Can charging your phone using a laptop USB port break the port?

[Boops De Dooper]

My sister claims that using the port to charge anything can break it, and no matter how much I tell her that it's designed to be used that way, she won't believe me. Any anyone confirm/debunk this?

 

[webworkings]

No just 'using' the port can't break it.

Sure you can damage it by being to rough in the way you insert or remove anything from it. However, just using it won't damage it. I use mine to charge my phones, charge my mp3 player, move files to phones, thumb drives, etc. Every day. For years! Still works fine.

 

[Barty1884]

It's unlikely to "break" it.... although in time, repeated use could wear down some of the port, which would could result in a device not being fully seated correctly in the port. That's all 'in theory' though. In practice, years & years of frequent use of a USB port isn't going to break it - and charging would simply be one "use" of the port.

What could happen (although not exclusive to charging), would be a defective device at the other end of the cable. If the device is sending voltage back down to the USB port of a laptop etc, then there are protections built in to shut down the port (to prevent incoming voltage). That could give the perception of it being "broken", when it's actually only shut down to protect itself.