Why won’t my phone connect to charger cable

Hi Jill,

Okay, first thing we want to do is try and figure out where the problem lies. When you plug your phone in to charge, there are four parts involved.

1. The wall outlet
2. The charger
3. The charging cord
4. The phone

The first one is easy; either try another wall socket or plug something else into it to verify it works.

The charger can be a little harder if you don't have another one to try, but it's either that or try plugging it into a different device to see if it's generating power. If you have a computer you can try that instead, as most of them will charge a phone.

Again, try a different cord or see if something else will charge with that cord.

By now if you're sure everything else works then we're left with a problem with the phone itself. We'll want to do some troubleshooting first thing. iFixit has a troubleshooting chart for the situation where your phone isn't charging, so that would be the place to start.

iPhone Not Charging - iFixit Troubleshooting

You'll want to try cleaning the charging port and checking it for any bent, broken or missing pins inside; a magnifying glass and a bright light are useful there.

Some questions I would as are:

• Does the phone vibrate when plugged into the charger?
• Does the battery symbol change to indicate it's charging?
• Does it do anything if you wiggle the cord inside the port; left, right, up, down?
• Is it recognized when you plug it into a computer?
• Does wireless charging work?

Go through all these steps then come on back and let us know what you found and what the answers are to my questions and we'll see if we can figure out what your next step should be.

Okay, well the fact that it charges wirelessly is a good sign that the charging circuits on the motherboard are still working and that the battery is probably okay as well. If I was going to suggest a repair, the charging port itself is the most likely culprit left. Since it experiences wear and tear every time you plug and unplug the charger, eventually they do wear out.

Replacing the charging port would be the next move if it was my phone. Unfortunately iFixit doesn't have a guide to that repair, but there's a Spanish site called Nadie Me Llama Gallina that has just what you need. Of course the site is in Spanish but they do have English language translation available so it's quite usable and their guides are well done.

Manuales / Apple iPhone Xs Max / Flex with load connector and lower microphone - Nadie Me Llama Gallina

As far as parts, you can get everything you need right here on iFixit.

iPhone XS Max Lightning Connector Assembly

I would also suggest some adhesives so you can seal the phone back up and resecure the battery once you're done.

iPhone XS Max Display Assembly Adhesive

iPhone XS Max Battery Adhesive Strips

iPhone XS Max Loudspeaker Adhesive Gasket

The first one is to seal the display back up and of course you'll need to glue the battery back down again after you've removed it to get the lightning connector assembly out. The last one is something that's not mentioned very often, but when you take the bottom speaker out, the gasket that keeps water out frequently gets messed up so it's good to seal it back up and waterproof the phone as well as possible.

Hope this gets you going; let us know how it turns out!