Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.
Create a personalized list of your favorite AARP member benefits with My Saved Benefits. Aluminium Platform
AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Join now and get a FREE GIFT.
Your Personalized Guide to Fitness
Ways To Improve Your Hearing
Coping with Depression and Anxiety
Prepare for a Good Night's Sleep
View and Report Scams in Your Area
Take the Charitable Giving Quiz
Get Your Finances Back on Track
Make Your Appliances Last Longer
10 Part-Time Jobs to Beat Inflation
Online Courses to Boost Your Career
Stand Up to Age Discrimination
Get More out of Your Benefits
When to Start Taking Social Security
9 Biggest Changes Under New Rx Law
Quick Answers to Your Top Questions
Understanding Basics of LTC Insurance
Assistance and Services in Your Area
How to Develop a Caregiving Plan
How to Find the Right Caregiver
America’s Top National Parks
Plan a Low-Drama Group Vacation
Best New Shows and Movies
Read 'Midnight at the Blackbird Café'
Make Your Bedroom More Romantic
4 Ways to Connect With Grandchildren
Making Lasting Memories With Mom
Store Medical Records on Your Phone?
Maximize the Life of Your Phone Battery
Join Free Tech Help Events
10 Things to Clean in 10 Minutes
Your Home Checklist for Aging in Place
38 Ways to Boost Home's Curb Appeal
Is Now the Time to Buy an Electric Car?
Assess Your Loved One's Driving Skills
Building Resilience in Difficult Times
Tips for Finding Your Calm
Cautionary Tales of Today's Biggest Scams
7 Top Podcasts for Armchair Travelers
Jean Chatzky: ‘Closing the Savings Gap’
Quick Digest of Today's Top News
AARP Top Tips for Navigating Life
Get Moving With Our Workout Series
You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.
Go to Series Main Page
Here’s the untangled truth about the cables and cords you use to power up your devices: One end goes into the charger; the other plugs into your phone, computer or another device.
The European Union (EU) wants it to be that simple. And Apple on Sept. 12 in effect acknowledged that trying to fight the issue doesn’t make fiscal sense.
Join AARP for $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
You may not know a USB-C cable from Apple’s soon-to-be-retired Lightning connector. But you may be wondering whether all those old cords and adapters in your drawer will work with the latest tech gear. That’s especially worth asking because the power adapter, sometimes called a brick, that you plug into the wall is no longer automatically included with the latest phones.
The alphabet soup of USB and other connectors is enough to drive even tech-savvy users bonkers at times.
Will your old cables and adapters work? The short answer is maybe. It depends on the device.
Lightning. For more than 10 years, Apple phones — starting with iPhone 5, released in 2012, up to the iPhone 14 models that debuted in 2022 — came equipped with Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector.
30-pin connectors. Before that, Apple used a 30-pin connector to attach a charging cable to its iPads, iPhones and iPods.
USB-C. But the newest phones from Apple — the 2023 iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max that the company unveiled — ditch Lightning for USB-C.
If you have an iPad, it may have a Lightning port. Then again, on some recent tablets, Apple abandoned Lightning for USB-C, meaning that one end of the cable goes into the USB-C port and the other into a USB-C power adapter, which is still supplied.
“It’s a big move for Apple and the industry, and it also brings us into a level of standardization across all kinds of products,” Chairman Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a tech analysis firm in San Jose, California, said of iPhone 15s with USB-C.
The increasingly popular slim, oval-shaped USB Type-C connector is popping up on all kinds of devices. A USB-C opening is smaller than the familiar rectangular USB-A port that may be on your older power adapter, so the cord in the box won’t fit your old adapter.
USB-A is better known without the “A” suffix. It’s just USB or regular USB to the average person.
This cord conundrum afflicts Androids as well.
Mini- and micro-USB. Many Android phones, even those just a few years old, have so-called mini-USB or micro-USB cables and ports. Both are smaller than a regular USB but are different from each other.
Cutting bending punching puller USB-C. The latest top-tier Android phones have mostly migrated to USB-C. But lower-cost handsets may not have made the switch, which should change as the cost of USB-C falls.