A popular method for removing water from an iPhone has been debunked by Apple, along with a widely followed hack to extend battery life.
According to official documents released by Apple this year, the tech giant specifically advises iPhone owners not to “put your phone in a bag of rice.”
The theory goes that the dry rice will soak up and absorb water if a phone has been submerged, but Apple said this is no more effective than letting the device dry in the open air and that the rice particles could even damage the phone.
Apple also explained that users who try to squeeze more minutes of charging time out of their battery by closing background apps are actually using more battery.
Apps put in background mode are paused in the phone’s RAM, which prevents battery drain and makes them easy to resume. The phone maker said clearing background apps consumes more charge as they drain the battery when they are reopened.
A wet iPhone should be air dried. Apple said, correcting the myth that dry rice will extract more moisture
Apple said the hard rice particles can actually damage the connectors in the lightning port, scratch the screen or get stuck in the device
Recent iPhone models are all waterproof, which should prevent damage to components if they fall into water, but they also have a feature that warns users that charging is disabled if water is detected in the lightning cable port.
Apple said users should follow these three steps if they get this warning on their phone.
First, gently tap the phone on your hand with the connector facing down to remove excess liquid.
Then the phone should be left in the open air to dry where there is air flow.
Users can check whether charging is enabled after 30 minutes, but it may take up to 24 hours for the battery to completely dry.
If the phone won’t charge after a day, unplug the cable from the phone and the wall and plug it back in.
If you get the ‘liquid detected’ warning, the best thing you can do is disconnect your phone from the charger and let it dry for at least half an hour
The company said that placing wipes or cotton swabs in the connector port could damage the metal pins, as well as rice particles.
For those looking to improve battery life, Apple said a more effective way than closing background apps is to disable “background app refresh” in the settings.
Location services can also be turned off to use less battery.
Phone screen brightness is also a battery drain and dimming the screen or using dark mode in apps will keep a phone charged longer.
Heat can also damage the battery, so it’s best not to leave a phone in direct sunlight, but the manufacturer says it’s generally fine to leave it plugged in to charge overnight as the software charging turns off if the phone gets too hot.