Dropped an iPhone in Water? Here’s How to Save It from Water Damage
Dunking a $650 electronic device into water is a pretty terrible feeling. The standard advice is to dry it off and stuff it into some rice, then cross your fingers and wait. But does that actually work? After accidentally dropping my iPhone for a swim into a pool of water where it was fully submerged, I had the unfortunate opportunity to test out the iPhone-in-a-rice-bag hypothesis, and I have good news; it actually works!
Here is exactly what I did, and what I learned from the process of saving an iPhone from extensive water exposure with the good old rice bag trick. The result is a completely functioning iPhone with zero water damage.
6 Things To-Do Immediately if iPhone has Water Contact
Want to save your iPhone? Drop everything and do this first, before putting it in rice:
- Remove from water as soon as humanly possible (obvious, right? But seriously, seconds can matter here so move quick)
- Turn the iPhone off immediately by holding down the power button until it shuts off
- Remove any case or enclosure right away since they can trap in moisture, screen protectors are fine to leave on unless there’s an obvious water bubble
- Dry out the iPhone as best as you can using cloth (t-shirt, socks, whatever is readably available) or an absorbent material. Wipe down the screen, sides, and back. Pay special attention to the power button, volume buttons, mute switch, speakers and microphones, and the audio output jack, try and get all visible moisture soaked up
- Use 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 about or have no q-tips handy, a little stick or sharp pencil poking through a t-shirt or cotton material can work too
- Disconnect any headphones, ports, chargers, USB cables, or accessories immediately
Now with all visible water removed, you’re ready to stuff the iPhone into a rice bag (or a bag of silica gel packets, if you happen to have a bunch of those).
Put the iPhone Into a Sealed Bag Full of Rice
Ideally you’d have a bag 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 bag 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 bag fairly full of rice so that the entire iPhone will be covered like in the picture below, then place the iPhone into the bag and seal it shut with some air in the bag.
Any type of rice works, but try to avoid enriched rice, the reason being that whatever enriches it leaves a lot of white residual powder in the bag and it will also get into the ports and buttons on the iPhone. Enriched rice does still work (it’s actually what I used), but knowing now that it leaves a lot of mystery white powder gunked up in places, I’ll probably go buy a bag of normal rice for any potential future water-meets-iPhone encounters. The patience part is the hardest, and generally the longer you wait the better the likely outcome because you want all water inside the device to be completely absorbed by the rice before trying to power it on again. I left my iPhone in the air-tight rice bag for around 36 hours, but there’s no harm in leaving it in for 48 hours. Any less may work but it also could be inadequate, so therefore longer is better.
Success! Saved from Water Damage
Once you’ve waited at least 36 hours, open the rice bag and check out the iPhone. If you suspect the iPhone has any residual moisture left in it at all, do not power it on. If all seems well, go ahead and turn it on as usual. If all goes well, it’ll power on as usual, and your iPhone will have survived the water encounter!
Here’s my iPhone turned on for the first time after a full submersion in water, it works beautifully just as normal, and is dry as can be:
This should work for almost every instance of severe water contact with an iPhone, though obviously for situations where an iPhone is soaking in water while turned on for 15 minutes or longer your likelihood of recovery is going to diminish dramatically. Likewise, you’ll have much better recovery odds with fresh water than you would with salt water, simply because salt water is more corrosive. Soft drinks and sticky beverages will be more challenging as well since they leave more residue around, but as long as it dries out it will probably survive even if you dump a coke or coffee onto an iPhone.
Check the Water Damage / Liquid Contact Sensors
After the iPhone is dried out completely, check out the liquid contact indicators. Each iPhone is equipped with several water damage sensors that turn red if contact with any fluid is made, and if they are triggered than the likelihood of free repair service is fairly slim and your warranty may be toast. You can check these yourself by looking at the following locations, depending on your iPhone model (image via Apple):
Generally if the liquid sensors are triggered it’s bad news, but the fine print in the water damage policy suggests that there is some leniency available, so if you’re generally pleasant to deal with you may get lucky even if your iPhone spent an afternoon rolling around in ocean waves and now has some damage even after soaking in rice for a few days.
What if water damage occurred and something doesn’t work?
If the iPhone has dried out, suffered water damage, and warranty service is fruitless, the four things most likely to go wrong are the following:
- The home button becomes unresponsive – try this trick first, but if it’s completely unresponsive you can usually get by with the onscreen home button trick as a fix to deal 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 listen to audio instead
- Volume buttons, mute buttons, and power button don’t work – you can get by without having volume and mute buttons since both of those are available through software, the power button will be 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 can be tolerable or terrible, sometimes replacing a screen helps, soemtimes it doesn’t because the problem can be deeper than just damage to the liquid crystal display
If water damage has occurred, you can always try taking the iPhone into Apple to see if they’ll swap it out or repair it for you for free, but without AppleCare+ the odds are fairly slim since the standard warranty does not cover water damage and accidental damage in general. That said, there are always exceptions, and sometimes the repair cost is reasonable anyway, so it’s always worth a shot. The cost of repair is almost always cheaper than a new iPhone anyway, so unless you’re ripe for a new subsidized contract it may be the best thing to do.
Got any other tips or tricks for saving an iPhone from water damage? Let us know in the comments!
This would off really helped me but I have a Samsung phone instead of a iPhone and I don’t know if it would still worked with a Samsung phone.
It’s being good to read this meaningful article about water damage and screen repairs it’s very costly to repair and you need to choose a good and trusted Repair center for this kind of Cell phone Repair.
The rice didn’t work for me. Will I be able to save all of my photos and such onto another phone if I can’t turn on the original source?
Thanks for the information… I am very happy to say that my phone is working again :)
Just an FYI. I had a charging case on and I believe that fried the phone before I was able to try to save it after my husband walked into the pool with it. Submersion was less than 30 seconds for the iPhone 6. I believe we couldn’t bring it back due to it basically charging in the pool. I’ve been saving up the silica gel packets since then and have the same bag of rice mixed with the packets ready for the next liquid dunk. I have an iPhone X, but my husband has one that’s not water resistant and we have an iPhone 6 as a backup. I agree that you should try this. Even if there’s a 50% failure rate it’s worth a shot if you don’t have the money or equipment or ability to take your own iPhone apart. Especially since you have like a 99% breakage rate if you try to take it apart without actually knowing what you’re doing. Good luck everyone!
Fill a zipper bolted sack genuinely brimming with rice so the whole iPhone will be shrouded like in the image underneath, at that point place the iPhone into the pack and seal it shut with some air taken care of.
I put my phone in a combination of rice, instant oatmeal, and silica gel after it was submerged in water for less than five seconds. It took three days to completely dry out, I check it every 24 hrs and the first two times it had lines going through it and was problematic, after the third time there was no errors and now have a working phone. It’s not an iphone like this article supports but a moto g6, but I think the sam
I really liked it when you mentioned putting the wet iPhone in a bag full of rice and wait for 36 hours. It was also helpful when you suggested not using enriched rice because the powder can get in the holes of the phone. My sister drop her iPhone in the toilet when she was in the bathroom earlier today, and now she is panicking. She did place it in rice, however, since it has been soaked for more than 10 seconds, I do not think rice can fix it. It might be better if I tell her to take it the pros rather than wait.
I dropped my I phone 6 plus in the toilet this morning, totally submerged, and took out right away. After taking the case off and dried everything, the phone seemed normal. I still listened to my audio book and played the phone a bit. However, a few hours later, the phone did not respond completely, no matter what button I pressed (too bad I did not know no button should be pressed and the power should be off). I am still in the office now, a few hours before going home for a rice dry solution. I wonder if it is too late to take any action to get my phone back to life? Anybody has any advice, please?
I really like your tip about removing any case or enclosure right away since they can trap in moisture. My sister recently dropped her Iphone in water and found it working again with the rice trick. I will definitely keep these tips in mind if I ever drop my phone in water.
After I dropped my phone into my glass of water and fished it out, the phone worked fine for a few seconds and then out of nowhere it started to constantly vibrate, going on and off at random intervals. Also the power button didn’t work. After turning it off, it went into a sequence where it went off and on, where when it was on it would vibrate again. Will this (it going on and off) have ruined my chances? Is this a common problem? Plz help!
All I got out of reading the comments is that people like to drop their phones in toilets on “accident”
i dropped my iphone 5s in water , it was still working from the time i took it out from the water. The indicator in the sim slot is turned red.but my phone works completely fine.
is there any chance of it stops working in the future??
please reply
if the water damage indicator is red that means it was touched by water and you may still have water in your phone
you can take your phone to someone to take it part and dry it for you or you can do the bag of rice/silica gel packets thing
i went for swimming and after i started using my iphone 7 and all of a sudden it just froze when i try switching it off it doesnt work ,i dont know what to do ,i have put it in rice ,will it work
ok so today i was playing in the creek that’s next to my house and the ice cracked and I fell in(Yes, I know, how stupid of me). It was probably 0 – -3 degrees(F) and when I put my jacket and snow pants away, I noticed that I had my Iphone 6 in my pocket of my snow pants. I immediately put it in rice. After 15 minutes, I was so impatient that I got on it. It was fine at first, but then when I turned up the volume of my phone it was a little slow and laggy. Then, the volume sign wouldn’t go away. There were two lines, one on the top and one on the bottom. It was little at first, then gradually they got bigger and bigger. I sighed, thinking that I will have two lines on my phone for the rest of my phone’s life, then put it back in the rice. A hour later, I noticed that it was turned on to siri. I tried to turn it back off, and it did. about 30 minutes later, i saw the restart screen pop up and turn back off. The two lines was now a big column on the left side of the phone. on the bottom corner, there was a small blue puddle shape thing also. I kept it in rice for another two hours and the restart screen kept turning on and off. I tried to turn it off, after reading this, but it wouldn’t work. Finally after 30 seconds of holding the home button and the off button, it turned off, but then it wouldn’t turn back on. I looked for the water damage thing, and I don’t even know if I have that or not. So, I’m just going to leave my Iphone in the rice and hope for the best.
But if there is some other way that I can do to make the process faster and possibly even save my phone, please consider telling me.
Thank you.
And I’ll just be here working on unfinished photoshop and after effects projects. :0
If you have a wet iPhone that was submerged in water, to avoid liquid damage you need the iPhone to dry completely with no power or usage. The iPhone is not dry after only 30 minutes. You need to leave it for 72 hours or longer. Don’t be impatient, or your iPhone will likely not recover. Water is conductive, it can destroy circuitry and if you used it when wet it could cause liquid damage from the water. It needs to dry completely as the article describes.
Help! So I dropped my phone into a cup of water while I was getting out of my truck. I instantly dried it off and ran inside and put in a big bag or rice-a-roni. This is the only rice I had in my house. The iPhone 5s turned off on its own. Only the top part fell into the water for a split second, but that happens to be the only part of my phone where the screen is cracked!! Now, Its been almost 24 hours sitting in rice and I just threw a couple silica gel caps in with the rice once I read this thread. Also, like the idiot I am, I left the case on the phone when I threw it in with the rice. 20 hours later, I read this, took the case off, and threw the phone back in with the rice and silica gel caps.
So I am wondering, is it ridiculous to think ricearoni will work? Will it make a difference if I go buy real rice and switch it over? Also is there any chance it will make it when the screen is cracked and water got into the cracked screen? No water got into the bottom of the iPhone where the charger port and headphone plug in is located. I will give it at least another day before I mess with it.
My iPhone fell inside water did all what was said above. I changed the screen but it doesn’t work. My phone is coming on but the screen isn’t working even with a changed one. What do I do? Is it salvable
It works!!! I dropped my iphone 6plus in water and immediately retrieved it, dried it off and threw it in a bag of rice for 48 hours. It works perfectly!!! BTW – I just confirmed that Basmatti rice works too (thats all I had on hand at the time). Thanks for the clear directions!!! You saved me!!
It’s a good share.
I was unaware that it had to be kept airtight and left my phone in a bowl of rice for 4 days. Today when i tried to turn it on and attempted to charge it, nothing worked. I came across this article. Is it too late for my phone? 🙁😶
It does not need to be airtight, but placing the iPhone into a bag of silica gel or rice for several days is the recommended action for an iPhone that has been submerged in water. If it has been four days and the iPhone is not turning on when plugged in, it is likely too late.
The key with any electronic that has gotten wet is to power it off and dry it out as quick as possible.
I dropped my phone in the river and could not get my phone to rice immediately about 3 hours later i got home, took the sim card out, and put my phone in rice in a Gladware container over night woke up the next morning and my phone worked.
the wife dropped her phone in the toilet Again. yes 2nd time both were I5s phones. last time I tried to clean it. and it’s still dead. this time we grabed the only rice we had rice a rony and covered it no seasoning though. Hoping it fixes it. 9:30 pm sunday aug 14 might get real rice abnd change it over to that.
Checked it to day almost recovered only 3 spots will leave it for few hours but really I think mine went out cause it’s only screen all other parts cleaned and dried before but my problem that I couldn’t reach screen also my wife asking me to get rid of headache and buy new lcd and replace it
I said no that suppose to work as many people have tried it
Let me try my chance
I can leave it for 2 or 3 days and monitor it :)
I’ve seen some noticible progress now it’s readable before 18 hrs it wasnt
It was full of liquid
Hope i got success I’ll leave it for 2-3 days as my brother told me that he got success on this and he is electronic engineer
Hey so i was in the pool bout 3 feet of water lets perhaps say 30 mins it had a lifeproof case on but water still got inside i didnt notice the water got inside until i tried to turn on my phone. it was soaking wet. i got home bout 45 mins later and put it in some rice for bout 2 days im gonna wait 1 more day to make sure it works. its an iphone 5s. do you guys think my phone will work. please reply
No.
Jessica, I’d try Neate’s suggestion she gave me and I’d also take it to a site to check it after too like I’m going to do. Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.
Neate, thank you. I did the rice abd forgot to mention I aired it out for a bit too. This was before I got your message. I guess great minds think a like. Thanks you for your help.
The rice really worked! Its even charging now. I’m still going to take to store and have them look for corrosion. For all that day the rice don’t work, y’all are fools. Its a blessing in disguise.
Thanks for the tips everyone that have their stories. It really helped. Except the negative nelly’s on here. :p
I dropped my iPhone 5 in the toilet, for about 5-6 seconds tops, earlier today. It had a protective outer and inner cover so after that I hurried and grabbed it I quickly removed the cases/covers and wiped my phone with a towel then used alcohol pad on it to clean it then a q tip to get the small places. (Then scrubbed the cases really good.) Anyway… I didn’t know I needed to turn the phone off. It was working normally with no problems at all, till the battery went low so I went to charge it and my charger want working at all. So I got on this site and found the only rice we had, a box of rice a roni, so I’m using that in a zip bag and wrapped it tight with a scarf. Is it going to be okay? Please help me with any suggestions or advice. I just got it as a gift 2 months ago.
Thank you.
Mrs E, you can skip the rice if you don’t have much, but another solution would be to rest the iPhone next to a fan blowing dry air or something similar for a few days. The key is that the internal components must completely dry out, that is where the damage can occur, and that’s why it takes so long to dry out. Good luck!
I have saved iPhone and iPad from fall into water with rice, and also with a fan, so both work, it’s all about taking the time to let them dry out.
So I was rushing to do laundry and forgot I had left my phone on the bed and pile all my shirts on top and throw it in the washer, after about 5 mins no more than 10 I realize I had put it in the wash. I quickly stop and took it out and followed your instruction. I was wondering where should I place the bag of rice so it can absorb all the water? Like in a warm room or? Please email me asap! I’m so angry at my self and depressed :( because I’ve only had this iPhone 6 for 2 months going on 3. Please email me as soon as you can. Thank you in advance!
The rice worked! One caveat: a grain of rice got into the charging port. When I plugged it in, it pushed the rice in further. I was finally able to remove and it is now charging. So, make sure to check the ports prior to plugging it in
I am doing it but if it doesn’t work then I will take it out on some but not here
So, I want people to know my story. On a very rainy day, my truck spun out and rolled. Everything was ok but my iphone, I couldnt find it anywhere. The next day I went back to the scene and found it in running water. It was on when i rolled the truck, and off when i found it in water. So, i figured it was dead. I went home, put it in rice for 2 full days. Probably closer to 60 hours. Then i went to the hardware store where I found a kit that open ups iphones. I opened it up, stuck that in rice for a day, then after a day went by, I blew it out with air. I plugged it into the wall and all is well. There are 2 things wrong. The screen is a bit faded, and the battery states that it is at 3% constantly, yet it does charge to a full charge. Iphones are amazing!
I dropped my phone in the toilet yesterday. It wasn’t fully submerged or even in there for more than three seconds but the screen is now wonking out. It took me several tries to turn it off. Unfortunately I was at musical practice so it wasn’t until six hours later that I got home to put it in rice. It’s an iPhone 5s. It has only been in for about ten hours. Do you think it will survive or is it already corroded?
If you turned it off immediately and let it dry out for 48 hours to 72 hours in a warm dry place (over a air fan, in rice, silica gel bag, etc) then it has a good chance at being fine.
The iPhone is impressively resilient if you dry it out and turn it off quickly. I have an iPhone 5 that took a big swim a few years ago and it is still working fine to this day.
Good luck!
i left my iphone 6 in the washer for more than 20 min, i then took it out and dry it with paper towel. just leave it in the bag full of rice… hopefully it will work after 48 hours. I am so worry coz 25 min was such a big amount of time.
I knocked my iPhone 5s into the (thankfully clean) toilet, it was under for almost less than a second, and was in a case, but the charging/speaker/ headset ports were submerged.
I dried it off straight away, and tried to see if it would work, but the screen was non responsive – which meant I couldn’t turn it off. I chucked it in the bag of rice and then looked up what to do. I ended up trying a combination of things – 5 mins totally covered in rice in a very low oven, a hairdryer held about 30cms from the bottom ports, even the back side of the hairdryer, and back in the rice. After 5hrs in the rice I was able to turn it off. Now, 36 hrs later it seems to be working without issue. The phone is charging, the speakers work,& screen is responsive.
Hopefully it will continue to work fine, as I’d only just bought it in January.
Some days ago, my iPhone 5 fell into the toilet (yep, back pocket, what else. Still don´t know why I even put my iPhone there). Luckily, I knew what to do because the same thing has happened to a friend of mine some months ago. I tried to dry it as good as possible, shut it off immediately and then put it in rice. For three whole days.
That´s all I did, and when I turned it on today, everything worked perfectly. Camera, apps, screen, buttons, battery, everything. I´m so relieved and happy.
So guys, if the same thing happens/happened to you, don´t lose hope!
This method really works! Just remember to give it some time… it´s better to let your iPhone rest one day longer than to try to turn it off one day too early.
Thanks for this blog entry, and good luck to everyone having the same problem!!
Dropped my 6 week old iPhone 5s (on new contract) deep into a toilet full of wee. Got it out quickly, but inadvertently switched it on and off several times trying to get the silicone/hard case combo off. Home screen booted up and melted before my eyes into a mess of moving lines and giant pixels. Couldn’t power it down properly as screen wasn’t working. Well that’s totally f****d I thought…why do I persist in stuffing my phone in my back pocket etc…? Still, ever the optimist, I dried it thoroughly and chucked it in a ziplock bag full of rice. Into the airing cupboard it went overnight. Took it out the following morning and took the sim card out (it was soaking so I should’ve done that straight away really, but forgot in the general panic). After another 12 hours languishing in rice, I took it out and gave it a blow dry into all its orifices with the dryer on cool setting. Then I took the phone and rice out of the bag, put it in a bowl, and left it open in front a dehumidifier on full blast for another 48 hrs. 72 hours later it is working fine – speakers, fingerprint sensor, camera, charging fine, receiving and making calls/texts, Siri still talking to me despite me dunking her in wee! I know (from comments here) that it may be corroding away slowly inside, but then again, it may not (and at least I can get my stuff off it). Cheers to everyone on the forum for advice, and good luck with your own resuscitation attempts… :-)
My iPhone 6 fell straight in to the bottom of the pool and one of my daughters dive inn took it out and I search the internet so I saw this and right away I place my phone in a bag of rice with a bit of air left it alone for 4 days and turn it on with no luck so my sister put it to charge and it worked with no problem at all and all my media was there 🙂 Am living this comment with my same iPhone thank you so much😘
Huge thanks for this tip, which worked brilliantly. It was like magic – 10 hours in the rice.
I used Thai sticky rice and it worked for me, my toddler grabbed my phone and dunked it in the sink she was bathing in. I got a blue screen and a white screen then it went dead and wouldn’t turn on. An overnight sit an a large bowl of rice and all was good. It worked for me.
I dropped my Iphone 6s in the toilet for a few seconds no more than 3 seconds in the toilet. I left my phone on but wiped it down. After reading another website on my soaked iphone and a few text, s I shut down my phone and took out the sim and tried to use a hair dyer on low. I dried all ports and sim for a good 5-10 minutes and turned it back on and it seemed fine other than touch screen problems so I left it on not thinking much. After an hour of it being on i noticed more touch screen problems while using various apps for half an our i turned it off again and on again and notice a watermark no big but noticable. I now have it off and tried to blow dry it again. I don’t have any more rice at home but don’t know what to do. Currently it is off and it is on its side so liquid can drain out on the sim card side. I am leaving it off for the night but will need it for work tomorrow. What should I do??
I dropped my iPhone 5c in the toilet two days ago. I got it out very quickly. It was turned on when it fell in. When I pulled it out, I immediately pulled the headphone jack out and yanked off the case as quickly as I could. I also removed the plastic screen protector. I dried every surface of the phone. Unfortunately, before I went on line (on my computer) to see what I needed to do, I pushed a few buttons. There were streaks across the screen and some of the operations didn’t respond, though the touch screen was working. Then I read I shouldn’t push buttons, but I should turn it completely off, since you don’t want it receiving calls, while it’s recovering.
I didn’t have any rice, but the site I found mentioned using silica packs. Fortunately, I just got a three month supply of pills (6 bottles) from Aetna. They each had 3 two inch silicas packs in them and I still had some from a previous bottle. I opened all the bottles and pulled the silica packs as quickly as I could. I had 21 in all. I didn’t have any plastic bags, so I rubber banded silica packs across the front and back of the iPhone and put it in a sealable plastic container with the rest of the silica packs. I left it in there for 48 hours, as the site suggested.
Tonight I turned the iPhone 5c on. The first thing I saw was the reassuring white apple appear on the screen. After a normal amount of time, the iOS screen came on. Everything appears to be working fine. Will this continue? I don’t know, but it seems very promising.
I wish more people had shared in this forum after they tried to power on. I hope there were a lot of success stories here.
The one thing I didn’t do was remove the sim card. There are good videos on youtube that show you how. Removing the sim card doesn’t void the warranty. Also, you can see one of the water damage indicators when you remove the sim card from the 5c. I’m thinking about doing that to get an idea whether it shows the damage.
I have dropped my iPhone into water, totally submerging it, used the exact method outlined here to dry it out for 72 hours, and it works fine still to this day.
you put it in rice and it attracts asains to come fix ur phone lol
Is dropped my old iphone 5 into a filled warm bathtub half an hour ago and almost had a heart attack. The phone was off and had a tight fitting case. It spend one millisecond completely submerged in the water then I snatched it out and wrapped it in a towel until it felt dry. I then took off the case and towelled the phone off until it was completely dry. I put on a dry case and switched on my iPhone and… It WORKS like normal (perfectly well) and like it never touched water (and I hope it will keep working like that *touch wood*).
The iPhone needs to dry out, the inside could have water in it in which case it will fail after a few days. Dry the thing out for several days, with it off, not in use, as instructed.
I dropped my new iPhone 6s Plus in the toilet and it must have been in there for 3min bc I went to change for basketball practice and it fell out of my back pocket….. Well I had it in a bag of rice for 48 hours and I took it out and tried to turn it on but it wouldn’t so I tried plugging it in and no response. I put it back in the bag and am going to try again tomorrow.
My iPhone 5s dropped in toilet and I was drying in rice silica and even opened my phone to dry nothing worked. After one week I went and got alcohol in pharmacy came home and opened my phone, took battery and all other parts. I decided this because I didn’t have noting to lose because Apple was asking for 300$ plus tax to fixit and my carrier told me I have to pay off my iPhone one year old 232$ plus tax and resign contract to get new phone so there was nothing to lose. So I watched you tube how to clean with alcohol and I did it. After I tried to see if is working nothing still so I took again board and put it in alcohol for few minutes and waited to dry, alcohol dry quickly. Cleaned inside as well with q tips and put it all part together tried again nothing, plugged in computer and restored to factory, tried few times as well and miracles happened my phone finaly restored. First buttery was dying fast even my battery was 100% charged phone was turning off kept for one hour plugged and phone stated working camera volume but was slow. I will give few days to see if it comes to original spread and battery not dying before I change new battery. So do not give to anybody your phone because if the phone is water damaged all carrier will pay you 55$ for your phone now question is why? Because that’s how they fix and resell as refurbished same with apple or private business.
My iPhone 5. I went to Aquatica yesterday and had on my “waterproof case” and had it in my pocket and water got into it, i felt heating from my phone and left it out the water after that but I was 4 hours away from home so couldn’t put it rice right away what does that mean? What can i do? Please help
I dropped my iPhone 6 in water… Dried it off immediately. The phone was now stuck in headphone mode so instead of placing it in a bag of rice I stuck my phone in the air/heat car vent turned the air medium heat full blast for 15 minutes straight to dry out the headphone speaker hole…bam! Worked like a charm.
Welllllll typing to you from my iphone now!! After 72 hours in rice and the vacuum hose trying to suck out the water it lives again! Have patience it will work!
I did the paper towel thing and it worked I twisted up the paper towel and stuck it in to my headphones jack and wrapped around the phone for 5 minutes then after about 3-4 hours it worked!!! THANKS!!🤑
My iPhone took a plop into the bowl last night to my great dispair….although I dried it off and left it to dry overnight I stupidly turned it on the next morning saw it was still messed up turned it off put it in rice tried to turn it on again a few hours later to which it did but then shut itself off ugh ….I then saw someones post about using a vaccumm hose to suck the water out and I know for a fact it works…my camera lens was damp but when I used the vaccumm hose it all went away immediately..I used it all over any possible place that I thought water could have gotten in and put it back in the rice too paranoid to turn it on again right now…ahh I hope tomorrow it will turn on and work I will keep everyone posted..
I’m so glad I found this site!!!!!
My daughter accidentally dropped my I phone 6 plus in the tub. I put children’s music on for her and stepped out for a minute the next thing I knew I had a wet phone took it out of the case and dried it as much as possible. Everything worked but I wasn’t able to hear a ring the speaker phone worked but because I use it for work I needed it to work properly. I seen this and put it in a ziplock bag over night and it works perfectly!!! Thank you so much for all the feedback on this as I was skeptical at first however swear the bag of rice worked!!!!!!! Thanks for the site!!!
A bag of silica gel works the best but very few people have a bunch of those packets laying around, thus rice and 24-72 hours is sufficient to dry out most iPhones that have been submerged in water. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve had it work for myself with a few iPhones and a few iPads that have been dunked into water, so far so good!
went fishing with my buddies on a jon boat and sure enough the dang thing sunk with my phone in my pocket
i grabbed the phone out of my pocket after i swaw to the nearest rock and threw it about 20 feet on to the bank
ran up to his house and put it in rice its a iphone 5c
it has been in the rice for about 16 hours now and wont turn on what should i do next?
My phone got alittle wet i think but i didnt put it in rice until the next morning. How long should i keep it in there.
My brother left his iPh in water for about 10mins. And after about 30 or 40 mins, I dried it with a dryer and put it in a rice bag. I am worried that it took the device about 40mins to b dried. Would it have a problem?
40 minutes is not long enough to dry out a phone, it should take at least 36 to 48 hours to dry
Thanks this article helped me a lot because yesterday my Iphone5 fall-down into toilet..Immediately i took and cleaned it with my handcuff after that its not working properly i tested with a outgoing call i faced mike pblm other person not able to hear my voice when i speaker he able to listen. i switched of some around 2hrs..and i pun some in hand dry machine for some time…then i tested with charging its charged…once again put under hand dry then i switched on mobile i testing by playing a music file its played well immidiately i tested a call..call also fine…but that i faced pblm with center button ….same day night put my mobile in a rice packet entire night almost 9hrs..after that every thing working fine inclusing center button and that water scratch also gone….
Hi, i need a quick reply!!
Dropped my iphone i the toilet as many did, took it out immediately wiped it with a towel and also used a hair dryer. After a while i even charged it. I have two white stripes over the screen now and the first day it wasnt working well but today apart of the screen it all works altough when i charge it it gets really hot.
Should i try the rice method or should i go to the apple center to replace it because i dont know how long will it work if i dont do nothing :(
I have an iPhone 6 and i dropped it in a chlorine pool! It was in there for about 15 minutes and I put in straight in a bag of rice. Around an hour later I made the mistake of trying to charge it and the Apple sign came up but then it went all fuzzy and showed these weird blue lines. It has been blacked out ever since although I have left it air dry + left it in rice for about 2 days.
Is there any hope? I really REALLY need my phone back :((
Did it work? i have a similar problem atm with an iPhone 7 plus and im extremely anxious.
I need help !!! I gave my 1 year old neice play a game on my iphone 5s and she dropped ot in a bukket full of water I automatically took the case off and cleaned it but i didnt take the sim card out, i put the iphone in a jar full of rice , what are my chances … I need help ASAP
So I dropped my phone in the bath 2 days ago. Had never done this before so didn’t know what to do and tried it to see if it still worked. Looked up what to do and turned it off and put it in a bag of rice after about 10 mins. It’s been in the rice for 48 hours now and just turned it on a minute ago to see if it worked – it did work perfectly BUT I noticed the screen looks dark and damp with water marks so turned it off again and put it back in the rice.
Is this a bad sign? Does anyone have any suggestions? It’s an iphone 5c so I can’t open it up.
Do not turn it on until the water has dried. If there is any visible water, absolutely do not turn it on. Let it sit on a blowing fan for 4 days or so, maybe longer, until it has completely dried out, then try to turn on the iPhone. Do not turn on the iPhone before it’s dry, it will damage the iPhone.
Well dropped my iPhone 4s in the toilet dried it with a towel and used blow drier at warm. read the article and put it into the rice about an hour ago. Hope it works the phone is my life and really worried about the data on it and the pictures and mainly the mic and the sound outputs. FINGERS CROSSED :\
Left both our iPhone 6’s in my pocket and went snorkelling for an hour off of Key west, Florida. Both dead of course but I’m not so much worried about the actual phones as I am about the Information and data on them, I could never get my phone to back up on iCloud, is there any chance of retrieving files from the old phone onto the new phones we purchase when we get back to Vancouver?
My iphone 6 completely submerged into water(10am) two days ago. I took it out as soon as I saw it fall in the water. Took off the case. Dried it with my shirt and used the blow drier on it for hours(don’t let it get too hot/use at a distance on warm). At around (4pm) I put it in a bag of OATMEAL which I read works better. I kept it around warm areas. The next day I blow dried it a bit more but kept it mainly in the oatmeal, took out all the air from the bag. My phone looks perfect. Everything works.
My daughter just dropped her iPhone 5c down the toilet. We have put it in bag of rice but it won’t turn off. Help!
i forgot i had my ipod in my pocket when i went swimming so my friend reminded me so i got out of the pool and my friends dad came out and tried turning on my ipod it did then shut of and didn’t turn on then i went home told my mom and told me to put it in rice its now in the rice im going to wait if it doesn’t work i have to save up my money wich takes me along time wish me luck :(
i dropped my iphone in the toilet and then picked it up after wizzing on it :) that was disgusting believe me now i dried it with a cloth(t-shirt) and i made sure that there is no water at at all, i didnt know that i have to switch it off but it worked at first suddenly it became too hot and i cant even touch it so i tried to let it cool down and put it in a bowl of rice hoping that it works again, now it have been one hour and i have 23 more hours to go :'( wish me luck <3
did it work? i dropped my iphone 5 in the same way and quickly got it out then it turned off it own in the same min i didnt turn it off it was by itself in the same moment, i tried to turn it on but nothing at all, now i put it in rice, my heart is broken i have all my things there and its not backed up on my icloud, did it work with you please tell me !!!!!
Did you read the article Aisha? It works to save water damage if you follow the instructions. It says that you should turn the iPhone off immediately, dry it off as best as you can, and and let it dry out for at least 72 hours. Do not turn it on until it is completely dry internally.
The internal components must dry, this can take 72 hours easily if not longer, then you can try to turn it on when the inside is dry. The iPhone can not be wet any longer otherwise it will not work.
I have successfully used this exact method to save a wet iPhone, a wet iPad, and a wet Mac. It works if you act quick, but don’t be impatient. The iPhone must dry out!
my iphone dropped in water and after 8 to 9 hours it was not opening and then again i put my iphone in a sealed bag of uncooked rice and i have to ask that how can i know its open or off.45 hours have been passed i can open the sealed bag or not plz reply must i’ll be wait for u thanks
This is how you can potentially save a wet iPhone from water damage, it’s detailed and explanatory article, very good source of info I would start here and read the page: https://osxdaily.com/2013/04/11/dropped-iphone-into-water-save-damage/
An iPhone sitting in water for 9 hours is probably dead.
Also, “plz” is not a word, neither is “u”, and proper capitalization and punctuation are also important.
My friends poured a bucket of water on me and I had my iPhone 5s in my pocket. It got soaked and my friend said,”get the rice!” We got some rice and put it in. That was two days ago and I’ve left it in rice ever since then, but I can still see water in my screen. It died and I don’t know if it is fixed yet. Is it safe to charge since it might still have water in it? I don’t want it to explode or something like that. Please help!
Hii I’m Girish Today evening my iPhone 4 was suddenly drop in rain now it was not switching on. I was tried to on the phone but it was not working ,,so can you people give advice for me what can I do for phone many of personal things are in phone can u say the process
Hello Girish Today, here to inform you exactly what to do when your iPhone is wet, and how to recover the moisture contacted iPhone by drying it out, and to prevent the iPhone from receiving water damage to the iPhone as best as you can. It is not a science but it has worked for myself and many other users who have dropped their iPhone into water.
Please follow the instructions, I recommend you read it:
https://osxdaily.com/2013/04/11/dropped-iphone-into-water-save-damage/
I dropped it in the tub and took it out real quick and I followed the steps but it won’t stay off what do I do now ?? :(
My iPhone 4 fell out of my front pocket and into the sink filled with water this morning.. I Pulled it out straight away and it was turned on still and I quickly dried it with a towel and then hair dryed it for a while haha.
after about half an hour my friend text me to put it into rice immadietly, so I put it in rice but facing upwards. My phone is also REALLY cracked so the water probably got in easily! it is turning on but i should leave it in there as long as possible!
Washed my Iphone 5s in the laundry put it in rice right a way and nothing for the first 5 hrs will check on it tomorrow. Lot’s a prayers
I put my phone on the table in my sweatshirt at school yesterday and then someone accidentally knocked it over with a glass of water. It wasn’t completely submerged in water, but it was still wet, and it took a while until I knew because they just hung it up without telling me (about twenty minutes until I found out). When I found it, the flashlight was partially on and flickering slightly (I tried turning it off, but even when it’s off, it still has a bit of a light). I powered it off completely as soon as I found I couldn’t turn off the flashlight, and dried it as much as possible. Even though it wasn’t completely in water, it took a bit of time so I’m thinking it might as well have been. When I look at the back, I can see some water fogged up in the camera. I haven’t seen anyone else with the flashlight problem yet. Is the water damage really bad? We just put it in rice just today, and the flashlight is still partially on (it’s dimmer than yesterday and it’s steady now, but I have no idea whether that’s a good sign or not.) I have an iPhone 4, and I looked at the chart for the water damage sensors. Do the turn red when activated? I looked at my phone and I didn’t see anything like that, but I’m not entirely sure what it’s supposed to be like. The switch on the side (silver, left side under the sound buttons) though has a red thing. I didn’t charge it because I heard that was a really, really bad idea and anyway, it was above 80% last I checked. Will my phone be okay?
Sorry, re-checked- the silver switch above the sound buttons, not below. When the switch is down (to the back) there’s red. Is that a water sensor?
yah the same flashlight problem but my phone is in a bag of rice at the moment. hope it works. and yah my cousin tried hitting his iPhone 4 on the back with his and the flashlight turned of.
All of the ideas for drying out these gizmos without opening them up are relying on (slow, patient) evaporation. And air circulation is usually the key to evaporation.
With this in mind, when my new (two weeks old!) iPod Touch fell into a pool of water, I left it lying outside in the sun, face down — lots of warm sun and good air movement. I also have a powerful vent hood in my kitchen so, when the sun went away that evening, I propped the iPod up directly under the hood and ran it on high for an hour or so. Then I put it into a bag of rice for the night (figuring, if nothing else, it was probably the driest place in the house). I repeated this regime the next day as well. As of now, I have a fully functioning iPod — let’s hope it stays that way.
I dropped my phone in the toilet at the grocery. After 48 hours in a ziploc bag with rice, it seems to work just fine.
I dropped my iphone 5s in the toilet (contained urine) and it took me a few seconds to retrieve it, the Iphone shut off on its own and i quickly dried it out with a towel. I wasn’t home so i waited a few hours until i was able to put it in rice. I left it in the rice for 2 days then i left it in front of a fan for an hour or two just in case. I connected the phone to it’s charger and tried turning it on, no response. I left it in the charger for a longer duration and still no response. What do i do now? Is all hope lost? Please, i need help. Thanks.
I dropped my iphone 5s in the tub a couple days ago and i immediately took it out and dried it off with i towel. I shut it off then turned it back on and i saw dark blue all along the sides of my phone. I put it in a bucket of rice and let it sit overnight. I turned it on and it would only show the apple screen and it would change colors then shut off. I left it in rice again that night.
Right now, its sitting in a bag full of rice and its plugged in charging. Every time i plug it in it vibrates and when i unplug it, it stops. What do I do? Is it okay?
Today is Thurs. Tues late afternoon I dropped iPhone 6 in toilet, completely submerged but only in for a second or two. Immediately dried off with towel, and it seemed to be working ok, so I went out to a meeting. While out, I realize the sound was not working at all (except for speaker phone)–callers could hear me, I couldn’t hear them. Also couldn’t hear music, etc. As soon as I got home I found this thread, read through much of it, finally turned phone off (at least fours hours after incident) and put phone in baggie with rice and a few silicon packs. Opened this morning and it appears to be working totally fine, including sound & camera. Will update here if situation changes. Thanks much.
Just came back on here out of curiosity after seeing the link I sent to myself during an email clear-out.
‘Experts’ are going to keep coming on here and saying don’t do it. Just count up how many success stories there have been using this method. I think using Pure rice (as I did) probably diminishes the chances of there being gunk build-up if the gunk is starch..? Dunno, just guessing.
Anyways, I water boarded my i-phone 5s 3 months ago now and it’s still working just fine. If that changes I’ll take it to an ‘Expert’ but right now, I’d still recommend giving it a go with the bag of rice.
Best,
Phil
I was dancing down a driveway (stupid I know) and my iPod went flying out of my pocket into a puddle of slush. (super watery snow) right now my iPod is sitting in a bag of rice. Right after I dropped it I turned it on and tried to see if the sound would work, it didn’t. I went inside and dried it with a hair-dryer, but my iPod got very hot. Now I know I shouldn’t have done almost any of that, so I shut it off all the way and now its in a bag with rice. Hopefully I am not punished for my stupidity! I can only hope it works when I try it in 40 hours…
Just retrieved iPhone 6 from washing machine. It was only in a few minutes. Have followed your instructions to the letter, however am not able to turn the phone off. The touchscreen is unresponsive and holding down the power button for a long time does not cut power. Any suggestions. Thanks for this instructive article. At least it gives me some encouragement.
UPDATE
I was never able to turn the power off since the touchpad was unresponsive. After about 60 hours in the rice the touchpad started to respond and the phone worked perfect except for vertical dark streaks on each side of screen. I put the phone in the rice for another 24 hours and the phone works perfect and the streaks are gone. Count this as another success story.
So last night I dropped my phone in the toilet. Yes, I know, I shouldn’t have reached to text while standing over the toilet but luckily for me I hadn’t began to relieve myself yet. So it was in the water briefly, then it slipped out of my hand again and into the toilet. Total in water time was 3 or 4 seconds. I dried it off immediately and checked to see if it was working (Yeah, stupid but I used it to search for a solution to this problem). It was working fine but for a really illuminated spot in the top left of the screen obviously where some water got behind the screen. I put it in a bag of rice with the sim card over night and turned it on this morning. The illuminated spot had gotten a bit more spread out but was still small enough that it didn’t bother me and had stayed in the top left corner. I charged it up to around 55% before using it at all then and it was working fine but for a slight flicker in the screen for a few minutes when I was first using it. I used it until it was down to 5% and it seemed fine. I even turned it off and on to make sure that was working as well at one point. The flicker went away and the illuminated part started to shrink so I figured that it was drying out properly from any little bit of moisture that was left in it. Problem now is that it shut off after it had powered down to 5% cause I left it on standby for a couple hours. It now won’t turn on, and won’t show a battery screen when I plugged it in. Did I potentially fry the circuits or the battery? Any help would be awesome. Thanks.
The answer, I think, is “it all depends.” If the water has not seeped too far into the system, rice or kitty litter (low dust) or gels might do the job. That generally means you do NOT need to go the store to actually buy one of these items (which I did) and it also means that it wasn’t submerged in a toilet where you can’t get at it right away (which happened to a friend of mine) and does not short out and make all sorts of weird noises (which hers did).
In the case above, which all happened to one sad phone at the same time, even the new Verizon machine designed to suck water out (or whatever it does) won’t help, as was the case here.
Let’s face it. My friend is accident prone and smashes her own glasses on a regular basis. And people like that should avoid Apple products, or at least the closed box products, like the plague! I love Apple products. Always have. But I get the feeling that they don’t even try anymore to make products for rough use by clumsy people! It doesn’t even occur to them that $600 or isn’t pocket change for everyone. So screw Apple! From now on, I am going to suggest a rough service phone for any of my friends who don’t either have lots of money to just throw around and break things on occassion. IF there is such a thing!
Great info! I sure hope this works! My son got sick on my bed this morning, and I accidentally rolled my phone up in my sheet and dropped it into the washing machine! I searched the entire house for about 20 minutes before I realized to my horror what had happened. By the time I got it out it had already shut off, so I’m hoping that it can be recovered!
Rice is good but if you can, save up those little silica gel packets and when your phone get dumped in water ripper bunch of the packets open and put the phone in a baggy with the little chunks of silica gel. It works really well!!!!
Dropped my iphone4 in a pot of water and wasted 10 min calling it to figure out where i’d put it down. Saw it in the pot, jumped on line on the desktop and followed the directions, except no rice. I had (clean) silicone crystal kitty litter and figured WTH nothing to lose. Ill let you know how it works tomorrow night
Thank You for the tip. I dropped my iPhone 6 in a small puddle, but after trying everything gave rice a shot and ooh my god, in just 12 hours my iPhone is back to normal.
Thank You
DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE!!!!!
This myth has been around long enough. Rice will indeed soak up the fluid, but then concentrate it on any particular spot where it will keep damaging the circuitry of your phone. There is only one way: Get the battery out as soon as possible and have the phone looked at and cleaned / fixed by an expert.
This is no “myth”, it works. I have used it to save multiple iPhones from water contact, what are your credentials? Indeed, putting a wet iphone in rice to save it is not a myth, it works if you are patient. Additionally, the batteries on iPhones are not removable. So you have no idea what you’re talking about and have no experience fixing a liquid filled iPhone. No experience and touting BS is rather typical of someone proclaiming themselves an ‘expert’, isn’t it?
OH MY GODDDD. My phone just fell in the stupid toilet :( and then I was shocked so I had to look at it for a min then I had no idea so I dried it with hair-dryer and then after a while it was hot like heater ( my phone) then I searched and found found out I had to put in rice. now it is as you said thanks by the way. but with these stupid thing Ive done, is it gonna be fine after 36 hours? I just touched my phone and its a bit cool down. pleaseeeee help me. i want my phone
My iphne just went swimming with me but i realized it after maybe 20sec in the water. I didnt have a bag of rice with me so i used a blow drier to dry it off. I saw it went black after i pressed the power button.. Now its in a bag of rice. Will you thnk that it will still work?
This is my story. So, two weeks and two days into having my iPhone 6, I was at the nail salon getting a pedicure and I was getting off the chair when my iPhone 6 fell OUT of my coat pocket and into the water!!!!! I was shocked when I turned around after I got up and saw it. The man doing my pedicure grabbed it out so it was only in the water for about 2 secs, and when it was retrived I stupidly pressed the home button. It was working though!!!!
Soon after, I shut it down. And they told me to put it under the nail dryer. So I did, for an hour and a half. I was panicking. When I got home about 15 minutes later, I put it in a ziplock full of rice. I read post after post, watched video after video on youtube. This happened 7:30 PM on wednesday, and I tried to turn it on Friday at 12:30 PM. I was too impatient to wait the full 48 hours… So, when I powered it on, IT WORKED GOOD AS NEW!!!! I was so pumped.
Just to give you guys some hope with the new iphone 6!!!! :)
This does give me hope! Thank you for posting! How did you know it worked as good as new? Did it power on on its own by pressing the power button or did you have to plug it in/let it charge for a bit?
This is how it worked for me:
I dropped my iphone 5 into the toilet, panicked, and took it out in like 3 seconds. I used a paper towel to dry it, and it was working. So I thought ”Oh wow, it worked” and I used it for the next 3 hours. It shut down after 3 hours. I came home and put it in a plastic bag full of rice. I waited for 36 hours, took it out today, charged it and IT’S WORKİNG PERFECTLY FİNE.
Hey guys it really worked for me. My iphone 4S was dumbed in bucket of water for around 4 seconds, i was able to save it by quickly rubbing off the water content and suddenly putting it in to dry rice for about 4hrs or so… Thanks man for the info!!
Try oatmeal! Mine dropped in the toilet and I immediately grabbed it and shut it down. I dried it off and put it in rice. I then realized that it wasn’t instant rice so I carefully wrapped a paper towel in it and put it into oatmeal (also absorbent), sealed the bag, put it under my heater, and left it alone for 72 hours. Turned back on and everything works! It also had a broken screen already so I was really worried it would absorb more water and be gone for sure.
Hi there,
My iPhone decided to take a quick spin into the washing machine (pun intended) and well, it didn’t survive.
I panicked and coincidentally, I’m a day away from the expiry date of my warranty !! i’m in terrible horror.
anyways, I tried this trick for my Blackberry before and it worked! So I’m hoping it would do the same this time. However though, since turning it on is not advisable, how would I know that it’s ‘healed’? Will it turned on by itself automatically ?
and yeah, the rice powder gunk. that’ll be my 2nd concern. looking pretty nasty right now.
Let me know, thanks!
Mar
Thanks for the advice, I was careful to keep the rice out of the card slot – and the trick worked !!!! I left the phone in the rice bag in the airing cupboard for about 40 hours, plugged it in and it switched on. So far, working perfectly.
It seems so obvious now but if I hadn’t seen this thread it wouldn’t have occurred to me to try it, so thanks all for your input.
Have a great Christmas !!!!!
:-)
Hey make sure you tape up any holes cause rice can go in to them happened to me was happy I was able to get out droped in toilet (after going ewwe) but was able to save it before it went all the way setnit in rice turnes off two hours not is fine
Hi,
Glass of water knocked over and spilled over my 5S while it was charging.
Don’t know how much got in but the sensor’s tripped and phone not responding.
Waiting to hear from my (non-Apple) insurance co. (but not optimistic).
Then came across this article.
i-Phone went into a sealed bag of ‘pure’ Basmati at roughly 2pm, so 11 hours after the accident.
If it’s a repair bill (of what looks to be at least £200) I’ll accept my punishment with grace and keep phone and water a long way apart in future, but if this actually works I’ll feel like Christmas came early.
Will wait and see and report back…..
I dropped ma iphone4 in water and I picked it up almost immediately. I took it to the technician, it worked fine but the iPhone cant access cellular data and Wi-Fi anymore. what will I do pls?
dropped in toilet for 3 secs… then washed in sink (!) doh !! then tried to check it worked… faded screen, slow, read the article and switched off… was on for 3-4 mins… then put in rice box… waiting now… hope i dont have to spend too much money fixing this !
My iphone 4 with case dropped in the toilet on October 30. I retrieved quickly, removed case, shook vigorously wiped with hand towel, ran to laptop and googled for remedy, found this very useful article and followed the instructions – rice in ziploc and left it. After 24 hours it was magic! I squealed with delight when it powered up and everything works!
Its November 6, had to write a comment – its still all good.
Thanks a lot for a useful and brilliant article!
Rice works! My iPhone 5S was submerged in the toilet by my daughter and I immediately put it in a bag of rice for 3 days and bam! It worked again! The fingerprint on the home button didn’t work at first but it started working again about 1-2 weeks later.
Then, she dropped it in the toilet again!! This time the phone was in the toilet for a good 5 minutes it was even playing Netflix on the AppleTv downstairs while in the toilet! And I used the “find my iPhone” app and it was ringing in the toilet haha! What a savage phone, right?? Well, I powered it off and put it in rice for about two days and amazingly it turned on! I was in shock! Everything worked perfectly fine only a few water stains on the screen but they can only be seen if the phone is tilted at a certain angle. Sooo I don’t know if its because I was lucky with an extra strong water proofed iPhone or if rice was the miracle worker. But I’ll go with the rice on this one.
what if my phone is accidentally dropped into the toilet bowl and i didnt do anything that u stated? but i instead leave it all the way till the battery drained. the phone can be charged but it just wont on. any suggestion on what i can do to fix it?
Hi daughter dropped phone in toilet immediately got vaccuum on port holes,to suck out water.wrapped iPhone immediately into rice and sealed bag.3days later phone completely dead,wouldn’t charge or fire up,,,one unhappy teenager,rang apple genius at local store,who looked after me I was honest about how phone was damaged.had free replacement handset,as good will customer services.many thanks lots of zzzz,s tonight.
Other lesson learned (and more important) STOP PUTTING THE DANG PHONE IN MY SHIRT POCKET!!!!
I have dropped my phone out of the front pocket of my work shirt 3 times now. 1st time in a 5 gallon bucket of water with cleaner in it. (IPhone 3) was in bucket for probably 30-45 minutes. Result- the phone was toast. However I had it insured through my homeowners policy and was replaced 100%. So 1 month later, basically the same thing happened (D’OH) only I saw it and removed immediately. I work in a shop with compressed air and started to blow air in the places I knew water would enter. But before I did I thought that’s just going to push liquid further in. So an hour later I got home, took my shop vac and sat down for about 30 minutes, going over every portal that I could to suck out water. Better result that time but the LCD was toast- result, I learned how to replace LCD screens myself. 3rd time my iPhone 5 fell into a receptacle with machine coolant and a very thick oil (double D’oh). Was in there maybe 2 seconds and did the shop vac and q tip drill. No problems this time. Lesson learned: suck out as much water as possible as soon as you can. The sooner the better.
Dear all,
The advice for the rice bag works! Admiration so for sharing it. So far my iPhone 5c works well and the display is fine. Good luck!
OK- I dropped my iphone 5 off a dock in about 30 feet of water. Went home, got my scuba gear, dove down and retrieved it about 40 minutes later. I immediately stuck it in a bowl of rice and waited two days. So far, no luck turning it on. I have replaced cracked screens before, so I used my toolkit to take the phone apart. Still plenty of water inside. I disconnected and removed the face plate and the battery. Back in the rice. Currently waiting. My questions is, does this thing fail in visible or invisible places? Would swapping out the battery possibly fix it? If nothing works, is it possible to connect the storage device to something and retrieve the data? Any ideas would be welcome!!
Forgot to add it was fresh water, not salt water!
I did this like right after if fell in water and it works after like 36 or so hours so you should try it.
My iPhone slid out my pocket into a lake the other day and lay on the bottom for about 3 – 4 minutes. I thought it must have fully drowned. Had to wade in up to my thighs to retrieve it.( the water was COLD )
I immediately looked up what to do and immersed it in a jar of rice in a warm place. To my amazement after 2 days it seems to be fully functional and works fine. Hope this is not just temporary!
Hey, I dropped my phone in the toilet (clear water) for a second no more, and did everything is said above, except I thought it was turned off and I know realise it was not (though it is on do not disturb mode) but i’ve already put it in the rice for few hours, shall I remove it and turn it off or shall I leave it like this (it was almost full battery) ???
Please help!!!
Hi Agathe, there’s this great article that explains EXACTLY what you should do to help your iPhone possibly save from liquid contact, it answers all your questions! It’s amazing, and it works! All you have to do is read it to learn how to give your iPhone the best chance of recovering from water damage!
https://osxdaily.com/2013/04/11/dropped-iphone-into-water-save-damage/
I am literally in tears, my last Iphone got stolen and now, just a few weeks later, my newest Iphone 5s was accidentally washed in the washer. There’s no chance of me getting a new phone, and my phone was in the washer for at least 5 minutes. It turned on, and everything looks fine but my screen isn’t working. Its sitting in rice now. What should I do? Do you think my Iphone will be ok?
You should follow the instructions here and let the wet iPhone dry out for 72 hours contained in rice or silica gel
https://osxdaily.com/2013/04/11/dropped-iphone-into-water-save-damage/
Correction: *About 10 hours later when I got home, the phone powered itself ON.
Hey,
Any advice for me, I have a situation I can’t find in the comments.
I dropped my phone in the toilet and got it out and dried as soon as I realized. I powered it off and put it in rice as suggested (brown rice because that’s all I have and I was now running late). About 10 hours later when I got home, the phone powered itself off. It seemed to be fine, but I turned it off immediately and put it back in. In the morning it was on again, seemingly working fine but I did the same. Anyone ever encounter this? Thanks!
OMG…this soo works. My iphone fell out of my pocket & dropped into the lake…it was about 2 metres deep. My boyfriend quickly stripped off down to his undies & dived in & got it out. (It was in the water for about 1 minute). We quickly dried it with his tshirt, rushed home & put it in a bag of rice & than put the rice in my hot water cupboard.
48 hours later, got the phone out, & it works perfectly….as if it never even dropped in to the lake at all. Im soo happy & relieved.
I highly recommend following the above advice….it 100% works.
I dropped my Iphone 4 and I am so lost with out it. It cuts on and alarm clock works and everything. One problem….. No screen! It is completely black no activity at all. Any suggestion on this???
I dropped my phone in the toilet, so fully submerged. I retrieved it quickly, but I didn’t know to turn it off immediately. I never did. It got better that same day, but I some people are telling me that it will only work a couple of days. I didn’t do the rice, I didn’t turn it off but it is still working. What am I looking at? Should it be permanent damage to happen in the next few days? I didn’t know that I shouldn’t charge it either, so I did and it did charge. I know, I am pretty ignorant about all this. First iPhone, though
My iPhone 5s is 100% working again!! After it fell in deep toilet water!!
I dropped my iPhone in the toilet and totally panicked. It fell out by itself and I tried to put it on again several times which didn’t work of course :( I put in in rice after that and waited 2 days. I kept putting the rice bag in warm places, like in the sun. Then i waited an other 2 days to let it dry by air. After almost 4 days I used warm air from a fohn to totally dry it. Then I let it cool down and it was perfectly working again.
Dropped my Iphone 4s in the sea between some rocks trying to take pictures of baby lizards… Took about a half a minute to retrieve it, during low visibility (dark is a better word).
It was totally soaked but seemed to still work. Tried to make it to the house so I could perhaps save the vacation pictures I already made, but it died on me right before arriving (it was a 2min walk).
Since it was the middle of the night and we didn’t have rice (and the south of France is not civilized enough to have night shops) it took me about 12h to get it into rice…
Now 40 or what hours later I took it out, and the signs are not very good. When charging it displays the apple logo for about 7 seconds and then turns off again.
Anybody had the same problem? And could it just be the battery that died? Because I’d love to be able to get those holiday pictures…
i have the same proplem , it displays the apple logo for a couple of seconds and turns off again
I accidently dropped my iphone 4s in water, but after 2-3 seconds i removed it from water immediately and started cleaning it with my shirt. When i was done it was off. I immediately dried it with vaccume cleaner by removing its back panel and battery (without disconnecting) then i gave to mobile repairing shope for checking. He kept my phone under high temperature for 1 day. After that i checked my phone, display was not working as normaly. Now The display is very dim i cannot see the light in display though the display is working. I can see display by using torch. Everthing else is working fine speaker, earphnone jack, silent button and volume button. What should i do for display help me
i have a iphone 4s and i droped it in water 2 years ago and i did everything it turns on but it shows the icon telling it needs to be charged i bought a new charger and it works for my ipad and iphone but my iphone wont charge what can i do to fix it
Hi,
Thanks for the information… I am very happy to say that my phone is working again :)
I accidentally dropped my iPhone 4 into a big cup of water at a concert on Aug 1, due to people bumping into me.
I retrieved my phone immediately from the cup and started drying the surface with my shirt. I also removed the case I had it in.
If I recall correctly, the phone turned off automatically from being submerged in water. Luckily, I think only most of the water entered through the headphone opening due to the sturdy plastic case that had kept my phone pristine through the 4-5 years I’ve had it.
I remember being overly anxious about the phone ever turning back on again and I persisted in my attempts to turn on the phone throughout the concert. I probably should not have done that but seeing as the phone went dead immediately, it might not have made much difference.
I just dried out the surface & then shook any possible drops out from the openings. Then, I just left it in my pocket throughout the concert (in which I was jumping and moving quite a lot to the music).
I let my phone air dry overnight. I was encouraged by someone to try turning the phone on and it did not work. I put the phone in a bag of rice (as in the article).
After scrolling through suggestions, I put the bag in the fridge for several hours and then I removed it.
48 hours passed and the phone did not have any signs of recovery.
I also noticed that the water damage indicator had been tripped for the headphone opening but not the charger opening. I put in two packets of silica in the rice and when I went to work on Monday, I left the bag of rice in my car (in humid 90+ degrees Fahrenheit weather for ~6hrs).
Three more days passed and I decided to try charging my phone to see if it might work. There was nothing immediately upon plugging into the wall charger.
I came back to check after an hour or two, and miraculously, it had 76% charge and rising! I let it charge for a while longer before testing it.
The home button stuck a bit but that had been normal for my phone. I checked the camera, as many commenters had said that their phone cameras did not work or had moisture on the camera. My own camera was perfectly fine and I had no problems testing the front and back cameras.
All my data and apps were exactly as before.
—The only problems that I did notice were that the speakers didn’t work when using the Music app or any apps like Pandora or YouTube.
When I received a call or vice versa, the speakerphone mode worked fine. The speaker also worked fine when listening to Voice Memo. It seemed as though the options for listening to music on speaker (like the play button & volume control) were altered as if I had connected to a bluetooth device, and therefore not possible.
—And the other problem was that when using earphones, sometimes the volume would jump in intervals or that the audio wouldn’t be heard through the earphones at all.
I was also a bit paranoid that the battery wasn’t as efficient as before.
–But now, 16 days after the submerging of my iPhone, all capabilities have been restored and it works just as well as it did before.
Hi! So i dropped my iphone 4 in a jacuzzi 5 days ago. After it being submerged, i quickly dried it off, & put it in a bag of rice overnight. I dod not turn it off, & while it was in the bag, it was also charging. After leaving it overnight, i turned it on the next morning, and everything was working fine except the volume. The volume wouldn’t appear, i couldn’t listen to music or watch Netflix, but i could call people & facetime them with no problem. Any advice on what i should do? Thanks! – katie
I dropped my iphone 4 in the bowl having hot soup. I immediately took it out. At the time the upper speaker was not working. But after one day it started working but i recognised in that day that the camera was not working. Everything is as same as Leonardo. What should I do now?
I dropped my iPhone 4 into the toilet and took it out right away… I didn’t had any rice available at the moment so I left it there driyng… When I got home the next day I put into rice as soon as I could and left it there for about 30 hours… I charged it (because my power button doesn’t work, even before he dropped into water) and it turned on just fine… The only thing that’s not working is the camera… What should I do?
My apple fell in to the sea im turned it off until tow day but when i bring to the mechanic they said its not working any more
I dropped mine into a pond infested with moss, plants lilypads and dirty water, and of course fish, but i had the case on. Any advice? it took 10 minutes to get out of the water as it’s very murky D;
hi dropped my iphone 4 in the water today.. swiched on it n the off.. its in the rice bag for 4hours till now but the flashlight of the phone is still on will it work? or have i damaged it?
the flashlight is the problem it will stay on. but try hitting it from the back with your palm and wait for 36 hours atleast before powering on.
So I dropped my phone and I did the total opposite. I turned it on and had the apple logo on my screen for about 2 hours then i decided to charge…..is there any hope?
I dropped my phone in water by the way lol
Dropped my iphone 5s yesterday in the bath while bathing our little boy. Picked it up immediately and removed the silicone case and hard plastic cover over the phone. I dried it out with a paper towel to remove excess water and then (may sound weird) I sucked out the water from the headphone port, charger port, and ear output. I then put a hair drier on it to remove the excess with the heat…but not for too long as the drier will get your phone pretty hot. Everything worked except the ear output. I was getting no sound while making or receiving calls but the other phone could hear me just fine.
I went to Verizon and they tried to sell me insurance and the deductible to replace the phone was 149.00
I cam home, and followed the instructions I read here. I place the phone on the off position and placed it in a small ziplock bag of uncooked rice. I also placed a silica pack over the ear piece and packed rice all around the phone. I said a small prayer and went to bed. Woke up, went to the gym came back, ate breakfast with my family, watched a few foreign music videos with my kids and then checked on my phone. I powered it up and it beeped at me…..it had sound!! I placed a phone call on it to test and we’re back in business! Not sure exactly what part of the process did the most help but the point here is that my phone is back to normal. Thank you all for your posts.
Sister found my iphone5 in the toilet AFTER using it (toilet, not the phone) and insisted she did not have my phone on her person when she went into the bathroom. She immediately fished it out and wiped it down with linen dish towel and I put it in a bag of basmati rice (no, not pilaf…ahem) w/o powering off or touching any other buttons to see if it worked. Phone rang and alerted while in the bag, but ignored it and left it alone overnight.
Then found this blog the next morning and got worried about not turning off the phone, so turned off the phone and reinserted for the rest of the 48 hours. Phone works great for a day now, fully charged, no function loss at all.
I’m thinking Sis must’ve had it in her pocket and forgot (at an outdoor party, lots of libations and laughs, passing phone around to watch a funny video of my weiner dog riding a motorcycle in full gear and helmet and she must of ended up with the phone when we went inside) and only in toilet a few seconds, if even that much.
So GREAT advice! And if my phone quits I will post again on how long it lasted, but may have to wait forever! Working great now, in fact using it to post this message!
I couldnt turn it off and its in the rice bag since last night. Should i try turning it off now? Or should i just leave it in the bag til tomorrow?
The iPhone 4 & 5 have a protective shield to protect it… If u open up the phone, which I don’t recommend, you would see that there is a metal plate but completely seals off the screen from the components. The likelihood of water getting past that shield is very slim. On the other hand if you drop your phone in the bathtub and let it sit there for half the day and then spray it down with a hose & then just to make sure the water fully entered your phone, you throw it in the toilet for another half hour. Now, the phone has taken 2 baths and a shower so now the possibility of the phone having water and it may have increased… Lol, my advice is send the phone back as damaged & get a new one. DO NOT take the iPhone apart!!! Unless u are an iPhone repair technician, u will ruin your phone. I will give you my guarantee on that one! Prepaid iPhone owners don’t get your phone wet or get a water resistant case! Cuz if your phone gets wet you are completely screwed!!! That’s my best advice & it is based personal experience, just sayin…
TY – TY I really appreciate the info Left my phone in the rice bag for about 40 hours, working great! No problems! I have seen the naysayers comments and hope it stays working Not going to let that worry me though I can now make sure every thing is backed up, stupid me had not done that for a while My advise to everyone – Back up your phone! Follow Paul’s instructions – it works!
Good luck to all
Yesterday I went to the beach and left my iPhone 4s behind a rock where no one would find it so that it wouldnt be stolen. Anyways, I went swimming and came back about 45 minutes later to find my phone sitting in a huge puddle of water that wasn’t there before! It was sitting about 5 inches under water for I’d say, probably half an hour! It won’t turn on and I’ve read that rice works but it could also damage it even further! I’m not quite sure if I have a chance of the rice working or if I should just send it right to apple to see what they can do. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Dropped phone in water for seconds. Still worked but I threw it in rice (powered on). Next day screen was flickering but phone still on and working. Took it to a repair shop and for. $40, they cleaned it and dried it out. Works great. No stress and no waiting. I think the rice would have done it but couldn’t take it out of commission for a couple of days.
Thanks to everyone for the advise. Hoping I haven’t ruined my phone. First info I got was to dry with hair dryer, I did that for about 10 minutes. Then I found this site. I have it in rice now. Just hoping I did not ruin it by using the hair dryer. On a fixed income and cannot afford another phone. This site has given me hope. Not sure if it is off though. The screen is black. Out of back pocket, into the toilet, only a couple of seconds. Guess I will just have to wait and see what happens, waiting is going to be the hard part. Also, can anyone tell me how to tell if the phone, (iphone 4) shows water damage, don’t know where to look.
Thanks for all the info
I had some doubts it would work at first. I had a flowing bloody nose and jumped in the shower in all of my clothing, completely forgetting my iPhone was inside of my pocket. I took a 20 minute shower until it stopped bleeding, put my wet clothes in my bedroom, and only two hours later did I look for my iPhone. After 10 minutes of looking online, I quickly found some rice, unfortunately enriched, and dropped it in a large plastic bag surrounding it in the powdery rice.
Twenty four hours later, I was eager and turned it on, and it lit up with the low battery sign. I was overjoyed. However, I put it back in to make sure.
DO NOT take it out of the bag early like I did… The following morning I tried it again, and it wouldn’t turn on. At this point I was wondering what I was going to do, as I had just gotten it three weeks prior. I thought it was over, so I just took it out and left it alone for two days. Finding one last shred of hope, I threw it in the bag of rice while on a road trip, and took it out when I arrived at my destination two days later.
Thankfully, it worked. Don’t take it out early, and don’t try to turn it on. I recommend leaving it in for two days based on my experience to make sure it is safe to run electricity through. Good luck to all of those out there!
I washed my phone with a load of sheets. I took it out, dried it off and found this site for advice. I tried to shut off my phone and it wouldn’t power down. Having no apple store for hundreds of miles I decided to try the rice. Since I couldn’t power my phone off I kept checking it periodically. The phone still rang and received alerts but the screen was super messed up. By the next day, around 28 hours later it was starting to clear up. A few hours later I could text and access apps. It’s now about 40 hours and it is working good. You can still see water marks in the screen so I have it powered off and in the bag if rice hoping to clear it the rest of the way. Thanks for all your advice! So glad I don’t have to replace my phone!
I dropped my phone In water and I put It In rice for awhile and then Let it sit out of rice to dry and I let It dry over night I plugged It in and It worked but then the screen goes black what Is wrong with it? Should I leave It to dry more or is it messed up
I fell out of a boat and my iPhone 5c was in my pocket for a few minutes. So put it in rice for 2 days so now it turns on and app and screen works good. But it won’t find my network. But wifi works. But ya just wanted to know what I can do to make my network work and my camera and flashlight. Either that that it works fine. Message me if anyone has any ideas
I dropped my phone in the toilet and retrieved it a split second later. I didn’t know about the rice trick so I took to the hair dryer. I’ve since found out about the rice trick and it’s now sitting in rice. I’ll let you how I go after min 36 hours, but I’m now concerned that I may have cause more damage using the hair dryer as some comments on the net are saying that’s a no-no!
Just tried to turn the phone on. It’s not working :-(
Hi Nicky,
Does your phone work now?
Now it won’t respond whatsoever. Even the apple is gone :(
did it work? i dropped my iphone 5 in the same way and quickly got it out then it turned off it own in the same min i didnt turn it off it was by itself in the same moment, i tried to turn it on but nothing at all, now i put it in rice, my heart is broken i have all my things there and its not backed up on my icloud, did it work with you please tell me !!!!!
Hi Paul! Please help! My daughter dropped her phone in salt system pool. She may have attempted to turn it on after she took it out, I have no idea. It’s been in rice for 45 hours. I got it out this morning and I plugged it in, the Apple sign has been on and off and it just doesn’t want to turn on. What can I do? Great article by the way! Thanks!
Hi,
1st of all a big thanks to Paul for being so patient and for sharing the informative article. A big appreciation for that man!
Thanks to all the other fellow contributors. Your comments really make it lively!
I have an iPhone 4 and on Saturday during a hike I dropped it into the river. It must have been in 3-4 feet deep water for almost a minute before I could fish it out. It was working when I took it out of water. I then switched it off. I shook it well for sometime to get the water out and I left it to dry in the sun. When I went to check it out after 20 minutes I saw that the phone was actually ON (maybe happened while I was shaking it) and then I slowly tried one feature by one – msg, camera, email, internet, screen and all looked fine. Once I got back to the hotel after 2 hrs I took the hair dryer and used it for 5 minutes on it through the holes. It was again working fine when i turned it ON. Only by evening did I realize that when I have a call I could hear/speak only through using the speaker option. The same when I need to listen to music. However by night that also got solved and it was all working fine.
Now after reading Paul’s article these are what I see
1. The water contact sensor is not red ( as far as I can see). I checked the headphone and docking connector areas.
2. I have not opened it yet
3. All functionalities are OK as of now – touch wood!
After reading through all the comments I feel I am either damn lucky or it is blessing by God. Anyway my doubts now are
1. When I talked to a mobile repairer he says water damage will kick in anyway and may happen 2 weeks or 1 month later due to corrosion. Do you think this is right?
2. Should I take it to a technician and open it so that he can blow or suck off the moisture?
3. Or should I just do the rice bag trick?
4. Last option is to just leave it as it is and take a chance as presently it is working all fine.
I wait to hear from you Paul and all the lovely guys in this forum on what I should do now.
Thanks a lot
Over 48 hours in Ziplock bag of rice and my iPhone will not turn on or do anything. 😢 Have it on my wall charger right now hoping that it needs to charge and will then turn on. 🙏 😇 Praying for the best, my iPhone to turn on successfully with no damage!
Thanks again for this article Paul and to all of you for the encouraging comments and stories!! God Bless You All! ❤️
Thank you so much for this article! Yesterday afternoon my iPhone fell into my cup of tea while riding in my husband’s pick-up truck. As soon as I noticed it, I immediately removed the Otter Box cover which was totally soaked but my iPhone only had liquid on the top of it and a few drops on the screen. It was charging at the time it happened with a car charger and was off because the battery had died. I don’t know if it being plugged in to a charger would have done any more damage to it, does anyone know? We weren’t home so I had to wait until we got home before putting it in a ziplock bag of rice. It has been in the ziplock bag of rice since then but I did dry it off on the ride home plus lay it on the dashboard in the sun to help dry it out. I was so upset and actually cried and cried but last night I found this post and feel like I have some hope! Patience, however, is not one of my virtues. 😁 I care for both of my ill parents, my husband is disabled and preparing for a rather serious surgery, and I have a wonderful 9 yr old son full of energy. I handle all of the financial affairs on my phone, all information is on it (I plan my budget each month in the Notes app which is such a help!), plus all doctors for everyone have my phone number to call. I am using my husband’s phone now but have been able to check my voicemail and return some calls. I am praying this works but with all the posts I’ve read, I feel pretty optimistic! I just don’t have another phone I could switch to plus I can’t afford to buy another phone.
Thanks so very much for this article and for everyone that has posted successful comments about their iPhone working great after this remedy!!
Does anyone know if it damaged my iPhone further by being plugged into a car charger when it was dropped into my drink? Also, since the battery was dead and my iPhone was actually off due to no charge when it dropped in my drink, won’t I need to plug it in to my wall charger when I attempt to turn my iPhone on after leaving it in the rice for 36 hours? I’m very nervous about plugging it into my charger and I don’t know why other than I’m terrified I will do more damage. 😩
Thanks again to each of you for giving me hope! 😊 Thank you for the article so very much! 👍 Paul, aren’t you the author of the extremely informative article with the pics of everything to check for in addition to all the useful information ragarding the iPhone? THANK YOU!!! As for the “so called” Technician that so graciously posted a ridiculous negative comment, Get A Life! What you get out of attempting to ruin people’s hope for a way to save their phones after the mistake of dropping it in liquid, I really don’t know or understand! This rice remedy does work because it has worked on my husband’s HTC phone after he jumped in the river to save his fishing pole when a huge fish snatched it out of his hands…pole saved, big catfish caught/eaten for dinner, and HTC phone saved after overnight in a ziplock bag of rice! 😃
Praying and Patiently waiting to see if my iPhone survived! 🙏😢 God Bless Each of You for the positive comments and stories and for giving me Hope! Have a Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!! 🇺🇸😇
I gave my phone to my boyfriend to hold for a minute because I needed to find something, and he had no hands. I put it in his pocket, forgetting that he was wearing a bathing-suit. We both forgot about my phone and jumped into the pool. About 10-15 minutes later, we got out and he realized it was still in his pocket, so we ran back to his house to put it in rice. It has been in rice since. What do you guys think the chances are of it working because if I lose all my pictures and videos from it, I will be devastated. I know I need to have patience and that is fine but I am seriously freaking out here, because we were in the pool for those 10-15 minutes, so I don’t know what is going to happen. :(
When he took it out of his pocket, I tried to turn it on, but it would not come on, and it turned off by itself. Is it supposed to do that?
How well does your BF swim with no hands?
I wish I would of saw this last night. My phone was left on all night still in rice though. I just shut it off and put it back in the rice. I’m totally stressing out though. (I haven’t paid off this phone yet.) So fingers crossed that this works because if not I lost a lot of very important stuff. Should my phone still be fine if I didn’t shut the power off for like 5 hours?
This really worked! I dropped my iphone into the blue water while getting my pedicure. It was completely submerged for a few seconds at least. I blew the water out of the charger plug and I immediately shut it off and the guy at the nail salon dried it with a towel really good and placed it under their nail dryer. I went home and put in a bag of rice for a little over 24 hours and it is working perfectly. Not one glitch or issue whatsoever! Fingers crossed…. It seems as good as new…..
I didn’t read all the comments, so if I am saying the same thing that has been said don’t be all like we read it before.
When my mom dropped it in a bucket filled with water, I removed the sim card and then i vacuumed it. (I covered the tube’s mouth a little so it would vacuum better.) I vacuumed all the holes that would let water in or out for a minute or so. first the phone was slow like the buttons didnt work well or the screen but then it got better by using more and more.
Dropped my phone in the toilet. Typical. Instinctively pulled it out right away and proceeded to dry it off. I noticed that the screen was still lit and the phone had not been shutdown. I placed it by a fan for about 15 minutes. I then remembered the old rice in a bag trick. I found some rice and placed the phone in it. It took me about 20 minutes after the incident to turn the device off and place the place it in rice. I found some silica bags from old shoe boxes and also included them in the mix. Left the phone in the bag for about 8 hours and checked it. Everything was working fine except for the fact that it kept “searching” for a cellular signal. I left it in the bag for another 24 hours and now it picks up a signal. Seems to be working fine. Thanks for the tips!
I’ve just dropped my 7 month old iphone 4s down the loo after getting some tissues (I don’t see how as I wasn’t even leaning over the loo) due to it falling out my pocket! I thought it was okay before the screen began to go funny and it turned out really dim when I got outside to let my sister know what happened. Lets just say I completely freaked out as I was at school and my twin and a pal ran off to grab me some rice from the schools food tech room and came back a few minutes later.
But I have a question: My phone wasn’t fully submerged, it was only half and half (the top part was dry) and my batteries pretty much dead so will it be okay if I leave it in a tied shut bag instead of an air tight one?
Tied shut bag should work. Just make sure it is completely covered with rice!
I don’t have any rice. Will oats or cream of wheat or coffee work or do I need to go to the store to buy some rice?
Really – cream, coffee, wheat??
iPhone in pond this afternoon, in order to save child! Took 15 mins at least till I managed to find phone. It was in a cheapish case and was still on. Wiped it down with tshirt. I was on phone at the time it went in to the dankest smelliest pond imaginable. So I called back and whilst dialling thought using phone was wrong and switched it off ( once I’d worked out/ remember how). It’s now on heated floor and am torn between hair drier and rice. Help very gratefully received.
My phone fell out of my pocket at work a couple hours ago and into the dish water. It was probably in there completely submerged for a good 30-45 seconds before I fished it out. I immediately put it in a bag of rice, even though it seemed fine. I didn’t think to turn it off.
Now it’s sitting in the bag of rice on the counter, buzzing away, but there is nothing showing up on the screen. I can’t turn it off because you need to swipe the screen to do that. I don’t know what else to do but leave it sit for a couple days.
You need to turn off the iPhone if it has made contact with water. Water + electrics do not mix well and can cause damage, turning off the device is step 1 for a reason.
Hey, great article!
I dropped my iPhone 4S in my toilet for about 3-6 seconds before I realized what happened and pulled it out.
My first instinct was to dry it off with my shirt and then I used a blowdryer for about 5-10 seconds (it was only later that I read online that it’s something that I shouldn’t have done!).
I’ve left it in a sealed ziplock full of rice and little silica gel for 36 hours already and I tried turning it on but to no avail!
I’m just so stressed! Any pointers? Do I need to wait longer or should I take it to a phone repair shop?
I dropped my phone in the pool and took it out, dried it and stuck it in a tub of rice and it has been 12 hours. The iPhone was on when I dropped it but when I took it out of the water it was shut off already. Is that bad that it shut off after hitting the water?
did it work? i dropped my iphone 5 in the same way and quickly got it out then it turned off it own in the same min i didnt turn it off it was by itself in the same moment, i tried to turn it on but nothing at all, now i put it in rice, my heart is broken i have all my things there and its not backed up on my icloud, did it work with you please tell me !!!!!
So appreciate all the advice and (positive) comments!
My i4S made a swan dive from my back pocket to the disgusting depths of a toilet bowl. It’s true when they say we discover what is important when the chips are down. Or in this case, floating! I reached in without thought and retrieved my phone.
I had heard about the rice-bag trick before, so immediately completed that. Then googled “dropped iPhone in toilet” and found this site. Love this site and everyones helpful comments! Thank you!
Now caseless, q-tipped, blown dry, and wrapped in rice and silica packets and in plastic – my phone patiently waits. Myself however, am mildly freaking out, but hoping for the best… :-)
Me too! Exact same thing happened to my i4s y’day! How long did it take for your phone to work after the rice trick? Did it work??
I’ve left mine 36 hours+ and I just tried turning it on, nothing!! Kinda freaking out now.
Aww bless you!
I’ve just had a similar horror but I’m at school! I’ve managed to grab some rice before my 3rd lesson and immediately looked up exactly the same as you did and here I am!
And your not the only one…My phone was an xmas gift and was specifically told NOT to take it anywhere near water or I’d not get a new one…I hope it survives!
sadly i dropped my iphone in the toilet yesterday. i dried only using the electricfan and it totaly works fine. all the volume, microphone, charger work just fine but the screen darkened and there were water bubbles. i just red your tips and tried it. my phone was sitting in the bag of rice for an hour now. can it still fix the screen even though it was soaked yesterday and sadly i continued to use it and even charge it today??? *fingerscrossed*
I just want to say thank you to you and all of the other contributors here. My iPhone 5 fell out of my pocket into the toilet. After the immediate expletives and the retrieval which took less than a second, I dried my phone off best I could. Upset and panicked, I found this site. I then painfully left my phone in a baggie of rice for 2 days.
Needless to say, I went absolutely insane without my phone. And worse, had to borrow my husband’s phone for the time. (iPhone 3G). This morning, I decided it was do or die time. I went to the baggie, removed the phone, dusted off the rice dust and blew out the holes and ports with air, and then turned it on. I now have a phone, and so far have not found a function that does not work. Whether or not it will last remains to be seen, but hopefully it will until my upgrade is available in November, 9 months away.
To all of the naysayers about the rice, it was better than doing nothing. Even if it does not last forever, maybe it will last until the upgrade is available. Until then, my next immediate act was to purchase a waterproof case.
I’m going to post my experience with dropping my iPhone in the toilet ordeal.
I’m the kind of person who has the worst kind of luck. I may be careless from time to time, but life is cynical and I’m the type of luck that no matter what lengths I go to fix things that I broke or lost, there’s no coming back.
However, I tried this trick and the gods were smiling down on me this one time and decided to give me a break. I dropped my iPhone into the toilet about three weeks ago, suffice it to say, I picked up right away and toweled it off. Made the mistake of pressing the power screen to make sure it was not dead (a couple of times too), the screen was fine. But then it started having stringy lines and the screen blacked out. In a fright, I quickly put it away and wondered where I could get rice as soon and near as possible while I was at school. During class, even though I assumed it was dead and the screen was blacked out, it was still vibrating and making sounds even though the silence button was on! An hour and a half later when my class finished, I realized I could run to the on-campus sushi place and beg for rice. IT WORKED! Rice lady filled up a ziploc I had and I kept it in the rice bag for a total of 4 to 5 days (tues to saturday). So after waiting patiently for my phone to dry in peace, I took it out of the rice bag and removed any granules stuck in, pressed the power button–nothing. I slowly accepted the fate of my phone, plugged it in and put it back into the rice bag and put it away to the side. While I was looking for a new phone on kijiji minutes later, I heard an iPhone’s chime and pings and good vibrations ;), ran to the rice bag and took out the iPhone and it was working! So i left it to charge while sealed in the rice bag. Its been three weeks since and other than being slow and laggy sometimes, nothing major, and EVERYTHING WORKS!
Keep the faith and hope for the best for anyone that encounter a problem like this! I highly recommend for anyone to do this and I waited an hour and half about!
Hi Tammy & everyone,
I think we are on the same boat with the “I’m the kind of person who has the worst kind of luck”. So this is my story,
5 days ago, I accidentally dropped my iPhone 5s in the toilet for only 3secs max. I picked it up and toweled it off right away. Less than a minute later before I could even turn it off, it turned off by itself (unlucky I know). I made the mistake by pressing the power button, few times (not a clever move) because I was freaking out. The minute I reached home, roughly about 5 hours after it happened, got to know about the uncooked rice trick and gave it a try. I kept it in the tupperware rice for 3 days and yesterday I tried to take it out and put it to charge, it was blank. Nothing. Perhaps i took action too little too late (the 5 hours after) but I swear I have read other people’s experiences even worst than mine but their phone still work just fine as it is. And now I am lost, I have no idea what to do. At least if the device can still turn on the chances is higher. I have used it for only two months, such a bummer. Sending it to Apple or other technician to repair is very costly, I can get myself another brand new phone for that. Sigh. Right now I am still leaving my phone in the tupperware rice box even though it seems pointless.
i had the same experience now dropped my phone in the toilet for only 3secs i picked it up immediatetly and it turn off by itself in the same moment i tried to switch it on but it never give me anything totally dead now its in rice for 2 hours from now, am loved up now all my photos vedios work and everything is not backed up, and am so broke cant get another phone, please tell me what happened after? did it work my phone by the way is 5s gold
Thank you for your suggestion. My phone slipped from my hand 2 days ago and was completely submerged in water. I switched it off immediately and searched the Internet for some advice. This was the first article that popped up and I followed it to the letter right from wiping the phone dry and then looking for hidden moisture with a q tip. Sealing it in a bag of uncooked rice and finally after 24 hours got my hands on a few silica gel packs so removed the phone from the rice, wiped it clean and packed it with silica gel packs in a zip lock bag. And now after 41 hours I restarted it and it works perfectly. I don’t know if it always will… I don’t know for how many days or months or years, but then do you know that about anything else that you purchase? Your car, your TV, your fridge? All I know is that it works now and does not look like it will stop working this week at least and I can live with that. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH :)
I was texting my friend and running a bubble bath with a product from lushin it and dropped my phone in, Im devastated and have in rice in the boiler cupboard atm, Im wondering if the ingredients from the product will have effects on the phone? I need my phone! :'(
Thankyou so much!
My 17 YO son dropped his I5 into toilet. He retrieved the phone immediately and it was dead. I was informed three days after the accident. I searched online found this remedy. I did as it is instructed.
36 hours later the phone was resuscitated completely. It is still good so far.
Thank you very much for share this useful information here. It did save me money and made whole family excited !
TBF
hi
my i phone was soaked in water and i used ur tip and it worked, but only for 10 minutes then the phone was DEAD again
any help??
Turn it OFF and dry it out for 72 HOURS that is 3-4 Days. Full days without use. Then turn it on and try again. Read the instructions that is how you save your water soaked iphone.
I dropped my phone in the toilet a little over a month ago and I immediately googled and found this article and followed the instructions. While my phone was in the bag of rice I came accross a few people who mentioned that the rice worked but after a few weeks/month their phone died.
Worried that this might happen to me, I actually kept my phone switched off & in the rice for 2 weeks (would have had it in for longer but I went overseas and you can’t take a bag of rice with you through customs!).
You might be saying right now ‘I can’t go two weeks, I need my phone!’. I said that too but it’s actually nice not having a phone for a while, I started feeling like a person again and not a robot who’s constantly on her phone. I also run a small business but having notifications everywhere on my website, FB business page, all my clients were informed to contact me through email and so there were no problems there.
My phone is still working with no issues whatsoever, however, I’m still being very cautious. At night & when I’m not using my phone (for long periods of time) I leave my phone off and in the bag of rice, just in case there is still moisture in there and I never charge it for long periods of time, just so the battery doesnt get too hot.
Most importantly, I have learned to function again without a smart phone!! It sounds hard but it’s possible and my life is now less stressful. So, if my phone does die as a result of the toilet, I wont care! I can’t afford to replace it so I’ll just replace it with a nokia and that’s ok with me :)
Moral of my story, you’ll soon learn that it’s not the end of the world if your phone dies from drowning.
My bf’s 1 month old iphone 5s was accidently poured with alcohol (i know!) we woke up today and he saw the ethyl alcohol bottle lying on d floor and the contents were gone and reached his phone lying on the floor nearby.. We placed it in a box with rice and silica packs i have from my bags..ill buy Ziplocks later to transfer the phone and rice and silica..i hope this helps..*sigh*
hi, so i dropped my phone in my mug of tea and immediately took it out… quickly dried it and it still worked after. I noticed the volume was muffled before I clued in that i should probably power it off and put it in some rice! I tried to power it down twice and it only restarted it…. Do you think it will be okay if it stays on while i soak it in rice?!
No, do NOT keep the phone on. Water + electronics DO NOT MIX, it shorts the circuit and causes serious damage. Follow the instructions exactly: turn the phone OFF, then dry it off and put in rice or silica, keep it OFF for 48-72 hours minimum before attempting to use again.
however all the companents are coated in a corrosion resistant material and it will work if you leave switched on in the rice and also it only takes 6-8 hours for rice to completely dry off the phone
i have done the painstaking task of testing it out with around 12 differnet iphones all of which i managed to get working and completely moisture free within 8 hours
Thanks for the suggestions on this website. They did save my iphone. I dropped it in the toilet. As soon as I picked it up out of the water and dried it, I mistakenly turned it on to play with it. The touch screen was not working, so I couldn’t do much with it. When my husband got home about an hour later, he told me about the rice theory. I dried the iphone more with cotton swab then placed in ziplock with rice grains. The next day I knew it was working again ’cause I could hear it ring when ppl were calling. I know it should be untouched once put in rice, but I was expecting important calls, so I would check the numbers then put the phone back in ziplock. I didn’t take it out to use till a little over 36 hours later. Since then it’s been working just fine. There were glitches those times I took it out to check numbers. For example, it deleted a voicemail. But it’s all good now. Seems fully functional so far: calls, emails, netflix, notes, calendar, apps, etc. Thanks so much.
Went running, dropped phone in the snow. When I got back headphones unplugged, iPhone 5s was still stuck in headphone mode. Did the q-tip trick and headphone cord firmly unplug technique and it worked like a champ.
I dropped my iphone 4 into the snow. It had an otterbox on, so the snow only got in the important parts. -_- I took off my case and used my hairdryer on it for a minute or two. But now it’s in rice. I hope it gets water out of speakers because I listen to a lot of music on that phone. Wish me luck! Fingers crossed!
I dropped my iphone 5 in the toilet Saturday evening. It’s now Tuesday and it’s been in rice on the radiator ever since. I keep firing it up and the water mark is fading under the screen but not completely gone so I keep putting it back. It’s shrinking all the time. Although most works, the camera is black and doesn’t work but works fine for selfies and there is no volume on incoming call or message although music plays fine and I can hear and be heard on the phone. Anybody have any ideas?? There is no red indicator!
I have followed these procedures and everything seems to be working just fine except for the wifi. Where the slider is to turn on the wifi, it will not move. The slider is entirely unresponsive. Is this some kind of failsafe perhaps? If you know anything to help fix this issue the help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Dropped my phone in a toilet full of crap. I said, “Oh-Crap!, What do I do now?” So I looked what to do if Iphone falls in water… THANK YOU PAUL!!!! I put the wet (and poopy) phone into a bag of white rice (now it is brown rice), and waited for about 50 hours. I plugged it in yesterday and BINGO, it worked. Thoroughly sanitized it with some lysol wipes and its good to go. Your article saved me $600 and even more importantly the headaches that go along with having to replace the phone. THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Now you can add “what to do if your Iphone falls into Poop and water” in your title.
Thanks for this information. My wife just dropped her iPhone into the dog’s water bowl. Briefly, but completely submerged. I thought this was the thing to do, so I put in rice. Then found your article. Placed the whole thing into a zip-lock at that point. Hoping it works well.
Thank you !!!!
As for the Fruit Technician’s comment’s, just remember it’s easy to be a critic without hope or solutions. That’s all he is.
Perhaps the rice won’t fix the phone completely. So what, most people don’t have the resources to drop $650 on a replacement device. They need a phone. If you can get the phone to make calls and have some, if not all, the functionality back, you just need it to get by until your contract is up and you can get a replacement. For most people, if and when they drop their device in water, it’s likely closer to the replacement date.
The problem with comment sections on websites is they attract pessimistic, narcissistic know-it-all’s, who haven’t a real life outside the internet. By the way they talk in these comment sections, we can see why.
Frankly, like most people, I’d rather hear from someone who will contribute to the solution rather than tell the one who has a potential solution “it’s useless”.
Hey Bailey, you’re very welcome! This has worked for me on several occasions after dunking an iPhone in water. The keys to remember are: be sure the iPhone is turned off, sit it air tight in rice (or lots of silica gel if you have it handy), and then give it plenty of time to thoroughly dry out, 72 hours or longer is ideal. It may not work for every single occurrence, but you’re right, for most of us the prospect of saving $650 is sufficient enough to make it worth trying, and in many situations it does indeed revive an iPhone and save it from permanent water damage.
Good luck, let us know how it works out!
I dropped my iphone in a bucket of water on Saturday 01/02. Instead of picking it up straight away, I was in shock and stood there and stared – I know! When I finally realised what had happened (after about 5 secs), I quickly took it out. I dried it with a towel then blow-dried it (where you plug the charger etc) – although I did see on another forum afterwards that you shouldn’t blow-dry it. Oops!
Anyway, luckily I found this page and did what you said. I put my phone in a zip lock bag full of rice and added a few packs of silica gel and left for nearly 48hrs. I turned it on this morning (03/02) and to my relief, I saw the amazing apple logo! :)
Although the battery had drained, but it was great to know that it could be saved. Charged it up and all is working (although I can see slight water mark on the screen), but as long as everything else works (alarm, sounds, camera etc), I am happy.
So, THANK YOU so much for this information! :)
Thanks for the excellent advise!!! iPhone was accidentally dropped in a water and bleaching detergent a few weeks back. Tried the rice trick but only had Basmati rice so let it sit for the longest week I’ve ever endured. Typing on it now – works 100%!!! Thanks so much… LAM (South Africa)
at like 9:30 i dropped my iphone 4 in the toilet and grabbed it out immediately. i shook off the water and put it in a bag of rice. i tried turning it off but it would always turn back on. it was at like 8 percent so i just left it. do you think it will be dry at maybe 4 pm tomorrow? it was only in the water for about 3 seconds so i dont think it got water completely inside but i could be wrong. i only need it to work for 4 more months until i can get a new phone. im scared that it wont work my phone is my life i need it and i dont have my ipod anymore so i have nothing else
My phone dropped in the toilet about 3 weeks ago, immediately placed in rice and my phone worked great. Today it just stopped working, it’s on and I can hear it but it’s completely blacked out. Does anyone think it has a chance if I put it back in the rice or any other tricks to try?
I think the phone is gone :( guess the previous water damage was too big. Happened to a friend of mine too. She dropped her iphone 4 in the sinc and put it in a rice bag for 24 hours. Afterwards it worked fine but after 2 weeks she started noticing some minor issues when it came to the touchscreen. But by that time it was still working ok. 5 weeks after thr water incident the phone gave up completely. She sent it in to apple and got it replaced for 290€ (Not sure how much this is in USD) . I dropped my iphone yesterday into the toilet :( still praying for a happy end ;) did yours work again?
some steaming hot tea fell on my phone the other day, i hurried to wipe it off with a tissue and a cloth and it looked fine and worked, but the touch screen failed.
i rushed to work because i arrived late and when i noticed my phone was shut off. i couldn’t leave my workplace so i only could sneak off and buy a rice bag and put it inside of it around 6 hours later the tea fell on the phone.
it has been inside a zip bag for 48 hours and it still doesn’t turn on.
should i lose all my hope or maybe just keep it in rice a few days?
I dropped mine in the toilet. It powered down on its own after about 20 minutes. After 18 hours I tried plugging it it and only got the white apple symbol. I took some of the advice above since I didn’t have rice and stuck it in a mini fridge for 4 hours. Took it out and plugged it in and it is now up and running beautifully.
Thanks for the advise, my dad dropped his iphone 4 in th swimming pool, we put it n bag of rice for more than 48 hrs, it did work but i can see there is still traces of water inside the screen. its working fine but th battery is very weak , any advise ??
Do not turn it on or use it if you can still see water. The device must be 100% dry before being in use. Wait longer until the iPhone is totally dry.
Hi !
I dropped my iphone 4 in bucket full of water last evening – immediately took it out – since it was in the cover it was not fully wet – it was in working condition but only hearing speaker was not working – was worried and tried a lot with hair dryer etc. – then i read the Rice Bag therapy – put the same in rice bag for 6 hours – its working perfectly ..
thanks for nice article and suggestion.
wbr
I just dropped my phone in a choline pool three days ago. It was probably in the pool for only two seconds and as soon as i took it out i took off the case and headphones and tried to turn it off but it didn’t respond. i put it in a bowl of rice and then had an idea to hit it with the hairdryer for a few minutes some water came out. I have it in a bag of rice right now being charged aswell i have tried to turn it on a couple of times but no response. what should i do as PS it is an i phone 4
I, like so many others before me, accidentally dropped my 3 month old iphone 4s into the toilet.
It was submerged for a maximum of 2 seconds, as I quickly reached in and got it out. I cursed my bad luck and proceeded to dry off the phone. I have a small fan blowing on the phone to evaporate any remaining moisture. My best advice to anyone: get yourself a waterproof case if you are ever unlucky enough to drop your iphone into water, you’ll be so happy you did!
As someone mentioned before, even a sturdy, thick, zip lock bag is great to waterproof your phone during wet rainy weather.
my iphone 4s fall with me into a pool, i was there for about 10 o maybe 20 second then i took it out of the water. I noticed it was turned off so i left it like that then put a tiolet paper around and put it all night near a lamp. next morning i found one little silica bag, i put the phone into a ziplock bag with the silica bag with it, few hours later i got rise and filled de ziplock bag then put it near sun light not directly to the screen) i left it for 2 days like that then i try to turned on but nothing happened, I connect it to the power source but nothing happened.. its dead.
Im very upset with this phones of today they are to delicate and every day life its not to be delicate. I wont take it to apple service center because it will cost more than 100 dollars cause it has no guaranty left. and surely they will say “logic card is screwed up” and that means no more phone.
well thats my story it was hopping rise could help i decided not to use a modern phone again i have a life and i wont dedicate it to a phone. They make this things to get screwed so you have to buy phones forever. So mobile phones companies: you suck
specially you Apple over priced.
today i dropped my iPhone in the toilet. i know, its stupid. i dried it of and put it in a bag of rice. when i checked the flashlight was stuck on and the screen stopped working. what is the chance that my iPhone will work again in 24 hours?
I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical of this & thought my iPhone was fried! I accidentally dunked my iPhone in water two days ago & I then did the really stupid thing of trying to turn my phone on a bunch of times to see if it was really damaged (I know, super smart, huh?). I had a black screen & the only sign of life was Suri telling me “Sorry, Katherine, I am unable to help you at this time”! – seriously, she said that! In desperation, I tried the rice in a bag trick … 42 hours later, took out the phone & it works perfectly – absolutely no problems!! Thank you!
Hey Katherine I’m in the same hole that you were in I dropped my phone in the toilet and I tried to turn it on again several times (so stupid of me) and well here I am waiting and hoping my phone will turn on again soon. I hope I get the same luck that you did and that my phone works again! (If it doesn’t I’m so dead)
Hi there,
My Iphone, sadly ended into the toilet for a few seconds and I put it into a rice back like it said on this article for day and a half and it works!!!! I have so much information in my phone I felt such a relieve when this morning I turned it on and it worked again.
Thank you!!
Mayla
This really works !
This really works ….wow…dropped my iphone5 in water while helping a friend with a Puff Adder in her canoe…for real…she leaped 10 feet into the air !…I was walking on lagoon so ran to assist..my phone fell out of pocket into water…salt water too…so finally got the snake out of canoe….carried it into the dunes on the oar…actually a calm Puffy no hissing and puffing…ran back home freaked out !both at snake and phone…and dried with hairdrier…then did the apparently total no no …plugged it into charger as it was dead as a brick..
went on line read this ….oops pulled out charger….stuck in zippy bag full of Basmati rice (extra flavor) for 48 hours…phoned insurance for claim….must have thought my story a little nuts !….yeah a snake in the canoe !
and this am pulled out o bag…plugged in as battery was dead….put power button on and after what seemed like an age….the ever beautiful Apple appeared on the black screen…it rebooted slowly and (miraculously it seems to moi)….it works like new !….thanks for the pioneers of Rice and Zippy bags ! and this fantastic Post !WOW amazing !….Life ! Thank you !
I dropped my Iphone5 in the sink this morning. Luckily it was in a case – though not a waterproof one- and I acted with lightning speed. I removed the case and dried it really well. The Speck case kept the important areas dry, really just the screen got wet. It is perfectly fine and no indicator light came on. I have used the rice trick in the past and it worked well.
Jasmine, did you ever get your phone to work?
Ok so I dropped I’m I phone 4s down the toilet, i got it out straight away and dried with a hair dryer, my phone still works, it rings, vibrates, touch screen still works fine but it won’t play music and the volume will not go up or down, I plugged it into my docking station and it played fine. When I took it off the docking station and pressed play it played for about a second then the problem continued, how can fix this pls
I’m having the exact same problem with my iphone 4 after dropping I in the toilet. I dried t off with paper towels and such and unlocked I to check if everything was fine, the volume buttons are not responding well and my ringer works but I cant play music. I now have it in a bag of rice but I don’t know if this will help my issue or not…
I dropped my iPhone 3G in my pool, it fished it out with pool brush and praying…underwater for about 2-3mins.
I quickly removed the SIM card then got online…here I am.
I noticed that when the phone was in the water the black screen with apple came on. Then I removed the cover and shook out some water.
I used the blow dryer for 10 mins.
IM hoping that after a few hours in the sun will dry it out quickly.
I’ll be back to report my results, dang I knew I should have made a copy of my contacts last week when the idea crossed my mind.
Have my iphone5 in a zipper bag with rice and silica packets. Cross your fingers for me, please. How can anybody even wait 24 hours? It’s killing me to be without it.
Did it work? Doing the same to my phone but nothing is happening after charging my phone :/
Did it ever work?
same here my phone fell its in a bag or rice and it kills me to not use it!!!!
Same here! Dropped my iphone 5s into the toilet yesterday evening and now its resting in a bag full of rice and silicium bags . Almost 18 hours without my phone and i must say im about to loose it ;) sad but true. Fingers crossed our phones survive and that time passes quickly ;)
how come the water sensors on my phone didnt turn red?
my phone was completely soaked in water (my water bottle leaked :( ) and the sensors didn’t catch that?
i have 3GS iphone
Hi, my iphone 4 slipped down (back pocket, again!) into the toiletbowl for a dip a few days ago. It lit up, then blacked out. After realising what happened, I fished it out and ran it under clean water for about 3 seconds. The phone was in the toilet but not more than 5 seconds. :/
I dried it with a towel straight after that and plunged the phone into a ziplock bag filled with rice. I took it out after 2 days to see that the camera was still foggy :(
Placed it back into the rice & I tried to give it more heat. (It’s challenging as winter is approaching) It’s been another 2 days, and the fog at the camera is now gone :)
Howeverrr, I plugged it into the charger and all I could hear is the “zzzz” sizzling sound.
Am I doing it right?
My life depends on my phone now because I’m on an exchange program here and it will be another 3 months before I’m headed home :(
Hi Jasmine,
I did exactly the same thing dropping my phone in the toilet!
I have had it in the bag of rice BUT also put the bag on my very heated bathroom floor…I think the heat and the rice did the trick and my phone is working again!!
How many silica packets did you use?
Hiya :) I dropped my month old iPhone 5 64GB in the toilet (yep, the classic, slipped out of back pocket. I was slightly drunk so forgot to take it out before) about 10pm on Friday evening. I took it out very quickly. It couldn’t have been fully submerged more than maximum 4 seconds? Although, I did, stupidly, I realised later, press the home button, causing the screen to light up on my lock screen, as the phone was on and locked at the time.
I immediately dried it quickly and carefully with a paper towel and shook it hard to get droplets out. I then took out the sim card and sim card holder. I blew very hard into the gap, and also into the headphone and charger gaps. It’s essential you take out the sim immediately and get the slot dried because in an iPhone 5, that’s where the moisture sensor is that voids your warranty if it changes colour.
I then poured a bag of white rice into a large plastic bowl and put my iPhone in it, deep under the rice so it was surrounded. I then put clingfilm over the bowl and placed on the top shelf of the airing cupboard.
I left it in there for 3 days days, until about 9.30 on Monday evening. Then I took it out, extracted any rice from the holes and switched it on. It was perfect, as though nothing had happened. As far as I can tell, no damage to screen, speakers, headphone jack or charging port, camera or anything else. Like new. And, even better, I haven’t activated the moisture sensor. So if I do have a problem, I can still take it to the apple store and have it fixed on my warranty :) So happy.
Glad to hear you recovered your iPhone from a water mishap!
This happen to my hours ago. my phone is in rice I hope that this works, but my moisture sensor has the red dot :(
Today, while charging an Iphone 4S it fell top into a cup of water with about one inch.
We are not sure how long it was submerged while plugged in. When found the phone was “Off”
No water contacted the bottom of the phone, just an inch of the top. We have it in Rice now–and plan to leave it there for 48 hours. Cannot see any moisture in the camera area now, no sign of the red sensors… Have Not tried to plug in and turn on yet…
My Questions: Do you think it will make a difference that it was plugged in to the charger When it fell into an inch of water in a cup?
On 20 April 2013 I fell into a pool, iphone 4s got out of pocket and fell in water, submerged for 5 minutes. I picked it out and found it had no problem at all. I have been using it up to now without a problem. I have got 3 witnesses.
I´ve dropped my iphone in the woods three hours a rainy day and the toilet 2 times and it´s still alive and kicking. No rise, just quick shake and hair dryer. worked great for me.
great. if anyone dropping a device in water would be quick enough to find this article at the very same moment (with another device?) i would firstly suggest to remove the battery if possible, ignoring any shut down procedure. or is an iphone built withou one?
secondly i wonder what rice would do better than a usual room open air condition, as long as relative humidity is not extremely high and the air id not filled with corrosive gases. (like h2s which i personally do not have in my living room – do you?)
furthermore i consider ambient temperature as a relevant parameter as well. how far below parts melting temp would be ideal?
What’s with all the crazy idea’s being suggested?! ‘Putting your phone in a very low heat oven for an hour or two’ Do people really do that, Sounds Crazy to me
genni_
Amen
As an employee of 5 years having examining thousands of iOS devices at the bar I can say blog posts like this hurt the customer more than anything else.
Some fast facts:
Rice doesn’t work. I cannot stress this enough. If it did work I wouldn’t see so many of them everyday. Unless it was splashed with de-ionized/distilled water, the mix of wet plus the acidity of the fluid on the copper is going to rot some contacts and your device will not power on in eight to ten weeks. Water is instant death or advanced cancer for your phone: it’s often just a matter of time. There are parts that don’t ever “heal”, like the camera sensor, flash and the backlight display (those “cataracts” in the background of your screen aren’t every going to dry off).
Rice or silica gel crystals (the ones at the bottom of women’s new purses that no remembers to discard) will usually find it’s way into the headphone jack where you cannot dislodge it and we will treat it as a total swapout and offer you a service part with a price depending on your Applecare+ status. Managers can no longer override out-of-warranty damage exceptions (they don’t get the system access) since Applecare+ launched because the customer was presented the opportunity to subsidize anticipated damage costs at the time of purchase, but opted not to.
Most common water damage scenario: iPhone in drink cup holder that still has about a few centimeters of drink “sweat” in it. iPhone dock connector “drinks” liquid, rots 30-pin teeth at the bottom, trips liquid sensor. Device no longer charges from contact corrosion, and/or warranty void from at least 1 liquid sensor tripped.
Do not put your phone in the oven. There are thin rubbery parts that will melt in a hot car alone.
My advice? Be smart. You don’t bring your laptop to the beach or the shower, give the same regard to your mobile devices. If you buy Applecare+ or save up for the financial eventuality. Use iCloud & Photo stream, you’ll be happy you did.
wow…. you must represent like every phone tech in the world…
first off i think you need to do a little research, every article I’ve read on the subject matter suggests rice as the easiest solution, and probably 85% of the commenters have had success with little or no damage. It’s sad that you think 15% must represent everyone whose phone received water damage
second, of course your discouraging people to not to try the rice trick.. thats less money for you..
third, it’s really a shame that Apple makes such expensive products, yet we have to walk on egg shells to keep them safe and protected… and the repairs cost an arm and a leg… such a money scam. and I’m not just talking about water damage.. that’s gonna happen with any electronic, I’m talking about the screen that cracks from minor drops and the fact I can’t leave my phone in the car cause it will melt.. it’s ridiculous.. I wish the quality would match the price tag
I’m gonna have to end with what Sheldon on bbt said… the title apple genius is an insult to the word genius
AMEN! @hn
amen
Putting your phone in a very low heat oven (under 125 degrees F) for an hour or two can work as well. If you can keep the temperature closer to 100 there’s less of a chance of melting anything -and putting it in a pot filled with rice couldn’t hurt either (dry rice.) The point is removing the humidity from the air as quickly as possible. All the other points about corrosion still apply, but are the risk you take on.
About two months ago I accidentally put my iPhone in the washing machine. I didn’t know it was still in one of my pockets, so it went through the whole washing program.
When I opened the washing machine I found my iPhone with the flash light on and the screen showed the start-up screen (black screen with white Apple logo). I immediately tried to turn it off, but it didn’t do anything. It was just impossible to turn it off. It was completely stuck at the boot screen with the flash light on.
I then put it in the oven and of course after a while the flash light and screen had completely drained the battery. When I connected the iPhone to the power socket it took about an hour until it booted.
This is the result:
– The camera doesn’t work anymore. The Camera app only shows the shutter screen. Normally when you start the Camera app you’ll see the shutter for a fraction of a second. The Camera app on my iPhone just shows this image of a shutter forever.
– The screen has some very light dots and some very dark spots and some stripes.
– The speaker doesn’t work anymore. I’m talking about the speaker you’d use when watching a movie. The speaker you use when making a phone call still works, so I can still make phone calls.
I’m happy I can still make phone calls and I couldn’t care less for the speaker and the screen, but I really miss the camera. My iPhone was my primary camera and after my iPhone has been in the washing machine I’ve encountered several occasions I wanted to take a picture, but couldn’t because of the dead iPhone camera.
Although I really miss the camera I don’t want to spend $ 1200,- (yes, that’s what an iPhone costs in my country) only to get an iPhone with working camera again. My country has no Apple Stores, Apple has no website in my country, there’s no Apple Care and I don’t have a contract. It’s just a pre-paid iPhone.
I’m now waiting for Apple to release a new iPhone, so I’ll have more reasons to upgrade and I know I’ll have the latest model for the upcoming year.
Wow where does an iPhone cost $1200? Can’t you buy an unlocked one used on eBay and have it shipped for much less?
Why was my reply rejected? Yes, I started my reply with the link to a website to buy iPhones, but that’s the biggest APR in my country and the place to buy an iPhone in my country as there’s no official Apple Store nor an official Apple Website. My post was no spam in any way, but a reply to Zoinks’ question. You would’ve know it was no spam, but a legit reply if you looked further than the URL. My comment was no comment with links to Chinese websites and only text like “Buy new iPhone $125.” My comment consisted of normal text. I think it was really easy to see my comment was no spam.
Use a hairdryer jeez blow the phone for 5 minutes and you’re ready :D Don’t waste 36h with this… i’ve dropped my iPhone 4 3 times in water and the hairdryer always works no problems for 2 years now i even shower with the damn thing :D
This doesnt always work i dropped it and tried it. Didn’t work hoping this will.
You are awesome!!!!After a trip out of town dropped my phone in a public toilet. Put my phone in a bag of rice the morning after. Did not turn on after 30mins..saw your comment and used the hair dryer. Everything works just
fine. I may have put a little to much heat…..has two little lines on the side of the screen. Can’t really tell. Thanks so much Mario!!!!!!It really works people!!!!
1. did you blow dry it immediately? I asked because my iphone was in water 2 hrs ago and, between then and now, i tried many times to use it — was at work and had to make calls.
2. did you use hot or cool air of the dryer?
many THANKS!
Now you know to just let it be once it is dropped in water.
rice – classic rumour that’s gone too far.
my wife’s 3gs fell in water. i put it in a bowl of rice on top of the central heating boiler for 48 hours. Two years later it’s still working fine. The moisture indicators are still red though.
Did ut? Ciz i dropped mine today in water!
Will it serously work
dust mite is lodged somewhere in the camera ….black speck showed up when I focused, then the final picture if enlarged show antennae on one end an little cilia like legs…Can’t shake it loose, and it is not disintegrating..but is wrecking all my photos. Any ideas?
Haha, I think (and hope) you’re joking!
This is all great advice, but I would recommend leaving it in rice for 48 hours if not 72 hours before turning on. How long you leave it alone should depend on how much humidity is in the surrounding air, and how wet it got in the first place.
What I do is forgo closing the bag of rice in favor of leaving it open with a large fan and space heater blowing on it. The space heater creates extremely dry air, and the fan helps to circulate it. The two combine to suck out a lot of moisture, even if you’re in a fairly humid environment.
The weirdest phone-in-water solution I’ve heard was by a co-worker and it started with:
WD-40
That’s who I found out that the “WD” stands for “Water Displacement” – it worked.
I don’t remember what else he did.
My personal story with water damage involved a washing machine and honesty.
It worked… well, the honesty did.
I went to the Apple store and because I was the most honest client the tech had seen in a whole year he gave me a replacement for free.
BOOYAH!
really??? LOL that is awesome!!! Why do so many ppl try to hide the truth, lol….?
I was busy taking “selfies” and doing workouts in the pool at the same time (uhhh in my only defense I *am* a Photographer, bwahahaha! Still – pretty embarrassing! LOL)… yeahhhhh that phone took one wrong movement and SPLASH landed at the bottom of 3’6″ of water – after a split second, I immediately dove down – eyes open – grabbed it, and raised it above water. Then I ran to my towel and wrapped it in it a few times over. After that I wrapped it several times over with toilet paper and let it sit, until a friend recommended the rice. So about 30-45 mins later, the phone was in rice and has been there now since around 9:30 last night (it’s 4:30pm now)….
It is now also sitting out on my Texas-heat patio. (It’s the summer days and HOT! I hope this is OK…)
Another step if just the rice doesn’t work—leave it in a hot car for awhile.
The best and fastest way to dry out any piece of electronics is to put it in the oven; carefully set the temperature to 150 degrees F (no higher), and leave it in there for an hour. This has worked for me with several radios.
if it was in salt water, first rinse it thoroughly in fresh water, then put it in the oven. No guarantees with salt water; it may take several days for the salt to corrode things. Chances are, with salt water, that its toast.
Another chef who cooked his electronics back to health :-)
my iphone 4s is in water ,when i found my phone get warm n showing backlight glow then i put my iphone in rise under the airpack plastic polythine…….time goes on wht should i do
Wrapping your phone in a dry cloth and placing it in a fridge (not a freezer) for 24 hours work faster than rice. Refrigerators extract moister from the air inside (freezers freeze the moisture inside). Tried this while at a conference with no access to rice. Mini bar has some uses after all. Worked for me overnight.
Hey, I dropped my IPhone 5S in the toilet this morning,and I have a flight on Friday I don’t know if I can let it sit in rice for 48 hours… does what you said actually work?
When I am near water or headed out in the rain, I do one of two things: 1) I out my iPhone in my Otter, or 2) I carry a ziplock bag or two with me. The closer to water I get the faster the iPhone goes into the ziplock bag.
Had an iPod get a “bit damp” from a drenching downpour, used the silica gel solution, was OK but never worked right again.
Now believe an ounce of prevention is worth at least $600.
:)
When I dropped my iPhone 5 in my hot tub, I powered it off and dropped it in a bowl of 90% isopropyl alcohol. It works great. There is a mark under the touch screen. I tried the rice trick on a 3G. It took a very long time and the camera never worked again.
Just because a desired result comes about from a certain action does NOT mean the is a causality link between them. As an example, put a bowl of rice out on a humid day and watch NOTHING happen. BDK has a right idea with silica gel packets, this is a product specifically designed to remove moisture from an enclosed environment. Best advice from a real technician? Back up your stuff, buy AppleCare+, and make an appointment to see a technician. Worst comes to worse, we’ll offer you a replacement at less than 50% of retail. Anybody else that can do that?
I was on the chat FOREVER with an Apple care technician… he was an idiot. I was nice until he told me Id have to wait 4 days to bring it in Apple retail store! 4 days! Not good for business…I paid 100 bucks for apple care AND how much is 50% off retail?? OMG so frustrated…I made the appointment in 4 days for now but I have to try something! Just bought rice…
By all means, do put your phones into rice, silica bags, I see phones that have had all types of liquid I’m them, in extreme circumstances yes it may work for a period of time, then get problems. But the phone will never ever be working to its full potential. Indeed myself have had the unfortunate accident of spilling water onto my phone, it worked for a few weeks afterwards then died. Everything Stephanie says is true. The guys at the Genius Bar are there to help.
Take this comment for what it’s worth. It’s 50/50 if your lucky or not, depending how fast you dry it out.
I wasn’t trying to be a dick.
And as for putting a phone in an oven or tumble dryer, that’s just plan stupid.
We appreciate your feedback Fruit. For many of us, trying something is better than doing nothing and throwing in the towel just to shell another $600 on a new phone since we’re too early in a contract to get a discount. As I said, I’ll update in the future if there are any additional problems down the road with this particular iPhone 5 model.
Anyway, thank you for your comments and for relaying your direct experiences. Everything is welcome here, even if it’s critical of or contrary to what we write!
I’m not the kind that says “don’t do this or that cuz Apple techs will find out.” I’ve had my fair share of giving bad news and it blows to spend $149 to $230 to replace a water damaged phone.
A few key tips to add to Paul’s awesome article:
As long as you have the right tools (do NOT strip the screws), take off the backplate after the phone has been in the rice for a few hours (only iPhone 4 and 4S). If you can’t do this properly, don’t attempt it. You’ll make matters worse.
If it falls in salt water, you’re done. Take it to the store ASAP before any indicators are obviously tripped or corrosion settles in. Don’t lie to your tech when it’s gotten to the point of obvious contamination. They won’t be lenient about that.
If it falls in anything sugary (including alcohol, black coffee, diet soda, juices) you’re pretty much done. It’s easily detectable that there’s contamination when the phone is opened up and reeks of tequila. Again, don’t lie. You just look retarded.
Don’t expect a couple of hours in rice will do the trick. Seriously, it won’t. Water has to be “removed” through incredibly small crevices. It’s a “magical” device but it can’t perform magic.
One last piece of advice, and please take this seriously, if you do take the liquid damaged device to Apple, don’t be a dick to your technician. They will not even consider helping you out somehow. Remember, they have the power to charge you for your f**k up. Don’t make them use it…
I to dropped my iPhone 4 in water like 14 months ago put in rice for 3 days then turned on no go so plugged it in and it came on in a couple minutes so if yours doesnt come back on try plugging it in.
does this work for ipod touch
Yes it should work just fine for an iPod touch or an iPad
it worked with mine
Or instead of paying $100 to apple to fix it i can fox certian parts for under $50. facebook.com/baxbhairepairs
Many years ago there was an article on what to do if you spilled liquid on a keyboard. I had a rum and coke too close to my Mac keyboard and turned my head with earphones on and the cable poured the liquid into the keyboard (waste of rum). I immediately rinsed it in tap water and then following the instructions, followed that with a distilled water rinse (I had it for the steam iron) and all was fine when it dried out. I wonder if a distilled water rinse would help to remove salts and minerals, especially if the phone was dropped in say, a swimming pool or mud puddle?
My daughter dropped her iPhone 4 in a bucket of water in a dance competition in NYC. She ran out to find a Chinese restaurant to get some rice. They would not give it to her a first, but she showed them her phone so they did. It was in rice for a few days. When we turned it on it would not do a thing. We took it to the Genius Bar and they said they would be right back and took it in the back room. It fired right up when he came back but the camera has not worked since. All of the water indicators were red, but at least most of it still works :)
Wait for 48 hours or longer for best results. You can’t see the water inside. Let it dry!
Shortly after purchase a friend’s iPhone 4 was dropped into fresh water and quickly removed. Looked up the specs for the phone, specifically for the max non-operating temperature. Programmed oven for 10˚F below that limit. Turned oven off and put iPhone in for a couple of hours. May have repeated the process. After about two years, that phone is still working without any problems!
After reading this article i have the need to drop my iPhone into the pool.
LOL !! Some lite humour amongst a flurry of support for the fruit phone :)
i have been told that if you wrap it up in a towel and put it in a tumble dryer, also works well…
I don’t think that would be a really good idea. It’s a possibility you’ll open up your dryer to a shattered phone instead of a wet one….
My advice: you know those silica gel packets that come with new shoes and so many other things? Keep them, and hoard them. Silica gel works much better than rice. Otherwise this is very sound advice.
The rice (or silica gel) trick will work for quick dunks and splashes with liquids, but @A Roberts is right that for severe cases you will want to clean the board and contacts directly. Pop open up the iPhone and rub it down with an alcohol solution. This is standard procedure in every iRepair shop, and they’ll charge you $100+ for it when all they’re doing is using a $0.75 rubbing alcohol bottle from Walmart with a terry cloth. The hardest part is taking apart the iPhone if you’ve never done it before, but as long as you have the pentalobe screw driver and a little spatula it’s pretty easy.
Here’s a discussion about the corrosion issue.
http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/44094/How+do+I+clean+corrosion+after+water+damage
For what it’s worth, what is most likely to have problems longterm is the power port and battery due to electrochemical corrosion from iron and copper residue.
One thing to note is that if you drop your iPhone into chlorine-filled water (for example; a swimming pool), then it is very unlikely that the liquid contact indicators will trigger. This is because chlorine bleaches the indicators.
Very interesting to know, thanks for that!
But, unfortunately, chlorinated water is much more corrosive.
components inside of an iphone are coated in corrosion resistant materials
Here’s my experience when I accidentally washed my iPhone 5 a month ago.
Do NOT try to turn it on and do not plug it in. This will fry the components. Fortunately, Apple built in a fail safe that prevents you from turning the phone on until you plug it in.
I tried rice for 48 hours and it was very slow. I still had water pooled under the glass. Instead I opened up a couple of those little gel silica packets that come in electronics packaging and poured the contents into a plastic bag and sealed it with the phone inside NOT touching the silica.
8 hours later the water was gone. I plugged the phone in and it turned on and I’ve had no problems. I checked the moisture indicator and it wasn’t red. A miracle.
Fruit Technician – FU. So we should just toss the phone away? Corrosion doesn’t kill components when they are dry, which is what this article prevents. Don’t comment on s*** you don’t know about.
Great to hear everything worked out, thanks for chiming in with your direct experience. I have high hopes mine will survive just fine too.
Hey, im absolutely gutted i dropped my iphone in the toilet last night, yeah the toilet!! It has been in a tub of rice since last night but im worried because i tried to switch it on a couple of times as soon as i dried it down.. What do i do? wait for 36 hours i guess yeah? fingers crossed! Thank you x
MY iphone battery is low, i need to let it charge and pray, i guess
maybe i can buy a battery.
Thanks for this useless piece of information, yes it may dry out liquid, but it aint gonna fix the corrosion that will eventually kill the phone. I can see lots of people over the next few weeks with “but I put it in a bag of rice” comments.
FML
Something that prevents you from spending $650 is ‘useless’ to you? OK.
I’ll update in a while and let you know how it works out.
I can tell you first hand that putting your phone in a bag of rice is going to lower your chances of having a working phone in the long run. With water damage it’s best to open the device and inspect the components to determine if action is required. Light water damage can be solved with (preferably 97% or higher) isopropyl. More extreme cases should also go in the ultrasonic cleaner with the shields removed.
OK well I can tell you first hand I have revived 3-4 different iPhones from submersion by putting them into a bag of rice and letting them dry out for 3 days+. If you have a bag of silica gel, that would be even better.
If you happen to own an iPhone repair shop and have all that is required to immediately disassemble and dry out a wet iPhone, along with the tiny tools, glue, suction cup, glass, replacements when you bend or break something, then be my guest and do that, but the average person does not have that ability.
The fact is, drying out an iPhone when it’s turned off for several days in a bag of silica gel or rice WORKS. it WORKS. it WORKS. it WORKS. Evidenced all over this page by hundreds of commenters.
My b others iPhone He went in water and didn’t know he had it in his pocket and he dryed it out and let it sit for a couple of days and it still wouldn’t turn on and he put it in rice and it wouldn’t turn on and he doesn’t know what to do he doesn’t want to open it up or pay
So yesterday morning I had my phone in my back pocket. As I was about to use the bathroom my phone fell out of my pocket and Ito the water. I quickly grabbed it out of the toilet and dried it of with my jacket that was lying on the floor. Then I ran to the Kitchen grabbed some rice turned my phone of and put in the rice. Its been in there for about 36 hours but I’m going to let it sit in the rice for about another 36 hours. I don’t have any silica or else id add some to the rice. Does anyone have any advice to try to save my phone???? Its an iPhone 5c. I had a case on but the case didn’t cover any of the holes or port.
I was using the toilet and as i was sitting down, I was watching youtube. I accidentally let my phone slip and PLOOP! It fell into the toilet bowl. I quickly got it out, got rid of all the excess water and placed it into the rice. I couldn’t turn it off, but will it still work?
did what you did nut charger won’t fit???
I solve my problem by this method. iPhone fell in water
Steps to fix iPhone water damage
Step 1: Get the device out of water as quickly as possible after your iPhone dropped in water so that the damage can be minimal;
Step 2: After you have got your water damaged iPhone out of water turn the wet phone off by holding down the power button if it has not already turned itself off. This would prevent the possibility of a short circuit of the electronic circuitry inside which would render the iPhone useless. Turning on an iPhone after it fell in water always poses a risk of damage;
Step 3: Remove phone cases or covers, if any, since they can trap in moisture. Take out the SIM card and the Battery also if you are confident ‘DIY-type’ user, and place it on a paper towel to dry it off;
Step 4: Use a clean cloth or some paper towels to wipe off as much of the exterior water as you can from your iPhone. In order to clear the ports and sockets turn the iPhone upside down and give it a gentle shake. Don’t move the phone excessively while you do this as otherwise the water inside would move around and do further damage to the phone;
Step 5: Put the water damaged iPhone in an air tight plastic bag surrounded by a bunch of Silica gel packets to draw out the moisture. Silica gel is an incredibly moisture-absorbent substance often found in Arts & Crafts shops or in electronics stores. It is also often found in new handbags or with new pairs of shoes. You may be able to buy them from a craft and handbag shops. If you can’t get hold of the Silica gel sachets quickly place your wet iPhone in a bag of uncooked rice (avoid enriched rice as it leaves a lot of white residual powder) and seal it. Make sure the phone is fully immersed in the rice. This will keep the phone as dry as possible in the intervening period. Transfer the phone subsequently to the bag of Silica gel sachets after you procure them.
There are several other solutions you may find online that have been tried by people when their iPhone fell in water. However, some of those may even worsen your iPhone water damage. Some people have tried to dry out their iPhones with a hairdryer, which is not generally recommended as the hot air from it could fry up the delicate internal parts. Taking your iPhone apart to dry the interior parts may appear a good idea, but this will also annul any warranty you have left on your device;
Step 6: Now let the iPhone dry in a warm place like in an airy cupboard or somewhat near a radiator (but not on it) for 48 hours or more. A lesser time may work but sometimes it also could be not enough, therefore longer is better;
Step 7: After you have waited at least for 48 hours, open the rice/silica gel bag and take a look at your iPhone. If you think the iPhone has any left-over moisture, do not power it on and continue drying for some more time;
Step 8: Avoid charging the battery for at least 72 hours before attempting to plug it in and turn it on. As your iPhone fell in water, just as a precaution (not a must) it’s a good practice to replace the wet battery and this should always be done for all water damaged devices;
Step 9: If everything appears well, go ahead and turn your iPhone on normally. Now your phone should power on as usual, and hopefully it has survived the water damage;
I too, dropped my iphone 6 in the toilet, it is currently sitting in a bowl of rice and has been for 74 hours. I’m going to try to turn it on tonight and see what happens.
I’m concerned as I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to turn off the phone myself, it shut down on me after displaying a few lines on the display, which again, really worries me.
Could anyone give me some advice on if they think it will work, what I should do if it doesn’t etc?
Note to everyone, don’t put your phone in your back pocket, or at least, remove it before going to the bathroom.
the exact thing just happened to me, was your phone saved?
me too the same thing just happened with me, did it work ?
was your phne saved?
Exact thing happen to me, I didn’t know about the rice, came to know about it after 10 hours, now it is in rice for about 20 hours, I am planning for it to stay into it for 48 hours.
Good thing is that I put it out of it in 3 to 4 seconds and then switched it off immediately.
The exact thing happened to me last night. I dried it off, then I tried turning it off but there were lines that were changing colors. A few minutes later the screen was black so i hit the power button quick to see if it was off but I accidentally turned it back on (I shouldn’t have done that) turned back on to the lock screen but few seconds later went to the lines again and shut off. Then I threw it in a bag of rice. It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet but Im really worried. Its an Iphone 6 i bought like a month ago… any results for you guys?
My case is exactly like yours. It is now in a zip lock with rice but I cannot turn it off. Tomorrow is Christmas, so no Apple store open!
Any suggestions?
Hey what was the result of your phone as a similar thing happened to me yesterday. My phone is still sitting in rice
The same thing happened to me it was in my vest pocket and PLOP! into the toilet I spun around and grabbed and with in 15 sec of water contact was in rice. It was a two week old Iphone SE! :( (I powered it off and then scoured my house for silica packets (on crutches and found three) It’s been 22 hours and I’m waiting for 24 hours however my parents tell me the chances of it surviving are very low and if it doesn’t survive I’m without a phone for 30 months! I’m really worried.
TIP: If you have like bath salts (like big peices) put that in with the rice because salt absorbs moisture.
Please let me know your results
NOTE TO EVERYONE: JUST DON’T HAVE YOUR PHONE WITH YOU IN THE BATHROOM!!!!!!
24 hours is not long enough for a phone to dry out. Nowhere does it say 24 hours is sufficient to let an iPhone dry out.
You need to let the iPhone stay turned off and dry 100%, this takes at least 72 hours. The longer you wait the better the chance of recovering. If the phone turns on when it is wet, it may be ruined.
I have revived an iphone dropped in water after turning it off, putting it with absorbers and a fan for 72 hours, it works fine still today.
Hey, this EXACTLY happened to my phone today. :( Couldn’t turn it off but eventually died down and now its just soaking in rice. Did your phone eventually turn on? Please tell me that the rice trick works!
I dropped my iPhone 6S into my dogs bowl of water but I immediately removed it, dried it off and removed the case. While I was drying it I kept on accidentally pressing the home button and it was working fine (or by the looks of it).
The only problems are: when it is not on silent, you can’t hear the keyboard clicks or the lock button click when you press it and my music isn’t playing through my speaker but through my headphones, while my ringtone is. Also, when music is open and you ”double click” the home button, it says that headphones are connected but they aren’t. Will my iPhone be ok?
Rachel, the best way to preserve your iPhone 6S is to dry it out completely before using it again. Put it in a bag of rice or silica gel (those little packets you get in boxes sometimes) for 48 hours to 72 hours, and let it completely dry out. The iPhone should be OK once it completely dries out, but don’t use it until it is entirely dried out.
You can also try placing it on a fan (not blowing heat, just blowing air) for 48 hours or so too to help circulate air around it. The key is to make sure the internal components are completely dried out, including the headphone port and hardware buttons. That’s probably why yours thinks its in headphone mode rather than speaker mode, it is still wet in there would be my guess.
Good luck! I have saved many iPhones from water submersions by following these tips, I recommend you do the same!
The same exact thing happened to my 6s lastnight. I’m so worried , everything seems fine only the speakers. I put it in the rice but i just took it out
OMG Literally this same exact thing happened to me… Well the lines on the screen part… I was at my friends house to go swim and my brother decided to spray me with the pool cleaner thing… Long story short, I got pushed in the water with my phone in my hand, and (since I have a lifeproof case) I went to keep using it (above the water just in case) and the red lines appeared on the screen. Which means I couldn’t turn mine off either… That’s why when I was reading this article and it said to turn it off I was a little worried too… Please reply on this and say if it worked… I put mine in a sock of rice… I don’t know if it HAD to be an airtight bag… Still… Please reply! Thanks!
Hello there. Keep pressing the home button and power button at once (for 5-6 seconds, I guess), the phone will turn off.
My phone got wet by the rain (it was in my jacket pocket while I was driving a bike) day before yesterday. Did the rice thing for 12 hours didn’t work.
Now it is in the rice bag again for I don’t know how long.
My phone fell into the bottom of the pool, i was just checking the temp and unfortunately my 5s slid out of its case and straight to the pool I dived in after it straight away and grabbed it it wouldve been in there for 20 seconds max. But i’m worried that not only the chlorine will damage it but I couldn’t turn it off. I held the lock button down but it was just saying siri not available before bunch of lines appeared then went black. I held the home and lock down at the same time cos i know its an emergency shut down but i dont know. I put it in rice but its in a take away container not a ziplock bag. Its all i could grab in a panic. Its been in there for about 30 hours but im going to leave it another night.
My iPhone 5s is turned off in a snow bank and has been for a month is it save able
the same thing happened to me… Will my iPhone still work after sitting in rice for awhile??
I have a 5s and do not yet want to be forced to get a higher price phone so this potential fix is fantastic. Besides soon they will have iphone 10 (or is it X?) then 11 and so on. I left it in rice about 39 hrs and it opened but I saw a water spot under the screen so put it back another day. So, fruit technician, you may be good at fixing fruit but don’t knock those of us desperate for an iphone fix. It may not last but I only need it for a while longer to work. During the holidays there are usually offers at better prices.
Corrosion is not too likely if it is removed quickly, aside from salt water or unusually hard water at least. If you’re worried about corrosion for something like this, dry it out, then open it up. If you see any tiny metallic deposits, rub it down with isopropyl alcohol, then dry it out again. It will work, I guarantee it. Works with game controllers, phones, just about anything so long as it’s not an extreme case.
Guess a so called technician wouldn’t want anyone to use this “useless” procedure as it could cut into their fruit device repair business huh.
Even though I’d heard about this before it was great to hear from someone that had actually had to try it (sorry for your stress when your iPhone got dunked though).
Thanks for a great detailed article. Something we can actually use instead of the run of the mill rumors and thinly veiled advertisments called articles but some jerk needs to call it useless.
Thanks John for your comment about the technician. I agree. I’ve dropped my iphone horribly enough in the toilet and it took me a good amount of time to realize what had happened and fished it out. Was on a job- ran out and bought a bag of rice. Threw the phone in after turning off completely and let it sit for just a few hours- I could not wait 36 hours as I needed it to do my job. It completely fine after just a few hours. I’ve done this a few times- but today it’s coffee- which worries me because of the milk and sugar- can’t be good. Tried to make a phone call but no volume. It’s in a bag of rice now. I’m going to give it a few hours. Will report back. That technician was super negative. Peace. Kate
You need to wait longer than a few hours, all electrical components within the iphone have to completely dry out, and depending on the level of submersion it can take days. Think about how long water takes to evaporate if splashed on a counter, and then think about how long water takes to evaporate in a small space without adequate air flow. Both take a while, just have patience if you want your iPhone to work again after getting wet. Silica gel packets in a zip lock bag work even better than rice. Good luck!
My wife’s iPhone fell into the toilet and was quickly retrieved. Phone very dim and didn’t work. We left phone in baggie of uncooked rice for 36 hours. Works fine now.
But would her iPhone have dried out just as quickly or quicker in the open air inside the house just as well?
My phone fell into a tub of less than a centimeter of water, unfortunately I didn’t know to shut it off right away and was ecstatic cause it “still worked” We’ll it shut off on me a few hours later, I found this and then submerged it in rice. 24 hours later it’s still in the bag of rice and I tried turning it on tonight and nothing… Do you think I just need to wait longer? I also depend on my phone a lot for work so today was a struggle!!! Also, thanks for all your detailed advice!
Keith the phone would have taken weeks to dry out naturally as rice soaks up any moisture by itself, i tested it with multiple phones, i left siphone 4’s submerged in a bucket of water for 24 hours, put one of them in a bag of rice and left one to dry naturally, suprisingly the one from the rice worked fine after 24 hours with no permanant damage what so ever, the one that was left to dry naturally took 96 hours to dry and even then the digitizer, audio, volume buttons and charging bay never worked, btw i am a phone technichian for apple
I dropped my phonne in some water, did the rice trick and it now seems to be working ok…. however it now looks like i might have some rice stuck in the phone because i can not put the charger into the phone , im unable to see the rice but charger will not click in … any suggestione ( ive already tried the hoover ) ???
Hi Kate! I dropped my phone in the toilet last night. I was wondering how many hours exactly did you put yours in rice before? Like you, I couldn’t wait 36 hours.
If you are impatient and refuse to wait until your iPhone dries out after being submerged, it is more likely to be ruined by water damage. Liquid contact is very bad for electronics, the electronics must dry out before usage to potentially avoid damage.
Corrosion from water, short circuiting, etc, all is possible from water contact with electronics. This must be avoided by thoroughly drying the iPhone.
You must be patient and let your wet iPhone completely dry out after it is submerged in water. Do not attempt to use it before it has completely dried out.
You CAN wait 36 hours or longer, you just don’t want to. Stay off social media for a day and a half, or better yet permanently – it’s like a cigarette habit or drug addiction it has no benefit but plenty of downsides.
Some of the newest iPhone models are vaguely water resistant to splash contact etc, but I would still let them dry out completely before usage (iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, etc). That is just me. These are very expensive electronic devices, if you want them to last you must take care of them and be careful.
Hey I just dropped my iPhone in my toilet and it’s the ipone 5. I saw the red senser on the top next to the frunt camera imlet it die. I’m scared that it won’t work. My mom wasn’t mad but told me to put it in a bag of rice and hopefully it will work. But…. The screen still works but it does look like it has some pretty bad watere damage. Should I after the rice det a blow dryer and use it to hopefully get any other water out of it or what should I do?
Don’t use a blow dryer. That’s possibly as bad as water and electronics.
what if blue lines appear and it does not switch on
That’s right: FYL since you have no better solution, not even the obvious: ‘Don’t drop it in liquids.’ nor ‘Get a waterproof case’.
My camera is broken.
My digital camera was washed in the washing machine…I was devastated! I tried the rice trick and it works now with absolutely no problems! I did however leave it for about 3 weeks; it may have not needed that long, but I was too afraid to try turning it on. At first try I was dismayed-it didnèt work! But then I realized I hadnt recharged the battery :) It works excellent, like brand new! Definitely worth trying Bella! :) Good luck!
thanks I hope this works my Iphone is fine brand new no damage but my friends on the other hand not so well she just droppes it in the bathtub full of water so im trying to help her
The rice works. Sorry to disappoint you. It’s one thing to disagree and be wrong as you are; it’s entirely different to be wrong AND snarky.
Dude just dropped my iphone 4 in a pool with SALTWATER and i turned it of emidietly and but it in the owen on 30 degrees celcius let it lay for a couple of hours turned off then i turned it on a couple of hours later and it worked ok after a little while being on the battery is ruined but the battery is really cheap to change
This WORKS… (so happy to see i am not out the cost of the insurance ‘replacement’ cost).
My iPhone 5s, yep, the one with the glass face that breaks if you look at it wrong, or drop it to the floor from a distance of 6 inches or more, was SAVED!!!
The iPhone 5s, with its broken glass face, and i am not just talking about a crack the upper left corner is missing, and this is nearly the size of a US dime hole in the glass. You can see the camera glass. (no small opening into the inside of the iPhone 5s)
I dove into the swimming pool, swam for at least 5 minutes with the phone in my pocket. I realized the phone was in my pocket, and then took it from my pocket, and handed it to a friend who was not in the pool. It was at least 30 minutes that the phone sat on the table next to the pool. The outside airtemp was approximaetly 75F.
I took the phone into the house, opened a bag of rice in the kitchen, and poured approximaetly 2 cups of rice into a cake baking pan. I carefully placed the phone so the big whole in the ‘cheap’ glass face was slightly lower than the rest of the phone (read, almost level, with a tiny tilt towards the open (broken) iPhone face.
I turned on the kitchen oven, to WARM setting (lowest setting), and then put the baking pan now holding the iPhone, buried in the 2 cups of dry rice, into the oven.
I left the iPhone 5s in the oven for approximaetly 16 hours.
I pulled the phone out of the oven, and let it cool in room, for 10 minutes. I could pick it up, and it was never so hot that i could not hold it in my hand.
I plugged into the charger, and saw the little apple, as the phone charged (GOOD SIGH).
To my GREAT amazement, i heard the iPhone ‘chime’ in less than 5 minutes, as it automatically turned on, and attached to cell network to download text messages.
iPhone 5s with 32 GB RAM (400$)
Home Swimming Pool with actual water (25,000$)
Hiking shorts with handy pocket that you can put, and forget you have, your iPhone in (32$)
Bag of rice (3$)
SAVING YOUR SELF FROM HAVING TO BUY A NEW iPhone because you are too forgetful to remember your new slim iPhone in your pocket in your hiking shorts…. (PRICELESS)
!!! SUCK IT, iPhone INSURANCE REPLACEMENT policy !!!
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
I dropped my phone in water(not salt water) and its been in the water for about 3 and i didn’t notice until now
The killer(if that wasn’t enough for you)is that my phone is an iphone 5c and i just want to know if its the possibility of my phone being saved…?
Fruit technician is right. Rice is worthless as a savior of wet electronics. If you did it, and feel like it worked, you got lucky. Nothing more, nothing less. The rice did NOTHING. This has been proven in several experiments when dry rice, and even instant rice were compared to real desiccants like silica gel. Rice may absorb moisture, but that’s when the moisture is actually in contact with the rice, so unless you’ve stripped your phone into the basic parts and put them all in rice disassembled, the rice does nothing, and even then good old fashion “evaporation” is why the water is gone.
Fruit tech is spot on about the corrosion too. And despite A. Robert’s protest of the comment, the water WILL leave behind dissolved minerals and dirt washed into the phone. Rice, and no other desiccant can remove those.
There is no substitute for a real cleaning, especially not in rice. If people want to “gamble” with their wet electronics and hopes of getting their un-sync’d data back, they can turn to rice, hair dryers, ovens, and every other “free” solution out there – but that’s exactly what they’re doing – gambling.
Your best bet for 100% restoration and data recovery is a proper cleaning by someone that knows what they’re doing.
…try the rice first.
It worked for me. Fell in the toilet from my back pocket. Was in there for a minute. Used rice for more than a week, but wouldn’t power up. Replaced battery with one from the internet(had to buy the kit to open the iPhone, man those screws are tiny!) and now it works perfectly!
same with iphone 6?
This worked for me, 2 years later and phone still works! Your a total downer Fruit tech!!!
You can also try this: turn off your iPhone (or Android) and then soak it in 99% pure Isopropyl Alcohol for about an hour or two, then dry it out for 36 hours before trying to use it. 99% isopropyl alcohol is hydrophobic so it can help.
FML, it’s clear you’re a douche. The information here is simply as an option. If it gives you a phone for a couple of months.. that’s something. If it gives you a phone for a day to recover information, that’s something. I think we are all aware that the rice is not going to turn our iphone 4 into an iphone 6. And I think we are all quite aware that irreparable damage will not be fixed by rice alone. BUT, when faced with no apparent solutions other than forking money for a new one, THIS information is certainly a Godsend. So please, go somewhere else with your gray skies and be respectful for people who are actually bringing VALUE to the table.
The rice didn’t work for me. Will I be able to save all of my photos and such onto another phone if I can’t turn on the original source?
Perhaps the rice takes out moisture from the concealed air, and then the air can absorb the moisture more easily.
I;m high right now, so might be totally bs, but moisture absorbs naturally in the air. Cups of rice in a concealed back is a very high rice to air ratio. Perhaps plausible?