally, since you mentioned that you got some “mung” out of the the connector port, I’d start with turning off the device, putting a single drop of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on some kind of plastic applicator, and trying cleaning the port. The alcohol will quickly evaporate so you shouldn’t short anything out but don’t squirt a bunch into the port or anything like that. Also, do a thorough job of cleaning the cable connectors (both ends) with IPA, or better yet swap with another cable if you have one available.
Well, if you can stand listening to this guy he’ll walk you through the basic troubleshooting steps:
It looks like charging issues are pretty common on the Moto G line but there are a lot of fixes. For sure don’t try taking your phone apart or do anything more invasive than cleaning with IPA without some expert guidance.
I’ve had a few devices with C cords. They all seem prone to losing their ability to hold on to the plug. I guess it wears down enough that it won’t fit tight.
Solution that has worked every time, the first time this has happened with a device is to get needle-nose pliers, and dent the ends of the C connector VERY SLIGHTLY. Read the last bit again.
My theory is that it works because it makes the connector fit tighter.
Eventually it wears down again. You can’t keep doing this, though, because you distort the plug too much, and it won’t connect.
I’ve gotten phones to limp along for a year this way, though. Plenty of time to save for a new one.
Not sure if you’ve tried it but I recommend simply power-cycling the phone. I’ve had iPhones that mysteriously stop charging. (I’ll leave it to charge overnight but find the next day that it didn’t get any charge whatsoever.) I’ve found that simply shutting it down and restarting it restores the ability to recharge.
I’m fairly certain now that the issue is Foreign Matter Obstruction. The little holes to the side of the charging port were caked in gunk. I live in Hell, so it could be pumice, alkali mud or something, but I sure don’t recall dropping this thing recently (but I drink, so I could have). Gonna let it charge as long as I can keep it standing up, then go with a more thourough attempt at digging any shit out.
For the record, I busted out a brand-new cord, and it just won’t find purchase in the phone. Both the old and new cords work perfect in an old phone I had laying around, so I’m pretty sure the phone is the problem. Like I say, I don’t remember dropping this thing. But I also don’t know when the last time I charged it either. Seems like just a couple days ago…
My previous Moto had a similar problem. I really had to jiggle things and place the phone at very specific orientations to ensure that it would keep charging.
I’ve had to do this type of thing with many USB devices. Holding cables very specificly. Having only one specific cable out of a handful it would work with, etc. Sometimes the problem is a loose weld on the port’s connection to the motherboard (which may eventually break loose entirely). Once with a Mini-USB device that would only work when the plug was held very specificly and tightly, looking into the port with a pocket microscope revealed that one of the gold connector strips had been peeled from the center tab and smooshed against the back of the port.
A common problem, especially with MicroUSB…and yet, the EU is insistent that Apple should ditch the Lightning connector despite the fact that I’ve never had this problem with any device so equipped.
