Spill Water on a MacBook Pro / Air? Here’s How You Might Be Able to Prevent Liquid Damage
Spilling water or another liquid onto a one to two thousand dollar plus MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is a horrible feeling, but before you completely panic, you can take a few proactive steps which may help to preserve the Mac or your data. There is never a guarantee that the Mac will be saved from permanent water damage, but sometimes you can recover a MacBook Air and MacBook Pro from spills and liquid encounters by taking some very quick actions, or perhaps just mitigate the water damage to the keyboard rather than the entire computer.
Before getting into specifics, it should probably go without saying that if you happen to drop a MacBook Air into a swimming pool, lake, ocean, or river, it’s basically guaranteed to be toast. Sure you can still try to save it, but the odds of recovery are extraordinarily low. This is really a guide aimed at helping to recover from smaller water encounters, like a splash from a spilled glass of water, or cup of coffee knocked over onto a desk with a MacBook Pro also sitting nearby. Unfortunately, the reality is that water contact with computers is much trickier to deal with and recover from than water getting into or onto an iPhone, but that doesn’t mean you can’t at least try to recover the Mac.
Of course there are no guarantees any of this will work for you, I’m just sharing what I did to save my own MacBook Air from permanent damage due to a water contact situation. And yes, that funny looking trick pictured in the the #6 step below actually worked.
1: Safety First!
This should go without saying, but personal safety needs to be your number one priority. Electricity and water obviously don’t mix and can pose a dangerous situation, if you’re not sure what to do, contact your local electricity / utility provider and they’ll let you know how to handle it. Generally if there’s a lot of water involved, you should take precautions for your own safety (like using the circuit breaker to cut all power) and forget about the computer though. Don’t risk it if you’re not sure what to do, contact a electrical professional.
For many MacBook spills and water encounters though, the device is running off battery power when the liquid contact happens, which makes disconnecting it a nonissue – that is what we’re focusing on here.
2: Turn the MacBook Pro / Air Off Immediately
The Mac needs to immediately turn off, assuming it’s still on. Hold down the Power button until the Mac shuts off, or shut it down from the Apple menu. You’ll have to worry about your documents later (OS X Auto Save should do it’s job), right now you’re trying to save the Mac itself.
3: Unplug All Other Cables / Cords
All external devices need to be disconnected immediately, whether its a display, monitor, external hard drive, even a mouse and keyboard. This is particularly true with powered devices since they could cause a short. Disconnect everything.
IF POSSIBLE, Disconnect the Battery
Most new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models have internal batteries making this impossible, but if the Mac has a removable battery, take it out immediately.
4: Dry Off All Visible Water
Now that all power sources are disconnected, dry off all visible water completely. Use a cotton towel if possible because it’s highly absorbent, but paper towels can work ok too. Q-Tips and corners are helpful to get into the little cracks of the keyboard, trackpad, and ports. Get any and all visible water off of the Mac. Pay special attention to the keyboard because water can easily seep under the keys.
Those with technical aptitude, patience, and the proper screw drivers can also attempt to disassemble their machine to dry out components too. That’s probably the most effective method, but it’s far beyond the scope of this article.
5: Keyboard Spill? Flip it Over
If the water or liquid primarily went onto the keyboard of the MacBook Air / MacBook Pro, quickly flip it over so that it’s keys are face down against a towel. This can help to prevent the liquid from seeping further into the inner components, or at least minimize their contact.
6: Use This Funny Looking Towel & Fan Trick
This shoddy setup shown below uses a crate, a towel, and a room fan. The basic idea is to allow maximum airflow into and around the MacBook, while providing absorbency for any residual water. Do this in a low humidity environment if possible.
Crates work very well for this because they have large gaps where air can freely pass through, but use what is available to you. Moderately warm air is fine, but remember that heat is bad for electronics so you don’t want to be blasting the MacBook with a space heater or hairdryer.
Configure that oddball fan setup and let it sit turned off and unplugged, now it’s time to wait.
7: Wait
Wait at least 96 hours in that funny configuration, if not longer, before even thinking about turning the MacBook back on again to see if it works. It can take a long time for water or liquids to dry out from internal components, don’t rush it.
8: Take it to an Apple Store to Check for Damage
After waiting a long time and you know for certain that the MacBook Pro / Air has zero remaining liquid within it, you’re certainly welcome to turn the Mac on yourself and see what happens. For most users though, the best bet is to wait until it’s dry, then take it directly to an Apple Store so they can determine if there’s any damage, and if so, what damage is done to what components.
If you’re very fortunate and act quickly, you may get away with no damage to the MacBook at all. Or maybe you’ll only end up with just a damaged keyboard, while the remainder of the components are fine. If liquid got the logic board or power system, the Mac is probably beyond a simple repair, in which case you’ll be out some serious cash unless you had a good insurance or an accidental damage policy on the Mac.
What About Stuffing the Mac Into Silica Gel or Rice?
If you have tons of silica gel packets handy, you can certainly try to pack the MacBook Air / Pro into a large ziplock bag with them. Silica or rice works well for recovering cell phones from water contact damage, but larger pieces of hardware would presumably require larger amounts of silica packets to have any efficacy. From personal experience, rice is less effective with a computer, but if you’re going to have it sitting around waiting to dry out anyway you can give it a try, iFixIt reports some success with it. If you’ve had a positive experience with sticking a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro into a bag of rice for a few days to revive it after water contact, let us know in the comments.
Do you have any experience saving your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook from damage due to water contact or a spill? Let us know what you did in the comments!
Hello, you are awesome! keep going!
I have a MacBookPro newest version, I dropped a bit of water on the back of it, as in the bottom on the MacBook, it was barely anything literally 10ml if that, I had a case on also but the case has grates in the bottom, so it doesn’t overheat. I immediately died it and then took the case off and dried underneath it, I was certain that no water went inside any ports or into the vent at the back. Although later that evening the fan came on. I looked it up and it said it might be because I use it on my bed which I do, or because the vents may be blocked, could this be water? I know they also turn on to make sure it doesn’t overheat but I’ve never noticed it come on before. I left it upside down so the vent had room to breathe and completely shut down my MacBook, eventually it ran out of charge and stopped. However when it turned back on again, once I had plugged it in, the fan has started again. I have look up all the different ways about how to stop it and nothing has worked, is this a problem? Thank you
I dropped water over my macbook pro 13 ” 2019 yesterday. Laptop immediately switched off and I tried to turn it in V position for sometime. It switched on again on its own after a few minutes and I realised my trackpad not working as usual and the screen is having small spots of water, speaker not working at all & the worst thing touchbar is not working and showing any sign of life. I switched off my laptop immediately and from yesterday it is in the same V position. I hadn’t switched it on to check further. I don’t know what will happen. I am completely scared whether it will work like before. Those marks on screen will they go away by drying. Anyone gone with same issue please help me.
You must immediately turn the computer off, unplug any power source, dry it off, flip it over, and then let it dry for several days before thinking about turning it on again.
This article details some tips on what to do:
https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/13/water-contact-macbook-prevent-liquid-damage/
Water and electricity can short circuit electronics causing permanent damage. Electronics and computers must be dry to function properly.
Hey guys, last weekend exactly the same occurred to me. Spilled 2 or 3 oz. right in the folding junction and Macbook Air 13′ switched off immediately. It turned back on lock screen after a few seconds and I immediately pressed the switch off button on screen, then on keyboard (apparently it tried to restart as i have previously turned off on screen, but turned off again).
So I left it flipped down for the night, but next day I couldn’t manage the anxiety on waiting. Luckly I had a pentaglobe 1.2 screwdriver at home, as well as 99.8% isopropyl, so I opened it, cleaned with a toothbrush bathed in alcohol and dried a few hours on front of a fan. While cleaning, I noticed 3 or 4 points of corrosion, nothing big, cleared it. Think if I hadn’t been this proactive and waited 48+ hours it would have been worse.
Luckly everything is working fine, so this is my advice (I’m no technician), if you or someone you know can open it, rush. Rush for a pentaglobo screwdriver, isopropyl, etc. A neighbor may have it at home. Time is precious. Just be very careful with the parts, take photos just to know how everything is assembled etc.
Be safe!
Sarah did it work out for you??
I recently discovered an easy fix, disconnect power and battery, buy some 99% isopropyl and flood the whole keyboard area, let it sit for a few hours, drain, repeat then dry it with a hair dryer, let cool, repeat one more time to make sure its completely evaporated all the isopropyl. Fixed the few drops I spilt on my macbook that kept it in a reboot loop. So much easier than buying a new keyboard and the stress of having to remove every component in your mac, a job I only wish on my worst enemy.
Approx. 90 hours ago, I spilled cranberry juice on my MacBook Air! It was on there for less than a second before I turned it upside down and wiped up the excess (and shook it like my life depended on it- which it did because I was only 1 day old). It has been air drying for about 70 hours and fan drying for 20… do you think that will be enough? I’m too afraid to turn it back over and on!
The crate idea is brilliant. My kid spilled a full cup of water on our MacBook Pro, and after we tried turning it back on for a few minutes and did everything wrong at the begging, we found this article and did the crate idea using a fan for 4 days and a small dehumidifier that we found on amazon for 3 days. The laptop is now working like nothing ever happened. Thanks for posting this and thanks to all those who commented to share their success stories!
Glad to hear this helped you too Juan.
I too have used the crate + fan method on multiple occasions after water spills and liquid contact on laptops and it has worked every time. This is with things like a full glass of water spilling on a MacBook Air, tea spilled on a MacBook Pro, etc. Of course if the liquid is sticky or sugary or thick, or if it’s with full submersion it would be more difficult, or may not work, but I would still give it a try. With a sticky liquid I would wipe it down as much as I could first and then dry it out, then worry about cleaning it after it dries since moisture is the enemy of electronics. When the alternative is a loss of an expensive computer, letting it sit upside down with air flow to dry out is a small gamble in comparison.
did it work for anyone? please answered cause i’m so scared lol
When I tried to wipe off all the water after turning it off,I accidently pushed on the on button and it made that turning on sound. I turned it off immediatly again. Does anyone know if this has destroyed the chance of recovery? Now i will leave it off for many days.
Tip, do not try to dry i between and around the “on” button!
Spilled about a half a cup on my 2018 macbook pro this morning, had it sitting in the tent position with a fan blowing on it for about 6 hours today and just set up the crate setup without the towel right now to keep in overnight. Is there any reason to use the towel? Every towel I tried seemed to block the airflow to the keyboard. I’m gonna leave it the way it is for atleast another 48 hours then try to turn it on.
What happened, is it saved? I just did the exact same thing and also had the sound of rain from the computer.
The laptop suddenly stopped turning on and the hard drive is damaged. Therefore I no longer give this method the stamp of approval. It seems using a fan would blow water further into the laptop so I wonder if just leaving it upside down on a towel in a well circulated area would be better.
Just spilled a BIG glass of water on my MacBook pro and I’m embarrassed to say this is the second time. It recovered the first time, but it was less liquid. I heard what sounded like rain happening inside the computer this time…
I have it set up in on a towel with a fan underneath like you suggested and have my fingers crossed that it will make it.
I spilled a half a glass of water on a brand new 15 inch 2016 laptop I got for Christmas. I did this for 6 days and then took it to the Apple store. They ran diagnostics and there is ZERO water damage. I am so thankful and wanted to leave this comment because I was worried if I was doing the right thing leaving it under a fan, but it worked for me so I recommend it.
lol I dropped my iMac unto a pool carrying it and when it fell I quickly picked it up, washed it with pure clean water in the kitchen so there’s no bacteria, and then I plugged it on, IT WORKED 100%!!!! #BacteriaRuinsPC’s (lol I’m KIDDING, DO NOT take this seriously please lol)
Hey. I have a similar problem. What happened to you in the end? Did you fix it?
You can also use stuff that is typically used to dry out boats and soaks up all humidity out of the air.
Pop your laptop into a plastic bin that is sealed with something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Boat-Dry-Industrial-Desiccant-Moisture/dp/B01MT6H1DR&tag=oxd-20
and leave it for a few days. Much better than rice.
Best of luck!
yo i fully spilled an entire cup of water basically in my mac. I did the crate trick for 2 days and it works and i am feeling truly blessed
I just spilled a half glass of water on my MacBook Air. I quickly disconnected the battery, turned it off, flip it over, soaked with towel, and literally suck air/water out of the keyboard and on the side. You will see water droplets on the plugs. I put it under an air conditioner and it is working again.
Hi so the other night I spilt herbal tea on my laptop. I was in a rush to get to bed as I’m only 16. This is my school laptop btw. After I spilt the tea, I wiped the visible drops but not thoroughly. I just placed it flat on my desk, charged it and when I went to turn it on in my class the next day, it wouldn’t turn on. It’s been about 24 hours since then, and it still won’t respond. I’ve tried turning it upside down and on its side but I was wondering if maybe the water has already dried on the internal parts of the system. Do you think there is possibly any chance of me being able to use my laptop again without having to pay heaps of money?
Thanks in advance,
Taleeya
Had water spill by someone I dont even know on my macbook air 2018 not to much water though I left it to dry off .Didnt use it for 3 days .After that I turned it on . It worked perfectly after 4 days the keyboard all have been unresponsive .it will work for the whole day. The next day i try putting on my macbook it won’t respond .please I need urgent help .is barely 5months I got this .The keyboard all is not responding
Thanks
What should I do if I had water spillage at the back of my mac??
a friend spilled a cup on the desk we were working and some water got into my computer where the ventilation is(I think)
when it happened I was sure it was no biggie , and tried to get the water out then put my computer away..
when I got home I opened it again and it starts but then at the loading bar part its get all screwed up.. I tried to turn it on and off a couple of times before crying for my dead mac :((
tried to use a blow dryer and then put it on its side inside a bag with rice..
when can I check on it again..? I know I shouldn’t have turned it on but I didn’t even realize how bad was the water spillage
Tea on the keyboard. Not really sure how much as it was when my daughter was using it.
I more or less followed this, but I also had the toric screw driver and so I took the back off and the battery out and dried it off (good amount of water in there) then blew it out with first compressed air and then a hair dryer. Funny enough it would work, but wouldn’t charge the battery (big X on the battery and no charging light) and had no wifi. So I bought a new battery, but had the same result. Then I let it sit for 3 days open to the air.
Then I put it back together and got nothing at all, totally dead!
So in desperation I took it all apart and this time unscrewed a bit of the motherboard and blew compressed air under there. Put it back together again, basically thinking it was dead, and voila, it worked perfectly!
One thing is that I only screwed the battery and back cover on the very last time as I was basically giving up. I’m not sure if it has some sensor that was causing it to not turn on in my second to last trial or something.
But feeling very lucky!
2013 MacBook Pro
Spilled a full pint of ice water directly on the keyboard. Unplugged power and flipped over within 5 seconds. Dried keyboard with towels as best as possible while keeping upside down. MacBook shut off by itself within 15 seconds from spill.
Placed MacBook upside down with Honeywell Ground Fan blowing full speed directly at keyboard from below. Left for 48 hours without touching.
Plugged MacBook in after 48 hours. Green light came on charger, then quickly changed to orange to show charging had started. Holding Power button by itself did not prompt a start. Looked up how to force start MacBook and found the below:
“Press and hold the Shift+Control+Option keys at the left side of the keyboard + the Power button, and hold for 10 seconds. Release all four buttons at the same time, and then press the Power button to turn the Mac on.”
After following those instructions, MacBook booted up with no issues. Charging still works normally and retained full functionality. As hard as it is to wait for a spill to dry, try to give the computer as much time as possible to fully dry out before attempting to start.
*Thank you to everyone who posted on this forum! Reading all of these responses was reassuring after the spill. Good luck to anyone finding this thread.
My toddler spilled about half a cup of water on my Macbook Pro about a week ago. I didn’t think it was that much so I didn’t panic right away and turn it off…. but then the trackpad sort of stopped working and I shut the laptop off and tried to turn back on (big mistake, I know but I hadn’t done any googling yet) After it wouldn’t turn on, I started googling and kept reading how I should not have tried to turn it back on or plug it in… I did both.
Had it set upside down with a fan blowing in the bottom/keyboard for a good 3 days and tried again. Wouldn’t turn on. Tried to plug it in thinking maybe it was dead, power cord turned green then back to orange so I really thought it was toast. I gave up and got sad and just stuck the laptop on a shelf so I didn’t have to mope about it LOL, Decided today (it’s been about 9 days since it happened) to plug it in and see what happens. I noticed the power cord turned to green eventually so I tried to turn it back on with no luck, however I could feel the trackpad clicking like it was “on” and if I hit power, trackpad would turn off like it was “off” So back to google I went… decided to try the force start Mac Book by doing this: “Press and hold the Shift+Control+Option keys at the left side of the keyboard + the Power button, and hold for 10 seconds. Release all four buttons at the same time, and then press the Power button to turn the Mac on.”
and to make an already long story end, IT WORKED!! It took a second but I heard that lovely apple start up sound and it powered back on and there does not appear to be any problems!! I’ve been using it for about an hour now with no problems. I am a little selfishly glad most of the Apple stores are closed right now because that’s where I was headed today but couldn’t find one near me that was open so continued to troubleshoot on my own for another day. Wooohoo!!
I spilled cold milk on my MCA during the midnight hours, I panicked. I upside-downed it, used a blanket to rub out all the milk on its surface and then used the mouth-suction to take out whatever went inside. Kept 20-30 silica gel pouches over its keyboard for 3-5 days. The silica gel worked like charm and my MCA is now working perfectly fine.
hey Saurav did you have any problems with corrosion later on?
i did the exact same thing 3 days ago but followed the procedure and thankfully its working fine right now ( typing from it) but am worried that the proteins in milk might start corroding the logic board. so would be very greatful for yur reply
The fan/ crate trick worked like a charm. I spilled some beer on my keyboard, immediately turned it off and upside down, then I read you guys recs. I did have a few keys that were sticking but wiped the keyboard down with Windex electronic wipes because I didn’t have rubbing alcohol. It works great so far. I have the newest MacBook Pro and I feel so fortunate that I found this info quickly and it worked. The thought of dissembling was a little daunting for me.
Thank you, thank you,
Sharon
Glad to hear it worked for you too Sharon!
I have used the unplug-poweroff-flip-dry-crate-fan trick many times when water or liquid has splashed or spilled on a Mac, and it has saved a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air on numerous occasions. If you act quick, it works! I’m still using a MacBook Air I spilled water on 6 years ago, works great with no problems!
i Would also like to know what do I do now I can’t take it to the apple store as I’m only 16 and my mum will kill me if she found out and I don’t have a screwdriver to see the damage at the back of anyone could help I would be so pleased and happy thanks
Yesterday I accidentally spilled about 50 mls of water on my Mac book pro 2018 which I only got 1 week ago I stood up in shook and had a little Greek out then I immediately tilted it on its side and dryed majority off the water off it then I had a look at everything and the laptop generally had not a slight bit of damage I’ve ran a dingnostic and there seems to be no problems is there a chance that my computer will be fine
This was a blessing to find. I turned the MacAir Book over after drying with a towel. A high speed fan focused on the keyboard. 3 hrs later the laptop launched. I’m thrillled!
Don’t do this! It won’t help much. The liquid pools in the bottom, so turning it over can only hurt the machine. You must take the bottom off, and clean up all the liquid. I took the battery out of mine, and the bottom of the keyboard was dry. Again, the water pools right under where the bottom comes off, and it’s an easy clean once you remove the bottom. It must be completely dry before you turn it on again, and if you just clean the bottom without dismantling the whole machine to clean it, wait at least five days.
If your computer was plugged-in when the liquid spilled, your odds just went down about ten-fold. If you spilled anything other than water – mine caught a glass of lemonade – then the inside will be sticky, and you must never turn it on without taking it apart to clean it first.
Laurence, I have done this with 3 or 4 different Macs and revived them every time. So you have your own approach, that’s great. I have used this exact approach of powering off, unplugging, flipping over on a towel and blasting with air for 4 days and the Mac always boots after. What’s your success rate and sample size?
If you dunk your Mac into the ocean it will probably not work, there are obvious limitations. But for most office spills, this has worked for me every time.
My MacBook Air got spilled last night with water on the power area of the keyboard. i was charging it when that catastrophe happened. the screen suddenly went black and i panicked. i flipped it over and wiped the remaining water with tissue. tried turning it on but there’s no response. took a deep breath and counted a few sheeps, and turned it on again. luckily, it got running again but the wifi function was lost. i was about to cry but i thought of restarting it and so i did. after the refresh, it was working like nothing happened. i don’t know if i should still go to the apple center to have my MacBook checked.
@pPaul
Many thanks for your help.
Im not sure how I’ve managed to be this fortunate, but my MacBook is still working (well, it was the last time I checked… )
I took it to the Apple Store and had them run diagnostics on it… all of which it passed. (The advice I was given essentially amounted to ‘use it until it dies,’ given the prohibitive cost and length of time it would take to send it in to be repaired.)
It has survived several attempts to back the data on it up (entirely due to defective external hard drives – I was eventually successful) during which the MacBook itself presented no recognisable issues.
I’m reluctant to start using it properly, although I will have to before the end of this week.
I feel like I’m sitting on a time bomb but would it be correct to conclude that if it was going to die, it would have done so already?
Many thanks.
Ed,
It’s impossible to estimate how long a computer will last if it sustained liquid contact or water damage.
But I will say this, based on my own personal experience; I have a 100% working MacBook Air that had a full glass of water spilled on the keyboard, I have a 100% working iPhone that sank into a pool of water, and I have an iPad that works 100% after substantial water contact. I powered them off immediately and dried them all out completely before attempting to use them again, and they still work today.
The trick, I think, is to immediately unplug / disconnect from power, then to get all the water off and out that you can, then let them dry out completely, which can take several days or longer. I used a fan in all examples and let the fan blow on the device for 4 days straight. The device must be completely dry. It worked for me, but this is anecdotal. Try it out, you might be surprised how long it lasts. But it’s also possible it won’t last long, so backup your data. Use Time Machine to get all of your data stored safely on an external drive so that if the computer fails you can restore your stuff.
Good luck, let us know how it works out for you!
Okay so I spilt water on the keyboard of my macbook pro 2015 yesterday, and I’d like to know the chances of any recovery given my actions (I didnt read this site at the time) and what’s happened since.
When the spill happened I attempted to dry the water immediately with paper towels and I used a hairdryer (stupid I know). I didnt turn it off immediately, indeed I kept it running for a while whilst I did the above (stupid, I know). All but one of the keys appeared to be responding, so I thought things might not be so bad. (Stupid, I know)
It was at that point that it began to turn itself off. I tried restarting it a few times (stupid, I know). It would start up but turn off again immediately. I managed to get it running again, but came to my senses and turned it off for a final time. I’ve since had it in rice and then subsequently sealed it in a vacuum bag with some Damprid pads overnight.
I havent yet tried the method detailed in the article above. At this stage, would that be recommended?
Secondly, and as I stated above, what’s the prognosis? My life is on that thing and just thinking about losing it all sends me into a wild panic.
Lastly, I’ve made an appointment at an Apple store for this Saturday, ideally I’d need it back before the following Friday, is this greatly optimistic? Is there anywhere else I should consider going?
Many thanks all.
It’s possible something short-circuited, that’s the real risk of water contact on electronics and why they must be powered off immediately upon water contact until they are dried.
Some people will disassemble a computer after it dries from water contact and clean it up with various solutions, that can sometimes work too, but that is much more complex than what is discussed here.
I would turn it off, put it upside down with a fan, and let the Mac dry completely for several days. If it is already randomly turning off that is concerning. It is quite possible the SSD and drive data could be recovered even if the computer is ruined, but ultimately you will need to wait a while to find out what the state of the Mac is. Regardless, dry that thing out before taking it to a repair center.
Let us know what ends up happening in your case, it’d be interesting to hear what they say.
Thank you so much for providing instructions of what to do if you spill liquids on your macbook! I had an anxiety attack this morning when I came back to my desk to find that my coffee had spilled all over my macbook. I had no idea what to do about it. I’ve now shut it off like you recommended. I feel that your advice to get it serviced by a professional is my best option, I will be sure to contact a professional.
Would just like to say – I spilled coffee all over my Mac Pro and I know this isn’t about repair, but if you have home insurance, try talking to them. Mine paid out enough to cover the cost of a new one, some insurance companies may want you to send it for proof, but you can get your SSD back most of the time.
That’s a great idea Jasmin, thanks for that information.
Indeed if you have a homeowner insurance policy, and maybe even a rental insurance policy, you might be able to get the insurance to pickup the cost of repair or replacement. It’s worth a look!
so i had got out the shower and my hair was still wet, i went on my macbook air (2015/16 model) and a couple drops of water landed on my key board, not thinking much of it i just wiped it off. after a couple minutes i paused my youtube video and when i tried to unpause the whole laptop froze, i looked up how to is and it simply suggested to hold down power then turn back on i did the following but now it won’t turn on, it charges and i’ve tried all the Power methods and still nothing (Shift+Control++Option+Power, ect) if anyone has answers please help
Sam, here is an article that details what to do if you spill water on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, it’s relevant to any laptop computer though.
https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/13/water-contact-macbook-prevent-liquid-damage/
You must let the Mac dry out completely. I have spilled water on a MacBook Air myself and flipped it over with a fan like this for a few days as it dried out. I continue to use that MacBook Air to this day, it worked for me. Read the article and try it yourself. Good luck!
2 weeks ago, I was on a train and heavy jolt sent a large slurp of tea onto the keyboard of my 2017 MacBook. I was on my way to a client, so it was super inconvenient that the machine now wouldn’t work. I stood the Mac on its side (open and upended like a book) in front of a fan for the day and resorted to pen and paper. After the ‘event’, I tried to turn on the Mac every few days, but no response. Luckily, I had another machine to use. It was a full week after that I thought I’d try it again in the forlorn hope it might burst into life before taking it in to Apple for repair. I connected mains power – hit the ‘on’ button – and it booted up normally! I noticed that the battery had fully discharged by this point with 0% showing on the indicator. It has worked perfectly since. Seems like the full battery discharge may have made it ‘forget’ its previous predicament.
Hey did you face any issues with corrosion later on ?
I didn’t close my water bottle all the way and spilled about a half of cup on my brand new laptop, oof. I immediately flipped it over and then panicked more (after stupidly turning it on and then off) and put it in rice for like 20 minutes but then found this nifty fan trick and it worked PERFECTLY. I left it for about 110 hours and took it in to a technician because I’ve read that you should wait to turn it on until you bring it in and he was like “uhhh…it’s fine.” Try this trick! It might save your wallet and your laptop.
i am writing this as i spilled water all over my mac air three days ago. i did not turn it off right away as i was panicking. a youtube video was playing and after few seconds the sound was gone, few seconds after that Mac turned off itself. my heart sank, i wanted to slap myself. i cleaned the visible water and flipped it upside down.
here is what i did:
1. i used my phone to google what to do and found this site. i immediately created this fan setting.
2. I kept reading the comments to clam myself down and it worked a bit.
3. few hours later, i realized i still have rice so i put the rice on the towel with mac keyboard facing rice and a fan running below.
4. when i was putting the rice, i accidentally touched the on/off button and i heard mac turning on. i was excited and scared at the same time so i pressed “shut down” to make sure i dont further damage my baby. but it gave me such a big relief that it may still works.
5. I anxiously waited for two days and could not hold any longer to check. so i turned it on and again, i heard the magic sound. when it was on, i saw the opened tabs were still on and everything was just running smoothly. nothing was wrong.
6. i put it back on the rice and let the fan run for another night. now i am typing this with the abused mac.
i hope this brings some relief if you are going through the same thing. it is truly hard and stressful to bear the idea that i might loose this mac. it is times like this made me realize apple product isn’t just pretty. but reliable and resilient. i hope you can save your mac too. and yes, it is possible that your mac will run perfectly just like before. mine is. i love my mac more than ever.
Same thing with me. Spilt water. Turned it over fast, wiped it down, tented it over a fan over night and it worked the next day. Before I consulted this website/community, I did try to turn it on and got the file with the blinking question mark. I thought my computer with all my recent projects were toast (I do graphic design) but thankfully I found this website and it at least gave me hope, along with the experiential insight. I have to use it now so I didn’t wait the full 3 days but when I go to work and overnight I will tent/fan it for a few days. Thanks for all your help/input everyone!
I had been using my MacBook Pro for over a year, and daringly (stupidly) placing a full cup of water to drink, pretty much right next to it. I always imagined what a disaster it would be if that cup of water ever tipped. Well, sure enough, yesterday morning, it did. A good 8 ounces of water flooded the keyboard within just two seconds, and entered the grates in the back. I turned off the power by holding down the power button for several seconds, then flipped computer over immediately, absorbing as much water into a towel as possible. Also shook water out of the back, then placed upside down, open in a V.
A few hours later, I turned the computer on, and heard the Mac music chord announcement of computer turning on, but screen remained black. Turned off again, using power button and holding it down, then put it upside down in a V for several more hours.
Last night, turned it on and got black screen but a white picture of a file flashing, with question mark. So, off again using power button and upside down in V again.
Hooray for more drying time, as today, I turned it on and was able to get home screen, log in, etc. A few glitches with a USB message which was solved by holding down four buttons at once (Shift, Alt, Command and Power), but otherwise, is working as though nothing happened.
This was JUST pure water. I live in a very very dry climate with arctic type of temperatures and no humidity in the house. This may have helped.
Hello Nicole!
Can you tell me, How is your MacBook Pro now?
Did you get further problems?
Thanks.
Hi everyone. I was using my literally 7-day-old macbook air when I spill water all over the keyboard. I panicked for some seconds, but then rush immediately to dry the visible water with a towel. While doing this I thought that maybe I should power it off (at this stage it was still on and working) so I did. I search on the internet what to do and get to this post, so I turned it upside down and some drops of water started coming out of the keyboard. I then left it upside down above a towel with the fun (like in the picture) for some hours. Then remove the fun and left it there for almost 6 days. Today, I turn it on and everything is working normally. I performed the Apple diagnosis and everything went fine. Still a little worried that maybe it will stop working in the future, but for now I think I got really lucky.
So to everyone that goes through this, I think acting quickly is the key to save the mac.
Hope whoever is reading this gets lucky too. Will update in the future if I experience some problem regarding to this, and never ever again will have drinks near my pc.
My daughter spilled a cup of water and it ran onto my MBP (which was closed) I immediately picked it up, dried it- opened it to see if it was wet inside. There were a few drops of water inside, so I dried those and continued to inspect the computer to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I tried to turn it on to see if it was ok and it wouldn’t turn on. I went straight to panic mode bc of all the years of photos that may be gone. Then I found this forum. I have it set up with the fan and I’ll leave it for 3 days. Fingers crossed that I come back to encourage others as I’ve been encouraged so far.
So 2 days ago i ahalf a cup of green tea on my keyboard. It shut off immediately, so i unplugged the charger, wiped off what i could and flipped it over, propped up in the inverted ‘V’ position. It didnt start the next day so i didnt pry and lost hope and shut it. Today morning, i tried to see if the charger works, so i plugged it in, the charging light lights up on the charger cable. It started, went to the login screen, i entered the password, the fans started, quite loud, unusually loud….and then the screen turned off, followed by the keyboard lights, i force shut it and restarted, it did the same thing. I dont know what to do, I’m panicking, please suggest me something, if anyone has a similar experience. Its a Macbook Air 13″
Ok full panic.did a stupid thing. Macbookair. Hands were wet and was typing. Some of the keys started to stop working. I came out of chrome and turned it off. I turned it back on again but couldn’t type in all my password .the whole right side of the keyboard wouldn’t type. So I turned it off a few times and on stupidly. I can get in on guest and the login screen and power button work.so only keys look bust at the no. I have left it upside down all night. I used a cold hairdryer for a bit last night.i hope tomorrow when I turn it on my baby comes back. It couldn’t have been much water and listening to people who have saved after a whole glass gives me hope. If not there goes my next holiday. Please mac God’spook favourably on me
ok so update. the day after i spilt water on it i had half the keys typing two letters or their letter and the number in the row above. i turned it on a few times to chekc if this had changed.
this morning i woke up to find all the keys working except for o which was completely dead. and h was a little sticky.
anyway i started using it again using the on screen keyboard for help.
i noticed this evening that when i closed the mac after trying the o when i reopened it 1 or 2 o¨s had appeared on the notepad. this happened all evening until it started typing o¨s by itself. now it is fully functional again.
to all those reading this . leave ur mac alone for 3 days upside down. dont touch it. I am sure most of u will be ok. dont touch it however much u want to check it.
I was at a coffee shop and managed to dump an entire cup of hot black coffee onto the keyboard of my Macbook Air, which was on at the time. It immediately shut off and I used paper towels to wipe off what I could and then turned it over to try to drain the rest. I went online and read a bunch of accounts of what to do — I went out and bought a special Mac screwdriver so I could take the back off of the computer and clean up further. I disconnected the battery and took out the hard drive. I used isopropyl alcohol and a clean cotton rag to wipe everything down — brown coffee was everywhere. Then I propped the machine up like a “V” and placed it in front of a fan for three days. When I then assembled everything back again the computer turned on and has been working — I noticed one moment where the cursor ran ahead and wouldn’t stop (as if a ghost was running the machine) but that didn’t last long and there hasn’t been an obvious problem since. I don’t know how long it will last, but am very grateful to this thread for the helpful advice. Thank you all, especially Mel C,
(March 22, 2016) whose experiences helped me feel much less panic and provided hope things might be okay.
Take heart! I used the crate and fan arrangement (minus the towel) for 100+ hours and my MacAir resuscitated. This was despite our not shutting down immediately after the water spill.
Glad to hear this worked for you Christopher, I have saved a few MacBook computers from this upside-down with a fan approach too.
I’ve spent an hour reading this post after feeling bad and crying over my MacBook Pro. I spilt some water on it and was watching YouTube when it happened. The sound went off and then so did the screen. It took me some seconds to think what to do but a turned it off as soon as I got the reflex to and wiped the water with a towel. Right now I have it in the funny looking trick and I’m hoping that in four days everything will be alright. I’ll keep ya updated!
Can you tell me, How is your MacBook Pro now?
Thanks.
I spilled about 1/3 of a cup of water on my Macbook pro about 4 days ago. I wiped it off and continued to use the computer until it suddenly shut down. I had not read about what to do so I vacuumed the keyboard and flipped it upside down for a little while. I then tried to power on with just the battery-no luck. I plugged it in and tried powering on. It switched on for about 10 seconds and then died again.
Finally googled this post and realized all the stupid things I had done (such as powering it back on). I followed the fan under computer method with towel and placed the computer in an air-conditioned room for about 30 hours. In the meantime I researched the cost of a new macbook pro:( After realizing that my current macbook which actually has usb ports and the magnetic charger is actually no longer available I became really worried!
Well I switched it back on after 30 hours (I could not wait any longer). The Mac powered back no problem! I immediately backed up all my important documents and they shut it down correctly and left it for another 24 hours under fan. It is now running as before and it appears there are no errors. So disaster averted! And no more drinking with my Mac!!!
Wow so many good results . No me! Spilled a small amount ,slashed ¼ cup or 3 tablespoons of coffee over Mac book Air. Thur Ed it upside down immediately it was not attached to power. Black screen. Left outside open in direct sun 102 degree day + 3 more days in hot sun @ 93 a 88 degree weather. The battery shows green light when I put the power plug on it but nothing. I unplugged it again. Then it Had a little box with question mark for a minute then disappeared. Nothing since…two more days. I guess it’s a dead one. Ugh!
Do you think someone the alcohol trick would work? Any help other than $ 900 repair from Apple would be appreciated.thabks
Wow so many good results . No me! Spilled a small amount ,slashed ¼ cup or 3 tablespoons of coffee over Mac book Air. Thur Ed it upside down immediately it was not attached to power. Black screen. Left outside open in direct sun 102 degree day + 3 more days in hot sun @ 93 a 88 degree weather. The battery shows green light when I put the power plug on it but nothing. I unplugged it again. Then it Had a little box with question mark for a minute then disappeared. Nothing since…two more days. I guess it’s a dead one. Ugh!
Do you think someone the alcohol trick would work?
I spilled some water on my keyboard and turned to upside down( luckily I had a keyboard protector) and it turned off, I think only about a couple of water drops went into the keboard near the space button.
I’m trying the fan method.
Is there anything else I can do to make sure it gets at minimal water damage?
I’m currently a college student, so Imbtrying to save money, not waste it because I was careless.
Hi,
My home had a water spoil in the 1st floor. The new macbook pro 2016 was in the ground floor and get wet. I swiped it with my tshirt when I returned back home and I left it for 2 hours up to a chair with the USBs to be up and down. I opened it then to swipe also inside. There was a lot of water and the laptop didn’t make the auto start neither when I pushed the touch bar. What should I do? I ve left it with the lap open again with the USBs up and down
Recap of what to do if macbook gets wet:
1-take back off computer, flip the computer upside down on a towel on a laundry basket or crate with holes and a fan underneath.
2-leave it there for at least 36 hours
3-put back of computer back on, plug in and wait a few hours
4-try to turn on computer
fingers crossed water damage resolves!
While I appreciate the info, given the presumably high percentage of people who are going to be reading this immediately after spilling coffee on their MacBooks, could you cut down on the front matter? Maybe the discussion could come after the answer?
Ban, I have good news to report: I spilled water on my MacBook Air and immediately unplugged it, turned it off, dried off the keys, flipped it over, and put a fan underneath it blowing on the keyboard. After four days after being doused with water I was using the MacBook again despite it being very wet when water got all over the MacBook, but it had dried completely after four days (I live in the desert so we have low humidity, that might make a difference too).
This guide worked for me to save my MacBook from water damage and I still use the MacBook today, you can scroll down and read the instructions on preventing water damage to a MacBook, which you had to scroll down to get to the comment section, so you do not seem to have a problem with scrolling. Good luck with your wet Mac, I hope it helps you too! Remember to dry it out a long time.
Hey everyone, immediately after spilling half a pint of beer of beer on my 6 months old Macbook Air 13′ I entered this website to get some help. My mac shut down in a fraction of a second after the beer was on my top right corner. After reading some stuff I wiped the visible beer, turned the mac upside down and waited 20-30 minutes.
After the 20-30 minutes I tried turning it on. It did, but the screen was flickering, it was showing me I have no wi-fi/bluetooth and the fan was blowing hard. I decided to shut it down and leave it in my room with the keyboard facing downwards. I tried to turn it on after about 12 hours, didn’t work. 24 hours, nothing. After about 40 hours I took the risk of plugging it in to a power source and turn it on. It did turn on, but there are several problems:
1.No battery available. I tried SMC boot, twice, didn’t work. I think the battery is fried
2.Screen goes darker from time to time, and it is either on the left side either on the right side. It is never the same side, and it is never the same period of time.
Other than that the mac works just fine, no overheating, played a game for about 30 minutes it works just fine, same commands response as usual, no data lost.
I am glad I got on this page because your questions and answers really helped. I will soon get the notebook to a Genius(Applecare) and I hope I’ll get a good check on it and maybe some free repairing.
Just today I dropped a full cup of tea on the keyboard of my MBP. I picked up the computer and the tea poured out. I dried it off and took it to the Apple Store. They showed me photos of the wet battery and hard drive. They told me to google and find a remedy. They also said it would cost $1200 to fix. I am relying on the good words and wishes of the people here. Going to buy rice tomorrow. I’ll let you know what happens.
Rice never worked for me. It’s said to be worth a try when it comes to iPhones or other smartphones that came in contact with liquids. I once poured water over my iPhone and covered it in a bowl of rice. Didn’t work for me. I suppose your MBP is dead. A damaged logic board is all it takes for a MBP to be toast. I’d recommend to buy a new MBP. 1200 bucks is almost a new MBP. Repairing it wouldn’t make any sense at this point.
A couple of weeks ago I spilled a full cup of coffee over my MacBook Pro… My cup was right next to the optical drive so the fluids went over the whole keyboard. I have to admit that this never happened to me before so I wasn’t mentally prepared as to what to do immediatley after such an accident. After 1 or 2 seconds of total shock and regret I flipped it upside down in order to get the fluids out. To me, this was the best and logical idea at that moment to prevent any (further) damage to the components. After holding it upside down for 1 minute I dried all the surfaces with a towel. At that time I thought that it was about to shut down and be toast any second. To my surprise it kept working. No black screen, no immediate shut down whatsoever. My mind was already trying to figure out how to get it repaired and how much it’d cost me. I certainly couldn’t spend another 1000 bucks. I thought of shutting it down myself and let it dry for a couple of hours/days but that wasn’t quite satisfying to me. So my all or nothing attitude took over. I kept it on and waited for it to go black and dead. Nothing like that ever happened. I don’t know why but I thought if I’d shut it down right now I’d not be able to power it up again. So I suppose that I’m one of a few lucky guys that could spill a quarter of a litre of coffee (+milk) over their Mac and still get away with it.
My MacBook was on the bed; I reached to drink water from a lidded container, but the lid was not secure. The water did *not* spill onto the keyboard.
It spilled onto the blanket that the MBP was resting on, and pooled enough for the water to seep into all those ports, etc on the left edge. The screen went black.
I immediately tilted it sideways and let the water drain (not much, but clearly enough to do damage). After reading a couple of sites, I powered it down – although it already seemed off. When I pressed and held the power button, it did make that click. Less than a minute later, the fan started running. I powered it down again and same thing happened again. Third time, it stayed powered down.
Would appreciate any thoughts/advice. This is not a keyboard issue, but water into the left-side ports.
Many thanks in advance!
Thanks for the helpful and encouraging article. I read it because our 5-year-old MacBook took a glass of sweetened tea on the keyboard and all around the edges. I ran a little cold water over it, hoping to wash off the sugar. Then I squirted the last of my Radio Shack Contact Cleaner in holes and under keys. Then I referred to the disassembly manual from a previous screen backlight cable replacement (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Core+2+Duo+Inverter+Cable+Replacement/4772) to remove the battery, keyboard, and optical drive. I bought some more contact cleaner from Lowe’s and squirted it everywhere. I wiped off the keys and propped the opened laptop on top of two-by-fours and cardboard on top of the refrigerator, where warm dry (indoor humidity 20%) air could ease past it, and left it that way for two days. I put it back together and powered it up. All the keys still worked. Everything still seems to be fine, several hours later.
Well, im one of those who has a toddler that decided to grab my coffee that was unfortunately sitting next to my laptop and yes you guessed it, he spilled it over the right keyboard area. I immediately grabbed my laptop, cursed the world for ever leaving my laptop and coffee near a almost 2 year old, and flipped my laptop over without a care in the world about anything else (i.e. carpet I was flipping laptop on, child, spilled coffee on floor etc.)
I was devastated and felt so much guilt and sadness because I realized the obvious of never being able to recover the 23,000 pictures I saved or having my laptop on again. I proceeded with a paper towel and began to clean/dry my laptop. still cursing and upset, I dried off the laptop with paper towels followed with a towel and then I shut of the laptop removed some keys and used a q-tip to clean the keyholes. I then had the thought of vacuuming the keyboard with a small heavy duty shop vac. I suctioned the living keys off my laptop and then when I couldn’t suction anymore I cleaned it with a paper towel that I sprayed with windex. With the look of defeat on my face I turned it back on and I knew it would turn on I just didnt know the damage. I tried all the keys and realized that the only sticky one is the right shift key and other than that the laptop works just fine. Now I dont know if this will eventually bite me in the ass, since I read here in the treads that corrosion does exist. Nevertheless I am hopeful that my laptop is safe out of coffees harms way. This kid will be the death of me. best of luck to you all, writing from one coffee spilled laptop to yours.
19 months back, I spilled half a glass of sugared coffee on my mac. The board was shorted and the keys work no longer. I disconnected the keyboard cord to the motherboard and now use a bluetooth/usb external keyboard. For restarting I have to reconnect the cord again but now I rarely shut down my mac and use its sleep function instead. Once in a while I restart it. Almost two years now, still using it. Thought I will post it as it might bring relief to someone out there who are worried about the long term outcome.
I spilt 10 ounces of water on my MacBook Pro. Turned upside down sheik it violently then took a hair dryer to it upside down, and all is fine. no problems at all.
Hi there,
I just spilled tea on my MacBook Pro retina 13 inch. I placed it in a bucket of rice and tried to on it the next day. But it could on and all but the problem is it switches off. So I decided to put it back in the rice. Is it a good sign that it could on and charge ? But the problem is its switches off on it own. Probably due to the fact that there’s still a little water left ?
Helppppp
I spilled a lot of water straight across the keyboard of my mid-2009 MB Pro. The screen went black immediately and I flipped it over and started shaking the water out. Fortunately I had recently replaced the battery so I had the tools to open it and remove the battery and wipe whatever I could on the interior. I work in a lab so I stuck it in an oven like that at about 140F for 5 hours, flipped it over once, then left it overnight. Reassembled it and plugged it in the next morning and everything is working flawlessly. It was initially a bit slow to boot up and the trackpad was a little funky the first minute but it’s good to go now. Mercy …
I spilt water on my macbook air last night, immediately wiped off with tissue and thought my mac was working fine until the keyboard started to not respond… thats when I turned it off and found your website on my phone!
I tried the crate and fan thing and it worked for me! THANK YOU! It saved my mac! I only left it overnight though (I’m a student and have no other computer to used) but it still worked.
I spilled water all over my MacBook pro’s keyboard. It is less than a month old!!! I immediately flipped it upside down and powered it off and wiped it all off and have kept it upside down ever since. I had it all wiped off in less than 10 seconds, and after crying for about an hour I started looking on the Internet about what to do. all the keys were working perfectly right before I turned it off. What are the odds that it’s fine??
Hey abby, similar thing happened to me last night! Mine is working fine today :D
Hey so recently I had spilt a little tea in my MacBook Pro. Sadly I was an idiot and kept using it. However the damage was minimal only a few keys don’t work? Is this due to the logic board being wet or just the keyboard? Please let me know.
(I’ve also used the fan trick and some of the keys are working fine now)
Concerning the part where you said we shouldn’t use a hairdryer because of heat what if it’s in fan mode (cold) can we use it. Please reply ASAP
It worked!!!! Thank you!!! I did remove the towel after the first day tho. Hallelujah
Many thanks for this advice. I spilled a few ounces of sparkling water on my Macbook Air. I did not turn the machine off right away, just wiped off the keyboard and
touchpad and kept working. After a minute or two the machine began to cycle in a shutdown/restart sequence until I turned it off. This led me here on another computer where I thought I had really blown it by not shutting down immediately!
I did not have one of those plastic crates but did have a bankers box, grate and small fan. I blew air from beneath the keyboard for 4 days before restarting. The machine restarted just fine and will accept a charge.
I feel extremely fortunate that I did not fry the machine.
Apple makes an excellent, resilient product. Many thanks again for the great advice.
You’re welcome Mike, glad it worked out for you too! I have dunked a glass of water on a MacBook Air before and using this exact upside-down fan technique has saved the computer, and it still works flawlessly to this day. Best of luck, hope yours turns out just as good. Cheers.
Um I was asleep while liquid was on my MacBookAir and its my grandma’s
What do I do
Here is an entire article dedicated to what you should do when liquid gets on your MacBook Air: https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/13/water-contact-macbook-prevent-liquid-damage/
If you follow that article and the instructions, you might be able to save the MacBook from liquid damage.
Just spilled a drink of lemon water and Curacao on my laptop yesterday. I was late night and I came back from a friend’s place. I decided to have a drink and listen to some music before bed. Then BAD LUCK my hand got in the way and my drink went all over the computer. I turned it upside down and used a towel. The computer made weird noises and the screen was flickering bUT the key board was fine. So I closed it. Now it’s been drying with a fan for 24 hours. I don’t want to lose hope and this site made this pretty stressful event a little better. I’ll update when I know!
I spilled half a cup of coffee on my macbook pro and my heart dropped but I was able to flip it over as fast as possible. The screen was still on at that time so I shut it down and seached for ways to save it and came across this site. While I was scrolling on my phone and holding my macbook over a fan, it turned on by itself and I panicked because it’s not supposed to and at this point I was on the verge of tears. I’m 21 and I can’t afford another laptop. So I tried to turn it off and a few minutes later there was this beeping sound (5 sec interval) and I was losing it so I rushed it over to an apple service centre (closed it but holding it upside down the whole way). I arrived there an hour since the accident and the consultant attached a cable to it and did what I assumed was a hardware scan because there were little icons showing the different hardware component. There were also green ticks/ yellow warning icons next to each and I was so so relieved to see a green tick next to almost everything but camera, battery and a magsafe icon. My camera hasn’t been working forever and battery issues have already started months ago because I’m a heavy user and my macbook is almost 2 years old. So everything was going great until they told me I had to pay $130 just to open it up and check. Being a recent graduate I’m barely surviving with what little money I have and I couldn’t afford it so I decided to take my laptop home and proceed with the 96 hour upside down over a fan method. So here’s to 4 days of praying it will come back to me because I really don’t know what I’d do without it.
so this is really late but i’m really happy to say this method works and my macbook’s alright! apart from the sticky keyboard, i haven’t had any other problems so thank you!!
Great to hear you saved your MacBook from water damage emma, cheers!
spilled half a glass of water on my keyboard and my macbook pro (late 2015 model- brand new- a work laptop i might add) completely looked like it short-circuited. The screen went fuzzy and I didn’t turn it off until about 30 seconds after the spill. Turned it upside down, put a fan on it for 3 days straight, kept it off, and eventually lost hope when almost a week later it still wasn’t working. Went to the apple store and they said the prognosis was terrible- that i’d have to pay $750 to fix it and would likely not recover ANY data. So, to save money, we didn’t fix the machine and just had it sitting on the desk in our office: basically a paper weight. The whole thing was very sad, and my boss was not happy with me. HOWEVER, THERE IS HOPE!! This had all happened around May 11th. Today, July 18th, I tried to turn the laptop on, just to see if it would even hold a charge and respond, AND IT CAME BACK TO LIFE!!!! Not only that, but all my data is still safe, I’m typing this on the laptop as we speak, AND all of my tabs were even still open in google chrome. From two months ago. Amazing. An act of the Computer Gods. Never lose hope!
Many great suggestions here. My MacBook was sitting in bottom of laundry basket I was using to transport various items to our cabin. A previously open bottle of wine mysteriously made it’s way into same basket. I don’t drink but apparently someone decided this particular wine was worth bringing along. After the two day trip I found my MacBook soaking in wine. Too late for disconnecting battery. What to do? Apple repair,,,,, no warranty from liquids. I began dismantling to establish the extent of liquid inside and attempted to save my hard drive. No such luck. All items of importance were backed up. The cheapest way to replace my MacBook was by paying $500 deductible to homeowners insurance.
Update. All seemed well when I powered the computer back on after 72 hours. But unfortunately my trackpad and keyboard quit working from time to time. So I’ll be using the complete and then Track pad and keyboard freeze shop that my only option is to shut it down. Went to Simply Mac and they said it’s a level 4 repair and that they worked seemed it to Apple. $884 worked beer there charge. I declined and doubt in will drop that. They’re must be a much cheaper option than that. I am not in a huge hurry. Does anyone have any recommendations?
If it’s still wet on the inside let it dry out further, I let an iPad dry for a week and it worked fine afterwards. If there is any remaining moisture it can damage the machine, hopefully it didn’t short circuit a component, which is possible. You could also repair it yourself but who knows what needs replacing, maybe logic board maybe just the mouse/keyboard components, it’s hard to say. Let it dry out and then run Apple Hardware Test and see if it tells you anything.
Another option is to sell as water damaged machine on Ebay for parts, then use those proceeds to buy a new Mac. Not great, but I’ve had to eat that one before with damage.
Reading all of these comments gives me hope that I can save my MBP! Is the towel an essential part of this recovery process or does placing it upside down over the crate with the fan completely exposed work too? I worry that the towel is too thick and that the circulation of the fan is not reaching the keyboard as it should. Thanks!
I just spilled a large glass of tea right on to the keyboard of my MacBook air. I was quick to turn it updated down and get a towel under it. I noticed some trees coming out the ports though. The computer was on at the time and it took on a life of its own before I could get it powered down. I am n San Jose del Cabo on vacation. It’s very hot and dry here so hopefully that helps. I have A fan under it now. Keeping fingers crossed. Will update once I have a chance to let it dry or and determine if all is well.
I spilled a tiny bit of water on my macbook air while it was charging (It was a freak accident, but too long to explain) It immediately shut down on its own. I panicked and became hysterical. Lucky for me my co-workers sprung into action, and did the crate, towel, fan trick, and turned my laptop keyboard face down for it to dry out. 48 hours later I powered it back on and everything works great. I decided to share my story because the online forums brought me comfort when I was panicking. My water scare worked out, so keep hope alive and follow the advice of these forums. Also, I recommend for anyone who doesn’t have as much luck as me to purchase from BestBuy, they have a warranty that covers all kinds of damage including spills. Because my purchase was so recent, and I still had time to purchase the warranty, and so now if my laptop messes up later, then they will fix it at no charge. Good luck everyone!
**Correction to the above post** The Geeksquad protection plan that covers drops and spills is not offered for Apple products. They only cover PC’s. Bestbuy sells the AppleCare protection plan which DOES NOT cover drops and spills. Sorry for the misinformation, I was misinformed by the Sales Assoc. Good luck everyone!
Was at the library doing some studying when I reached over my MacBook and spilled some water from my waterbottle onto the keyboard. I was in a library so I couldn’t scream but OH MY GOD I was panicking! I quickly turned off the laptop, cleaned up any visible water, and flipped it upside down trying to shake any water out off the keyboard. I got home and now it’s sitting in box of rice and praying that in 2-3 days it will be ok. Ughs.
Hi
I just spilled 1/4 orange juice in to my mac book air yesterday I dried out immediately and used if without shutting down cuz I was stupid and later I shut down and left it for nearly 24 hours and checked to charge and it doesn’t work anymore 😑😑
Mains electricity wouldn’t worry me unless the device was actually immersed in water and I had to wade into the water to get to the device.
As for heat I’m only going to worry if the source is extremely hot, considering how hot the electronics can get on their own.
Just successfully recovered a MacBook Pro from a dropped glass of water over the keyboard and screen.
The notebook was powered on and being charged when the incident happened. The notebook shut off by itself.
Kept the power off and just dried the keyboard and exterior with paper towels. Then placed it in a pillowcase and inside a full new bucket of kitty litter.
Removed it 72 hours later, plugged it in, pressed the power and heard the beautiful boot orchestra. The track pad and keyboard work. All is well!!
Interesting strategy, glad you got your MacBook Pro working despite the water glass on it! Kitty litter is very absorbent so I could see that working, the pillow case is a must so the silica dust doesn’t get into the keys and ports. I would probably want to use a brush vacuum over the entire thing afterwards to be sure there isn’t a bunch of dust seeping through just in case.
Congrats on saving your Mac from water!
Used RICE and CEILING FAN
So I was doing homework at Panera Bread when I spilled literally the entire cup of a large pomegranate tea iced all over the keyboard of my MacBook Ait 13″ (latest model) Imeddiately I turned it upside down and someone was nice enough to give me their napkin a and I dried off as much as I can. Once I used all the napkins I shook out as much juice out as I can and went inside to grab more napkins and wiped again! At this point I was freaking out so keeping my laptop upside down walked to my car and drove home. I once again tried to shake out any other liquid then found this article. I did not have a fan or a basket to do this trick precisely it what I managed to do was lay down a layer of rice in a box put my laptop right on top, open and layered the rest of the rice I had(not much but enough to make another full layer) I then set the box under my ceiling fan on high, that was Sunday evening, Tuesday night I removed it from the rice, there’s was a lot of rice under the keyboard shook most of it out, borrowed a floor fan from someone and leaned the laptop against it with keyboard facing it, left it like hat for about another 20 hours. Just got home today went to turn it on and it TURNED ON!!!! I fiddled with it for 30 mins, so far so good, nothing out of the norm! Laptop is shut down for now will check it again tomorrow , if anything happens I will be sure to follow up with a post. Thanks for posting about this topic! Definitely was a huge help!!!
I had placed my MacBook Air on a table, and a flower vase was tipped over next to it. I watched it all happened, so within a split second I had scooped up the computer and wrapped it in a dish towel. I immediately used a more fluffy, absorbent bath towel, Q-tips, and paper towels to dry off the exterior, although I could barely find any wet spots (my shirt had gotten wet as well when the vase tipped, so it rubbed against the exterior for a second when I was holding it, and that was the only wet area I could see). I had a plastic Speck case on the computer, but the bottom fell off a few months ago, so at the time of the spill there was only the top part of the case on. Although there were only around 2 or 3 seconds between the moment of the spill and the time I was fervently drying it off, I think the bottom of the computer might have come into contact with the water. I tried immediately powering the whole thing on, but it wouldn’t start (the screen and keyboard stayed black). I also tried putting the charger in for a quick sec, but nothing happened as well (no little orange light), so I took it off. As I said, my sister and I used cotton and such to wipe down the keyboard, crannies, and such as best we could, and now we have it sitting upside down. Our house is pretty dry, so hopefully that will help. We also have a wide pan filled with white rice, but we aren’t sure whether to use it or not. I think we’ll try the fan-and-towel set-up next. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Also, in regards to chargers getting wet, I accidentally left my brother’s charger outside (he also has an identical MacBook Air) for several hours while it was raining. When he saw it outside, I rushed it in and dried the exterior off with a towel. The next day, I plugged it in tentatively and it worked! Still have it today :) I think it was pretty dumb of me to try it after only one day though, so if it happens to you, you should probably wait around 3-4 days just to be safe.
Also, I have very little knowledge of computer mechanics, so I would have no idea how to unscrew the battery like people recommended or anything, if that’s even possible. Should I look it up and risk it? Is it relatively simple? Or would I do more damage just trying it? Thank you!
My daughter spilled water on her MacBook Air and the screen was looking really weird (backwards writing that snaked around the screen. Yikes!)
I immediately turned it off and found this site and set up a similar set up. I did not touch it for a few days and the computer is now as good as ever. It has been about 8 months! So thank you thank you for great advice!!
Did the same thing everyone else did- sounds like I tried to resolve it in the same way too. As I’m dumping water out of the sides of the laptop, googled it. Cup of water was the culprit. I’ve got the mac book air sitting over a crate with a fan now, battery out and also over fan. We’re on hour 1 since incident. So 95 hours to go. Checked out the applecare- does not cover water damage. I did all of the steps that everyone has mentioned, but it took me a good 30 minutes from the incident to removal to get the screwdrivers necessary for taking it apart- do you think that this amount of time has proven to be average or too long? The guessing game. Anyway, if anyone had to take that long to get the battery removal started, let me know how it turned out for you.
I spilt beer on my keyboard on my MacBook Air and it immediately shut off. I panicked, turned it upside down and used a towel to soak up any liquid on the outside. I tried turning it back on, and the screen came on for a second then turned off again. I found this thread, but my computer, without the towel, over the fan for 5 days and when I turned it back in it worked as normal.
My wife spilled half a cup of coffee on her Mac air. It hit both the screen and keyboard. I figured a fair bit of coffee with cream got in. The screen was blank and I did not know if it was on or off. I took off the back to disconnect the battery, which is no easy job. The screws have a tiny torx head. I have a kit of 100 special screw driver tips but none were small enough. I instead used a small jewelers screwdriver that I filed down slightly to span the torx star. I got all but one out and had to drill off the head of that one. I took out the 5 screws holding the battery pack after unplugging the multipin connector. There was about 1 cc of coffee free in the case. I rinsed the entire case and circuit board thoroughly with a quart of distilled water and then with denatured alcohol and dried it out in front of my wood stove (2 feet away) with a fan on it too. When I could no longer smell any alcohol, I tried it and it started up. There was one corner of the screen that had a watermark-like change but the screen still displayed.
Hey last night I spilled some water on my husbands macbook pro it was closed at the time i wiped the top and moved it.. exactly how I moved it I don’t remember… without knowing what had happened my husband tried switching it on in the morning it was not turning on… now I am trying the trick with the towel and fan hope it works…
Thanks to all who commented here, I had HOPE after my tea spill!!
2011 MacBook Pro survives like a champ anything that comes its way, from falling onto concrete and now 2 liquid spills in a month.
My spill was a cloudy Yerba mate tea with soy milk creamer and sugar in it, covering the left side of my keypad. Boom – mop it up, unplug it and in 4 seconds screen goes black.
Immediately unplug and turn keyboard-down directly on paper towels on the desk. Left for 2 hours. Came back, hit return amd screen still black – power off and read this site.
My instinct told me to get my super powerful home vacuum and I sucked the keyboard for several minutes with very high level vacuum.
Then I sat with a hair dryer on cool setting for maybe 15 minutes, directly on keyboard upside down in my lap. Didn’t have time for the 4 day fan technique. Powered up, it appears completely fine! Gray screen eventually turned to my login page.
Try vacuum and cool hairdryer tricks, the worked for me :). Thanks, laptop angels!
2 days ago (3_7_16)I stupidly left my Mac pro in a gym bag with a waterbottle with a loose cap. It got pretty soaked before I discovered it the next morning. After shaking a few tablespoons of h2o out of it, it was as dead as Jesus. Went to local goodwill store and bought $5. used 1500 watt hairdryer. Set up LT in an inverted open position (A-shaped) on table, set hairdryer on “low” and ran it over-night. Put dryer working end about 6″ from open-end of invert. LT. Put a thermostat at far end of the “pup-tent” and adjusted distance of HD so temp.didn’t go above 90* at T-stat, but could feel nice coolish air-stream at far end of Mac. Oh, and propped up the “tent” by resting on 4 pencils so air stream could circulate fully underneath all of the LT. The Mac started right up 100% ok the next morning (10) hours later!! Halleluiah, God lives! SeattleSocrates.
2 days ago (3_7_16)I stupidly left my Mac pro in a gym bag with a waterbottle with a loose cap. It got pretty soaked before I discovered it the next morning. After shaking a few tablespoons of h2o out of it, it was as dead as Jesus. Went to local goodwill store and bought $5. used 1500 watt hairdryer. Set up LT in an inverted open position (A-shaped) on table, set hairdryer on “low” and ran it over-night. Put dryer working end about 6″ from open-end of invert. LT. Put a thermostat at far end of the “pup-tent” and adjusted distance of HD so temp.didn’t go above 90* at T-stat, but could feel nice coolish air-stream at far end of Mac. The Mac started right up the next morning (10) hours!! Halleluiah, God lives! SeattleSocrates.
I spilled an entire cup of water on my MBP the screen did not shut off at all and it was making weird noises, I unplugged and turned it off I turned it upside down on a towel after I dried it off, and when I looked at it the caps lock key had the light still on. the caps lock key works, is that a good sign? I really would like to have it on today as I have a major assignment due
My MBP is my everything. My whole life depends on it. I use it for work and accidentally spilled a cup of tea onto the precious thing. (Never have I been so disappointed in myself). The liquid seeped in almost everywhere, keyboard, the back of the keyboard …god knows where else. In a state of panic I immediately took the cable off and turned it upside down onto a towel. Stupid enough I tried to switch the MBP again. The screen lit up but then shut back down and now it won’t turn back on. So I’ll just resort to keeping it upside down until the driver gets here to bring me to a repair shop. I also tried baptizing my MBP in ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL. Unfortunately I won’t be able to try out the blow dry, rice thing as I’m currently at work, not the most accidentally-spill-liquid-on-laptop friendly place.
Hope I can at least turn it back on to retrieve what I can. Keep me in your prayers!
My cat spilled whole coffee on my Mac Pro, I turned it upside down right away and used the fan method (smaller fan in laundry basket) without the tower. Ten days later, it turns on. When I rebooted it the question mark folder shows up and I used Apple Hardward Testing info, holding the D button while booting up. Now it worked except the wifi, maybe it busted. Any tip?! Thanks by the way.
I spilled water on my bed while sleeping, the water traveled to my MacBook Air and entered through the bottom. I was awoken by loud strange noises from my laptop and couldn’t turn the brightness back up on my laptop (I turned all the brightness off when I went to sleep) I tried sucking all the water out, blow drying the water out, I don’t know if I should put it in rice, or continue with the upside down fan method. My bed was soaked, but and my water bottle and half way empty so I don’t even know how much water got in my laptop, but I don’t think it was that much since it didn’t fall directly on my laptop. I found water in most of the plugs, and where the screen and keyboard meet. I’m so scared.. Should I wait it out with the upside fan method or just throw it in rice?! Help!
I spilled a whole glass of water on my Macbook Pro today. Although I immediately soaked up most of the water the screen went flickering and then it won’t even start.
I used a hairdryer to blow on the vents to try to dry up as much as possible – note: do not put the hairdryer too close to the keys as they will buckle.
Then I remembered I had some 100% isopropanol (electric contact cleaner I got from a car parts shop). I sprayed liberally onto the keyboard and vents and dabbed dry the excess. Immediately I can power the Macbook back on and now it seems fully functional as I’m typing this.
Worth a try if you have the spray handy.
Better safe than sorry, you should let the MacBook dry out completely for 48 to 72 hours, while off, with a fan to be safe.
I pored Coco cola over my laptop today.
I first turned it over let most of the water dry out then put it in rice. I put it in rice the first time it turned on and now it’s show no sign of life. I already got it fixed before for water damage :( I paid $350 to get it fixed at a 3rd party store. Now it’s upside down with a fan on blowing at it :((((
Unfortunately my new MacBook Air had some water spillage and I didn’t think anything of it as I was a little preoccupied with other stuff (long story) then the next day realised that the MacBook had a problem as it wouldn’t come on so did the rice thing for about 4 days but after switching back on it asks to reset password and the mouse doesn’t work now trying your method of upside down with a heater on a crate but could you let me know how long I should leave it with the heater on please? Thanks in advance.
It says use a fan, it does not say to use a heater. You used the Mac when it was wet, it probably short circuited some hardware. You will likely need to take it to an Apple Store to get fixed and repaired.
I knocked over a cap of tea on my macbook.screen got black imediatly and made some screaming noizes for a few seconds.after that i dryed it my laptop and try to turn on again,but nothing..few days later i took laptop to service..they fix it but laptop works only with charging on.without charging it’s goes off.
My macbookair doesn’t turn on after i spilled hot tea over ir, I switched off straight away but dried ut with a fan cold setting though after 48 hours it still doesn’t turn on, does ut mean its dead?? Thankyou for reply
This technique worked like a charm and I had no damage. One day of fan and one day of rice and was perfect. I did get rice in my computer so I had to get the apple store to open my computer and remove it.
I spilled an entire glass of water with ice DIRECTLY on my Macbook Pro 4 nights ago. I was so in shock, I couldnt believe it happened- I am always so careful with my electronics. It went directly on the trackpad and the area around it, also on my keyboard but luckily i had a keyboard cover and I am pretty sure none got in the actual keyboard or the bottom of the laptop. I ran around for a few minutes trying to find a towel to clean it up…. I learned that I’m not good at all in high stress situations because for the life of me i could not remember where I kept the towels at that moment!! I dried it off with a towel, a hairdryer and its been turned off since, and I put some rice over the trackpad.
I plugged in my charger earlier today and the green charging light came on… but I am unsure if that means if I am in the clear or not.
I am going to try and turn it back on tomorrow and will post an update, but I am praying that it still works! My lesson has been learned.. I will NEVER drink liquid around my precious Macbook ever again!!
Did it work?
I poured a cup of water on my laptop last night and every single thing that it says NOT to do on here, I DID. Right now I have set up the fan thing so I am hoping it is not to late my for Mac to revive. Everyone KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS.
Well I puked on my keyboard and no one can repair it because it’s a biohazard. They told me to buy a new one
My cat knocked over a glass of water on my bed next to my laptop that was sitting closed. The worst of it, was this just happened to me oh 3 months ago!!! That time I tried to power on and . . . So new computer, 3 months old and the cat again (yes, it’s miracle she’s still alive). I tried the open, upside down on top of a crate (or laundry basket on its side in my case) with a fan blowing up onto it for 3 1/2 days. I was desperate to see if it worked but also knew to wait. My daughter pushed me to see since it had been almost 4 days. Well, I am typing on it and I am SO happy it works!!!! THANK YOU!!!
Diet coke. Got it turned off and upside down instantly. Used a blow drier for about 30 minutes, and then suspended it over a hot-air furnace floor vent, turned the heat up, and left it for the rest of the day. The computer works fine, but the retina display has shadows and the colors are not right. Don’t know if it will get any better. No fluid got into the display. It’s been on for a few hours now, so I’m just going to let it go and see what happens. Applecare did not cover my daughter’s when she did the same a few years ago, so we stopped buying it. If I have to replace this laptop, the savings will pay for much of it. Apples for kids and spouse; it adds up.
It’s been on all night. I haven’t used it. I will leave it for another few days. Thanks for the advice.
This afternoon around 5pm my son lent across me to turn the volume up on my Mac Airbook and in the process knocked a full glass of water all over the computer. Immediately the sound cut out & the screen went black. I was both livid and devastated in equal measure! I haven’t backed it up for a few months and my life & work is on there plus I only bought it this year. I cleaned up the spillage (my computer was literally drenched) with a tea cloth, found this post on my phone and then followed the instructions with the crate/towel/fan to the letter. I have to say as I looked at my dead, forlorn Mac dangling upside down with a cheap fan blowing air on it under a crate left behind by the Tesco delivery driver I did not hold out much hope. My son could still be heard sobbing in his bedroom. But lo and behold 3 hours later during I’m A Celebrity, the Apple icon suddenly lit up and it came back to life!! I am beyond grateful for this post as it has probably saved me about £300-£400 and my relationship with my 9 year old. Many thanks : )
3 hours is NOT enough time for the water to dry out from the inside of the MacBook, you need to let it dry for at least 72 hours. You have 69 hours more of drying to do before even considering turning it on. Don’t use it before you dry it out thoroughly or you will damage it!
Please help! I spilt water all over my macbook air, didn’t turn it off or do anything as it was still running fine, just dried off the water i could see but now my audio is not working! What can i do!!
So lay night knocked a glass of white wine all over my macbook pro :(
I did the disconnect /flip /dry technique, abs then sealed it in annum bag with a couple of kilos of rice and about 15 silica gel packs.
My question now is, should I wait the four days and if it works then just keep on using it, or should I take it straight to a repair place because the wine will corrode things?
Help! Thanks
A water bottle leaked in my bag, and when I opening my MBP I saw several “drops” run onto the trackpad. I wiped them up, and continued. The laptop was fine. I shut it, and put it away, thinking all was fine.
It’s the next day, and now… blackness. When it wouldn’t power on, I thought it was dead, so plugged into the charger. <—- is everyone cringing now?
The orange light turned green, I opened it and tried to turn it on. Nothing. Then it hit me…. rut roh.
I have it sealed in foodsaver vacuum sealed bag with 4 silicone packets. It is a work laptop, brand new 6 weeks ago. I am not authorized to send for service, and must try to mitigate the damage on my own if at all possible, but I don't want to risk causing damage either.
Best case scenario: I keep it sealed and dry for 48 hours, and it works.
Worst case scenario: I don't hand it to tech now, and my delay and attempt to dry it out causes worse consequences.
Any opinions on whether more damage is likely to be caused by waiting / drying and turning it in on in a bit, in this particular case? Since I already powered it up and turned it on once, it seems most likely that I already did the damage, and am trying a Hail Mary.
Thanks for any advice…
hey there ! ok so I basically come from school and there when I went to my table to open my MacBook pro I didn’t notice it was wet on the base. I on it tho :( and then I figured out that was the biggest mistake of my life, I panicked and cried so hard because its new and still am so worried because I don’t know wheter it will work since I on the mac. I’m now basically still confused on what should I be doing, since I have no clue how long will it last until.
After spilling water on my MacBook Pro, I panicked and didn’t know what to do to fix it, but I did turn off the power and flip my computer upside down. The next day, I put my laptop in a box over dehumidifier bought from Home Depot and kept it there for an entire week before trying to turn it in again, and so far everything seems to be alright — even the windows that I had open are still there. I found the comments on this website very helpful and right now I’m so grateful to have my laptop back, even if I’m not totally sure how long it’ll last.
I used comp-pros.com to fix my 2015 macbook pro after it got water damage and didn’t turn on.
I literally tried everything before– putting it in rice, blowdrying it, alcohol, and nothing worked. I ended up paying a couple hundred and these guys had it back to me in 2 days. They’re in West LA and their number is 310-571-8878.
THANKING THE MAC GODS. (they were obviously looking out for me) Let me tell ya, this has been the most nerve wracking 48 hours I have ever experienced. Read on if you are in a crisis & hopefully this can help you!
Saturday night, I was casually drinking with one of my friends at his house while we were hanging out, & I had decided to bring over some homework (including my MacBook Air) to finish up a couple things for school while he was watching the game on tv. By this point, I had a little head buzz, and was also drinking a water bottle profusely. I had my MacBook in my lap & somehow it just kind of fell out of my hands (probably due to alcohol intake) and about half of it poured out all over my keyboard point blank. I PANICKED. i immediately got a towel & started to sop up the water that was at a stand still on the keys & whenever it occurred to me that I needed to shut the computer down it had already flickered off! I FREAKED. I continued to try to get off any water that was in sight, after that I tried to plug it in (DON’T DO THIS BTW) (you could electrocute yourself/and or cause a power shortage) anyways, the battery light didn’t come on. So, I’m still panicking. I thought there was no hope. I immediately got on google and started tires search what I could possibly do. But, with that being said you need to ACT QUICKLY! I knew that I need to prop the computer up to where the keyboard was facing downward so any any remaining liquid could possibly drip out/and it wouldn’t come into contact with the logic board. I REALLY believe that this saved me in the end. You NEED to flip the computer over ASAP to make sure the liquid doesn’t get further into the system. Anyways, I left it propped up for about 2 hours until I left. I got home & then immediately propped it up again and user the hair dryer on the COOL SETTING to dry the keys. I did that for about 15 minutes and then propped it up on the side of my night stand over night. I made sure my room was stayed cool with cold air flowing through my room all night. (Fan on high & ac set to 72 degrees) You want to AVOID humidity at all costs when trying to air out the computer. I left it like this (upside down) for the entire day and would periodically blow dry it over and over. Left it in the propped up position for ANOTHER night and then VERY nervously decided to start it this morning. I plugged in the charging cable and the start up screen CAME ON!!!!!! IT WOKRED!!!!!! No damage and is working perfectly. The biggest thing about this & what I think truly saved it was giving it time, the blow dryer and leaving it propped up (keyboard facing down).
I hope this can help someone, & remember to move QUICKLY!
Xoxo – happy saving your Mac!
Glad to hear you saved your Mac from liquid damage! Be sure it’s completely dry before booting it up or turning it on again, all liquid must dry out, which can take a few days if water or liquid got through the keyboard or into the enclosure of the MacBook.
Rice. My savior. My new bae. My everything. About a year ago now I spilled a whole freshly poured glass of rosé directly onto my keyboard and some on my screen. Life was over as I knew it. I didn’t know what to do except the old rice trick. I dried up all the wine I could see with a towel and decided to put it in some rice. I grabbed a garbage bag and put a whole bag of rice in it. I set my computer up like a teepee inside the bag. I sealed it and prayed. Four days later I opened it and tried to start it. IT WORKED!!!!! It was the most magical moment. The same thing just happened to my room mate tonight but I’m not sure she can stand four days to try to turn it on… We will see. I will let you kneow!
My daughter spilled about an 8 ounce cup of water on my MacBook Pro… pretty much the keyboard and trackpad was doused. Acting on instinct at the time, I flipped it over, dried it down with a shamwow while holding upside down, rested it upside down on lots of paper towels, then found this site! Set it up on a metal woven fruit basket with a fan underneath (no towel) about 4 inches away, for 3 days. Turned it on this morning, worked perfectly! BUT…. because I have a couple of iMac’s as well, I decided to shut it down and put it back on the fan for a couple more days….. just in case!
I have spilled one glass of water on my macbook pro retina about a week ago. It works fine now and there isn’t any difference at all. I just put 3 large bags of silica gel on and above the keyboard area and put it in a bag for 48 hours. Of course, I cleaned all of the water before doing that by holding it upside down for one day. I observed that silica gels are able to absorb all of the moisture if you put the computer in a closed system.
I read so many stories and advices, but from by experience putting silica gels on the keyboard area is the best way to get rid of all of the water. The only problem was some of them stuck in the gap where the screen and keyboard connects, but it was easy to remove them with the help of a stick.
I’ve been a very happy Mac user since 2003, and had no idea the trackpad is so sensitive. I watched a 2 hr 48 min movie on my MacBook Pro yesterday evening, and realised at the end of it that a tear (or two) had probably spilt onto the trackpad. The cursor was erratic and the trackpad rather unresponsive. I wiped the trackpad dry though it wasn’t wet, and later used a hair dryer for a couple of minutes. I didn’t switch off the Mac until about an hour or two later, as the drying initially seemed to have helped. I figured a nights sleep would do wonders but the problems persisted and working with an old mouse and external keyboard didn’t help either. Fanning didn’t seem to help either. That is when I came across this post. I have followed all instructions, beginning with the advice to switch off and disconnect from power, then flip.
While fanning I started wondering if my laptop might have contracted a virus (it was an online movie)… But since it was really a trackpad issue and I did cry several times over the course of atleast 1,5 hrs of the movie, I’m inclined to believe that was the reason.
If there’s anything you can think of that might be helpful, do please let me know. I literally bought the Mac with my only savings. I also need to travel to a dangerous city in Asia for my work for 1 month in just 6 weeks time, and am really wondering if its a good idea to travel with my MacBook Pro given it seems so sensitive. I had no issues whatsoever with my iBook that I used for 7 yrs and took into the field with me.
I have the same problem, coffee, it turned on after 24 hrs, but then shut down after a few hours and now won’t turn back on…any suggestions.
Wow, this is AMAZING! My MacBook appears to be back in commission after the screen blanked out yesterday, and i decided to try the Step 6 technique to resurrect. THANK YOU for sharing the technique so clearly!
So I’ve spilled green tea and water a few times before on my macbook air 13′. I acted very quickly and turned it upside down imedietly and turned off the laptop. I left it to dry for a few hours then checked the keyboard and worked perfectly fine.
The problem is this time it was a coffe with milk and some sugar and I took the same procedure and it seems to work perfectly fine and left it to dry for a while. But I’m very scared it will stop working because of the sugar or that this will corrode my computer. What should I do?
I have the same problem, coffee, it turned on after 24 hrs, but then shut down after a few hours and now won’t turn back on…any suggestions.
How is yours.
Spilled milk on my macbook pro, I turned it off, upside down and tried to suck the liquid with a vacuum cleaner, waited something about 32 hours to turn it on again. It is working but some keys are really hard to press. (G, F, V, fn, and B) also, my trackpad is really hard to press and it doesn’t “click” when I try to, although it is working. .. should I take it to an apple store? do you know if they charge a lot just to take a look at it?
Thank you! Thank you! The fan worked!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT WORKED! Used blow dryer instead of fan as we did not have and it worked. Blow dried with inverted keyboard as per instructions. Kept blow drier at good distance so not to damage components with heat. Tapped while blow drying to displace any residual water from spill. After about four hours of drying to trying to plug in, finally got a charging light. When light went green, it turned on. KEEPING IT ON FLAT SURFACE (TABLE) THAT IT TURNED BACK ON-ON FOR 48 HOURS to ensure any residual water if any evaporates before moving computer. THANKS FOR THE CONFIDENCE in patience to get through this.
I have a repaired macbook air A1466 after liquid damage but i need to have the liquid indicators white again. I tried bleach, no luck. How can i change the 2 indicators on the SSD back to white or how do i replace the indicators?
Im desperate guys!
Cheers,
My 2 yrs old knocked 1/4 glass of water on my mac book air keyboard, i quickly dried all external surfaces but the machine died out soon after. So i flipped it upside down to dry out and shelved it away for a good 10 days. Next time i turned it on, it worked perfect
My scenario seems different than anything I read. my 4 year old, as near as I can surmise-apparently in a fit upset with me about something, and maybe 5-10 minutes before I discovered, sprayed a fair amount of windex onto the keyboard of my MacBook Pro 17″. I (stupidly unlike the vast majority of smarter users here)-tried to power it up after wiping it down. I wanted to cry-I just got it back from recall (2nd repair in 4 months)-but it was working like factory. In any case, when I wentto power it up (or opened) it was white screen and the fans were very loud. Then it powered off and has been off since. Best Buy suggested the same in terms of rice for keyboard to accelerate drying and waiting at least a week. They suggested the initial white screen may just be because of the short circuit in the early stage. I was hoping because windex has ammonia it would dry quicker? I was told “at least $800” for a repair if it doesn’t work. I didn’t read this in time to use the “flip over” or fan protocol. Mine is open right now with the rice on the Keyboard. I am not sure what good flipping it does>? But putting the entire computer in 5 pounds of rice isn’t necessary -just don’t see what it helps.
spilled a tall glass of ice tea directly on my 3 months old macbook pro 2014 keyboard. I was so nervous, I kept turning the laptop upside down without turning it off. I let it dry about 1 or 2 hours until i read this article, than i dried it upside down like you did! (in front of the fan instead on top of it) and of course i realise i have to switch it off. lol. few hours later, i try to switch it on, it works perfectly. guess I was lucky! and i don’t even wait that long to switch it on again cuz I can’t wait to see if its working hee. this is like 3 months after the incident and my macbook still working just fine :) if its sticky it will get off by itself.
p/s keyboard protector is the best solution to prevent incident like this. it happened to me twice but the 2nd time i had the keyboard protector and never take it off till now! phew!
I just spilled a glass of water directly on my MacBook Air last Friday night. The water seeped in through the keyboards, and the device automatically shut down. At this point, I realized the power cord was still attached; that was ripped off in my state of panic.
So I frantically searched articles to revive my poor darling Delores (my MacBook Air) and came across this method. I recreated it and waited. However, I also made an appointment with Apple through the advice of a chat representative.
The following day, I ventured across the city to the Apple Store. I summarize by saying that they opened it, found oxidization within the internal components, and for my MacBook to ever work again, I would have to send it in to get the logic board replaced ($533).
I opted to give this method a chance. I mean, what was to lose? It is now Tuesday, and I decided to power my MacBook on.
It worked. At this time, I can see nothing wrong either.
Thanks to Paul Horowitz, who shared this article with masses. My life was made infinitely better today.
Just did the upside down thing after spilling a water bottle on my air. It’s now working!!!!
So my daughter did a little baptism for my MacBook Air. I freaked out but managed to force a shut-down, the Mac had a mind of its own moments before the shut-down..It was making all kinds of funny noices. I wiped it with a towel and stupidly tried to power it on. Of course it failed to power on. Then I stumbled on this forum using my phone, read the bit about flipping the Mac facedown on a towel…and I did just that but without the fan or rice. I kept on reading the comments on the thread while I waited and my heart broke at the suggestion of a 3 day wait. As I was pondering the fate of my Mac…and pending assignments, I heard the start-up chime and saw the apple insigna lite up…after about 30mins! Yay!!! I did not even have to power it on, it booted on its own!!!! I couldn’t resist the temptation, I checked it and it appeared to be working perfectly fine. Out of an abaundance of caution, I’ve returned it to drying-mode at least for another 6hrs. But I can sleep-easy. Phew!
You want to dry it out, even if it is working now, let the internal components dry out. Put a fan on it, elevate it upside down like this, so that the air can dry out the liquid or water inside. Any residual water can damage the MacBook even if it is currently working.
Edit: No it didn’t. Boo.
It came back to life and looked wonderful for a few hours but it does not accept power. So it is toast? Genius Bar says it is 1200 to fix.
May 20, 2015Jana
It worked! Yeah!
My 3yr old spilt water on my MacBook Pro keyboard. I flipped it, blotted it dry and right now it is upside down and open resting on 4 tall glasses suspended over DampRid (a consumer grade desiccant bought at a hardware store for $2.99) and sealed in a plastic bag. It’s up on a high shelf out of reach (in theory). Crossing fingers. Will let you know what happens.
– See more at: https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/13/water-contact-macbook-prevent-liquid-damage/#comment-1221843
Stupidly, twice in the past, I spilled a hefty amount of water on the keyboard of my mac air (fortunately did have rubber keyboard cover on). Both times there was enough water to drip down the sides and the computer went black within seconds. Both times I embedded the thing entirely in rice (towel-dried & closed, in a shallow pan) and covered it with plastic wrap. Waited a couple of days and both times all seemed to work well (whew). This time (sadly, today), I knocked over my water and about a cups-worth flooded right up to the side, getting all in there good. Tipped the water out, and wiped off all the surface moisture. Again my computer is taking a breather in a rice bath for a while. Here’s hoping I can get lucky a third time with the rice trick which has worked for me in the past. NO MORE DRINKING NEAR COMPUTER FOR ME!
THANKS SO MUCH THIS HELPED I JUST GOT TO THE COTTON BALL STEP AND IT WORKED! I LEFT MY ROOM TO GET Q TIPS AND WHEN I COME BACK THEAPPLE WAS LIT UP! MOUSE A LITTLE LAGGY AT FIRST BUT THEN BETTER! THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH!
Everyone is talking about water on the keyboard. My keyboard and options are working fine, but my screen thin has rainbow stripes down the middle, and kind of psychedelic swirls on the rest of the screen. Can I get just the screen replaced?
Oh dear, just spilt a little tea, very weak on right side of my 5 month old Mac book! Wish me luck!
I spilled a good dollop of water on my macbook pro 5 days ago and it immediately cut off. I initially put it in rice and was gonna leave it up to prayer and time but thankfully I found your site within the first hour and did everything you instructed to do. After the 96 hours i let it charge fully and took the fact that the charger was responding to the Mac as a good sign. This morning I woke up and after some heavy duty prayer I went to check on it and it is working beautifully.I am so grateful to god for this little miracle and so thankful to you for all your helpful tips.
I spilled a little water on my MacBook Air, lower right hand section of mouse pad. Initially I wiped it, but the left click no longer worked. I found this website and immediately put the laptop upside down with the keyboard and mouse pad on some paper towels. After about 30 minutes left click started working again. THANKS!!
It needs to dry for 30 hours minimum, not 30 minutes.
Ok so 6 days ago i was at work on my computer and the man infront of me spilled a glass of water on my computer. The water spilled infront of me so its towarda the back of my computer and i have the last macbook pro that has the fan under the screen. I dont think too much water got into it. I IMMEDIATLY picked it up and turned it off and its been sitting in rice ever since. I dont know if i should turn it on? Or wait longer? Or take it to the shop? I dont think it got any water on it but im scared to turn it on.
Any suggestions?
Please help if you know anything!!
It worked! Yeah!
My 3yr old spilt water on my MacBook Pro keyboard. I flipped it, blotted it dry and right now it is upside down and open resting on 4 tall glasses suspended over DampRid (a consumer grade desiccant bought at a hardware store for $2.99) and sealed in a plastic bag. It’s up on a high shelf out of reach (in theory). Crossing fingers. Will let you know what happens.
I had a can of Pomatello San Pellegrino Juice can tip over on my keyboard and was able to get away with no damage.
I have to think it’s all about the reflexes. I saw the beverage cover my space bar, letters M and N but I turned it upside down in a split second before the liquid could seep in. The can went flying in the other direction and spilled the drink all over my table. I never even had a chance to turn off the machine but I did place it on the towel immediately to have the towel ‘soak in’ as much as possible and lightly pressed the keyboard against it to try and ‘squeeze out’ remaining liquid.
I let it sit there on the towel for 30 minutes. The day after, I de-sticked the space bar, M, N keys and I was back in business.
My son spilled some liquid (beer) on his MacBook Air. We did everything we could to save it – turned it over onto a towel for several days but no luck. After a few days, I tried charging it but there was no life – I gave up. That was 5 months ago and so I decided to try to get it back to life again. Plugged it in- it charged but it was stuck in the white screen. Searched online and found something to do with disk utility (press control P – or something. Well to make a long story short – I went through some steps and bingo – the MacBook Air works!
My 3yr old spilt water on my MacBook Pro keyboard. I flipped it, blotted it dry and right now it is upside down and open resting on 4 tall glasses suspended over DampRid (a consumer grade desiccant bought at a hardware store for $2.99) and sealed in a plastic bag. It’s up on a high shelf out of reach (in theory). Crossing fingers. Will let you know what happens.
I spilled about 6 to 8 ozs of water right into the keyboard yesterday.
•I immediately put it corner down while powering off.
• Then placed it on a towel keyboard-down and headed to Apple.
• It showed no damage and was told to let it dry for 24 hours.
• To help the process, I used a pretty large blue plastic bag filled the bottom with 5 lbs of rice, placed paper down for the mac to “A-frame” on, and sealed it up.
24hours and 30 minutes later (and after a back-up), it seems to be working.
Thanks, put Macbook Pro on towel, as described, PDQ, and it worked a treat. Good forum.
Can I remove my dead mac hdd and insert it to another mac with same configuration to recover my data?
I spilled water on my mac’s keyboard. I kept it in a bag of rice for about 2 days. When i took it out, it wouldn’t turn on unless I held down the power button and it was plugged in. I had to plug in a keyboard and mouse. Also, my mac gets hot really fast, makes that noise when you over heat it all the time unless you unplug it, and it very, very, very slow. It takes 5 minutes just to get into Safari.
Hello everyone:) Okay so here is the issue, yestaerday about thus time I had an ashma attack while holding a cup of grape juice. I was just standing there and then suddenly dropped my cup and aboht 1/3 of it completely covered my keyboard. So as you all did I disconnected it from all of its cords and about 5 seconds later the screen went black. I turned it upside down and wiped off Any visible liquids. I then kept it upside down and ita been drying out for about 25 hours now. The light on the side of the computer by all the ports is flashing a bright green, but only one of them is doing this. I would go to the apple store or geek squad, or something like that, but I have no one to drive me… What do you guys think I should do…
if you have a connectable keyboard or mouse, you could try that… but first u need to make sure it at least works. I had sorta the same thing, spilled water and the screen went black. I found out that it you plug your mac in and hold down the power button, it may come on. it takes some time though. Hope this helped a bit.
I just tried this trick with my 2012 Macbook Pro. My son spilled water on it 96 hours ago, and I did this right away (but without the towel). So far, my computer is working like a dream! Thank you for the suggestion!
A few days ago, I spilled tea on my macbook pro. It is the first time i ever cry over a material thing. not because my work entirely depends on my computer, not because of my deadlines, not because i absolutely cannot afford a new machine these days but specially because i have photos of my recently deceased mother that I haven’t backed up yet.
this feedback is in gratitude to your recommendation here and as reference to anybody who might go through similar trouble.
i spilled tea on the MBP and it automatically shut down within about a second.
i freaked out, cried and panicked. knowing that the computer was out of battery, i connected it to the charger and turned it on only to hear funny sounds that i never heard before.
only then did i find this page using my smart phone and turned the MBP upside down. I started organising the drying setup in the photo above and turned on the fan. at some point, i removed the towel and the keyboard was directly exposed to the spinning air while the computer was held somehow on a wooden frame.
I managed to leave the whole experiment for three days. that’s all i could negotiate with a deadline i had to meet simultaneously.
Then, I charged the computer for a long while. i pressed the turn on button and it did turn on. i was relieved beyond compare!
This said, i would like to have some decent professional check it now and be more careful with my working partner from now on.
Thank you so much.
I am also most grateful for the crazy looking fan set up! Water was spilled on my mbp, I turned upside down, warm hairdryer, and even plugged in (which I later learned was rather stupid). I unscrewed the back and gently patted water drops with a towel. I then searched on my tablet and found this info and put a similar setup together. After 4 days, I turned on, but nothing. Then I plugged in and I heard the most beautiful sound! Needless to say, I immediately backed up my data and for the past 4 months have been running smoothly. The water spill was a completely freak accident involving kids, but the lesson learned was to back up often. Thank you and God bless!
the screen on my mac book air is totally black. Its still under guarantee but Im told that they found evidence of a small liquid spill, therefore won’t honour the guarantee and quoted me an amount more than the cost of a replacement for repair.
The backlight of the keyboard is fine, and can be adjusted for brightness. The green light on the shift key works. There is the normal sound when I press the power button. Ideas please of what is wrong and what if anything can be done?
My son just pour half glass of hot water on the table that flooded my 20 day old MacBook Air 4 hours ago, the screen went black in 2 seconds and I turned off the laptop and flip it upside down as suggested in above comments, and shaked the water out, I can see lots water came out from the air vent on the edge of the keyword, then I left the laptop closed at 3/4 to enable me to see the air vents, I then use a hand held vacuum cleaner to suck water out from the gap between edge of the mac book and the bottom of the screen, water drops can be seen sucked out, keep sucking about 5 minutes then left the mac book in a bag of rice for 4 hours.
I said to myself I did what I have to do and didn’t think much just turn it back on, the screen flash once then black, then I heard the start up chime :-), but no display :-(!!!!.
Quickly google it and found if start up chime can be heard it actually indicated hardware passed hardware test!!!! but still no display???, turned the half dead Mac off again then did a control+option+command+power once and hold till I heard start up chime twice then release keys, WOW, this time i can see a folder with ? on the screen after 10 seconds …..Google again, it means HDD failed :-( , cost at least 460 to replace !!, during my Google search, I found newer Mac has AHT( built in Apple Hardware Test program), I gave it a try as I thought I have got nothing else to lose, turn off Mac the Turn it on again, soon as I heard the start up chime, hold down the D key until a globe shown on screen, Yay!! I can see the globe that means my display is OK, quickly select Wifi and language then hited enter, the Mac actually download something from the net and started running some test, test result found power adaptor has an issue(of course I have not plug that in), anything else OK !!!!!!!!!, then I click on the reboot option on the screen then guess what ? It booted up to the screen I left off when my son spill water, even the document I was working on retained!!!!.
I quickly check all keys on keyboard all functional, just incase there are more water left behind I decided to put it back to the rice bag overnight, I saved all my documents then turn it of, I used some tissue to plug into all ports as I found rice stucked in those ports and it will cause damage to the port if any of them left behind. thanks for all the comments posted in this forum. I think I have saved my Mac!!!!!.
I spilled around a quarter of cup of water on my macbook air last night, i shut it off right away, then dried out the water with a towel…this morning i tried to turn it on(i know it’s bad) and the screen was totally black with a question mark folder flashing on and on, is my computer fried? What should i do? i shut it off again and got the funny position fan thing
same problem here.
were you able to fix it?
hey all,
today i spilt water (300ml cup) on my macbook pro 13” and straight away my laptop shut down and showed a fuzzy screen and then turned off,straight away i put it upside down for like 5 mins, then i put rice all over my keyboard (because thats where i spilt it on) and left it there for about 1 and a half hours to, 2 hours and then i turned it on and it worked!!! i was a very happy dude :)
i reckon if it wasn’t for the rice then i think that i wouldn’t be making this comment now :)
First disconnect power/force shut down (hold power button 4+ seconds)
– Put is upside down…shake out the liquid.
– If you have iso-propyl alcohol at hand (and only this alcohol….Turn it up again…pour generous amount in and shake it baby…It displaces the water and doesn’t damage electronics.
Then upsidedown again…. any place you can set is is fine… then use a vacuumcleaner and suck it dry.
P.S. if you have a torx at hand you can remove the bottom and from there suck it out.
Sucking is more effective to take out the left over moisture.
the point of it all is to get the liquid out as fast as possible to prevent corrosion or further short circuits.
i just spill half of glass of water yesterday and i was freaking out.. the water didn’t spill on top of my macbook but rather under it.. on the right side where the USB port and other ports are located(i think the wireless card as well) the macbook shut off immediately.. then like a dummy kept trying to open it but i at least knew to remove the power cable.. it would start and then turn off again every time.. i came to this site and i basically did all your advices except opening it up (yes i even started sucking the remaining liquid with my mouth.. it did kind of get some water out lol)i let it stay open on its side for the rest of the day… then during the afternoon yday.. i opened it and it was workiN!!… BUT the wireless was not working and the USB port on side where the water spilled wasn’t working either.. i was thinking to myself at least it is turning on maybe i jus have to replace the wi-fi or get a external wi-fi card. But i still wasn’t happy so i turned it off.. set it up to dry again in a room with the fan blasting(not directly at it but above it). In conclusion, i just woke up and i can happily say I’m typing this message from my macbook!!! :-D :-D.. everything is working fine but i will keep u guys posted.. Moral of the story? IF u spilled water on your macbook.. JUS WAIT.. LET IT DRY.. ATLEAST A DAY.. then move on from there.. You never know it might just work for you
I’ve spilled coffee on my apple laptops twice. Once in 2003 and once just now. Stupid I know! I’m about to order a keyboard protector. But I’ve turned my laptop upside down immediately, dried it off quickly with napkins and then proceeded to suck the remaining liquid out with my mouth. Basically act like your mouth is the end of a shop vac/vacuum cleaner and suck it all out. It sounds weird, but has worked for me both times!
one week ago not carefully I touched my full of tea cup and it filled into my new mac book pro 15 and i dried my self from outside use napkins and i opened my mac and it was working normally. next morning i tried to open my mac but it was unsuccessful after that i fell very bad and directly went to the Apple Care, after they checked my mac they told me mac’s mother board and keyboard has problem and they told me “if u want to repair your mac, it cast will be around 1300$ , I was upset ((… of course I did not repaired and left them there went to the garage shop to left my mac there for repair with cheap cost , when i arrived there fortunately the master was not there , and his friend told me the master will be here about 5 mins and started to wait him I was sooo bad about my mac after that i decided to open my mac again, I did it the same and fortunately my mac was working perfectly except keyboard so I decided don’t give to the master for repair! I went back home opened my mac it was working normally and until now i do not have any problems. I afraid after the one or two months it will be problem and I was ((((…. Who can give me any advise ??? What can I do now??? by the way I am from Azerbaijan and now living in Shanghai…
Spilled coffee near my month old Macbook pro, I didn’t even realize that the coffee must have splashed onto the machine and got into the back. The computer would only run lately while plugged in. I took it to the apple repair and they told me that there was coffee inside and it would cost $700 to fix it. Sorry after spending almost $2000 I can’t spend another $700 to repair it. It still works fine except it has to be plugged in to use. Someone mentioned places the will repair if for a third of what apple charges, how can I find a reliable place to send it.
I have recently fixed a water damaged mac for my sister, she spilt a glass of prosecco on it, following on from this she said it wouldn’t turn on. However after dismantling, and washing all components with surgical spirit, the little system is working a treat- though it’s worth noting the keyboard needed replacing, and the dismantling process was somewhat laborious.
Just spilled water on my 2 years old macbook pro.my brother shook it well before opening the bottom cover to shake off the liquid. have put it upside down under a fan.will not dare switch it on for at least two days. I just wish (beg the almighty, kneeling on thr floor) it works.
Well, did it work?
Liquid damage is NOT covered by Apple Care+ !!! just found out the hard way!
i have spill coffee on my macbook air when i did the following steps I didn’t work. when i boot my macbook the display is so dark my keyboard works when i brought my macbook to apple store they sais i need to replace my motherboard but there was no water i have check everything but i cqn’t find the issue
Coffee is flavored water, Mansour. If you hosed down your MacBook with coffee, you may be out of luck.
Hi, how to know if water gets into Mac charger instead? How to prevent any damage? Water gets into my house the other day due to broken pipe. I left my laptop charger on the floor so i think water gets into it. The charger outer body feels a bit cold.
My two year old kid pissed on my MacBook Pro. It was in off state, trying to dry it off with mild hot air.
Hello guys,
A year ago i spilled a cafe late with SUGAR on my Mac book pro Retina (2013). After turning it off and drying it upside down i turned it successfully on. The only traces of the spill were to be found on the sticky keys on my keybord which i managed to clean by removing all of them one by one. Today, a year from the damage i would like to ask you guys whether you think i am of the hook or there might be some corrosion inside my MAC?
FYI The mac is working perfectly in all aspects: Sound, Battery, speed, ports and so on. Not a single irregularity so far.
Thank you in advance
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
I spilt a full glass of water over my MBP. Immediately powered it off and turned it over. Water poured out. Then I placed it in a storage container filled with rice. I left it for 4 days- computer open and setting on top of rice. When I opened the box and powered up my computer, it worked! And has been working for 3 yrs since that time with no problems.
Hi have the exact same thing. But I left it for 3 days as it said on this site but I added rice to the pan on which it was sitting And 3 days laters it works, but I get a warning that the battery is damaged and won’t charge. I booked an appointment to Apple store tomorrow…
Hi
I have the same problem with Battery not working ,did the mac shop just replace the battery ?
Last year I stayed in a hotel and one day, during my absence in the room, a hot water pipe broke in the bathroom.
When I came back the room was full of steam, it was so hot I could not enter for a few minutes and water was dripping from walls and the ceiling. The bed was saturated so were all my clothes.
On the desk there was a brand new (2013) MBP, A Sony camera, a MIDI controller, a DJ mixer, two power boards, an assortment of power supplies and an Airport Express box, as well as two WD backup disks.
Once I opened the window (yes, in some countries you CAN open hotel windows!) I picked up the MBP, turned it off while water was pouring out of the bottom enclosure cooling slots. I wiped it with a towel, which was wet as well. The camera battery compartment had water in it, the mixer, once tipped, also turned out to be flooded.
Quietly hoping the hotel would replace anything broken I did not do any dance footwork. Moved the gear to a new room, and the next day started and used all the electrical equipment with the hotel manager present.
And guess what? Everything worked, 100%! No problems, no shorting, nothing. The camera required a sensor clean, that’s all.
Maybe the steam settled on the bodies of the equipment rather than flood the components, I don’t know, however seeing water gushing out of the vents of the MBP gave me a bit of rush I must say.
I might not be completely correct here, but distilled water (and this is what you get as a steam condensate) is not conductive, so in perfect conditions it won’t cause any short circuits.
There is, however, a good chance it dissolves anything that might stick on the surface, and there might be some salts that will make it a conductor.
So you’re quite lucky anyway.
A few years ago, half a cup of water was accidentally spilled onto the keyboard of my white Macbook. The screen went blank in under a minute and cannot power up again.
I opted to upgrade to the Macbook Pro because the repair cost turned out to be more than half the price of the Macbook! The repair centre said that the main board need to be replaced. The white Macbook was left in the closet and forgotten.
A year ago I toke it out while clearing the closet. Out of curiosity I connect the power cable and pressed the power button, to my surprise it was able to power up again but unable to boot!
Quickly inserted an OSX CD and reinstall the OS successfully. It’s still working fine to this day.
The water must have short circuited the electronics but did not damage it. It’s working again after all the water had dried up.
I often read theses forums and never comment but the advice given on this subject is terrible. I am not trying to scare anyone but I am an ACMT and have been successfully repairing liquid damaged 6 years, 2000 units later I have learned a few things and no amount of wishing or praying will save your Macbook Air or Pro from the damage done by liquid of any kind. Macs as you know are precisely engineered and are not designed to be exposed to liquid in any amount. The bottom line is that any amount of liquid that makes its way to a logic board that has power or is even powered off will cause corrosion. No amount of rice, silica gel or blow drying changes this. Corrosion is the enemy here and electricity is the catalyst driving the corrosion process so the key is to disconnect all power to the unit asap, this includes disconnecting the battery. Unfortunately Apple has begun to use proprietary screws on all new Macs so this poses a real challenge for most people. In most cases corrosion left un treated or un-repaired will cause the main logic board to fail or otherwise malfunction causing your Mac to behave strangely.
Ok….now the question is what do I do to fix this issue? Well as I see it you have 3 options.
1. Listen to the guy who says put it in a bag of rice and pray. The result will likely be a broken Macbook Pro full of rice, if the unit does come back to life it’s likely only a matter of time until you see issues start to pop up and you will likely need to budget for a new MacBook.
2. Take it to the Apple Store. I worked for Apple for many years and the answer is almost always the same “Dude you spilled water on it…buy a new MacBook” or the We can send it out but it will cost you $740.00 for a 13″ or below and $1240 for a 15″ or above, does not matter if it is a drop or a gallon and it will void your warranty.
3. Google it!!!! There are several reputable independent service providers out there that offer MacBook Pro liquid damage repair services nationwide at about a 1/3 of what the Apple store charges and some of them even offer free shipping.
Bottom line is if you spilled something on your MacBook and you want it fixed correctly it’s likely going to cost you only question is how much? Thats for you to decide but do your research and good luck!!
Hi. I dropped one cap of tea into my mac, after cleaned Apple Cares master (they told me my mac’s mother board and keyboard is not working) the later two hours my mac is working perfectly. What can I do now? Can u tell me some idea? thanks
I’ve had both beer and water over my MacBook 17 inch on 4 sepperate occasions. Turned it off and flipped it upside down instantly each time and the thing is still preforming like a dream. I think that speed is the main factor here.
There’s a great video of a MacBook Air being put underwater by CNET and the only thing that stopped working was the battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_0CN-12npY
My solution works perfectly: I never drink or bring any kind of liquid close to a computer…
This is the correct answer, and obviates the entire discussion here. If you bring liquid near a laptop, it’s going to find its way in, eventually — and regardless of how careful you are. If you’re drinking from an open cup on an airplane with your Air in your lap, you absolutely deserve what’s going to happen, because you’re stupid or in denial or both.
My policy is different with my desktop (Mac Pro) setup: I can afford to lose a $49 Apple keyboard (or even a $79 BT keyboard), especially because I keep a backup of each on the shelf — new-in-box castoffs from Craigslist, at half price. Still, if you’re careful and lucky, a keyboard might wear itself out before getting coffee-fucked. I’m going on 3 years now.
Rice, by itself has little effect even for cell phones.
That said, burying a cell phone in a container of rice and warming the rice DOES have good effect.
Easiest way to do this is to place the container on top of a countertop Microwave oven that has a light bulb to light the interior. Place the container of rice/cell phone right over the location of the light bulb and leave the door of the MW open for 24 hours or more.
Alternatively, rig a 40-60 watt bulb lamp. Use your ingenuity.
Nothing you read on the internet about putting laptops in rice, using fans, hair driers or whatever other tricks are any substitute for actually taking your computer to an apple authorized service provider (not an apple store) to have them take it apart fully and inspect every component for liquid damage. Many times the computer can be cleaned and repaired without permanent damage if caught soon enough. If liquid is left in a laptop, even if it is still working the even tiny amount of liquid can slowly corrode away components that can fail weeks or even a year after the accident. Please spend the money to have it inspected properly if liquid damage occurs.
I have lost 5 Mac laptops over last 5 years to liquid spills.
Mostly due to spills of wine or other liquids in airplanes or on our kitchen counter.
Wine on an unprotected keyboard, even small amounts, is deadly, the Mac cries a squeal and is lost.
I now use keyboard protecter and it works, IF you are careful to get the liquid off the keyboard and Mac quickly, before it gets into the Mac. I had a clumsy airline attendant. But the protector worked.
With the technologies available today, one would think Apple could make all iPhones and Macs waterproof, or at least water resistant.
Keyboard protector is smart! This lets you quickly turn a Mac over to dump the liquids off. The water / fluid seeping into the keyboard and behind the keys is the killer, that’s how it gets to the logic board. Great idea!
Anyone thought of a Shop-Vac? Getting all power removed is first line of defense. I almost wish Apple would make a special physical switch you could flip that would disconnect the internal battery. However, they could also easily build the keyboard and case that would not allow liquids into the internals as well but would cost them MILLIONS in spill replacement sales yearly.
The new crystal kitty litter works well for smaller items. Dump the item into a ziplock with litter to cover and then wait and wait and wait..
Mine was the worst of scenarios. During a plane flight, I tipped a full cup of hot tea over my MacBook keyboard. The logic board was fried, and the keyboard was also kaput. Fortunately all data intact. I had to buy a new one and have the data transferred. I now use a keyboard protector!
Dumped water on your Macbook during a flight? Oh that really sucks, I would be so bummed.
I’ve had splash encounters but never a full cup of tea or anything like that
Gosh, mine just got an entire cup of tea too at work. I drove it immediately to te assistance but I’m expecting the worst :-(
The two posters above who recommended rubbing alcohol are leaving out that RA contains about 30% water as a diluting agent. So, don’t listen to their “tip” – RA isn’t hydrophilic and doesn’t adsorb water.
Isopropyl alcohol 99%, which is hard to find and buy for legal reasons, works much better in this regard, but it tends to displace and doesn’t at all adsorb water (or adsorb coffee, juice, etc.).
“Adsorb” makes no sense in your context. I have a hard time taking this post seriously.
Obviously they mean “absorb,” not “adsorb.” Not an uncommon mistake.
No need to be snarky.
omg keri how about you take a chill pill
I’m not even sure why ‘absorbancy’ is mentioned here. Just turn it over and shake gently. Let the liquid go where it may. Clean that up later. The main thing is to get the water out, and dry air in. A towel is just going to get in the way of the drying process.
I too have used the rubbing alcohol trick on electronics with good results.
The best results I have had with several macs is to open them up immediately and liberally dosing it with rubbing alcohol. It will absorb all water and then evaporate without a trace. It costs very little and works fantastic.
I agree this is a great method perhaps the best to save liquid damage on any electronic, Mac included, BUT, it is extremely complex for to open a MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro and not for even a semi-technical user. But, if you’re very proficient with dissasembly and have the tools to take a Mac apart and put it back together, this is a great method.
Otherwise I think the above article advice is great, perhaps the towel part being unnecessary though because it may block some airflow once the initial water has been absorbed. I have recovered from small splashes before by doing a similar trick, but the bottom line is that for Macs, you have to let them dry out for 3-4 days minimum.
BTW, AppleCare+ will cover liquid damage and accidents. Otherwise consider putting your Macs on a renters or home owners insurance policy to get them covered. For businesses, maybe put them under the business insurance for accidental situations too.
Hey – why do you say that apple care will cover water damage ? I have just damaged my brand new 2 day old macbook air with very little water damage ( I placed on a bedcover which was wet) And its gone off and not turing back on. I have the 3 year apple care plus but everywhere else i have read that it is not covered .
Worked at the Genius Bar — Apple definitely DOES NOT cover any type of physical or liquid damage even with Apple Care on any Mac.
Water damage is not covered by apple care, but geek squad will cover if you bought your mac from Best Buy. Also homeowners insurance/renters will cover too.
Hi. I have had my Macbook Retina 12inch since the end of November. About a month ago I realised that my Mac would not budge. I took it to the Apple Store about 2days later with my apple care. They later confirmed that it was water vapour that had broken it. Last week I ended up having to pay 450euros in order to get it fixed.
Hello, thank you. Hit the site after my Macpro got a shower and the upside down on a towel pdq worked a treat.
HI,
just a tip, my daughter spilled a glass of ribena (thick sugary cordial) into her macbook air, from that point on we did most things wrong, she left it turned on, she did not shake it out but left it going into the keyboard, I turned it off for half an hour then turned it back on, the fan made a noise then we couldnt turn it back on again, we tried charging it and nothing worked and we could not get any response, i opened it up (took the back cover of) and shook it to get any more cordial out. after about 4 days of trying different things i gave up and brought her a new one, i left the laptop on a stool and kept meaning to throw it away, 8 weeks later my son picked it up and plugged it in, it came back to life and now works like new (I am typing this on it). battery is perfect and i have been using it for the last 2 weeks. so if you think all is lost just leave it to dry naturally for a few weeks and you might get lucky.
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!
Spilled about half a glass of water on the keyboard and trackpad area of my Macbook air. It did not shot down on its own, so I closed it as soon as I could, and flipped it over. My friend tried do opened it up a few minutes after the incident (DO NOT DO THAT), and nothing opened up, only the fan did. Shut it down again, came here in complete distress, and than i decided to tried the Funny Looking Towel & Fan Trick, AND IT WORKED PERFECTLY
thank you a thousand times
How long did it take for it to come back please?
Hi i spilled water on my Mac air too but I didn’t dare to switch it on again is it possible that it will be damage .coz my friend told me not to switch it on again . So I didn’t know what to do now . Any advice ?
my macbook air too got spilled with water on the screen, keyboard and trackpad area. it is working fine but the fan is on whenever i switch it on from the shut down mode.
how long do i need to put it in rice and how long is the fan technique for.
what do i do? please help
Ani, here is an article describing what to do if you spill water on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. You ask “what do I do?” and you should start by reading this article:
https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/13/water-contact-macbook-prevent-liquid-damage/
I’m trying your method- would like to attach picture – let you know if it works!
Besides the tips written there, I think bringing it in to the Apple store is not the best idea, as they will almost always declare the logicboard as dead even when it is not. At least in my country, the Apple Authorised Service Providers in Singapore always just replace the logicboard.
The best is to bring it to a third party that does chemical washes on the board. In my experience, a lot of the boards can be revived by cleaning it with an ultrasonic cleaner.
I spilled a full mug of coffee with cream onto/into my MacBook yesterday. It shut down within seconds and the screen was black. I immediately flipped it over to drain as much as possible than spent several minutes slapping myself and cursing loudly. Hit the start button and nothing happened. Found a tiny screwdriver, removed the back, disconnected the battery and gently mopped up. I then slowly poured a bottle of isopropyl alcohol directly onto the exposed circuitry and some onto the keyboard and propped it up to drain. Set a fan in front of the open back overnight and this morning it started and seems to be working fine.
A local tech estimated $900 to repaired the assumed “fried circuitry” and I tried the above as an alternative. I think the alcohol was $3!!
Hi,
How did you manage to open up your macbook pro? Is it a retina?
I was setting down a full glass of water when it spilled right into my Macbook Pro laptop. I unplugged it, flipped it over, and water poured out of it. My heart sank!! I gave it a good shake, wiped it off, and while holding the keyboard downward, blew some cool air into it with my hair dryer. Then placed it on a cookie rack on the edge of a table….. open and keyboard side down. The first day, I had the whole computer wrapped in a big bag with lots of rice under the cookie rack. On the second day, I just had it on the cookie rack keyboard side down…..no rice or bag. I left it for two more days before turning it on. Then…… MIRACLE! It worked. I was truly amazed and very grateful. Apple must make a tremendous machine to have it withstand this kind of abuse!
Omg I dropped water on my macbook and I followed these steps exept for one of the and it worked thank you!!!!!!!!:)
If you use paper towels it does not work!