How to Fix a Wet iPhone
If your iPhone is broken and won’t turn on because you dropped it in water, got it wet in the rain, or spilled your favorite drink on it, don’t worry it may be repairable. The first thing to try is drying it out. Don’t try to turn it on, don’t plug it into anything, that may only increase the damage, or damage another component, or electrocute yourself. Instead, dry it out with a hairdryer for a while, and then spray compressed air into the earphone hole at the top, and the dock-adapter hole at the bottom. If you’re lucky, at this point it will turn itself on automatically!
If this doesn’t work, follow the instructions here to open the base of the iPhone and proceed to dry out your internals. Note that this is a dangerous procedure and will void your warranty. Please don’t open up your iPhone! It’s probably a better idea to just take into the Apple store and let their geniuses figure things out.
(Note: the iPhone can be “reset” by holding the top power button and the circular “home” button at the same time for a while)
| This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is tagged with dangerous procedure, iphone, apple store, home button, power button, geniuses, hairdryer, warranty, rain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
i just know dropped my phone in the toilet.i grabbed it within 5 seconds. the screen imediately began to get darker and darker. but i have no idea what it looks like at this point for it is in a bag of rice
I dropped mine in the toilet and grabbed it out quickly and it still worked just fine but after about an hour it started to do little but out of the ordinary things and i am a little bit scared. It was in another language and it randomly unlocks and locks itself and goes to the ’slide to power off’ screen..it also won’t make any noise and when i try to adjust the volume it has (headphones) volume thing but there aren’t headphones in… it also had a message saying that it was too hot and couldn’t operate and all i could do was sos call. please help, i’m not sure if it’s going to do worse things or whether it’ll just stop in time :S
ok i lost my iphone 4 i have 3 lovely children .. to which i found my phone only thing is it has a broken screen and its wet REALLY wet like out in the rain for 2 days wet …. reading this i have it in a bag of brown rice .. dont know if the rice has to be type .. but brown rice is all that was in the cupboard . so i am being cam and nice dont know if it was me that left it outside or one of my darling girls that love walking around with me phone at any chance they get .. apart from that am hoping this whole rice thing works .. as for the broken screen i have ordered one on ebay from hong kong and i am going to fi it myself as i cannot afford at this time to get it fixed … so heres to all that hope ….:(
The whole of my drink leaked in my bag which meant my iphone 4 got soaked, it must of been in there for about 15 minutes. I took my phone out and when i got home i plugged the charger in and it came on after a while of just the apple logo coming up and then it swiched itself back off. It then make this ticking noise from inside? I’ve put it in a container of rice so hopefully this works as my insurance has run out!
NEED HELP!! my son dropped my phone in my coffee everything works except the part i hear from, can anyone help me???? i also have apple one year warranty but i am not sure if they cover this! please help me thanks
Use a vacuum cleaner if possible. If you want to try and suck the liquid out of the inner parts of the phone, try using a vacuum cleaner. Remove all residual moisture by drawing it away with a vacuum cleaner held over the affected areas for up to 20 minutes, in each accessible area (take it in turns with a friend). This is the fastest method and can completely dry out your phone and get it working in thirty minutes. However, unless the exposure to water was extremely short, it’s not recommended to attempt to turn your phone on this soon. Be careful not to hold the vacuum too close to the phone, as a vacuum can create static electricity, which is even worse for the phone.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE USE A BLOODY HAIRDRYER, EVEN ON COLD IT CAN DO MORE DAMAGE THAN GOOD AS IT BLOWS MOISTURE FURTHER INTO THE PHONE AND ON HOT CAN MELT CONTACTS.
Best bet is the rice method, or the dessicant packets you get in some items
Ok check it out heres my story. I was walking home the other day and I rolled my ankle. By the time I got home I drunkenly stumbled over to our pool to dunk my swollen ankle in. I got in and swam around, probably for 15 minutes. I Jumped out, soaked, and had a few more brews. It was another 15 minutes before i noticed my iphone 4 in my drenched shorts. I panicked, and laughed, then the anger came, finally denial. I plugged the phone into the charger. nothing. Totally dead. A few of my housemates suggested rice, which i had barley any of. I put it in there until the morning. Again I plugged it in. Nothing. Then I found 4 Selica Gel packets and added those to the mix. I left the house for the day and on my way home went to the supermarket to see if i could buy more. They had none but they did have those moisture absorbing things that go under the sink or in a closet. It was like 6 bucks so I got it. I cut it open and poured the little white beads in with the rice. I checked it about 5 hours later and the phone was wet. This had done something it seems. Another half day later I plugged the phone in and for the first time it came to life. I could see a small amount of water damage, a white glow around the bottom of the screen. But everything else worked, some texts came through and I made a call. Before long the reception died. I turned my phone off with the intention of turning it back on but alas, it refused. I did a restore, and plugged it back in but all the came up was the apple logo and eventually it prompted me to plug into I tunes. However when I unplugged it from the charger it died instantly and Itunes wouldn’t read it. Today I woke up and put it in the sun for a short while. I decided to open the phone (it’s a hassle I know, use a scalpel, or even a really small philips head) the inside was dry but i sat it in the sun for a short time. Then i put it back in the Rice, Selica Gel, absorbant bead mixture. 3 hours later I plugged it in charge, same problem. I left it in charge and had a sleep, and just woke up to a string of text messages. It seems to work fine now. Its fully charged, no visible damage, home key sticks a little but barley. I didn’t use a hairdryer or a vaccumm or anything else other than what i described. I still havent put the back on again. Good Luck. Also if you fix your phone it isn’t a miracle. God doesn’t even exist.
“Also if you fix your phone it isn’t a miracle”. True
“God doesn’t even exist”. False
Seriously – spouting the ‘god exists’ nonsense on a forum like this! What a crock of ****
my phone fell in the toilet for less than 10 seconds. i put it in a bag of rice for 4 days, i opened it up to make sure there was no more moisture in the phone. In total i had not plugged my phone in for 7 days. Once i put it on the charger, it prompted me to plug into iTunes, once i unplugged it from the charger, the screen went black. Plugging it up to the computer has not helped. The apple start up screen just keeps flashing on and off. I am at a loss and don’t know what to do. Can someone please help?
i left my iphones beside my drink and fell asleep when i woke up it kept on vibrating ang no no msg alert was making sny sound when i recve texts but when someone calls it ring, a prompt always comes out “this accesory is not optimized by iphone – you may experience noise caused by cel;lular interference and decrease in signal strength” then after that the sound goes of….i tried to blow dry it by nothing happens, anything else i can do? thanks
I dropped my iPhone 4 in the toilet last night around 11pm,I snatched it out of the water within 5 seconds of it dropping into the toilet. the phone itself shut off before i could shut it off and i freaked out (i had been drinking) so i dried it off, and stuck it in a bag of brown rice and continued on with my night. In the morning around seven my phone turned on for about one minute and started vibrating with all my missed calls then it shut off. it is now 4:30 pm my phone as been in the bag of rice for roughly 18 and 1/2 hours, and it turned on. everything works, no damage.
i feel soooo lucky
and so thankful because i treat my iPhone like its my child (so for future reference when i have a child and i drop it in the toilet I’ll dry it off and stick it in a bag of rice haha)
I have an iPhone 4 that got wet while playing golf. I had the phone in the cup holder of the golf cart. I didn’t see any water in the cup holder but… Anyway, I didn’t notice any liquid on the phone but my phone kept saying the accessory is not ioptimized for this device and your signal strength might be weak or something like that. I took it to my I.T. Guys at work and they confirmed that it got wet. They took a can of compressed air that contained Tetraflouroethane and tipped the can over and squirted the very cold liquid into the data port on the phone for about 5 seconds moving the tip back and forth covering the entire data port with now frozen liquid. To my amazement the sound immediately started working. My volume up and down buttons worked immediately, I got clicks when I locked and unlocked the phone. everything worked as it should. Until the phone warmed up again. The I.T. guys said that freezing the phone confirmed that there was still moisture in the phone and that I needed to put the phone in a bag of rice for a few days to completely dry out the phone. Worked like a champ for me. And the compressed air is a great way to test.
I dropped my phone in the toilet and the phone was retored thanks to dry rice overnight but I noticed that the WI-FI button is grayed out. I am able to go on line but I can’t switch it back and forth. There might be some wet spots left inside the phone so I put it in rice again this morning hopefully, the WI-FI will work again. if anyone has any solutions, please let me know.
its work……XD my iphone 4 damp,,everything fine except i cant hear any sound from my music n video.after browsing about this problem i try to dry it with hair dryer 15 minutes…then put it in rice bag but after 10 minutes i felt stupid..so i dry it again with hair dryer 5 minutes n sucking the earphone hole 5 minutes and felt 100x more stupid give up i try to turn it on n suprisingly its work!lol.
My ipone 4 was completely submerged in cranberry juice for 30 minutes and didnt work at all
I left it in a sealed bag of rice for 2 days
plugged it, nothing, then left in plugged in for 5 minutes and it turned on
I spilled the same thing. Did you try charging it before putting it in rice and if so – did it appear to even acknowledge the charge?
hey guys,
so yesterday morning i was washing up and texting at the same time with my iphone 3gs, stupid i know!
then BAM no iphone, where was it? UNDER the water!
i pulled it out as fast as i could and panicked! i had no clue what to do. so i took the case i had on, off and left the phone on like an idiot, just to see the damage. it started off small but gradually got larger and larger over the screen until my phone eventually turned itself off.
i was devestated.
i put it on the radiator for 5/6 hours, it turned on after and the damage was still there but not as bad as before.
i had it in rice over night, and now i have it in rice on a radiator as my uncle says it would work a charm, and its working!!
the water has almost gone, but it has left damage which was expected.
i didnt want to look like an idiot putting my phone in rice, but seriously it works!!! so dont just stick it on the radiator like i did, put it straight into a sealed box of rice, and if your radiators are on, put it ontop of one over night and i guarantee your phone will be working soon!!
im never washing up again!
I dropped my iphone in the toilet at the bar. It had an Otter box on it which I think helped. It got super hot and wouldn’t come on. Then just the light would come on. I put it in a container of rice near my dehumidifier for about 24 hours. It wor’s now, but it wont get wi-fi and the camera won’t work…plus I think it has an STD. Good luck to everyone though. I didn’t think mine would ever work again…be patient!
My Iphone fell into a bucket of paint thinner! while I wash washing out my paint brushes.
Then I rinsed it off with gasoline as a solvent cleaner. When it didn;t turn on I threw into the barbeque for ten minutes, let dry and cool off. It now works fine!
that is the dumbest **** I have ever heard
Obviously intended to make the problem much worse…..James karma is a *****, and you will pay for this post.
**** the iphones this sh#!%#$% needs to come up with something to cover it when you try to go to the pool of an hotel and you get all FU##@ up to remember it wasnt cover….fu#@$@#$ sh#$@#$…
I took it in the pool with me for a few minutes before realising it was zipped up in my swimsuit boxers’ pocket. Dried it under hand dryer, then sucked the water out the dock and the sim card slot with my mouth… before that I also shook it like crazy to get the water to spray out.
The home button didn’t work at all for a few days and voice control kept coming on and off randomly.. but now two days later the whole phone works pretty much most of the time including the home button… sometimes it randomly resets tho, and the compass doesn’t work anymore..
i also store the phone in a container full of dry uncooked rice to absorb the moisture..
Cheers, and good luck everyone!
Thank you sooo much you saved my phone
I have tried to turn my phone on a few time and put it on the charger for a minute or two twice before I read this…but initially I blew in all the ducts and put into a bag of rice within an hour. do you have any additional tips?
thank you.
i got my phone wet in the rain. the flash light is on and wont turn of, that is all that is on, the phone it slef wont turn on :/
I was on a boat with my 3gs in my pocket when my friend thought it would be funny to push me in. phone was dead when i got out so. i put it in rice for 2 days, no dice. I took it apart dried it out for 2 more days, no dice. Is it repairable or junk?
Thank you so much. We were sitting outside and the automatic sprinkling system went on. Too much. A hose broke overhead and it was Niagra Falls on us on the patio. Fortunately my phone was under something and didn’t get soaked. But I sure was drying it out. I didn’t lose power but I could barley hear anyone or anything. We did the hairdryer and compressed air and we are able to hear better on the phone and ipod than we could before. Thanx for giving us your advice. Your answer really gave us relief.
Again our thanx. The Niagra Falls on the Iphone couple
well on a friday @ church camp i sort of left my broken purfume bottle in my purse and it spilled all OVER MY STUFF!!!!! so it didnt really damage anything but it got in the screen plus my phone was already deade cuz i forgot my charger
2 home so now i tried the rice trick and its been a while since i checked on it soooooo….. what should i do sumbody PLEEZ HELP ME!!!!… PLEASE
i was so stupid.i bought a lipton ice tea in a bottle, put it in my bag with my iphone, had no idea it was spilling out. The tea got all over my bag and my iphone 3gs. when i got the iphone out it was already dead. there was an apple store there so i quickly rushed to it, then the apple person synced my phone and still didnt work. i tried to blow dry it yesterday for only like 5 mins and ive got it in a bowl of rice right now. its been there over night. the next morning i didnt see any water on the can lens so i assumed it was already dry. i tried to turn it on but it wont work. so now will it decrease the possibility of it to ever come back to life? thanks in advance
i synced it to my laptop (windows 7) after 2 days of being in a bowl of rice, then it showed some lines, now it just shows white screen. i tried everything including the pressing both of the home and top button and other stuff but it wont work. itunes detects it but when i click restore it keeps on saying error 1604.. what should i do? will they be able to fix it in the apple store? i bought mine in another country and now im staying in a different country. what should i do?
i dropped my iphone 4 in the toilet! i tested the headphone jack and on/off/lock button and sound, and camera. everything was fine. about a day later the main (and only) button on the front, is very very slow to respond. and i can no longer double or triple click, this takes all my battery from all the open apps, help!!!
thankyou so much for this info it saved my phone
i only just got it and spilt a brew on it i did what you said and it came on on its own after a blow dry 
thanks
Hello,
I went fishing last night and as soon as I was headed for the water to start wading out to fish i was brutally attacked by yellow jackets so in a fit I jump into the water with my iPhone 3Gs in my pocket it was wet for no more than 5-10 seconds. i dried it off and have it in a bowl of rice currently. It wont stop vibrating but the phone is off occasionally a red LED light comes on in the top left corner of the phone and i have no idea what it means. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Will Mr. iPhone ever work correctly again?
Being the wonderful girlfriend i am i washed my boyfriends brand new iphone4 in the washer then put it in the dryer and ran it twice!!! we just turned the phone off and chucked it as a loss. but then we turned it on today and it WORKS! it comes on and the screen is just fine except it comes on with the no service and in different languages and says i need to restore itunes. but everytime i take it off the charger it shuts off.
is that due to the water damage or to the fact it has been dead for a few months?? just want to know if it is a loss or still can be saved.
I just washed my iPhone in the sink, thinking it was my eye glasses, cuz the glasses were in the other hand and my brain was thinking of other ****…well, aka, **** happens…
well, when the iPhone gets wet, the first thing I notice is the sound thingie is interupted. it flashes the silent then no silent thingie. and the clicky text sound doesn’t work…
anywho, the water dries out. don’t freak out people.
I got my iPhone wet before, did the same thing…just let it dry.
ur freakin awesome! fosho! ill try not to freak out anymore
)
hi,
little while ago, i was clicking a pic from my i phone4 in kithen n i didnt realize my hands were a bit wet . just a tiny drop of water came on screen n then i saw a distorted image of the object i was clicking..n then immediately the phone went off. i tried to switch on but is not turning on. i wiped off wid towel n blow dry for a minute or so…not turning on…..please advise
ive got the same problem! every time i put it on the charger it stays black but then the apple comes on then goes back off and it does this over and over!
yeah, i dropped my phone in the toilet and my screen went black and this apple symbol appears what do i do ?
same thing is happening to mine. the apple just appears for awhile then goes away and comes back again. i tried resetting it and nothing happens.. any luck??
i got wet in the rain & my iphone4 was in my pocket it got pretty soaked but when i pushed the home button it was still on then i dried it off and it worked fine. but when i set it done for a minute n then came back it was cut off n wouldnt come back on, HELPPPPPP!
Thanks for the info.
Got a iPhone 4 put it washing machine accidently for 3min flat after i realised it was in the wash.
What i found was i could see moisture on inside of the camera lens, did not turn on or plug into power source, kept using my wifes hair drier & dried pout lens till no moisture was present, did this for a few times
All so this might helpt dry out the phone take out the sim card to have more holes to vent the phone i could feel warm air come out the ends. do this repeatedly, then turned on iphone it worked halaylouyah
I noticed with the phone turned on on a white background moisture marks under screen so i kept using the hair drier when the phone got hot i put it in a bowl of dry rice to remove moisture 3hrs later phone is ok
Thanks again for the info
Greg
Hey I am lucky. I dropped my iPhone 4 into a cup of sweet tea and immediately took it out and shook it so the tea came out and then I tried to turn up my ringer and it didn’t work. I tried to go to my iPod and there wasn’t a music volume sliding thing at the bottom! I restarted it. The volume was back but it sounded awful! The sound went back to normal after like 3 days and it didnt get slow. The only thing that is wrong with it is that the home button sticks down sometimes
My boyfriend spilled coke on my iphone 3gs, and it was the tiniest amount. it only got on the back, but my phone won’t stay powered off, and some error message keeps coming up saying something about “celluar interference” the speakers won’t play music out loud and the lock and swiping noises aren’t working. please help!
I dropped my phone in the sink, it was only for a couple of seconds, but I had the same problem you did, I found everything worked except when I called people I couldnt hear them except on speaker, and music wouldnt play and it wouldnt turn off. I took sim card out and put vaccuum cleaner over the holes and it worked within minutes. Its in rice just to make sure, but it all seems ok now
well i have an iphone4 and i was at whataburger and my friend spilt my poweraid on my phone but it wasnt even that wet. Then i noticed after a while it i couldnt hear the other person when i was talking on the phone. Then it started to shut off. I could get it on for a little bit but then it just finally decided to die. So today i thought id dump it in some water to get the sticky out.. (stupid) then put it in some rice, cuz that what i heard to do? but i just tried blow drying it and nothing is happing!
I accidentally washed me iPhone 3 and now i have dried it, blowdried it and charge it but the backlight is really dim and i have made sure that i put the brightness in settings on full! How do i brighten the screen up?
Hey I dropped my cell phone in a sink full of water like last thursday.. I took it apart & dried it & left it apart for the whole day but during my 5th hour one of my friends decided to tun it on.. it tuned on but then shut off & now i cant get it to turn back on.. It charges & all the buttons light up & possibly work but the power button its been left alone & apart for a week now & i still cant get it to turn on.. It not a contract phone…. I got it from wal mart & it doesnt have a removable sim card. Its an lg cosmo & all i really want is my contacts if there is no way to get it to turn on can you please help me??
I was so stupid, and I thought my iPhone was a super hero. I took it to the bath tub with me and it got wet, but not too much I thought. Guess what? The home button doesn’t work, it is slow and the sound comes ******. I’m fucked. Help me please |:
Carla,
Yesterday, instead of putting my phone back on the table, I instinctively just put it back in my pocket. Well that turned out bad since I was at a Pool and proceeded to jump in the water. I realized it about 5 minutes later and just set it out to dry. My phone didn’t work at all and I checked both of the water damage indicators to see if they had been tripped. The headphone jack indicator had turned red so I took a q-tip and cut off the fuzzy part and then put the end in bleach and stuck in down the headphone jack. About 5 minutes later there was no trace of red left. Since there was water under the lense I went and bought some silica gel packets from the hobby lobby down the street. I left my iphone in the package of silica beads until I woke up the next morning. The water from under the lense was gone and the phone still would not turn on.
So your probably wondering why I’m bothering to tell you this when your problem is much different then mine. Well, if by chance your iphone is still under warranty, I would simply complete the process that I explained above. Once the phone has lost its ability to turn on or function, other than the water damage sensors the apple geniuses are not able to run diagnostics on your device to check for hardware failures. This is, of course, a last ditch effort, and in my case the only option other than paying for an entirely new phone.
I apologize if this method is a bit too extreme, but when I walked out of the apple store with a refurb/new (Genius said the ones they swap out for broken phones could be new or refurb, but they do not know which)iphone 4 and the smirk on my face, i knew it all had been worth it.
Hit me with and email at stayalive25@yahoo.com if you have any other questions. Please dont send me emails if you simply want to critique my grammar.
i was getting out the bath a few hours ago w my phone in my hand and i was reading somehting on fb when i fainted! i was out for about a minute and when i came round i saw my phone at the bottom of the bath but fb was still on. i grabbed it quickyl and dried it and blew all the holes.it kept shutting down then starting again and telling me ‘this device is not compatible with…’. i then proceeded to put it in front of the gas heater for a few hours. it is currently off and air drying. how did urs turn out? any tips? HELLPPPP
I dropped my phone in sink whilst brushing my teeth this morning it was only in there for literally 2 secs i dried it with hairdryer 2 and everything seems to be ok but could bits break later? its still on and working as normal!! please help!!
Hello. I dropped my iPhone 4 in my bathroom yesterday. It sort of submerged in about 1 and a half inches of water for like, 5-7 seconds.
It had a hard cover case on it and it was hard to get out, so I couldn’t. I dried the surface with a towel and check everything – the camera was fine, everything was except it was on headphones mode even when there were none.
I had that problem solved last night though (I read somewhere that sucking on the earphones jack could work – it did! I dried it out before I started sucking like an idiot for 30 seconds and there was sound again!)
But today I wanted to take pictures and both my cameras (front and back) weren’t working. I tried restarting and all, but still nothing.
I’d like to dry it with the rice-in-bag technique and all, but my mom would think it’s weird because she doesn’t even know it got wet. And plus, I can’t even get the hard cover out!
Is there any way I could fix this? I really have to get this fixed without my parents knowing!
Thanks.
Someone help me, i accidentally dropped my apple iphone 3gs in the bowl with water. And get wet, on that time someone calls me on my number. And dont know what to do but to answer. But i wont hear anything from the caller. All i do is to get dry on the Hand dryer and it turns on a minute then it was black again. Now i used to turn it off. Because i was scared if it will damaged the other parts. I am now so worried, please help me. What should i do? Is there any possible to fix this back? Please give me some advise. Please please please… Thank you very much. Your immediately response is highly appreciated. God bless.
Like everyone else, I foolishly got my phone wet (dropped in the toilet for only seconds; is a 3GS). The screen worked for a minute, then faded and the backlight went out. I towel dried it, then used a blowdryer on both ends, then put it in a nylon sock inside a ziplock bag of rice and a few silica gel packets. Planning to let it sit overnight. Have a few questions though:
1) I put it to sleep (with only the top button) while blowdrying it. Should I turn it off with both buttons?
2) While I was blowdrying it, it was turn itself on and sometimes a red LED light left of the earpiece would turn on. What does this mean? I’d never seen the red light before…
3) Is there any chance the backlight will return with drying, or should I just start the process of ordering a new coil now? (And how do I find someone locally to replace it if I go that route?)
4) Finally, if everyone works but the backlight, what is the best way to retrieve my info. No idea when I last sync’ed with my PC (b/c I dont’ use iTunes). Should I try sync’ing with the PC? Or if I take the phone to AT&T and want to upgrade to a iPhone 4, can they transfer the info without my PC being involved?
Thanks much for your help!
Hi i dropped my iphone in a bucket of water. everything works fine except my home button. someone please help!!!!!!
I gavnt dropped my phone in water but yesterday i was sun bathing and kept my out the sun the most i could and theni put my phone on silent and it vibrated and then i looked and the screen and it vibrated again saying it was off silnet and it wasnt and it kept doing in so i turned it off and back on and it still did it also then i went to bed and put it off charge the same place i normaly put it woke you and it was red hot i also notice that the battery wasnt fully charge does any one np what it is
I dropped my phone 4 down the toilet and it was in there for a 4 secs, i took it out and dried it with a towel, it was still working but i put it in a bowl of rice to soak up etc, but it turned itself off. so i left it in the rice on a window sill over night and the next morning it still wouldnt turn on until a plugged it in and then it came to life, but however when i unplug it it switches off again then when i replug it it resets its date and time again, and i cant unplug it without it not working, help???
Your battery is shorted.
Stop turning it on and off leave it off.
Honestly the rice is just a temp fix. Water and elect don’t mix. Corrosion is taking place right away and you have to stop it or it will eventually destroy the phone. I’ve seen these under a microscope.
There’s no way to avoid it you’re going to have to take it apart.
Plenty of YouTube video on that. Take out the mother board, get some 91% alcohol from CVS, ask they have it. soak it in that. If you can remove the metal covers over the components, and use an old tooth brush and scrub it all up good.
if you know someone with a ultrasonic cleaner even better. if you cant do it find someone that can.
I repair a lot of wet iphones. I always replace the battery, they short out easily,and once the phone is apart its easy to get to. They lose some uumph after a year anyway. And i use a heated ultrasonic cleaner with 91% alcohol to kill the corrosion. The LCDs go when they get wet, backlight too. (I sell the backlight coil on EBay) you can contact me if you need any help.
I help anybody who asks customer or not.
So if you need help contact me.
tinner105
I left my iphone 4g in my pocket and put in the washer. As soon as I realized I fished it out. It set in rice for 3 days. This morning it turned on when I plugged it in to the charger. An “Emergency Number” comes up and it changes from one language to another. It wants you to enter a phone number and the touch screen works, but in the upper right hand corner it says “No Service”. Is there any hope for it or do I need to chunk it. If there is hope, what should I do?
Hi Debiie!! same happens to me when I plugged it into the charger, and when I plug it to the computer it just appears the apple, its been on rice like 5 days; let me know what happened to yours or what you did please
I was having the same issue as Debbie and Angy. I removed the SIM card and hit mine hard with the shop vac until all condensation left the camera lens. Once that happened, I plugged it in and prayed to Steve. Although I still have water marks on my screen, all seems ok. Will have to wait to see if I have to replace the battery, but it looks good for now, with the only side effect being my ears are still ringing from the vac!
If the battery needs replaced, I will just google for “iphone battery replacement.” Last I checked, a kit was running under $20.
Hi
Could use some help in getting my iphone working again.
Thanks Vin
Hi,
I woke up in the morning to and saw a white screen on my iphone 3gs when i switched it off using home + sleep button it went off but when i tried to switch it on again it did not switch on.
My phone was kept next to a desert cooler i dont know if that is the source of the problem.
Request your help…
Thanks
Manas ..
ok well i was brushing my teeth and looking something up on my iphone 3gs and it slips out of my hand into the sink. instead of turning it off i was trying to turn it back on (i know, mistake.) it turned on, i was happy, but the sound wouldnt work so i went to settimgs>sounds and messed with the ringer volume and i could hear the ring tone, but right then, the screen went almost black. i restarted my phone, and it was bright for 5 seconds, then it went black again and stayed black. does anyone know how i can fix the screen to get it bright again??? please help me! And how do i get it to stop thinking headphones are plugged in because apps dont make any sounds and when i change the volume it says “volume(headphones)” please please help!
I dropped my iphone into my bathroom sink& the next day the screen got dark. I need help.
Well I feel a lot better now. I was holding my iPhone while hovering over the sink after washing my hands and it fell in … it honestly got more soap-foamy than wet, but for some reason, while everything else was fine, the iPod music and YouTube sounds wouldn’t work. Not really sure what happened, but it’s propped up in front of a fan right now, so I’m hoping that’ll work. I don’t have rice at home… XP
I’ll comment back on how it goes in case there’s anyone like me out there.
Mine fell in the toilet yesterday. Spent all night in a rice bag. Everything is functional except for the sound coming from some apps (iPod, YouTube,…). I keep getting a message like “Your sound accessory is not recognizable”. Has anyone had this?
The message you got just happened to me when I dropped it in the toilet. Also, it is turning itself on after I turn it off.
Yeah mee too! i hope this goes away
Did it go away?
Dropped my phone in the sink while I was washing my hands. It was in the sink for less than 30 seconds. Removed protective Incase from phone and towel dried it. Everything worked fine expect for the ear speaker. Panicked, let off a string of curse words, Googgled my problem, and calmed down. Sprayed compressed air in the ear speaker, headphone jack, and adapter holes. Then I put the phone in a knee high stocking, which I tied it up, and put it in a bag of rice. Two hours later, phone is functioning fine and most importantly the ear speaker works!
When i went to go use the restroom, my iphone fell out of my back pocket. I quickly reached into the toilet and grabbed my phone. i then through it in the sink and ran water over it for a split second to get all the pee off, yeah i know; stupid. i dried it off then started to shake the water out of my phone. it would NOT turn back on. about an hour later i had it sitting in the cupholder of my boyfriends car and it randomly turned white with the little apple sign for about 30 seconds then shut completely off again. i quickly went to walmart to buy rice and sandwich bags. its has now been in the rice for about 40 hours. i tried to turn it on and it does nothing. I am in need of help, my phone had over 1000 pictures of my niece growing up and over 300 hundred contacts. what do i do? has anyone else done this exact thing and had their phone work again? please email me or reply to this! thank you! audramcanally@yahoo.com
Mine fell in the toilet as well. plug it into youre computer and you should still be able to remove all youre pictures. as for youre contacts im afraid youre out of luck.
OMG…thank you Sooo much. i droopped my ph in water this mornign and the speaker was done! i couldnt hear anything….and after reading this pge and your trick, it worked instantly !!!! thank you!!!
i have a touch phone.. i had a glass of water with a hole and my phone sat in water all night. blow dried it and let it dry. it comes on and charges, buuut my touch screen does not work at all. help?
i have a touch screen phone. sitting on my nightstand was a cup of water with a hole. my phone sat in the water all night. i blew dried it and let it sit…it now turns on and chrages but the touch screen does not work at all. help??
My phone is the cherry chocolate LG model they dont even make anymore and i hav had it for four years! i love this phone so much and now i have to get a new one!My phone has endured a lot.i spilled a tiny bit and i do mean i tiny bit of water on my nightstand and it got on my phone i wiped it off and my phone was fine then it dropped about two feet onto carpet it seemed fine but when i opened it a few minutes later the screen wouldnt let me see anything but i could still call and take pics etc. now when i got my other phone i couldnt transer over my pics because i guess i forgot to save them to the card! any advice on how to get my phone working again? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i dropped my iphone in a river for about 10 seconds a month a go n it makes sound but wnt do anything help me
You can get a free CelluDry bag at http://www.celludry.com. It is the best gift you’ll ever get. Rice contains talcum which can be as corrosive as water. Next time you you ride, on the beach, or a rainy day put your cell in the dry bag for protection. You can use your phone while it is sealed inside the CelluDry bag.
i dropped my iphone in bath tub,i removed it out & dried it wit rice, i switched it on after 2days, everything is working but battery is not getting charged & charge drained outin jus 10min!!!
what to do????1
my 1 year old son pissed on my Iphone 3gs. and it is showing airplane mode and charging is impossible to this environment and it is wont stop vibrating and water drop on my cam lens, sometimes sound is not working? should i wait until battery die. i read on internet and buy some rice and put it into it. Now waiting and begging God to work it out. I’ve tried many times reset all settings and hard reset for it. May it cause badly for the iphone. pls help me what should i do
I was hunting in the outback when a beast bunted the side of my transportation sending my iphone into the mudd. Now it wont work. What to do?
I dropped my phone outside and didnt realise, it was in the rain for 2 hours. I have dried with a hair dryer and most of the water seems to have left (the camera lens is clear). When i was shaking the water out the itunes connect icon appeared on the screen! does anyone know what i can do? PLEASE HELP!!
Hello Victoria,
Sorry abour your phone. My son brought his phone the second week on January. On January 21, he dropped in the toilet. I read through these blogs. It really helped. My son turned his phone off immediately. He shook all the water off his phone wiped it off. We put the phone in a knee high stocking tied it up. Then we placed the phone in a ziploc bag filled with about a pound of rice with several silica packets. You know those packets that come in your brand new purse or shoes. I then placed it on the cable box so that it would get heat during the night. In the morning I placed it under a heater vent so the heat could blow on it when I was at work. I have central air heating. The bag was approximately 3 feet from the vent. We waited 24 hours. My son took it out of the bag pushed the top and bottom botton to reset. It works like it never fell in the water. Remember, rice, silica packets, knee high stocking, ziplock bag and heat is all you need. Your phone may have to stay in rice a few days longer. However, do not turn your phone back on until you visible see no water damage under the lens. If you see water lines wait or you may damage the phone.
Good luck
Thanks for the info! I went riding my ATV in a creek, and accidentally sank it, and myself, my iPhone was in my pocket. I came home took the screen removed screen, and dried it out but the screen wouldn’t come on AT ALL, it would vibrate when I put it on silent, and made the tone when I plugged up the charger. I just needed to reset it
Thanks again!
Sooo a hairspray exploded in my purse.. all over my iphone.. any tips? i know this isnt like water.. its a sticky mess.. i hope its repairable!
well here’s a new one… phone on charge overnight, my daughter comes into my bed in the middle of the night bringing her glass of water… yep my beloved iphone fell into it and sat there for god knows how long…. hoping it didnt fry on impact… it was plugged into a powerboard where my computer was turned on as well and my computer was still on so im hoping for a revival… does anyone know how long insurance companies take to get a new one to you and if its covered for water damage?
devastated!!!
My iphone 4 went into the drink and after 4 days of DR. rice bag it started to work but will not catch wifi? any ideas plz help
Hello, yesterday my iPhone got a bit wet, so I dried it and it works properly, but when someone calls me, it only vibrates
and there is no sound!! I don’t know wat to do to solve
that problem..!!
I dropped my iPhone into the sink while washing the dishes (that’s the last time I offer to do that) – totally went haywire and then shut down completely. I used the hair dryer, air compressor, rice (for 4 days) before deciding to turn it back on. I plugged it into my computer and the back light came on but nothing else – I thought it was cactus. After about 10 minutes iTunes opened and it started synching but still no screen. Left if overnight thinking it was a hopeless situation. Woke up and discovered my 5 year old playing Angry Birds with it this morning. There is hope!
I dropped my phone in the toilet on the day of my daughter’s wedding!! I dried it off the best I could and rushed to an ATT store. They suggested rice so it has been drying since saturday…today is day 4…I made it through the wedding day with the help of friends’ phones but now I am desperate…my lab puppy was shot and killed by a menacing neighbor and it was a case of mistaken identity. I need my phone today to show the D.A. the videos and pictures of my dog to support my case!! I tried connecting the charger yesterday and it came on but very dim…it charged to 100% and then drained to 10%…the slide bar appeared in several different languages!! I need help!!!
Suzzettee, are you able to use the computer to check your ATT account online? Does it have a SIM card? Prolly, you can upload some pictures?
The same happened to me. With the screen and battery draining and ring in different languages. I let the battery die and put it in a bag of rice overnight and in the morning when I tried to charge it it worked again. Good luck!
I threw my bf’s iphone in a dam (a very big pond) it’s still in there. It’s been in there for over a week now. Do you think if I get it out & dry it, it will work? lol
P.S I threw it in there because he was being an ***!
Yeah it should work.
no ull have to wait a week before evin turning it on
Man, I felt like a complete idiot when my iphone, which I keep in my back pocket, feel in the toilet this evening. It was only in there for about 5 seconds. I shook as much water out of it as possible. Dried it with a towel. Took out the sim card. Used a blow dryer on cool to blow air into all of the openings for about 30 minutes and now everything seems to be working fine. Thank God!!! Leave in a bowl of rice over night to suck out any left over moisture just in case. It makes me feel a little bit less like a dunce to see so many other people have had similar experiences.
Thank God for rice!!!
I dismantled my phone, towelled it dry, hairdryed it on cold, then left it in a concealed container in a pair of tights nestling amidst brown rice.
My phone is now working again, there is a little water damage on the screen but I’m contactable again!!!!
PS if you are going to dismantle your phone, beware you need a sturdy hand and a lot of nerve. I do a lot of small detailed work and I found it difficult to but ribbon 3 back in.
And don’t use a tool to remove the front as it will damage it, use a suction pad. I used a cheap suction hook.
iphone fell in water now people ring me from the backend they hear the phone ringing but I dont from my end what is the solution
Last summer I was touring the Battlefield at Gettysburg and got caught it in a huge thunder storm. My iphone 3Gs was utterly soaked and the back light failed. After reading several articles I took apart my phone and found that a coil had failed. I’m an engineer so I ordered a replacement part, min. order six. After a little delicate soldering brain surgery it works again. If anyone is interested I’ve got five more coils which are currently on a 3 month back order at Digikey.
nemo, I would like to buy one of your extra backlight coils. Please let me know if you still have any left. Thanks, Mike 425-753-5686
Mike,
Also your area code is is mine too. $5 each.
The the inductor is an air core coil labeled 6R8. Part # VLF3012AT-6R8MR59. Available from Quest Components. Manufacturer TDK Corp. I have 5 of these but you should know that unsoldering and replacement is non-trivial. I used a fine tipped iron under a microscope. My result has been excellent. You might also want to remove corrosion from other contacts/connectors, etc as you see fit. Initially I had some trouble seating the ribbon cable from the display but after banging it with a hammer all is well.
Nemo, to make the long story short I have no clue how to open my i phone, everything is working perfectly except the backlight, I will want to buy one of those but honestly I dont know how to do it, is there a website where I can see how to do it.
Thanks in advance
Gerry,
Here are two links to the repair instructions I used.
http://www.rapidrepair.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2183
http://blog.techsick.com/guides-tutorials/iphone-3gs-no-backlight-fix/
I’m not in the iphone repair business and the procedure is easy if you have the right equipment but if your not confident about taking your phone apart there are services that will do it for a fee.
Mike,
Let me know if your still interested in one of the coils.
nemo
Thanks so much to everyone who shared their stories/solutions. I felt much less stupid about dropping my iPhone in the bathtub. Only for a couple of seconds, and it didn’t get fully submerged. But it exhibited many of the same problems others mentioned. Screen went dark, then eventually came back. But the phone and speakers still wouldn’t work and I kept getting that strange error message about a non-compatible accessory.
I didn’t look up what to do right away because I thought it might just sort itself out. But after a few hours when it didn’t seem to be getting any better, I found this site and decided to try the rice trick. A few friends I spoke to recommended strongly against trying heat, or any kind of forced air (either hairdryer or compressed air) so I just bought some instant rice and some knee-high stockings (on the recommendation of one of the folks who posted above) and that did the trick. I put the phone in the stocking to prevent it getting any rice in any of its ports and then put it inside a ziplock bag filled with the rice.
The phone is now working perfectly again after about 24 hours in the rice bag. I waited until all the condensation was gone from the camera lens to try to turn it on again and VOILA! Like it never happened. Good luck to anyone else who runs into a similar problem. I hated to even be without my beloved phone for even 24 hours.
Drop in to my Mountain dew. I fished it out.With in minutes it went dark.I found this post. It does work. I opened my phone used a hair dryer and the canned air. 5 hours later it is back. I will seal in rice just in case.
My 1 year old son has a game of dropping my iphone 4 into the toilet,, this is the 2nd time, 1st time, it soaked in toilet water for at least 10 minutes before it was found, I took out the sim card and hairdryed it for at least half an hour, let cool for half and dryed for another half, it stayed on the whole time although kept switching to sos mode and back after drying finished it worked fine, Now im currently doing the same life saving technique,,, Really hope it works this time round. Going thru most replys, etc on the web it seems hairdrying seems to get the best results.
my infant vomitted all over my pristine new iphone. it immediately started showing some non-compatible accessorie message and some lines and the screen got really dark (though you could see the normal screen vaguely). i washed the vommit out of the charger part and the screen was still tinted very dark (i checked, it wasn’t the contrast setting). i set it sitting up all night (no charger)and let it be..in the morning the normal screen flickered once.. and then i hooked it up to a charger later and now everything looks normal.. 2 problems- 1 there is condensation all over the camera window (no camera usage for me now) and 2) the screen works sporadically (what’s an iphone without the screen working?!?!?!)-so i can’t end calls, etc. and it calls people and enters apps at random. i did the compressed air bit. still not working. any suggestions?
Ma’am comparessed air can damage the mother board in the phone. Ask any computer person. Try this ghetto trick called Andreoo!!. I named it after myself when I got my last, “I don’t give-a-damn attack” cause my phone didn’t work anyway.
Step 1. Wrap the iphone in three of the fluffiest padded socks you have, take it out of your otter box if you have it in one and tie it up in a fluffy towel.
Step 2. Place it in a full load of clothes in your dryer–seriously set it for 60 munites.
Step 3. Take it out and see if the mist is till in the camera lens. (It will be, but it will go away in about an hour or so)
Step 4. Press and hold the button at the top and the button circle button at the bottom at the same time until you see the apple come on.
Step 5. Say please baby work, Please work baby several times. The sprit of your voice and faith will have your phone working better than it was when you bought it. I am telling it will work!!!Yes you can always save the I phone from wettness.
It will blink on and off. Works with Ipods also. I used to wash my Ipod in the washing machine all the time and I leared how to fix it. If you dont want to do this. just leave it in the car with with windows up in the hot sun on your dash. But please DO NOT preheat your oven to 425 degrees turn it off and place it in there with a towel under it because it might melt! Promse me that!!! Also I wouldn’t know wouldn’t know if it would melt or not but I’m just saying–okay…
I have a iphone 3g. It was in my bra while i was dancing and i think the moisture got into my phone and now i cant use the slid bar to open my phone(get to my apps.) Everything else works on the home page. Like i can play my music. I need help. Can i save it???:(
wow nasty trick. you must be fat
hahahahahahaha that is funny hhh… lets tag team her
where do i sign up
I fell into a creek whilst crossing a log. My 4 day old iPhone4 was soaked. I used my gf’s blow dryer to dry out all the ports and pressed on the home button and sleep button simultaneously for about 20 seconds to reset the phone and now it works like a hot damn.
My friend dropped his iPhone an older verson 2nd gen3, in a toilet. It was dead. Att said may it rest in peace, it’s gone, let go of itand give us more money. My friend is disabled and Att didn’t give a rats ***, they are the worst greediest company I have ever dealth with one guy at Att was kind he suggested putting it in a bag of rice. Right after my friend dropped his phone we went to spary it out with an tire air compressor it still would not turn on. My friend went without a phone for a week he was really suffering. I felt so sorry for him I went to my storage and hunted down an old Att go phone I had. I took it over to his place popped out the sim card from the old iPhone and was showing him all the features of the go phone, then I said let’s just see if your iPhone will do anything if I put it on it’s charger then the all mighty iPhone spirit apperaed with a tiny red battery icon! A miracle occured within 1 hour he had a green battery and all was perfect just like he never dropped it!!!! Its the amazing iPhone 3g!!!!!
I dropped my iphone in an outhouse toilet at a campground. I was peeing and the phone rang in my pocket. I went to answer it and, as I took it out of my pocket, I fumbled and dropped it, it took an unlucky bounce and fell right in the pit. I had to almost put my whole body in the toilet to reach it. Luckily, but I guess also unluckily, it landed on a pile : ^( I grabbed it and cleaned the **** off with my shirt and shut it off. I luckily brought rice with me so I put the phone in the bag of rice. When I got home 2 days later, I took the iphone out of the rice and tried turning it on, but nothing. What do I do now? Am I SOL and JWF?
omg
do you seriously want that phone? why on earth….??
I jumped in the pool and forgot to let my iPhone out
I put it in rice dot two weeks it still dosnt work. What do I do?
buy a new one
my iphone got drenched in the rain today, I took the cover off (with the instructional video) and padded it dry and made sure the 1,2,3 connectors were secure. Works like a charm now. Thanks for this post.
Ive been out shooting with some friends (just targets) and spilt some beer on my phone!
It suddenly wouldnt work! I love my I phone and I have put it on the radiator.
You fellow I phone users can understand just how worried I am at this monemt. Oh dear Lord PLEASE let my phone work once again!!
OH man I am lost without my bloody I phone!!
God me too! Except half a bottle of Pepsi Max emptied on my phone in my handbag. I immediately took the sim out and have either spent long periods hairdrying it, or leaving it on a radiator-but 24 hours later, the home button still won’t work. Everything else seems fine. To get back to my home (apps pages)I have to switch it off. It’s soooooooo irritating! I’m lost without it.
How did your’s fare in the end?
I am having the same situation with my iphone. It got soaked while watering plants so I blew it out, which seemed to get rid of some of the excess water under the screen and in the speakers. Everything was working just fine until someone called me. After I ended the call the home button would not work, so as of now it has been in a baggy full of rice for a little more than 24 hours and the home button will still not work and there is moisture under the screen again. Suggestions?
I dropped my Iphone in a bucket of milk the other day. I picked it up ASAP but to my suprise it did not stayed on. After A cuple of days in the rice cooker My phone did not turn on. I did enjoy some good chunks of cheese build up out of it. Thanks Moo Moo IPhone.
i dropped my iphone n water i can turn it on but it dosnt ring and the light dosnt come up its just a dark screen
Hi Meg, the same thing is happening to me. Did you resolve it somehow?
Thanks, Alan.
My iPhone fell in water a month ago and idk if I can still find a way too fix it … When I turn it on it just has the apple logo the it ***** down … Is there still a chance too fix it ?
mine fell in a toilet so it was turned off immediately and is wrapped up in a towel on the radiator
My friend dropped hers in the toilet, I followed your instructions and it came back to life (actually I didn’t use the compressed air, just the hair drier for about half an hour) The first time I plugged in the charger it flickered and the touch screen wouldn’t work, but a bit more with the hair dryer it was fine. Taking out the sim card seemed to help get the air inside. It was definitely wet inside as the camera lens had droplets in it. Thanks!
BTW, If she had a silicone type cover on it, it would not have slipped out of her pocket…..into the toilet.
i was stood in my bath room with my iphone in my jumper pocket ,not even using the toilet but the lid was up
and i must of lifted my jumper abit for some reason and plop in it goes,i stood there n waited for my head to take in what had just happened and once it started bubbling i stuck my hand it and took it out ,didnt even have a case on it ..first thing was on my mind ,get the ipod touch and search wet iphone and found all this
um i dropped my iPhone in the toilet and i took it out as soon as i could. when i got it out i imediatly dried it and took the case off to dry the back part. it was working but the vibrate wasn’t. i thought it was going to be fine but in like 5 minutes or less it completely shut down. i put it in the charger(being the ****** I am) hopeing it would work. it would show the apple logo and then show a bunch of lines and shut off again. i took it out and tried to restart it by pushing the home button and the power one. 5 black lines started to come up and now im leaving it alone. i have no idea what to do. help please?
Guide:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=416062563&blogID=435512784
dude’s advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X0QkBiwV6Q
I dropped my iPhone into a glass of water last week and after several days of rice and more days of leaving it in a box of desiccant it still doesn’t work. I sure wish it did.
My iphone was in the washer for about an hour and a half with hot water and an extra prewash/rinse. So far no luck but I tried the hair dryer and compressed air. Now it is in rice. Lots of water than come out but I am not hopeful and kind of afraid to take it apart. Maybe I should…
Got my I-phone in pool today#%$@* Read everybodies hints. Put it immediatly in a bag of rice when I got home. My neighbor met me at driveway, told him what happened and he ran & got his food dehydrator (for making beef jerky,etc.) only had it in about an hour or so, but when I peeked a minute ago it had powered itself on and I actually saw something that resembled my homescreen instead of a white screen. Will let y’all know what outcome is!
Our iTouch went through an entire washing machine cycle, and a few rounds in the dryer. First, we put it in a bag of rice for about 2 days, then I let it dry for about another 5 days, and now it works just fine. The important thing, as it says at the top, is to let it completely dry before trying to turn it on so nothing shorts out.
I dropped my phone into the toilet with the cover and picked it up within 5 seconds. I tried to dry it off with a hair dryer and thought it was ok but although it turned, it could do everything but making a call.
I then went to my telephone provider to have it fixed/changed, only to find that liquid damage is not included in the Warranty. They could even know that there has been liquid damage as the top headphone jack and the bottom charger jack had an indicator that would turn red if it comes in contact with water! Darn it, Apple!
I went home, read this forum and tried drying it off with hair dryer. And now it works perfectly!! I’m gonna still put it inside a ziplock bag with rice, just to make sure.
It’s encouraging that other people have faced the same problem and are sharing it with others! Thanks you guys!!
I have a tendency to listen to music while in the shower and I went to change a song and (yes I know quite stupid of me) the water from my arm filled the top of my iPhone including the home button…i quickly dried it of with a towel…it turned on/off fine but when I made calls you could barely hear anything asides from lots of nice (imagine a robot voice if you will)…I panicked and put the blower on the “earpiece” but in cool…for about 10 seconds, I made another call and it was all perfect !
I dropped my i phone in a bucket of water, it was submerged for about 20 seconds. It died completely and it has been at least 12 hours since and i have not been able to try any of these tricks yet. do u think its too late??
i have it in the dryer now inside heaps of layers and am hoping this works!!
did it work???
I left my iphone on my windowsill when I wnet to sleep last night. It then rained on my phone for I’m guessing like 30 minute before I woke up. It was still functioning at the time, but the back was very hot. I turned it off and left it under a warm light for the night. Now, it won’t turn on, and when I plug it into my computer the apple logo comes up for about a minute and then it just turns off again. Any ideas?
I jumped into a lake, Iphone in pocket, and swam for about 45 seconds before realizing. I took it out of my pocket very sad, it was full of water. and inoperable of course. I got home, and figured, well it’s screwed anywYs, so I wrapped it in 4 socks, threw it in the dryer with a load of clothes on hot for 60 minutes. pulled it out, and sure enough, it was so hot that I could have boiled an egg on it. let it cool for 10 mins or so, and I powered it on, and I’m typing on it now, it actually cleaned the dust out of the screen, haha. this technique works, I swear by it. HOWEVER, my home button still doesn’t work, which is a pain. but I’m gonna throw it back I. the dryer for another 30 and hope for the best. I’ll let u know what hAppens
I accidentally dropped my iPhone in a glass of vodka/cranberry juice. UGH!!!!! I did what any parent of an iPhone would do. I panicked, screamed like a girl, and gave my iPhone mouth to mouth resuscitation. Yes, I blew into the earphone jack. After about two minutes, my iPhone came to life. It blinked and did some weird stuff, so I kept blowing into it. After a couple more minutes, it seemed to run like normal, but continued to blink. I sucked as much moisture from the earphone jack as I could and left my iPhone upside-down over night. Now, it runs as good as new. I saved my baby. I should be on Oprah.
I dropped my iphone in a glass of water for maybe 5 seconds, two days ago. I put my phone in rice, and used silica gel and though it looks completely dry, it won’t turn on. I am completely bummed.
Hey! My husband jumped in to the river on Monday with his in pocket. When I got home I looked on you tube and found out how to take it apart. Then I placed the two pieces in a bowel and covered them with instant rice. Less than 24 hrs. I Took it out put it back together and put the sims card back in and it works perfect. I hope this helps.
I used the hair dryer after dropping mine down the loo….mine is starting to work, just now waiting for the screen to clean up.
Hi, i put my i phone in the bag without realising that my water bottle was not close properly. The water spilled out and there s some water droplets on my i phone. I quickly wipe off. The phone is still able to function properly, i am able to listen songs, answer call. But is it safe?
Leave it out in the sun on a hot day to evaporate all the water. Putting it in a bag of rice might work, but it can’t work better than the sun. You want the water to evaporate and rice won’t cause that, it will only absorb what has evaporated. You don’t need something to absorb the vapor, you just need it out of the phone. Heat will cause evaporation, so find heat. Just don’t turn it on before it’s dry or you’ll cause short circuiting across more parts. It’s this short circuiting that can damage your phone, not the water per se.
DO NOT force air into the phone with compressed air or hairdryer. This only moves the water around potentially causing more damage. You need to absorb/evaporate the water very delicately. See posts on using rice or silica gel packets.
an iPhone can be dried quickly and easily by using DRY-ALL wet cell phone emergency kit. just place wet phone in the bag seal and wait 48 hours.
I dropped mine in the pool about 36 hours ago. Ive had it in silicon for about 30 hours since and I’ve now got in on the heater vent. It’s still not working. No one else’s seems to have the same problem as mine though. Mine keeps vibrating over and over again whenever I pick it up. At the start the screen flashed white every once and a while but it has since stopped doing this. Has it gotten worse? Any advice?
Hi all, I recently had to jump fully clothed into a pool to rescue someone and then realised my iPhone was in my pocket !! The screen display had disappeared completely and there was no sound. After gently blowing a hairdryer over the phone and into the orifices for about 15 minutes on a warm setting, everything came back and it has worked fine ever since.
Good Karma!
I dropped my iphone 3GS into about 1 1/2 inches of lake water. It was completely submerged. I retrieved it within about 5 seconds, and promptly dried it off, turned it off, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. When I turned it back on, it worked fine, but with no sound going out or coming in. When I got home, I used the super suction tubey thing on the vacuum to suck out water in the various openings (headphone, charger, etc). Then I put it in a ziplock bag with white rice overnight. After picking the pieces of rice out of various Iphone orifices, it worked perfectly. I synced it, restarted it, and all is great and wonderful. From a science standpoint, I think what saved this is that it didn’t go deep. The deeper into water your Iphone goes, the more pressure there is pushing into the openings. Even just a few inches makes a huge difference.
youtube dissasembly for your phone. it is easy. with the screen and otherpiece in two wrap them both in a towel really well. then put it in your dryer on the low setting leave for a hour at least and then everything in your phone should be dry. you have a 50/50 shot at it working again
Question – should the rice be in a bowl or opened bag of rice, or should the container be airtight? My son jumped in a pool with his phone in his pocket and my husband thinks the airtight idea will hold moisture in, so he submerged it in a bowl of rice. Can someone with a successful ending let us know?
i dropped my iphone in water and now the home button wont work and it has no sound
mine is the same thing (if that’s what that button is called) I had left my phone on a chair and my daughter’s water leaked on it, when I realized what had happened I dried it just by leaving it (it was a hot day) out in a towel and it works, except the “home button” so now every time I want to change apps I have to turn it on ad off, I was just wondering if that rice thing worked for you?
dropped a 3gs in the toilet, screen was flickering and displayed an airplane mode message, unusable. I fixed it completely by first shaking water out, then vacuuming the holes on the phone, then opening the phone up and putting it in rice for a couple hours. After that and an itunes restore, it’s back in action. I don’t recommend a hair dryer or compressed air cuz that’ll just push water further in and possibly melt fragile components with the heat from the dryer.
THANK YOU!! This helped my situation.
Thank you very much. I also used the flexible hose part of my shop vac and squeezed it to seal so it was drawing with full force through speaker, dock port etc. That brought it to auto-restart. I then shot it with compressed air. Then I repeated the cycle. I will leave it overnight in a zip-lock with rice. I will wait until tomorrow to try it. BTW – it fell into a pan of anti-freeze that I had drained from my car. At least it wasn’t brake fluid.
i dropped my Iphone 3GS in the river, the inside of the screen is wet and it wont work, i dont see how the rice trick will make it work though as i have already tried using a hair dryer to dry it bt my phone just keeps freezing…PLEASE HELP!?
my i phones dead i walked into the bathroom at a canucks game and some fat basturd drunk out of his mind turns around walking into everyone and spills his entire drink into my hoody pocket with my i phone looked at it and it must have shut down right away so at the moment im trying to blow it out with some dust off pc cleaner spray and blow drying have batt charge signal but still i have not tried to turn on ill get back to you after i leave it in some rice,i miss my iphone
Thanks for the tip! My iPhone lost sound (phone would only work on speaker mode) after I used it in the rain. Several hours later, after reading this, I used a hair dryer for a few seconds and the pressurized air in the places suggested. Success, thank the Lord!
Dropped mine in the water. everything worked but sound. I could use headphones but noone could hear me. I could call but couldnt hear anyone unless I had headphones in. the rice in a bag overnight worked.
I dropped my iphone in the sink. It was submerged about halfway for less than 3 seconds. It was still on when I pulled it out but soon … it died. I thought it was done. I took it apart when I got home and removed what little visible moisture I saw and used a hairdryer on the cool setting for a few minutes. I put it back together and stuck in a ziploc bag full of rice for 3 days. I pulled out and plugged it in and amazingly it worked fine!
My iPhone (3 months old) is totally lost when it fall at the sea shore. I did nothing for couple of days before I sent it to iPhone dealer at KLCC (Malaysia). The sad news from them, the salt water cause a bad damage to its motherboard. All the circuit gone. No warranty for that kind of damage (according to them). iPhone centre can’t fix it and ask me to go to other phone shop which offer phone repairing services. **** !
They just advice me to purchase another new iPhone. What a bullshit services they offered to me. Off course I need another new iPhone because that’s the best phone so far. WIthin 3 months, I have to pay for RM 5000 for 2 iPhone. that cost is nearly to AUD 1666.00 or USD 1600.00. TOO expensive RIGHT !
I went out on my Seadoo and forgot my Iphone was in my pocket and fell off not only once but twice both for at least 5 mins apiece, realized had phone in my pocket later and did all the things that I prolly shouldnt have done, first I did nothing for a couple hours, didn’t turn it off or anything. Then the first thing I tried was to put the phone in the dyer on a drying rack on med. for a hour or so tried to turn it on nothing, plugged it in, the Apple logo showed and tried to reset, nothing. Back in the dryer for another hour then tgried all again and the phone actually turned on for a about a min. then off again. I then opened the phone up and blew warm air on it for about an hour from a small space heater then cool air, plugged in it turned on for about a min. again then nothing, in the mean time I found this site, thinking I had totally wasted the phone I thought OK I’ll try the rice in a plastic baggie over nite and see, after about 24 hours in the baggie with rice the phone works. I how no idea what actually dried the phone out but it works and this phone had to have been under water for at least 10 mins. time and then nothing was done for a couple hours. Yes there is still a little water under the screen but all seeems to be working ok and it seems to take a charge. All I can say is these phones seem to be pretty tuff, so if you and your phone take a swim dont panic, When this happens again with mine I will not turn it on and prolly try the rice and baggie trick first, if no baggie and rice, I think I’d open the phone up and try and put some kind of air on it. GoodLuck all, Steve
I was going into the bathroom to brush my teeth & my iPhone was in my pocket but not very secure, i turned around very quickly to the sink and my iPhone flew out and into the toilet! i was freaking out as i’m 13 and it was late, everyone was in bed. I shook every little bit of water out then wrapped it up and but it under my lamp for awhile. I went online to see what i could do and a pretty common suggestion was rice; i had none. zilch. Something else i heard was coffee? i put it in a bag of coffee and it worked! although some coffee got stuck so now i can see afew water marks so i am leaving it to dry naturally.
Any better ideas as i have no rice or sillica packets?
hey guys i dropped my I-pone under water just couple of hours back.. tried drying it and also have kept it into rice bag just waiting to get it turn back soon……. plz plz let me know if any one of you have any more ideas to to get my I-pone fixed…………
Well… I had my phone sitting in the cup holder on an elliptical at my gym… Little did I know someone had spilled water in the bottom of that cup holder and just left it there. The speaker/mic/docking area sat submerged in water for a good few minutes before I noticed the airplane mode message popup. I was confused by it because I’d never seen it. I pulled it out and that’s when I discovered that there was water in the bottom of it.
I immediately turned it off… Though, it didn’t really matter because apparently the iPhone has the power to turn itself back on…just to tell you that the device is not supported and cannot be charged… Sigh. So after fighting with it over and over I just left it on and shook as much of the water out as I could.
When I got home that night I stuck it in a baggy of rice and prayed it would work in the morning still. I had some trouble with the sound initially… No sound at all, then it would only stay on at the lowest setting… And then finally I had full volume back. Only to wake up to silence in the morning. But I found if I turned it to silent and then back normal the sound came back. And it’s been back ever since!
I’m still getting the airplane message, but not near as frequently as I was… So hopefully it completely disappears over the next couple of days…
I did the stupidest thing to my beloved 3gs… I bought a new screen protector, and tried to stick it on without bubbles, but my nerves bugged me and I sprayed it with the liquid for cleaning windows. The message about some incompatibility came on screen and the back light stopped working. There are bubbles in the screen, I left it in the rice, and I pray for it to come back to life. It is working, but the back light… nope. But the funny thing is that I left it in integral diet rice, I don’t have the plain one…
on saturday I dropped my iphone in the toilet. It started weirdly vibrating and got really hot until I am assuming the battery died. I was at a pub crawl so the first time i could do something about it was a few hours later and i stuck it in a bag of rice. ive been alternating using cool hair dryer and keeping it in rice. then today, I used 2 cans of compressed air on it. just plugged it in and it is still doing the weird vibration thing (when will that STOP? cause it is annoying). It is recognizing that it is plugged in, but it wont charge. This morning when i plugged it in it turned on and it seemed as though everything worked until the battery died. And I can still see water under the screen. I am hoping the phone lives! I just bought some silica gel packets so when they get here ill stick the phone in a bag with them. Until then, im going to keep doing what i have been doing. luckily i am not completely without a phone. I still have my first iphone which works fine. I just miss my 3G and good camera and all my pics.
ok i know I just posted. but now my phone turned on and it is charging. I can still see water under the screen. And now the home button doesnt work. hoping the rice and silica packets do their job
its been a couple of days and it still doesnt work. I stopped charging. There is no more water under the screen, but who knows how i can get it to charge again. I just got the silica packets, so right now the phone is in a bag of those.
Another good news story. I too dropped my iphone in the toilet, OMG!!!! Whipped it out before I had time to think about how gross sticking my hand in a toilet is. Dried it off and turned it off hoping for the best. It kept turning itself on, each time I would turn it off. A message about an audio accessory not being compatible also kept on appearing. I dried it with a hairdryer, I then read about the rice trick so I took out the sim card, put it in rice and then in a very, very low oven with the door open for about an hour. When I say low I mean very low, I was so paranoid about melting it! Then I put it back in rice for 3 days. Anyway, I just pulled it out, charged it up and it works perfectly. Yay and Phew!
I promised if I got the baby (3G 2nd generation) up and running I’d post here and say how I did it ’cause if I got it running it would only be from the advise I found here.
Wednesday afternoon – 2-3 secs. in the toilet bowl. No idea that turning on and off bad idea. So I kept turning it on and off. went on fine but barely any back lighting on the screen. Then it didn’t work then on but barely any back lite, then it came on fine for a brief min., and then it gave up the ghost.
When I got home I found this sight. First thing I did was lots of sucking at the dock and at the sim card slot with the vacuum (I have a pretty powerful vacuum) Then rice overnight, more vacuum bin the AM, and turned it on. Was fine except didn’t recognize the SIM card. Back in the bag of rice for the day. Home tonight – still couldn’t recognize the SIM card. Scanned through the blog to see if this problem showed up in other’s posts. Found no solution specific to SIM card problem but did find reminders of steps not taken – so I did the hair dryer for about 10 mins or so and canned air for about another 10 mins and some more vacuuming. AND Just got my phone and text messages in and I’ve made a call. Haven’t tried all the apps and such but at least I know the phones back and there’s no problem with the screen.
THANK THANK YOU to everyone who has posted here.
I take it back. After about a half an hour it quite recognizing the SIM card and nothing I could do could get it back. AND I HAVE A early morning phone appt.
I even tried restore on Itunes and that just wipped everything out and didn’t help the phone recognize the SIM card. It’s back in rice with the SIM card pulled. If I can’t get it to work should I go to the local Apple store or an AT&T store?
The end of the story is I went to the AT&T store (not an authorized dealer but an AT&T store) and they fixed the SIM card problem no questions asked, no charge.
And the sweet dear is working like new and has been for about 36 hours now
Well i had a problem like this: It got wet, than I dried it. Than i tried to turn on..it went on with 1 hour than i played World War..XD… than it turned off again and i got it on for a while
and than it shut off and now when i turn on it wants me to connect it to the iTUnes to restore it. Well i restore it but than it starts to go on but again wants to connecnt to itunes (even that it is allready connected) & wants it restored and till now I still cant get it Work. endless restoring!! Ive been to apple with it. They said that the middle button will rarly work but the SHUT button it could work sometimes & sometimes not & so it is. What am i going to do? Replacing is 650$ …
If you should happen to run your iPhone thru a complete cycle of laundry, all the way from fill, to spin to rinse (yes, my wife did this, I am told I shouldn’t leave jackets around with cell phones in the pockets especially if the dog woofed on it).
Don’t panic. Put your phone in a tupperware full of uncooked rice and some silicon packs that you might find in shoe boxes. Leave for 3 days, do not plug into anything in the meantime. After it is all good and dry. Plug it in, it may have to go thru a reset, but it should work.
You’re the best!!! I dropped my phone in the tub while listening to an Usher CD. And then I found you. You’re the best!!!!!
IT WORKED! sat for a week nothing! sprayed with air, not thinking it was doing anything, about to take it apart! BAMM!! bumped the ON button, WAMMOOO turned on! WOOHOO!!!
Just wanted to add my two cents. I recently dropped my 3gs in the pool for 1 second. Pulled it out and could not turn it off. I just had to let it sit and destroy itself. I didn’t know about the rice trick until the next day. The rice trick got it up and running again, but it has a lot of the problems already mentioned: power button doesn’t work, it will play the ringtone, but no sounds. I called a repair guy that fixes just iphones and he said that it isn’t worth fixing wet iphone problems because down the road more issues will arise. He suggested just taking it to apple and dealing with the replacement cost.
My tip to people here is if your backlight isn’t working, try going to your brightness settings and adjusting them, it made my phone’s backlight suddenly work.
my huspand iphone drop in the toilet 4 a few sec. he made a call to see if it work and it did just 4 that one time and then it turn off by it self.
We have it in rice 4 2 days now but i don’t see any thing but a apple logo in the center of the screen. PLEASE some help!! what alse can we do?
Dropped a 3G in the tub this morning for about three seconds. Came out wet and non-functional. Lots of shaking brought the unit back to life, barely. (Got the Apple screen, no boot).
Several minutes with a blow dryer got the unit to boot, but no sound and no backlight. That returned after several more minutes.
Dodged a $500 bullet! (Or having to upgrade my wife to 3G and use her 2G as punishment or, worse, my 1G!)
mine got wet during golf game (raining) in my pocket at 6pm, put everything as mentioned above between 7pm to next day 2pm. The phone woke up for awhile at 8pm at very unstable state and went coma then. Felt very impatient to wait 7 days for the rice therapy, so i brought then phone to service center. Got it done within 3 hours at $60. It has been 2 days without trouble.
I dried my iphone out in rice and with a hair dryer, everything works, but the screen is very dark now. I have it back in the rice. Does anyone know if there is hope for the screen? Does it still need to dry some more? BTW my tip is to put the phone in a knee high nylon before putting in rice so that the rice doesn’t get into the phone.
I dropped my preciuos iphone in the toilet yesterday and everything that many others have written about happened; the screen flashed, then there was lines on the screen, then she slowly went to sleep. OMG, I thought, she is dead. Then I remembered that my coworker had used a hair dryer on her phone, so I did the same. I used both warm and cold air, then I let her air dry over nite and started off with the hair dryer again this morning. I then said a little prayer and plugged her into the computer. At first she didn’t respond, but after a minute the screen was black and I noticed a barely there battery symbol. After about 10 minutes she woke up and now she is fully functional. We were so happy to see each other again and I promised her that I would never let that happen to her again.
My iphone 3G dropped into a glass of beer in the cars cup holder, when I noticed 3 minutes later the screen was completely white with horizontal lines, then faded to black, then started turning on and off like crazy, finally after reading this blog used the rice method and after 24 hours after the battery ran out inside the rice bag charged it and Magically the phone worked!! This rice thing is miraculous !! At the beggining frequently the “this hardware is not made for this phone…” message appeared but not anymore!!! It is working perfectly! THANKS!!!!
A glass of beer? In the CAR’s cup holder?! Sounds really safe. But thank God your phone is okay.
Omg I read over all these posts last night and I saw that some people were having luck with their phones working again after being in water so I gave it a try before bed. I didn’t have any uncooked white rice so I had to use…get this…cous cous! lol! I poured it in a bag and put my phone in with it and this morning, it was completely back to normal once I used some canned air to get the cous cous out of the headphone jack.
I’ve had a really bad cold and the other night I was gathering up my Zicam spray and my phone and a few other things to head to bed and I was nyquil’d to the gills and so not thinking too straight. The Zicam and phone went in the same pocket and my phone got leaked on. I didn’t know it until the next day when the apple sign was slowly blinking on and off and nothing else worked unless it was plugged into the charger.
I was so upset since my phone was an anniversary gift from my husband and I haven’t even had it a year yet. And I LOVE my phone and I am never careless with my things and they last forever usually. I hated having to tell my husband I might need to replace it. But now, thanks to all of you who posted your comments, it’s working and he doesn’t have to buy me a new one!
You guys are terrific!
Jeannie
I was desperate to calm my 10mo boy for just 10minutes while I checked out at the store. I turned on some music from my iPhone iPod and handed it to him. He proceeded to drench the top of the phone and the earphone hole. The phone would make calls, but I couldn’t hear without the speaker mode on. As soon as we got home, I put it in front of the hair dryer for 10+ minutes and it was perfect! Thanks for the info. Jenny
I woke up to find my Iphone (3GS) in my fish tank (long story); any way long story short alarm was still going off while in fish tank (it went walkies into tank); so i put it into a plastic sandwhich bag then that into a sock; folowed by putting that in a dryer at highest setting; speakers on iphone now works and I can make clear calls; and the phone is charging; still going to get a new iphone as I love my iphone.
My iphone was in an otterbox when it was dropped in the toilet. (Clean water, LOL). I removed it from otterbox immediately, shook out as much water as possible and dried with hairdryer for 15 minutes or so. And THEN, this is the thing that really saved it. Put a piece of tape over all openings–docking slot, ear phone plug. Submerge it in rice and place in a 115 degree oven for 12 hours. If there is still visible condensation on the screen, put it back in rice and oven. It is working like a charm. No problems at all.
My iPhone 3Gs got wet, thrice and Apple replaced it every single time, not necessarily with a new one but refurbished ones I presumed. I’ve tried couple of Stores prior to finding one that would succumb. I live in the middle of Metropolitan Los Angeles, so Apple Stores are everywhere… making the stores easily accessible to me.
The ploy is to find the busiest branch and set up an appointment online with their Genius Bar at their busiest hour… After having gone to at least 4 Stores, I noticed that the less customers there are, the more time the helpers would have, to inspect your device, hence the “busiest hour” which would consequently lead to these helpers not caring much and treating you just a number due to the volume of perturbed patrons they need to tend to. The easiest way for them to placate you and get rid of you, is by simply replacing the product without so much as going through the proper routine and scrutiny.
I found a very simple solution… I put it in the trash can and I went to the Apple Store to buy a new one. Voila! Problem solved!
LOL. That’s an awesome advice! Haha you are hilare!
Rich ********
I was sitting near the ocean in Hawaii when a big wave came and splashed my stuff — iphone was inside a bag and got a little wet. phone went crazy for a while, then I hoovered it, used a needle to extract sand, and put it in rice & waited a day. Day 3 I did a hard reset and most things started working, including phone functions. Day 5 it said “SIM not detected” and my phone hasn’t worked since (today is Day 7). Is it because I was using T-Mobile in the US on an HK-bought unlocked 3GS? Or is it still because of the water? Is the salt water going to damage the electronics/Do I need to get the thing washed with mineral water by a professional? The phone is back in rice & I’ll try silica packs too. Someone said to let it dry for a full week before turning it on again. Patience! Thanks!
I haven’t even had my iphone 3G S 18gb for two weeks and i dropped it in the toilet this morning. the air mode thing came up, the speakers aren’t working and the screen is somewhat messed up. it’s now sitting in a bag of rice with the voice control screen randomly popping up and saying that ‘this device isn’t compatible with this iphone’ or something, it has nothing plugged into it. i’ve taken the sim card out and in another eleven hours or so i plan on seeing how it’s doing. good luck to anyone with similar issues.
Well my I took my face of my phone and put a blow drier on the inside, like a few days later it has a patch of water looking stuff but my 7,8,9, dial buttons don’t work, and I found that that part of the phone, what ever apps i have up, dont work so I have to scroll up or down to run stuff, but I cant use the 7 button to delete voice mail. any suggestions any one? Does anyone sell spare parts for these phones? like I need new touch pad
My iPhone was submerged in an overflowing creek yesterday for probably close to 5 minutes but i searched the creek bed for it and found it! I put it in a bag of rice overnight and now its 100% operational, the battery pack isnt fried either. Hell it even turned on right when i pulled it out of the water (I hit the power/lock button), but then powered it down and its been smooth sailing since (knock on wood).
Well I have the best ! washed my phone in the washer machine in my Flight suit pocket. Dried it with the hair dryer, turned it on, screen looks like it has soap in it,and i get the air plane message. Bottom key pad dosn’t work. Most of u guys just drop in water for a few seconds, but to have it washed with soap,spun dry,and sat over night, I think is asking a bit much. any suggesting for getting the soap out?
more water body!! just pure water
I dropped my iphone while having HOT OIL hot pot (google chinese hot pot if you don’t know what it is). I was so stocked when I dropped the phone and didnt know what to do for nearly 15-20 seconds, the soup was boiling! Took it out, dried with tons of paper napkins and it didnt turn on. I used a hair dryer to dry it for about 10 mins and its sitting in a bowl of rice right now. My situation is very different from everyone else because I dropped it in a hot boiling oil soup!! I’m not sure if the rice can soak up the oil tho…..pray pray pray!
how are you doing with the oil dropped celphone???
http://www.irecoverycellphonedryingkit.com/
I used this and it works great, just put phone in bag and it will dry it! Cheap to!
hi.. my one yr old daughter took my 2g iphone in her mouth and may be it was in her mouth for couple of minutes. after that i took it from her wiped with a towel and what happened next that the upper half of the screen stopped working completely but the lower half is fine, i am unable to turn off my device took it to the service man and he told me that i require a new screen! is there any way someone can help me???
Just wanted to say THANK YOU to this board – it worked!!!!!! dropped my iPhone in the loo at work on Thursday – I shook out as much water as I could and got the message about a non supported device being attached and did I want to put in on airplane mode… then it died – I nearly cried…
Got home, checked on the internet about what to do – found this site – hoovered the phone out – and placed in a bag of rice and sat on a radiator… which was all about 2 hours since it had happened…
Friday evening – I tried plugging it into the computer and it was a dead black thing… wouldn’t switch on… nothing
Left in the bag with the rice until today – Saturday morning – one last try before getting on to the insurance company… and it’s back… just like before – not found anything wrong with it so far – have sent emails, texts, received and made phone calls and everything so far (touch wood) seems fine…
Thank you everyone on here – I thought I was doomed…
And good luck – it really does work to all those who stumble here trying to find a miracle cure for your own iPhone…
Lou
Here’s a new one… was helping my son do his homework at the table, when his hand flew out suddenly knocking his full glass of lemonade over my iphone. In my panic I picked it up and quickly ran it under the tap – probably making it worse! But I figured that water would be better than sugar through it…
Anyway, removed the sim card and blowdried it on “cool setting” which has helped and sat it on top of the external harddrive to dry out for awhile – seems to have helped. Speakers seem to be the only thing now that are not working correctly (initally it was ringtone and screen as well)… we’ll see how it progresses, but thanks for all your tips and advice. Will give it one more blowdry and return to the heat of the external harddrive overnight – hopefully my precious phone will come back to me! Good luck everyone! I’m in Australia, so glad to hear the fixes are universal!!
I brought my iPhone to the washroom at work, but my arm got caught in the headphone wire and it tumbled into the bowl. I panicked, but managed to pull it out after it had been underwater for about 1.5 seconds. Luckily, nothing else was in the toilet.
I dried it off, sprayed compressed air into the dock connector, speakers, switches and earphone plug and then googled ‘iphone toilet drop’. The recommendation from most people was to cover it in rice to absorb the moisture. I was lucky I found a Thai restaurant that was willing to sell me a bowl of uncooked rice.
Forty-eight hours later, I managed to plug it into my Mac and it was working. The only thing is that there are intermittent hairlines in the display, but otherwise it seems to be fine for now. I’m covering it up again in hopes that it will take away any remaining micro droplets of water.
Thanks internets for the tips. And good luck, because if you’re reading this now, this has probably just happened to you too.
Well, if nothing else, this string has made me feel like less of a moron for dropping my iPhone in the toilet. It’s sitting in a bowl of rice right now and I’ve already tried the vacuum thing.
My condolences to everyone. And now I must return to my ‘PRAY’ position…
Yeah!!!! My water bottle spilled in my bag. I let it try in rice under my comp for two days while vacuuming it with my hand vac for ten mins here and there. Bugga works like new.
Thanks for the advice, and big alohas and mahalos.
My daughter accidentally dropped my i-phone in about 1 1/2 inches of melted ice and a small amount of diluted diet dr. pepper. The phone was only in there for about 2 seconds before I yanked it out. I dried it off, and since I could still see the screen, I thought it was fine. I realized a little later something was wrong when the home screen button wouldn’t work. I went to the AT&T store and they referred me to the Apple store, who told me on the phone that they could do nothing for me – except provide me with a replacement phone for $199. So, after researching, I tried the hairdryer and now have the phone in a bag of rice. I am praying so hard that my phone will be O.K. I got it for Christmas, and it is absolutely the BEST gift I have ever received!
idr0pped my iph0ne in thee t0ilet at w0rk an ish00k thee water 0ut as much as p0ssible and let it air dry fer m0nths and itried it t0day and it w0rks!
HELP!
So I dropped my phone in a cup of water (random, right?!) for two seconds and the phone shut down.
Now don’t get grossed out… I had dropped my precious iPhone in a puddle before and SUCKED the water out and it worked fine, however it’s a miracle I didn’t catch malaria LOL.
FIRST, what happened was the phone would not turn on, however when you put it on a charger, the itunes connecting to the apple logo came up, however it wouldn’t be recognized on the computer and when you took it out, the phone would shut off.
THEN, after leaving it in rice for 3 days, the phone has magically turned on and almost everything works except one thing.
The phone won’t charge/connect with a computer; it has to be connected using the actual plug. This is good because yes it charges, yes it plays, yes it makes calls, however I can’t update my iPhone at ALL.
Do you guys think this is a temporary effect or permanent? Has this happened to anyone else?
Thanks so much for this post and all the comments above. I left my phone outside at a friends house, and it got rained on all night, the rain was heavy as well. Phone wouldn’t turn on after I got it back and I was devastated… There seem to be a bit of water in the phone, my boyfriend could suck water out from the hole for docking!
Used hair dryer on cool heat and blew into the docking and headphone hole for a good 10 – 15min each, then I went and got the compressed air spray and sprayed into it for about 5 min each. It still wasn’t turning on at that point, and I was too scared to plug it into anything, so could have just been the battery.
Decided to try the rice trick, put it into a ziplock bag and covered it in uncooked rice, left it for a day, and have just plugged it into my mac, its been recognised by itunes, sync, the screen is fine and seem to be able to send / receive calls, internet without any issue. Cross my fingers that’s all going to go fine from here. I might chuck it back in the rice bag during the night for a week just to make sure that all the moisture is sucked out of it.
Definitely getting phone insurance from now on.
Also dropped mine in toilet for a couple of seconds. Did the rice thing, had it in the sun, used a blow dryer and even put it in the oven (on low) for a while. The phone was dead but now when I plug it in it is recognised by itunes and yesterday did a sync. The only problem – the screen is completely blank. Nothing. Any further ideas?
So I spilled a glass of water on my phone the other night. Woke up and the phone still worked, it didn’t have too much contact with water, but the backlight wouldn’t work. after reading about possibly remedies, I left it in rice for 24 hours. When I turned the phone on again, it worked perfect. Now two days later, the backlight won’t work again. Should I put it back in rice, or will this not cure the backlight issue?
I dropped my iphone in a bowl of milk. lol…I know, a little strange. It immediately started talking about airplane mode. I smacked the milk out of it for a good 10 minutes. There was no sound coming out of the phone. When I tried to call someone, you could not hear it ring. When they answered, they could not hear you. I used the dryer on it for about 10 minutes and it seems to be working great for now. I am going to put it on rice just in case. The phone was submerged for a good 10 seconds. I fell asleep on the couch, heard the phone ring, looked at it, and laid it back down on what I thought was the table. Instead of the table, it was my daughters bowl of cereal. Good times!
I dropped my phone in the tub I know stupid right. Anyway once I saw the phone go immediately fished it out n tapped the water out as much as I could. My phone keeps turning off and one and white screen comes on. My screensaver came on once, the plug your phone to Itunes came on once but other than that the phone keeps on powering off and on. Immediately turned to the internet to find a remedy seeing that I ran out of warranty. Now the phone is in a bag with rice and hopefully it works. Did anyone have a problem like mine’s where it keeps on powering on and off and sometimes a white screen comes up? HELP!!!!
iphone been in a bag of rice for 5 days. when i plug it into mu computer, itunes does not recognise it.. when i plug it into charge a black screen comes up with a white apple symbol. then screen goes dark then nothing. help!
hey did you resolve your problem? tell me how plis, i have the exact same problem!
Let my wife borrow my iphone to play one of the apps. Bad mistake. When she got done she put it on the armrest/middle seat in our car while I was driving. I didn’t see it and when I put on the brakes I heard this kerplunk sound. in front of the armrest is my big blue plastic cup. She had my coat over it so no one saw it in the cup for like 30 minutes. The phone would not turn off and had a screen I had never seen before with a charging symbol. I stupidly took the phone apart and then after drying it out tried to plug it back in – nothing. The phone just vibrated over and over. Found this website and am now trying the rice method. Praying it works.
dropped my iphone down the toilet (like a lot of people.. glad im not the only one) its in a bag of rice at the moment and has been for a few hours now. i dryed it with a hair dryer first. ive only had it about 2months. i hope it works!
My iPhone went into the dark cold load this a.m. As I’ve recovered other cell phones from water damage – like my son jumping into the river with it in his pocket – I knew the drying out can be done. For a while, I tried all the drying techniques, then decided I needed to get it open to air it out. The instructions I found were not encouraging, so I took out the sim card only and returned to the forced air drying attempts. Then I reasoned that maybe it was out of charge, since it had lain in my jeans pocket all night before going into the front loading washer (less water) for a clunky spin (I heard it, but didn’t recognize its cries before someone came over and asked why I wasn’t answering my phone) – so I may actually be dealing with more than just water damage. Anyway I plugged it into the charger, and it turned on for the first time since its injury. There were a few quirky things going on, and, yes, I can see the water behind the screen. So I turned it off, I think; it is still blinking the screen apple off and on periodically. My research on the Apple site turned up the option of OOW service, Out-of-Warranty service which does cover water damage, and they send you a refurb or new iPhone for $200. So, I’ll keep trying to revive this one, but that is not a hideous option for worst case. Thanks for your helpful posts. Will try to remember to follow up with my outcome. For right now, a few squirts of air, then back in the silica bag.
FOLLOW-UP: After several days of my iPhone being in the silica/rice bag, and still not drying out, I consulted my Mac guru who suggested putting it in a foil-lined, vented shoebox with a 40W light bulb (on) to accomplish the drying step. I have a gooseneck desk lamp with metal shade vented on top. So, I put that down in to the top of the large ziplock bag with the phone on top of the rice and pricked pinholes all around the bottom. After 2.5 days, no more moisture behind the screen, and everything works, except the home key is still a bit sluggish – sometimes dicey getting back to home screen. All apps work as far as I can tell. One thing I wouldn’t go again is the rice, as I got a kernel in the sim card slot that was the dickens to get out. I first noticed it when I tried to slide the little carrier tray back in there and it didn’t go easily. Then there was a white spot on the screen, I guess right where the rice was inside. It was lodged, but I gently tapped the unit on a leather wallet, and eventually it came out – wasn’t really sure what it was before then, thought it might be a chip of silica. Anyway, watch out for such possibilities; putting a piece of fabric over the rice before laying the phone on it would help prevent introduction of kernels into orifices. Wanted to offer what I could to this forum, as I’m happily back to playing Scrabble with my iPhone. Thanks.
Thank You Thank You Thank You.
I was watching Home Alone with the wife and little lad on Monday (27th) night with my iphone next to me on the couch. You never know when you’ll need it do you. I moved to stand up and nudged my phone which nose dived straight into a glass of white wine. I grabbed it out within three seconds and everything was fine, but then it just turned off and wouldn’t come back on. Anyway, I left it on a radiator overnight and then looked on this site in the morning. I immediately grabbed my phone off the radiator and began the hoovering process, for a good fifteen minutes. I then left it in a little rice filled coffin wrapped in a towel back on the radiator for 24 hours. It was a difficult time, seeing it there and being constantly tempted to try to turn it on. Anyway this morning I took my phone out of the rice and off the radiator and it still wouldn’t turn on. It’s the end, I thought. But then I hooked it up to my PC and a red battery symbol appeared. Next it asked for my PIN number. Now it is back on and fully functioning. Happy new year everybody!!
I just found my phone on the side of the highway after it sat for nearly 12 hours. I’m guessing since it was so cold out, the snow didn’t have a chance to melt and my capsule rebel case protected it as well. Everything still worked but to be on the safe side I popped the sim out and used the hairdryer on it, now it’s in a bag of rice. We’ll see what the verdict is when I wake up.
I have had success with several handheld electronic devices using this method:
First dry the device, and then remove any user removable covers or preferably, depending on device, the whole case.
Place the device on a heating pad turned on high overnight. The idea is to dry the unit out as rapidly as possible without overheating it. I do not wrap the unit in the pad, only place it on top of the pad. I would expect this would be similar to using silica gel which also sounds like a reasonable idea. I have not tried it but it seems that heat would work faster and therefore might be preferable.
My one yr old fell into our Koi pond and I jumped in to save her. I slipped while bent over to pick her up and thats how my iphone got wet. Agin like you read above, it was just for a few seconds. The screen got super dark, but was powering off and on. I tried to shut it completely off, but i’ve only had the damn thing for three days and am a bit unfamiliar w/ it. I removed the SIM card and sucked the hell out of it w/ the vacuum for about 15 min and it came on and off twice, each time w/ a bright screen. Then I completely shut it off and now have it baggie w/ rice and an old silica I found. I crushed the beads to try to refresh them. Wish me and my 3 day old Gs luck. I will update tomorrow.
It worked! The screen was dark at first, but when I touched a few buttons it came right back. I went to my down loaded apps and they would not come up. No sweat. I only had the thing for 3 days and only had two apps on it. I didn’t like them any way. The next one I down loaded works fine. it’s like nothing ever happened. SWEET! Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences.
i droped my phone in chocolate milk! i tried the hair dryer thing and its slowly coming back to life so far it only works on speaker
Hey!! I can see the White apple Icon after charging it for some time!! still not responding yet, but sure joy to see that apple again… hope it will come back on soon.
mine does the same thing. has yours worked yet?
Mine is the same, did yours started working???
Drop mine in the toilet.
Tried the rice method after 1 day, but it still not working. How to know if it was completely dry yet ?
Dropped in toilet at noon yesterday. Someone at work told me about the rice. But first I also used dust buster to suck out water. Held to car heater on my way home, put in baggie of rice over night. I used minute rice thinking it would absorb faster if it cooks in 5 minutes! (who knows?) Took it out every now and then only to find those streaks of water and funny flickering. This AM took it out of rice, hooked to MacPro and it came right on. Is now syncing, charging and the start button works!! Thank you so much for your advice. And it made me feel better to know that other people drop their iPhone in the toilet!
My iphone fell into a big cup of iced tea and I tried turning it off but it wouldn’t stay off it kept turning on and giving me the choice to put it on airplane mode then it turned off after an hour my bf got the smart idea of pluging into the computer but it worked and it turned off again now it won’t turn on and its been a day even if I plug it in it gives me the apple sign and it turns off can I still save it? I dnt have any rice and I’m going insane and will apple just charge me 200 for the phone help plz!!!!
I just found the rice I will update on wat happens I’m praying hope it works but how long till I see something happening or should I wait? I’m not pacient but for my phone I will leave there a week if I have to. so how long till I take it to apple store?
OH MY GOD! IT WORKED!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! X9578927095829358098525
omg i dropped my iphone in the toilet!!! i blowdried it and now its in a bag of rice and silica packets…
hope this workssss
Hey, Jessica!!! Did your phone ever start working? I dropped my iphone in the toilet two and a half days ago and it is still not working. I am freaking out. Thanks!
phone got wet for about 4 seconds. fully functions except no back light, and it gives me the accessory mode error. i have removed the sim, and have it setting in rice at the moment. HAs anyone had any luck with a non working back light. should i give up and try apple or maybe a phone repair shop, HELP HELP please.
This method worked for me. My iPhone feel out of my sweatshirt and into my dog’s water bowl. It was fully submerged for less than 5 seconds, and it everything worked but the sound when I recovered it from the dog’s bowl. Hairdryer + compressed air fixed the sound issue…good advice!
i dropped my phone in the toilet last nightfor not even 5 seconds and it had a white screen with lines on it it wouldn’t turn off so i left it on my desk over night so i think the battery finally ran out and turned it self off cause now it won’t turn on at all, totally unresponsive. i was reading about the rice thing so iam trying it now.
god i hope it works i haven’t even had it for 4 weeks
was on the motorbike undertaking the 30 mile journey home frm work,i was wearing a semi-waterproof jacket and it started raining about 5 miles in to the trek.my iphone was in the pocked and now wont work,i plugged it into my laptop to see if i could work it but a message came up on the computer screen saying,”iphone in recovery mode detected”. does this mean my phone will work again or not?
My mother just got her iPhone wet during a fishing excursion. She first tried blowing it dry, leaving the drier on cool and facing the phone for approximately 6 hours. This failed utterly, so I finally convinced her to let me try my remedy.
Place the phone in the refrigerator.
Yep.
Just stick it in the fridge.
I have heard cautions issued about the refrigerator method, so if you can I would instead follow the tips found here http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how_to/4269047.html#at. However, the benefit of the refrigerator is that it works very quickly- I’ve never had anything take more than 4 hours to return to at least partial function. As it mentions in the article for which I have provided the URL, the key is to NOT become impatient or turn it on. Don’t even turn it on to test if it works- if you dropped the thing in a foot of water, I promise you everything is NOT ok.
Anyway, just another weapon in your arsenal.
well heres one,yesterday i was taking a shortcut through the forest that i have done almost evrday for the past 3 years, its been raining for the past couple days and the creek i always cross was overflowing, yet i could still cross th same log over it, i cross it in 1 piece and decide to jump.. my iphone slips out of my pocket and falls right into the water. i got it out in about 5seconds, i dried it as much as possible and its sitting in a bag of rice, probbably my 6-7th phone ive had -.-
hopefully it works
i dont want to turn it on because i dont know if its had enough time to dry
Well i was walking with a friend from school and it was raining pretty hard. It was in my pocket and we decided to have a race so we ran all the way too my house (5 mins) i looked form my iphone,paniced, went outside looking up and down for it found it like 10 mins later, dried it with a napkin and shook out the water, now its in a bag of rice. Am hope it comes back soon. And it works ok but sometimes the screen blanks out and voice command is always going off like (no music is play) (calling *****) but the screen is useable and the apps work but the speakers dont sound as loud, screen blacks out (still on) and the voice controls going crazy.
anything else i can do?
home button doesnt work either that explains the random voice controls
Well I dropped mine down the toilet, and its completely screwed.
If these idiots who designed this thing allowed people to take the battery out easily, I could have simply done that and dried it out (as ive doen with other phones that got wet)
This phones starting to piss me off… So restrictive. Jailbroken the second the new one comes through the door.
going against house rules
Well I hate to say this but you all are making me feel better about drowning my little precious white iphone… My fishing story… I went against my own personal rule about fishing, water and iphone.. one of these things don’t match,, I went fishing with my husband today a cool fall afternoon in the midwest.. I was fishing on a bucket on a slanted rock,I had drank 2 beers and my hands were cold from the beer and the temp outside . I pulled my iphone out of my pocket and fumbled it like a bar of soap and watched it slide down the slanted rock into the water.. I cussed looked up at my husband and drove my hand into the water to retrieve my phone… I rescued it from the lake and handed it straight over to my husband and the screen read.. ” This accessory is not made to work for an iphone” this of course cracked us up! My husband quickly shook out the phone out and put it in his pocket..while in his pocket i receive a couple of text.. it would not go off and I could not hear or talk to anyone.. Not able to get home right away went to friends house she had rice bag full and waiting for the patient (iphone) to come in the door.. when we got home we have put bag of rice wrapped ..(iphone in bag) in a heating pad for it to dry over night.. I am a student energy healer and i actually did some energy work on my phone to give it some good MOJO! it i can heal a iphone I have a new career path to pursue! will let u know outcome!
Well, I had mine on my seat and a “lovely” dog decided to jump up in my seat and I told it to get down it wouldn’t. So I pushed it and its big paws sent my iphone flying into a cup of water great!
Anyways so where i’m at right now is…my phone will work but it has now backlight. Has anyone had this issue as well? I’m trying to decide if I should give up on it or not. The only other thing I can’t do is zoom. I’ve had it over the AC, in rice, used the vacuum. I don’t know what else to do any advice…I’m going insane without my phone!
did you have any luck with your phone. mine got wet last night and i think the only issue is the back light. i have it in rice right now, but im wondering if i should give up, try to take it to apple or maybe find a phone repair shop….
I too have had the same issue, my phone was fully underwater for about 2 seconds. Everything seems to work the same, except the back light went out just like you other two ladies. How did you ever resolve your issue?
Email me at onemysticdawn777@gmail.com
Thanks,
Steve
My second generation iPhone got wet. At first it didn’t even have a screen showing. The screen has come back and there is a warning message “No SIM card installed”. The touch screen does not work. I took it to the Apple Store and the genius looked in the ear plug with a special light said it had been wet and they wouldn’t touch it. I have tried the rice procedure but there has been no change for several days now. Should I just accept that it is ruined and move on with my life. I can get a new 3Gs for $199 from Apple/ATT.
so i got a good one…i don’t think that anyone has said this one yet…well..i was play call od duty zomdies der rise…n my two year old daughter decided to use my phone for spongebob on youtube(she always watches it)…so then i hear her saw mama phone….WATER….so i asked her wut did she want…so she repeated it for a few times…but i was so caught up in the game and just ignored it…then wen she finally brings me my phone its flashing on the lock screen n the apple start screen…then i try to turn it off…but it finally does turn off…then wen i finally get off the game…i realized wut she was saying wen i picked up my phone and it was soaking wet with sink water…hen i asked her y she said she got it dirty wid chocolate n gave it a bath…NO JOKE…seriously…now i tried everything blow dryed it…bought the compressed air…now it turns on when plugged in nothing wrong with the screen…but funny thing is that i think the phone died from not charging it in the first place…but not sure…because i know that i didnt charge it since yesterday…but im just prayying to GOD that’s its ok….keep you guys posted…but please can soneone tell me if my phone will be ok…
Was walking home during a decent rain with my iPhone in the front pocket of my hoodie.. I was listening to music when all of a sudden it got real loud and the earphone control wouldn’t work.. I took it out of the wet pocket and put it in my dryer pant pocket til I got home about 5 minutes later.. I blow dryed on cool for about 20 minutes (also using the backside ‘exhaust’ of the blowdryer because it creates suction) and I now have it in a bag of rice sitting on a heating pad on low.. I hope this works or I’m going to kill someone.. I don’t think it got too wet, I wasn’t in the rain that long and it was far from full submersion but we’ll see.. *fingers crossed*
dropped my iphone wrapped in an otterbox in the boat launch for like an hour before i found it. took it home and took it all apart and blow dried it and put it in the bag of rice and it comes on but the only way i get service i have to be right by a tower any help ????
OK, here’s a new one. I was downstairs working when I heard a thunk upstairs above me. I assumed it was one of the children so ignored it. About 5 mins later this really annoying noise was starting to get to me – I suddenly twigged it was the alarm on my iPhone. Ran upstairs to see that the iphone wasn’t wear I left it on the windowsill. The vibrate alarm had made it go walkabout and it had decided to take a dip in the full bath below the window sill!
The phone seemed to be working fine but I have removed the SIM and am using the old Chinese Rice trick just to be sure. Will keep you posted!
anybody’s iphone 3Gs got wet here and restored? How did you do it?
Thanks.
food dehydrator on lowest setting overnight should work
oh and just got home found out ive been done by rouge insurance company so not coverd lol, its haveing a rice and silica soak on top of tv at mo
phone in shorts poket,jumped in pool swam 400 meters then straight in spa 20 min luxurious soak followed by 2 miniute ice cold power shower and 15 mins in steam room,u gota laugh
I was driving to pick my wife up from work. I set my Iphone into the cup holder in case she called while I was driving. I didn’t realize there was about 1/3 inch of spilled soda pooled at the bottom of the cup holder. The phone was sitting with the computer connector right in the soda. It’s now spazzing out, app not supported message, turn on airplane mode question, etc. I can make and receive calls but can only get into any app for about five seconds before it kicks me out and spazzes again. I am trying the rice method with fingers crossed.
Update. I gave it three days and it didn’t fix it. The bottom button used to get out of apps doesn’t work. Off to apple store today to buy a new one.
2nd update. Funny thing happened at the apple store. I showed them how the bottom button wasn’t working and….wha la…it worked. So I’m keeping the phone. I still get the “this app not supported message” all the time but just close it. Everything else is working. It did spaz out yesterday for about 2 hours, but then started working again.
my phone went through the wash for about 5 minutes the screen had water in it so i shook it all out and used a blow dryer it is in rice any suggestions o and this phone worked fine after i dropped it into a sink for like 4 seconds
Wife put her iPhone in rinse cycle of laundry. I could not find anyone who sold silica, but I found this product DampRid which is meant to remove moisture and musty smell from stored linens. After 3 days phone revived. The only strange thing is that it is showing the battery icon like it’s charging when it’s not. Strange, but not not a huge issue.
Unless you guys have any better luck, the rice or silica thing will NOT work with a white screen. Sorry guys…just reporting back on my situation. Your screen is dead. I actually took my phone to a place around here that fixes damaged iphones and mine is back in working condition again as though nothing was ever wrong. They had to take it apart, replace the screen and the processor as well as a few other parts and because it was in salt water, they had to do a mineral rinse of all electrical parts as we all know salt will eat away at anything electrical. Good news: works again. Bad news: $240 to fix.
Mike: do not think that it will work forever. The salt is in your phone. Even if it dries before you turn it on…the salt will remain and believe me, it will eventually kill your phone. Sorry bro…you need to get that thing clean asap.
Best of luck to you all especially the ones with white screens. My wallet and I feel your pain or the pain you are about to experience.
…called AMEX and it looks like there is a good chance I will get reimbursed for the iphone as my card carries accident insurance. I should know within 2 weeks whether it is covered. Will report back when I have an answer. I guess it’s a good thing it happened after only a month of ownership.
Good news. They decided to cover my expense for the most part. I’m only out about $40. Not too shabby for a fixed iphone that went swimming in the ocean.
Lesson learned: take the ******* blackberry to the beach.
andrew,
my iphone also took a dip in the ocean. what is the name of the company that cleaned it and repaired it. woudl love to mail my iphone there.
Similar story to the last 2… I dropped my phone getting out of my car, and didn’t know until the next morning… It had rained and gotten my phone wet… the water sensor is not triggered (unless there is a second one I am not aware of (not in the headphone jack). I can call the phone and answer it with a finger swipe… and I was able to turn it off with a finger swipe… but the screen is all white… I’m going to try the rice and vacuum things… it’s my work phone and they aren’t covering squat… great… looks like I’ll be unavailable for a few days…
There is another wet sensor, it is where you plug your phone in to charge, just under the prong. Kind of hard to see unless you hold a light under it.
ran in ocean with phone. it was dead so nothin should have shorted out. u think it will work if i just wait for it to dry
i went out lastnight and for whatever reason decided to put 2 full beers in my purse…. not so smart… they dumped everywhere and my phone was in there… in my drunkeness i didn’t understand why it wouldn’t work… so this morning i realize it is just a white screen… it completely works besides you can’t see anything… trying the rice and hoping it works… if not i guess ill try the kitty litter or the silica packets!!!
Well, here’s a little variation on the toilet story. As hurricane bill is approaching our coast, I decided to paddle out this morning. I didn’t realize that my iphone decided to catch a few waves with me. I ended up realizing it was in my board shorts immediately upon entering the water and hopping on my board. I ran out immediately so the phone was barely wet for more than maybe 7-8 seconds.
Ironically, it still works except the screen is white. I have done a hard restart and also restored it. Nothing…still just a white screen and no responsiveness. I can still hear when I get an email and I can call people if I use the voice dial option.
anyway, it’s in some rice now although I am not that hopeful that the rice will correct the white screen issue. Damn…I’ve only had this thing for a month. A victim of Bill, I suppose.
my phone went into the toliet thanks to my 4 year old. Shook the water out, dried with hair-dryer, then it sounded like an internal fan or motor ran on the phone for about 45 seconds…not getting any response from trying to turn on the home key. Has anyone else had the “motor sound” run before??
Was it my phone dying?
well mine sounded like a electrical wire loose or something wen mine got wet io did the rice thing for like 3 to 4 days and it came on the charging screen but it wont charge??????????? but yea i had what urs sounded like
Dropped one iphone in the toilet and never got it to recognize the SIM card, since I kept turning it off like a dummy.
Went out a bought a new one, and then proceeded to get tons of water on it from the cat’s water fountain.
WHAT WORKED: Leaving the phone *totally, completely* off for 4 days (yes, four, so have a backup phone like some junky thing), setting it in front of the fan, on a hot surface (Gentle!!), and under a light.
WHAT DID NOT WORK: Turning it off and on to see if it worked, blow drying it, leaving it in rice.
The BIGGEST DIFFERENCE: Leave it off for as long as you can possibly stand it. The act of turning it on and off shorts the wires and connectors inside. Stop yourself and have some serious patience.
THING TO REMEMBER: If you purchased your iphone on a credit card, most credit cards (esp. Mastercard) cover accidental damage up to the original purchase price. Might take you some pushing in this economy, but it’s in their contracts (so they have to fulfill their obligations). Also, don’t forget that (at least when my first one would not work) there is a great eBay market for wet iphones, used for parts. Third, check out some of the third party repair places. I didn’t use one since mine was beyond reach, but it seems they would be more helpful than Apple (who says, “um, yeah, buy a new one.”)
Good luck!!!
I just dropped my brand new 3GS in the toilet!! I’ve read everything and it’s now in a plastic bag w/ silica gel packets (thank god for my shoe addiction) The thing is, it appears to be working fine- can make/ recieve calls and texts, connects to the internet, no splotches on the screen… but the speakers aren’t working so I can’t hear anything. Will these come back after drying out??
did your phone end up working again ? cos i did that today .. it`s sitting in rice at the moment but my sister went to turn it on for a bit & played games .. but i put it back in rice again & turned it off .. do you think it`ll be okay ??
I dropped mine in a gutter, I was drinking, so I dried it off and it seemed to be working perfectly fine, so I tested out the speakers. It worked last night. I turned it off for the night.
This morning I turned it on and the speakers weren’t working so I am really curios if yours ever started working again.
ok i realy need help my lil brother spilled the acne clean and clear all ver my iphone well i paniced so i pluged it in and the apple logo and the screen turned a real bright pink and then shut off turned back on with a bright white screen now it wont turn on so i was curious so i goolged iphone wet help and i came across this web sight well i used a hair dryer to try and blow all the water out then i pluged it in and still nothing so i am in progress of the rice solution and it is in a cup of rice hidden in my kitchen its been about 8 hours and ive been checking on it from here and tere and i still got nothing so if u can help me plz do so
p.s i called apple and lied and told them that it was a hardware problem and they still want me to pay 199 to get a replace ment fone and i am not rich so i refuse to pay it so can some one plz help me and if the iphone does end up working ill let ever1 no well im off to work i have to try to gain the money some how
ok thank u the rice thing worked but only one problem it stays on the battery charging dead when i first plug it in i left it for like 2 hours and it steel does the same thing…… is the battery messed up plz someone help me????????????????????????or do i just keep it in the rice for a couple of more days……………….. plz respond
No luck for me seeing whether things are working! I can get itunes and my photo reader to “see” what is in the phone, but all I can see is a faded apple in the middle.
I have tried just about everything but diving back into the pool with it (as I did, to begin with), just so I could sort-of try things over, again, as it were, this time using a new technique. The sad thing is that, just as I was viewing the pool water about to be broken by my hands entering it, I realized that my NEW 3GS was in my left pocket. By the time I splashed, sank due to inertia, and then kicked-off the bottom, with my left hand pulling the phone out of my pocket and thrusting it out of the water on to the deck during this 1.2 second process, it was too late. The phone got hosed.
The nice thing about the phone is that it has a beautiful black body (as opposed to the white body). As such, it pretty much goes with everything. So, and similar to a Seinfeld episode, if it only had some legs, it could be a miniature coffee table! I can also use it as a mirror, for grooming purposes.
Did your phone ever come back to life? I lost my beloved iPhone TWELVE days ago and I’m crushed. I’m thinking of buying a “wet” one on Ebay since it’s all I can hope to afford. Risky, huh? I’d love to hear how yours ended up–especially if the news is good.
My wife’s iPhone got doused by her spilled vitamin water 2 weeks ago. I immediately shook it out, blew it out with hair dryer on LOW HEAT (didn’t want to fry any fragile components), but the screen was still unresponsive. I put it in a food dehydrator at 110 degrees for 24 hours and it works again. There are still spots and scratches on the screen which are most visible when the background is a light color, so I guess it’s not completely dry yet. Going to try rice and/or kitty litter next to get the last bit of water. The spots are annoying but at least the phone works again.
EASIEST SOURCE OF SILICA GEL: Kitty Litter
Different brands have different ingredients. Find one that lists silica gel only, such as “Fresh Step Crystals”.
I forgot to mention this, since kitty litter can get kind of powdery..
Either bury your phone in it and don’t move it around
OR
Pour a bunch of it into something that you can seal, like a cooking pot with a tight lid, and put your iPhone on top of something above the silica. The silica will make the air in the pot really dry, and the water in your phone will slowly evaporate and be absorbed. You’re just creating a very dry atmosphere.
Just got knocked over by my dogs as they made a mad dash out to go to the bathroom. I was knocked to the ground. My iPhone fell out of my hand, took one bounce on the deck and then before I could catch it. IT splashed into our pond. HORROR! I jumped off the deck right behind it..Nearly broke my leg…Got the iphone out..Texted a girlfriend to tell her the horror. She said take the battery out and dry it. (SHE IS NOT AN IPHONE OWNER!) Call my husband. He says get off the phone turn it off and put it in rice. WHY oh WHY am I sitting here praying over my iphone in the container of rice. I then immediately go online to read I have to leave it in for 24 hours. NOW I know why the kids almost die when they get their phones taken away!!!! Come on iphone come back to me PLEASE….I let you all know if it works…(If it doesn’t sadness will over take me and my husband will not be able to leave with me-which means he will have to go to the apple store and buy me the new 3gs!)
Here’s an update to my iphone blues. I left the iPhone in uncooked rice plastic container all night long on top of my cablebox. I watched the rice glow as the iphone turned on and off independently. This morning, I sat the plastic container on its side so that the iPhone was standing upright. (around 7am). At 3pm, I couldn’t take it anymore. I took the iPHONE out of the rice. Placed it on the charger on top of my power adapter for my MacBook. So that it was would still be on some heat! It’s still charging. It turned itself on. Text messages and calls are coming in. (I am not answering them!) As well as the message about this accessory is not…airplane mode yes or no… I am going to let it get a full charge AND then hook it to my iMAC for syncing..Fingers still cross…More updates to come!
iPhone Blues are turned to happiness!
My iPhone is back and running. I thank the invisible shield and hard case that I had on the phone both brought from iFrogz.com.
I am a happy girl. If you want the steps I took check out:
http://www.sharirocks.com/blog.php
Thanks to everyone for posting ideas and encouragement!
great work your advice helped me save my grandfathers iphone he left out side after i was teaching him how to use it
Accidentally washed and dried mine. It started after it cooled down, but had the weird blemishes in the background. Rice the first night, cat litter after that. You can get all silica crystal cat litter at Pet Smart, it’s the same stuff in the packets. The bright blemishes are gone (5 nights in litter), but there is a weird diagonal line hashing ‘inside scratches’ effect that G mentioned. I am not sure that will go away.
I just recovered mine after it slipped out of my pocket while sitting rock near a waterfall in N.H. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ooJTkbCn_c
I jumped down the rock and quickly plucked my 3g out of the cold spring water. The screen was flashing and there were blotches on the screen. No matter how often I tried to turn it off, it kept turning itself back on. I thought all was lost.
I dried the phone off as well as I could and a few hours later stopped by a local sporting goods store and asked for any spare silica gel packs they might have. Luckily they where unpacking a bunch of merchandise that had some nice large packets and they gave me a bunch of them!! I also stopped by the local grocery store and picked up a bag of rice.. I put my iphone in a ziplock bag filled with rice and silica gel over night.
The next day, while the phone worked better, the screen had “stains” or blemishes on the behind the glass.
I refreshed the rice and hoped to increase the silica gel effectiveness by taking each packet and crunching it lightly with a hammer to break up the crystals. I put the iphone back in screen up sucked out all the air and placed the bag in direct sunlight for a hour or so..
That did it.. The remaining blemishes were removed and my iphone looks just like new!!
I got in the Chesapeake Bay with my iPhone in my swimshort’s pocket. First day, it was working only for the emergency calls, the second day, everything was totally gone. Apple store asked for $200 for the replacement which I refused to pay. Kept it in a bag of rice over night. Today, I blew air with dust remover, and managed to run the phone finally. However, the home button still does not function.
I just dropped my iPhone into a pool for about 3 minutes, it was on and playing music and although I got it out as quickly as possible, the screen was black from an obvious short-out. I shook the water out of it, and then stuck it immediately in rice and then proceeded to blow it dry for about a half hour. Does anyone think there’s hope, I’m getting silica or Damp-Rid later…Please let me know if anyone has had the same type of situation, longer submersion…
I fixed mine by putting a dustbuster right up to the hole for 2 minutes – sucked the moisture right out and now everything seems to be in working order again. Before it would only operate when connected to the charger – otherwise black screen, no functionality.
I dropped my iphone in the toilet
it was there for about 6 seconds…I towel-dried it, then used my hair dryer on it..and then I placed it in a rice baggie and just let it sit overnight..Today I connected it to my computer but just a white screen with thin horizontal lines across it comes on..
Does this mean is dead? or should I give it a little more time to dry? HELP!
i have the same problem.. did yours ever came back on?
I dropped my iphone into a portopotty full of excrement. used the right bag overnight and its good! only problem–its slightly blue and smells like poop whenever i make a call
Errrrrrrrrgh! Dropped my iphone on the golf course and couldn’t find it anywhere. It rained, of course (twice) before it was found and returned to me. It turns on, and the top 2/3 of the touchscreen works–bottom third, NOTHING, which means that the keyboard doesn’t fully work and I can’t access important functions…like a full keyboard, etc. It now sits in a baggie with 3 silica packets. Hoping beyond hope…..if it works, I’ll let you all know!!
im having the same problem with my phone. Top half works fine, bottom is unresponsive. Did yours ever start working?
I dropped my I phone in the toilet for 2 sec. (like most of the people here) then the iPhone started blinking, and after 5 sec. it’s gone, power is off. after thirty minutes of searching how to drain the soaked iphone, I found out that the most common answer is; First, remove the SIM card tray and Vacuum the water out from both ends (SIM card slot and the bottom, a good indication to proceed is when there is no more moisture in the camera lens)when you’re sure that theres no more water inside, you’re ready for the next step. Put a NONCOOKED RICE in a ZipLock Bag and leave your iPhone in there for 24 hours ( I know its tough not to have it with you because your so connected with your device, but I guarantee you it works). After 24 hours plug your iPhone on your computer, your iTune will recognize your iPhone, be patient from this point, wait until your battery is full, then try to turn it on and cross your finger that it will come on, but don’t worry, it will. I tried it three times then the screen came on, thank GOD!
well i did what was said to do, but it is running ultra slow and i can hardly see the screen which stinks but its on and i got my pictures and everything out of it i needed:)
I am in the exact same position as OM above me. I just accidentally launched my phone into the toilet (you have NEVER seen a person toilet dive as quickly as I did). It was only in there for all of about 2 – 3 seconds. It started doing some funky stuff, turning on…off…vibrating randomly, lines across the screen, white screen, etc. Now it’s off. Won’t turn on at all. Is sitting immensed in uncooked rice in a baggie. I am effing praying, because that phone is my own personal Jesus.
K—ME TOO! I will pray for you!… someone at my job spilled tea all over me and everything that happened to your phone happened to me.. I hope your phone works.. and i hope mine works : )
Hi K – I would like to challenge you to a toilet diving competition!
Dropped my iPhone down the toilet – performed the fastest retrieval (should be an Olympic sport), became hysterical. Sadly it died on the spot. Took it back to phone shop – no help, got new iPhone 3GS. I am now paying off two phones over the next 24 months. Hope you had a better outcome.
when i took my 3g to the apple store because the mic stopped working, they said it was water damage. though i had never submerged that phone in water, to my knowledge … anyway, they sold me a new phone for $200. same phone, 16gb …
that was two months ago. 20 minutes ago i dropped my phone right into a glass of water. completely submerged. i am shaking. but so far it seems to be fine. i turned it off right away. took out sim card, shook water out, cool air blow dry and now its in a bag of rice. i hope this works! so far the only issue is service, but that is nothing new!!
just dropped my iPhone in the toilet, caught it quickly, but it got wet. Weird thing is now: it tells me that this accessory is not made to work with iPhone. Nothing is attached to it! after powering off the unit, it self restarts immidiately. I placed in the zip bag full of rice, and having my fingers crossed…
mine is doing the exact same thing! same situation, etc. did you have any luck?
mine is saying the SAME THING!
not in the toilet
but did it fix it self?
i can still use it but instead of my wall paper it says ‘charging is not supported with this accessory’
i dropped my iphone 3G in the toilet last night. I tried to blow dry it and it turned back on. However, the home button isn’t working anymore. any help here? i’m freaking out!
GO TO THE APPLE STORE
THEYLL FIX IT
if its wet the apple store wont help you at all =/
same thing happened to me. everything works fine except for the home button so i get stuck anytime i open an application or go away from the home screen. any suggestions?
i dropped my ph in the toilet last night. fully submerged i grabed it out and shook the water out as much as i could then grabbed the vacuum cleaner and tried to draw the rest of the water out. By this stage the ph would not turn off it kept turning itself back on which was weird. The circular button at the bottom would not work at all. i could see water in behind the screen. I put in in a sealed plastic bag of rice for the night. Turned it on and made a tester call and everything works fine. THANK GOODNESS
oops I meant it cost $80 – still a HECK of a lot cheaper than $700!! and it’s an 8gb 3G.
oops I meant it cost $80 – still a HECK of a lot cheaper than $700!!!
did the same as G’s post above. phone wouldn’t unlock – touchpad not reactive. took it to the genius bar – saw both water damage indicators and said they couldn’t do anything. said i could buy a new 3G 16gb iphone for $700. suggested i call a local repair shop who said they’re not touching wet iphones. took it to a repair shop i’ve used in the past for my razr phone and $65 later, my phone is fine!! anyone in northern california with phone problems needs to contact MD Wireless!! genius bar – my ***!
I’m in Napa, CA. Where is MD wireless? My daughter (no really, it wasn’t me) dropped my phone into the toilet. It was on. It is off now and in a bag of rice. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t have to go to Apple store.
My iPhone plunged into the toilet for not more than a 3 or 4 seconds and ive done the rice and silica packets and its still not removed all the water. You can see where a patch sits underneath – almost looks like diagonal scratches – but it is the water. This happened 7 days ago and it is still not able to be used. It powers on fine and asks for my passcode – but since the water is still sitting underneath the number area – it wont respond. I have to wait it out until it is 100% dry – just getting it to that point is taking forever. You people that got your dry so fast are super lucky.
i totally think using the vacuum and sucking out the excess water helped in my case.
did you end up getting the water fully out? your situation sounds like mine! i have had it in rice for 3 or so days and it has those scratch marks that are water. it powers, rings, everything but i cant get past the unlock screen. i just put it in cat litter!
omg exact same thing it looks loke diaginal scratches and its been a week of drying out some of us nt so lucky
trust put it in ure airing cuboard it works done it loads xx
hey steve, how long u put urs in the airing cuboard for?
Left my iPhone in the rain overnight. In the morning I kept shaking it until no water came out. Then I blew into the holes. Kept it in a dry place and after a day or two it returned to full function. The bluetooth didn't work initially, but I re-paired it and I'm fine now. NOTE: the Apple store knows when it's been in water! There's a piece of paper inside one of the ports that turns red when contacted with water.
I had to jump into a swimming pool to save my son from drowning and my iPhone was in my pocket and it got completely sub-merged in the water.
When I got it home, I used a hair dryer and blew warm dry air into both headphone and data connector sockets for about 10 minutes. I then sat my iPhone on my Apple TV, Screen up, over night. Apple TV runs very hot and the warmth of the Apple TV over night will gently dry out all parts of the iPhone. The following morning I connect it to iTunes and iTune thought it was a brand new phone, but game me the option to restore. I did this and my iPhone is now fully recovered. Working 100%.
Same thing happened to me (son in swimming pool) – I didn’t even realize it was in my pocked until after I gave him CPR… So far no luck on it working though – Given the situation, if all I walked away with was a broken phone I have no complaints! I’m going to try the restore thing (I could get it to charge, so hopefully after more time it will do more)
VACUUM VACUUM VACUUM!!!So far after i vacuumed its workin i really tried my best 2 get the speakers the buttons the sim port the headphone jack and where the 2 sides of the phone meet i did the hair dryer then the vacuum now im gonna leave it in a ziploc with silica packets for 3 days.
Dear god you are a genius!!! I tried the spray thing a whole day after getting it wet and it turned on while spraying. Thanks a lot I thought I was screwed. You're the man, a cadillac of men and a young adonis.
Here is how I fixed my wet phone.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=416062563&blogID=435512784
I had the same problem as I dropped my iPhone running in from the car during a storm. I let it air dry for a day but still still did not work. I found a good article via iphoneatlas.com and stated air drying wasn’t enough. The article said you had to place the phone in a zip lock bag with silica packets and linked to: http://www.silicagelpackets.com
I ordered a pack with priority mail and let the iphone air dry until I got them (tough 3 days of my life with no iPhone!!!) and as instructions stated I placed the iPhone in the zip lock bag with packets loosely around them. I tried the phone the next day and it worked, thankfully. Hopefully this can help you as well!
No, sir, is very simple. My grandson drop my iphone in the my washer machine full of water, i got the Iphone, i took the memory card out, i used a towel to dry it, i got the air dryer and blow cool air for like 15 minutes in the holes of the iphone. i got my iphone working great!!!!!
Very simple…
Thank you,
how do you take the memory card out
You’re kidding right. The iPhone doesn’t have a memory card….
I think they meant the sim card. Dropped my out of my pocket into my daughter’s tub by accident. The screen is dark. Hopefully it will come back. Trying compressed air and will try the hair dryer next.
hi! Your sims card is located on the top of your phone next to the power button… Pry out with the little metal thing thy cane with your phone or a small pointed object…. Keep it out during drying process!
What I did just a week ago, I dried with a blow drier on all low settings, put in rice for about 2 days. After a couple days of being in rice, I plugged it into a wall outlet for 2 days. When I turned it on it did have a hazey cloud on the screen and wasn’t as bright/dark, but after using it the cloud has faided and the color is back! Everything works fine, but the camera doesn’t work and it does a little blinking, but nothing to inconvienent.
I hope this helps you and that your phone comes back to life! Another inspirational thought us my sister jumped into the hottub with her clothes on and her iPhone in her pocket, after some time went by (not sure how long) it works just fine! Just whatever you do DONT PUSH BuTTONS and try to do stuff! Turn off immediatlry and try what I did! Good luck! =o)
Take away the “s” from your diagram and you’ve got my strategy: pray. Pray here, and pray there.
I dropped mine in the sink while washing dishes! It was submerge for 3 secs if that and i rushed to turn it off and dry it off! I pull it close to the fire place and then put it in rice! So far im still waiting it out but how long do you think i should wait before trying my luck!
My daughter dropped my in the tub yesterday. I dried it with a hair dryer and it is now in rice. So far, nothing either. My husband said I should have used cold air in the hair dryer bc heat causes the water to rust to the components. Maybe the hair dryer for me and the fireplace for you were a bad idea. I’m still waiting it out for another day though. Did yours ever come back on?