Can Dust Damage Your Phone?

We all know how sensitive phones can be to damage. From minor falls to drops of water, there is a never-ending list of hazards that could stop your phone from working.

In this article, we’ll cover some of the ways that dust can damage your phone and screen. It’s not all bad news though, we’ll also provide you with some useful tips to clean your phone.

How Dust Damages Your Phone

The biggest cause of damage from dust is scratching. The tiny particles of sand can rub across your phone’s screen and tear at the protective layering. 

What’s worse, dust can make its way into the charging ports and other openings of your phone, like the speakers and audio ports. This can cause ports to stop working as the sand blocks proper connections.

The worst-case scenario is dust getting inside your phone. Dust gathering in the battery can cause the phone to overheat and break entirely. Because of this, it’s a good idea to keep your phone as clean and dust-free as possible.

Cleaning Dust from Your Phone Case

It may feel hopeless if you get your phone covered in sand, but there are a number of ways that you can clean a phone case.

Microfibre Cloth

Your first instinct when trying to clean a silicone or plastic phone case from dust might be to grab a piece of paper towel to wipe it off. This can actually make matters worse, pressing dust further into your screen and scratching it.

Microfibre cloths are a safer option. Because they are made up of thousands of tiny threads, they are softer and less likely to cause damage to your phone. 

Where paper towels will simply spread dirt across the surface of your screen, microfibre will pick up and remove the dirt. They’re inexpensive and great for cleaning all sorts of surfaces, so it’s good to keep a stockpile of them on hand.

Sandpaper

That’s right - sandpaper.

While it might seem counterintuitive, it’s a great way of removing scratches from your clear phone case. If you think that’s too extreme, you can start out with milder abrasives like toothpaste or scouring cream.

Clean the area around the scratch and pat it dry. Apply fine sandpaper or your chosen abrasive to the affected area in slow, circular motions. This will remove the top layer of plastic, taking the scratch with it and leaving a clean layer underneath.

Air

Dust making it into your phone’s charging port or other openings can lead to serious damage. It could harm the connections, or worm into the battery and chipsets and stop it from working completely.

It is best to clean dirt from your phone’s connections as soon as you notice it beginning to gather.

Some people recommend using a cotton swab to clean out the ports, but this can force the dirt further into the phone.

Using compressed air is the safest way to get dust out of the inside of your phone. With a bulb syringe, blow air into the opening to dislodge any dirt with minimal damage done to sensitive connections.

Alcohol

An alcohol-based solution is an effective way of cleaning dirt and oil from a plastic phone case. When using any liquids to clean your phone, be careful not to use a spray. Apply the solution to the tip of a microfiber cloth.

Alcohol binds with oils that can leave streaky marks on your screen. It also helps to disinfect your phone case. 

Alcohol is also a good way to remove permanent marker from your phone case.

Keeping Your Phone Dust Free

As many of us were told as children, prevention is better than cure. It can be difficult and stressful to remove dust from your phone, so you’ll save yourself some heartache by keeping it safe.

Investing in a good quality phone case and protective screen is the best way to keep your phone free from dust. 

Many people wonder why their phone cases turn yellow. Most cases are made of silicone, which is used for its durability and flexibility. However, silicone reacts with light which can make it turn yellow.