[dcow]

On the contrary I’ve never had a usb cable fail short of physical damage (from a cat).

What are you doing with your cables?

On the topic of connectors, I still think Apple’s lightning connector is the most robust connection the industry has enjoyed in recent times, and most robust for its size ever. I’m sad that iPhones are going the way of USB-C.

[josh2600]

The lightning cable being sealed is amazing. The fact that there’s no cavity to trap dust on the cable is amazing.

There’s still the dust catching port on the iPhone itself but avoiding the cable having a dust cavity is a huge win.

[krzyk]

The only cables that failed for me were lightning that I had in my car for emergency charging.

[chrismorgan]

> What are you doing with your cables?

Plugging and unplugging things up to a few times per day. Occasionally using a phone while plugged in. Using a laptop in a lap. These last two will occasionally produce mild lateral stress. The cable will occasionally (like, every few weeks at most) experience mild tension due to moving a device while the cable is mildly snagged, and on rare occasions they have experienced more extreme jerking tension (and this was likely a factor in my most recent cable’s failure, but most of the cables that have failed have never experienced anything like this). As far as twisting: most of the cables have been used just on a desk or similar (other than when the connected device is being held), only rarely being moved (once every few months, at most), at which time it’s coiled with a radius of at least 15cm.

Seriously, these cables are not often being abused, and a couple of them have even absolutely always been treated very gently (and accordingly they’ve failed in the Micro-B connector), and I’ve heard similar stories from others. No one’s laptop power cables last more than five years, that I’ve heard. The slight flexing that you get from completely normal use is enough to do them all in.

As for Micro-B connectors, they’re supposed to be rated for 10,000 insert/remove cycles, but I’ve never had one last even 2,000 cycles before starting to become unreliable in the connector (… if it hasn’t already become unreliable in the cable/connector junction), even for a cable that was always used in ideal circumstances (gently plugged in, resting on a table). Accordingly, when I read cycle rating numbers for hardware, I start by dividing by ten, then maybe it’s reasonable.

I suppose I should also mention that I do have two very short A–C and A–Micro-B charging cables that are generally used less than once a week which have lasted for 2–2½ years so far and are still fine. But that doesn’t count since it’s not anything like daily usage.

[tshaddox]

There's just huge variation in how people use and treat their stuff. The only cables I have ever had fail are: 1) Cat 5 cables that I made myself when I first started making them and was bad at it, 2) a cable on headphones that I tried to yank while the cable was stuck in a chair caster, and 3) an old Apple Lightning cable that lived in my backpack and failed after something like 300 miles of backcountry trekking.

These are all reasonable failure cases in my opinion: 1) incompetently homemade cables, 2) an individual traumatic incident, and 3) extended use in harsh outdoor conditions. Apart from that, I've never had any cables fail, even the notoriously frail Apple cables.