How to Clean a Phone Case

Cleaning a phone case takes about five minutes with warm water, dish soap and a soft toothbrush. The method differs by material, and the one thing to know before you start is that yellowing on a clear case is not dirt and cannot be cleaned off. Everything else comes out.

What you need

  • Warm water and a drop of washing-up liquid
  • A soft toothbrush for the cutouts and edges
  • A microfibre cloth
  • Cotton buds for the camera cutout and port openings

What to avoid: alcohol, bleach, acetone, magic erasers and anything abrasive. Alcohol in particular speeds up yellowing on clear plastic and strips the finish from soft-touch coatings.

How to clean a clear phone case

  1. Take the phone out. Never clean a case with the phone inside it.
  2. Rinse the case under warm running water.
  3. Add a drop of dish soap and work it over both faces with a soft toothbrush, paying attention to the inside surface, which collects a fine grey film of skin oil and dust.
  4. Brush along the raised edges and around every cutout, where grit compacts.
  5. Rinse thoroughly. Soap residue left behind dries cloudy.
  6. Dry with a microfibre cloth and leave it for an hour before putting the phone back. Trapped moisture is what causes marks on the phone's finish.

For stubborn grey marks on the inside, a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water applied with the toothbrush lifts them without scratching. Do not use it on printed or coated cases.

Why clear cases turn yellow, and whether you can fix it

Yellowing happens because TPU, the soft plastic most clear cases are made from, oxidises when exposed to UV light and skin oils. It is a chemical change in the material, not a layer of dirt sitting on top, which is why no cleaning method reverses it. The peroxide-and-sunlight methods circulating online do not work on TPU and often make the case cloudy.

The only real fix is prevention through material choice. Cases with a rigid polycarbonate back panel resist yellowing because polycarbonate does not oxidise the same way. See clear phone cases built that way.

How to clean a silicone phone case

Silicone cleans up completely, which is one of its advantages. Wash with warm soapy water and a soft brush, then air-dry fully — silicone holds water in the microfibre lining longer than it looks like it should, so give it a couple of hours.

For lint, which is silicone's main nuisance, wrap a strip of packing tape sticky-side out around two fingers and dab the surface. This works far better than washing. For ingrained marks, a bicarbonate paste is safe on plain silicone but should be kept off printed designs.

How to clean a leather phone case

Leather is the one material where water is the enemy rather than the tool.

  1. Wipe with a dry microfibre cloth to lift surface dust.
  2. For marks, use a barely damp cloth — wrung out until it feels almost dry — and wipe in the direction of the grain.
  3. Let it dry naturally, away from radiators and direct sun, both of which crack the hide.
  4. Apply a small amount of leather conditioner every few months to keep it supple.

Do not use soap, alcohol wipes or leather cleaner intended for furniture, which is usually too aggressive for the thin hide used on cases. Scuffs on full-grain leather are not damage and will blend into the patina within a few weeks.

How often to clean a case

Once a month is plenty for most people, and it is worth doing because the inside of a case traps grit against the phone's back. That grit is what produces the fine scratches people find when they finally take an old case off. If you work outdoors or in a dusty environment, fortnightly is better.

When to stop cleaning and replace it

Replace rather than clean when the corners have gone soft and no longer spring back, when the raised lip around the screen has flattened, or when a clear case has yellowed. At that point the case still looks like a case and has stopped working like one.

Shop this guide

Clear phone cases that resist yellowing, silicone phone cases that wash clean, and leather phone cases that age instead. Choosing between them: phone case materials explained.