3 ms·

>> It’s rugged, reliable In my experience it works well for 2-3 years then wears out and charging becomes very difficult after that. The connector also breaks

>> It’s rugged, reliable In my experience it works well for 2-3 years then wears out and charging becomes very difficult after that. The connector also breaks easily as it is essentially a totally exposed fragment of a circuit board. The design was light years ahead of everything else for a long time but these days, everything should be USB-C.

dev_tty01 4y ago
Charging issues after a couple of years are usually due to lint accumulation in the phone opening. A little careful time with a toothpick will usually get it sorted.
- osigurdson 4y ago
  It isn't just that. It physically wears out as well.
  - thedrbrian 4y ago
    My first gen iPad Pro and iPhone 6s Plus say otherwise.
  - muxamilian 4y ago
    One pin on the cable (male part) becomes oxidized (black) after time. One can rub the black stuff away using a regular rubber and it usually works again.
    - falsenapkin 4y ago
      I've used contact cleaner and toothpicks to solve this problem before. It only works so many times, eventually it's just totally shot. I've never had a cable fray but I've had 3 or 4 lightning connectors become useless.
brookst 4y ago
I’ve never found Lightning connectors to fail, but the cable to connector junction does seem to wear out after a few years, especially on Apple cables with that terrible vinyl-like stress relief material. But USB-C is pretty young. It remains to be seen if cables and connectors are really durable forever. I am still suspicious of the complexity of the nested male/female design with the inner male blade being part of the device and hard/impossible to fix if broken. . . but have not seen any problems on my increasing number of USB-C devices yet.
- theodric 4y ago
  I've broken one USB-C port since 2017, and it was in a power bank. The arcing was brief, and the smoke release moderate. Once I teased the remaining wire fragments inside the socket apart, I filled the socket with hot glue, and continue to use the power bank today.
  - ask_b123 4y ago
    I've broken all USB-C I've had except the last one (and except another one that I lost) which I now have to use to charge everything :|
Damogran6 4y ago
I didn't find lightning to fail so much as have the female end fill up with lint. Go digging with a wooden toothpick, pull out some bellybutton lint and it worked good as new.
0x457 4y ago
I've always had more issues with USB-C connector than lightning, it's very sensitive and lint/dust gets both ends of it. Absolutely hate latching mechanism of usb-c.

dev_tty01 4y ago

Charging issues after a couple of years are usually due to lint accumulation in the phone opening. A little careful time with a toothpick will usually get it sorted.

osigurdson 4y ago
It isn't just that. It physically wears out as well.
- thedrbrian 4y ago
  My first gen iPad Pro and iPhone 6s Plus say otherwise.
- muxamilian 4y ago
  One pin on the cable (male part) becomes oxidized (black) after time. One can rub the black stuff away using a regular rubber and it usually works again.
  - falsenapkin 4y ago
    I've used contact cleaner and toothpicks to solve this problem before. It only works so many times, eventually it's just totally shot. I've never had a cable fray but I've had 3 or 4 lightning connectors become useless.

brookst 4y ago

I’ve never found Lightning connectors to fail, but the cable to connector junction does seem to wear out after a few years, especially on Apple cables with that terrible vinyl-like stress relief material. But USB-C is pretty young. It remains to be seen if cables and connectors are really durable forever. I am still suspicious of the complexity of the nested male/female design with the inner male blade being part of the device and hard/impossible to fix if broken. . . but have not seen any problems on my increasing number of USB-C devices yet.

theodric 4y ago
I've broken one USB-C port since 2017, and it was in a power bank. The arcing was brief, and the smoke release moderate. Once I teased the remaining wire fragments inside the socket apart, I filled the socket with hot glue, and continue to use the power bank today.
- ask_b123 4y ago
  I've broken all USB-C I've had except the last one (and except another one that I lost) which I now have to use to charge everything :|

Damogran6 4y ago

I didn't find lightning to fail so much as have the female end fill up with lint. Go digging with a wooden toothpick, pull out some bellybutton lint and it worked good as new.

0x457 4y ago

I've always had more issues with USB-C connector than lightning, it's very sensitive and lint/dust gets both ends of it. Absolutely hate latching mechanism of usb-c.