yeh, i just read the same advice on another thread with someone experiencing the same issues. Seems its a common problem, which indicates a faulty product! Also, if it’s fixable by resoldering it, FP should be offering that fix! Thanks for your message.
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The soldering job is quite tricky, so not every repair shop will be able to do it. And some might not want to risk it. The USB connector is the part at the very top, one third from the left:
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Hi everyone!
That’s not going to surprise anybody here if I tell you that I have the same problem 
Plus the fact that the battery rate is often crashing from 20% to 15% to 7% to 4% in less than a minute… But that’s another issue…
I have the charging problem for a year now I think… And I still had the chance to find ways to charge it. I don’t know why but it seems that the phone has his own humours… For a week I have not so much troubles to charge it (still have to find the good position) and for another week I’m almost living without any phone… Because he refuses every cables or charging positions…
I manage to place a little piece of paper between the USB and the front cover so that the USB stays well pressed against the motherboard. It seems that it improved for a while but now I’m back to the “who knows if I’ll be able to call you tomorrow” period…
I’m about to buy a new back cover (the camera protection is broken, so cannot take any good pictures…) and a new battery because I’m leaving soon for a long trip around the world and I want to believe that I’ll be able to fix my USB connection in a close future.
I went in one repair shop (in a small city in France) and they simply said that they had no insurance to take care of this Fairphone brand. So they simply refused even to touch my phone and see it… I’ll try others sooner or later to see what they can do.
Thanks for the tips about the compatible USB and if I find a repair shop who can deal with this I’ll tell you.
Anyway, what do you think about the possibility to reference all the repair shops which accept to take care of our lovely FP in the same place? Maybe it already exists… But I’m asking in case
So on my way when travelling if I go in a city where one of you found a good repair shop for USB issues on FP and that my problem is not fixed yet I’ll definitely go say hello
Have a nice day!
Yes, here’s the (unfortunately short) list:
I hope people will add more entries! 
Ok great thanks so much!!
I had not read well the message of Stefan and didn’t see that it was a list… My bad…
I am having the same problem, thanks for the suggestions here. I’ll give the Vienna shop a try. 49 euros is quite a steep price for something that looks a lot like the consequence of a bad design decision, so count me in on the list of those who believe Fairphone should offer this service… Cheers BG
You would have to pay the shipping costs, if you send them the phone and they repair it. It would not be much cheaper. PS.: It’s 39€.
Really? Their website seems to indicate 49 euros…
If you say that you became aware about their shop via the Austrian Fairphoners, they’ll give you a discount -> 39€.
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Thanks for that tip!
Soldered! I got my phone back yesterday after leaving it for 1day. It had 100% battery power when I collected it, first in a lonnnng time!!! However it ran out quicker than usual. Iv now had it charging for 6hours and its only got to 17%… But I’m hopeful, for now!
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Check your battery for signs of bloating (does it spin when you place it on a flat table?). If there are no such signs, try the Battery Reset FP1 in the #batteryguide
If you are unsure if the repair was successful, try if you can use the USB port for data transfer.
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I have the same charging problem and really wouldn’t mind using an external charger, since I love my phone. I am unable to find a suitable one though, do you have a recommendation? (Maybe even in German, maybe I am translating it wrong.)
Just go to the shop and try the chargers there to see which one works.
Also make sure you use a data usb cable (four threaded), as a normal charging cable (two-threades) won’t work.
In case anybody else wants to try the “External Charger Method” and doesn’t know which charger to buy, I bought the “Ansmann Powerline Vario” Charger and it works perfectly. I also bought a second battery, so now I think this is even better than having the possibility to charge my phone directly. 
I wish I had tried an external charger instead of going to a shop (in London), they fixed my charging port but in the process they broke my camera and earplug-port!
People, please think carefully before you take it to be repaired. They obviously didn’t know how to fix it properly but just tried out something instead of turning down a customer.
I am also very disappointed by the Fairphone 1 design, as I really do believe in repairing your old things before buying new, and thought it was designed with the same mentality in mind. I hope the second one is better, but it is way too expensive for me.
Now I have spent so much time and money on a new battery, new charger and the repairs and I still have to look for a new phone in the end. Sadly, it looks like I’m not alone in coming to this conclusion.
I broke my camera myself and had to learn to live without it. At least the main function of the phone is not impaired.
Ps: The repair shop where I had my USB connector repaired killed the data pins so I can’t move files to my phone anymore. Charging works well though.
Well, it was broken again half a year later.
It’s repaired again (at no cost for me).
I consider buying those magnet-USB-cables.
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