How to stop dust, dirt, and lint from getting into your iPhone charging port

Keep your phone in your pocket or backpack and dust and dirt will certainly enter your phone’s most vulnerable point of entry—the charging port. Once enough fluff is in there you will find it difficult to properly insert the charging cable and you will have to rely on wireless charging.

Dirt transferred from your pocket or bag into the charging port is simply inevitable—or is it? After too many trips to the Apple Store, I’ve taken to plugging that port with a little stopper. There are several on Amazon, but I use the Limvory dust plug covers, shown below, which come in a pack of four with a handy little cleaning brush.

You can buy USB-C dust plug covers for iPhone 15 and 16 or dust plug covers for Lightning ports (iPhone 14 and earlier). You will surely lose a few so buying in bulk isn’t a crazy idea.

I mostly charge wirelessly using either a MagSafe charger or a magnetic power bank, so I don’t need access to the charging port most of the time. If I want to use a wire, then I can pop out the stopper and plug in the cable. (Most wireless charging is pegged back at 7.5W or 15W, while wired charging can get up to 30W, so there are times when you’ll want to plug in a cable.)

A low-tech port plug is a simple solution that will keep dirt from getting into the port but won’t stop you from quickly charging your iPhone with a cable. Using a port plug is the best way to stop that happening.

And if you need a cable, check out our roundups of the best USB-C iPhone charging cables and best Lightning cables.