How to Make Your Phone Work Again After Being Dropped in a Pool of Shock

Dunking a $650 electronic device into water is a pretty terrible feeling. The standard advice is to dry it off and stuff information technology into some rice, then cantankerous your fingers and expect. But does that actually work? Later accidentally dropping my iPhone for a swim into a pool of water where information technology was fully submerged, I had the unfortunate opportunity to test out the iPhone-in-a-rice-bag hypothesis, and I have good news; information technology actually works!

Here is exactly what I did, and what I learned from the process of saving an iPhone from extensive h2o exposure with the expert erstwhile rice bag fox. The issue is a completely functioning iPhone with zero water damage.

6 Things To-Do Immediately if iPhone has H2o Contact

Want to salvage your iPhone? Drop everything and exercise this first, before putting it in rice:

1. Remove from water as soon as humanly possible (obvious, right? But seriously, seconds can thing hither so motility quick)
2. Plow the iPhone off immediately by holding downwardly the ability button until it shuts off
3. Remove whatsoever example or enclosure correct away since they can trap in wet, screen protectors are fine to get out on unless there's an obvious water bubble
4. Dry out the iPhone equally best as you tin can using cloth (t-shirt, socks, whatever is readably available) or an absorbent cloth. Wipe downwards the screen, sides, and back. Pay special attending to the ability button, volume buttons, mute switch, speakers and microphones, and the audio output jack, endeavour and become all visible wet soaked upwards
5. Utilise a Q-Tip if possible to try and soak up extra water from the audio output jack and in small crevices. If you're out and nearly or take no q-tips handy, a little stick or abrupt pencil poking through a t-shirt or cotton material tin work too
6. Disconnect any headphones, ports, chargers, USB cables, or accessories immediately

Now with all visible water removed, y'all're fix to stuff the iPhone into a rice bag (or a handbag of silica gel packets, if you happen to take a bunch of those).

Put the iPhone Into a Sealed Purse Full of Rice

Ideally you'd have a purse filled with silica gel packets, but who has that? Instead most of us have rice, and rice works. Here are the basic requirements:

• A zip-lock handbag or similar that is air tight
• Rice, any generic type, ideally not "enriched" (more on that in a second)
• Patience for at least 36 hours

Fill a zipper locked purse fairly full of rice so that the unabridged iPhone will be covered like in the picture below, then place the iPhone into the bag and seal information technology shut with some air in the bag.

Whatever type of rice works, but endeavor to avoid enriched rice, the reason beingness that whatever enriches it leaves a lot of white residue powder in the bag and it will also become into the ports and buttons on the iPhone. Enriched rice does nevertheless work (information technology'southward actually what I used), but knowing at present that it leaves a lot of mystery white pulverization gunked up in places, I'll probably go buy a purse of normal rice for any potential future water-meets-iPhone encounters. The patience role is the hardest, and generally the longer you lot wait the better the probable outcome because you lot desire all water inside the device to be completely absorbed by the rice before trying to power information technology on again. I left my iPhone in the air-tight rice pocketbook for around 36 hours, simply at that place'southward no harm in leaving information technology in for 48 hours. Any less may work but information technology also could be inadequate, so therefore longer is better.

Success! Saved from Water Impairment

Once yous've waited at least 36 hours, open the rice bag and check out the iPhone. If you suspect the iPhone has whatever residuum moisture left in it at all, do not power information technology on. If all seems well, become ahead and turn it on as usual. If all goes well, information technology'll power on as usual, and your iPhone will have survived the water encounter!

Here'south my iPhone turned on for the outset time after a total submersion in water, it works beautifully simply equally normal, and is dry as tin exist:

This should piece of work for almost every case of severe water contact with an iPhone, though obviously for situations where an iPhone is soaking in h2o while turned on for xv minutes or longer your likelihood of recovery is going to diminish dramatically. As well, you'll have much better recovery odds with fresh water than you would with salt water, simply considering salt water is more corrosive. Soft drinks and viscous beverages will be more challenging too since they go out more than residue around, but as long equally information technology dries out it will probably survive fifty-fifty if you dump a coke or coffee onto an iPhone.

Check the Water Damage / Liquid Contact Sensors

Afterwards the iPhone is stale out completely, check out the liquid contact indicators. Each iPhone is equipped with several water impairment sensors that turn red if contact with any fluid is fabricated, and if they are triggered than the likelihood of free repair service is fairly slim and your warranty may be toast. You tin can cheque these yourself past looking at the following locations, depending on your iPhone model (image via Apple):

More often than not if the liquid sensors are triggered information technology's bad news, but the fine impress in the water harm policy suggests that at that place is some leniency available, so if you lot're mostly pleasant to deal with you lot may get lucky even if your iPhone spent an afternoon rolling around in ocean waves and at present has some damage even after soaking in rice for a few days.

What if water impairment occurred and something doesn't work?

If the iPhone has dried out, suffered water damage, and warranty service is fruitless, the iv things most likely to go incorrect are the following:

• The home button becomes unresponsive – effort this trick get-go, but if information technology's completely unresponsive you can unremarkably get past with the onscreen home button fob equally a set to bargain with a broken home button
• Audio output is dead – no simple user alternative or repair, consider using a USB based dock if you want to heed to audio instead
• Volume buttons, mute buttons, and power push don't piece of work – you can go by without having book and mute buttons since both of those are available through software, the ability button will exist a problem though if it's unresponsive so don't let the iPhone run out of battery
• Diminished touch-screen response – depending on the severity this tin can be tolerable or terrible, sometimes replacing a screen helps, soemtimes information technology doesn't considering the problem can be deeper than only damage to the liquid crystal display

If h2o damage has occurred, you tin can e'er try taking the iPhone into Apple to see if they'll swap it out or repair it for you for complimentary, only without AppleCare+ the odds are adequately slim since the standard warranty does not cover water damage and adventitious damage in general. That said, in that location are always exceptions, and sometimes the repair cost is reasonable anyway, so it'southward always worth a shot. The price of repair is almost ever cheaper than a new iPhone anyway, so unless you're ripe for a new subsidized contract information technology may exist the best thing to do.

Got any other tips or tricks for saving an iPhone from water harm? Permit us know in the comments!

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Source: https://osxdaily.com/2013/04/11/dropped-iphone-into-water-save-damage/

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