A problem I and everyone else I know with a lightning-connector iPhone (or iPad) have never encountered. Ever.

This mythical problem has been repeatedly brought up and I am now beginning to think that it is simply a theoretical problem and not one that anyone ever has, but the additional effort needed to align and insert a usb-c connector is quite real. If I could use wireless charging on my iPad I am certain I would never again use a cable for power because it is such a pain to do without actually looking at the connection point.

> everyone else I know with a lightning-connector iPhone (or iPad) have never encountered. Ever.

How long do you keep your phone on average?

Also, how can you know that nobody around you has ever experienced this problem? I have, but I didn't tell everybody I knew about it.

I keep phones longer than most to test apps on old hardware. Am looking at an iPhone 6S, and original iPhone SE, and an iPhone 12 right now. All three are plugged in via lightning at least three times a week to a dev box. I know several other developers with similar experience at frequent connections via lightning connector and not a single case of failure on the phone side of the connection. The only time I have had an issue is when pocket lint got into the connection port and after a period of being compressed by the lightning connector the tiny puck of fluff eventually made a good connection difficult. A paperclip was sufficient to clear the problem.

Would love to hear proof of the occurrence of this particular problem though. Until I do I will file it with UFOs and Bigfoot in the category of 'imaginary problems.'

Dunno if I can give you proof. I didn't document the experience as it was happening.

> the additional effort needed to align and insert a usb-c connector is quite real

umm wut? I have a lightning cable for my airpods and usbc for everything else. I can't say I've ever noticed additional effort to align the usbc connector. its about the same as lighting. only now I have this one extra cable that doesn't fit into anything else

Clearly you and me don’t know the same people because iPhones which have become finicky to plug are very common around me.

Tell them to clean the compacted lint out of the port using a straightened paperclip. Due to the nature of the lightning connector design the wedge-shaped connector can push and compress pocket lint into the port until enough is there to prevent a clean connection. This is a valid complaint about lightning connectors, with a solid center it can compress this lint while the internal post and center connection point of usb-c makes this less of an issue. OTOH 'springs' wearing out or other worn parts on the iPhone side of the connection that require replacement are a non-issue.

I know I’m always worried about it whenever i need to clean lint out of the port.

But so far I’ve been careful enough.

That is a legend born at the time USB-mini-B was replaced with USB-micro-B. For what it's worth, typical USB-mini-B has a particularly bad spring design. "Spring" is just a protrusion stamped out from a thin flat sheet of regular mild steel. Same sheet that is making bulk of the receptacle.

One does not necessarily have to make springs that are quite as epicly bad, and indeed both typical USB-C connector, and lightning receptacle, avoid that pitfall.