Chosen Solution
The other day my iphone decided to start only charging on one side… It isn’t my cable (I have tried 4 and they are all the same. They will charge other iPhones fine). I have replaced the lightning connector in my phone to no avail. If anyone has any solution to this it would be greatly appreciated. I do not want to swap my phone at an Apple store, as it is jailbroken. Thanks for your help!
I noticed the connector metal parts were blackened or oxidized and it would only charge in one direction. I called apple support who suggested a factory reset -I was pretty unwilling as a factory reset is quite a bit of work and my iopd touch 5th gen was jailbroken -the factory reset would force an upgrade to ios7.0.4 for which there is yet no jailbreak. I decided to take a chance and rinsed off a steel wool SOS pad thoroughly and very carefully attempted to clean the metal oxidized/dirty connectors. After a few minutes I thoroughly dried the connector and plugged it in. Success! both ways now charge the touch. It should be noted that I took some risk in doing this as I could have damaged the connectors further but luck and patience paid off. This was a 5th gen ipod touch purchased in December 2012 with the original lightning connector -hope this helps someone.
It is just dust in the connector, Careful pry it out with a needle without damaging the connectors and you’re good to go. See this very often with the lightning connectors from iphone 5/s/c
I assume what you mean is that the lightning connector has to be inserted in a certain orientation. If so, put a dot on the side that needs to face up.
If there’s dust/hair/lint in the connector (and there almost certainly is; I’ve seen Apple Geniuses fish an enormous amount of junk out of those connectors. Sticking a Lightning plug into the socket just packs the gunk down into the socket until you can’t charge at all), then it’s much safer to get it out with a plastic tool, which won’t carry a static charge. Like this one: Detailing pick I wish Apple would come clean about this issue, because this is a problem that can occur with normal use. If you stick your phone in a pocket or purse, small particles and lint will go into whatever opening the phone presents. Isn’t that how everybody carries their phone? Unfortunately, Apple’s support note has a ‘refer to qualified service personnel’ disclaimer: “If your battery doesn’t charge, or if your device shows a low-battery image, black screen, or “accessory not supported” alert, follow these steps. Inspect the connector at the bottom of the phone: Make sure that there are no bent pins in the connector. Make sure that the connector is free from debris. If there are bent pins or debris, please contact Apple Support. Otherwise, continue troubleshooting.” http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1476
Mine has started to do this just recently when using the plug adapter, but as soon as I use the cable in my cars 12v cigarette lighter it works both ways, I’ve also tried other cables too genuine and non genuine ones, and they all seem to be doing the same thing only working one way when plugged into the genuine adapter but working both ways when used in my car! I’m so confused and so are Apple! Any suggestions as to what this may be would be great :)
Answer found! If you have ruled out it being the cable and the charging flex cable then the charging connector on the logic board is dirty. Give the pins a very light scrape with a small flat head screwdriver and then a quick brush over with PCB cleaner or isopropanol - this should solve the problem. This has worked on two of my recent customers phones. *disconnect battery first and allow to dry properly before re-assembly.
It happens when you change the dock connector assembly and you forget to put back those two tiny spring washers underneath the charging port itself unfortunately you can’t buy them as spares u need to find alternative washers this will definitely solve the problem
