Phone wet and not turning on? Why Apple Says You Should NEVER Put It in Rice – and What Really Works Instead
After dropping your phone in water, you may be willing to try anything to get it working again.
From leaving it in rice to drying it with a hairdryer, there are dozens of so-called ‘hacks’ online that are guaranteed to fix your phone.
But Apple has now revealed that some classic advice can actually damage your iPhone.
If your phone won’t turn on or you see the “liquid detection alert,” Apple now says the best advice is patience.
So if you accidentally took your phone for a swim, here are five do’s and don’ts to help you out.
Getting your phone wet can be a panic-inducing experience. But if this happens to you, Apple says it’s best to stay calm and let the phone dry naturally over time, rather than using popular “hacks.”
What you should do
Getting your phone wet can happen to the best of us and can be very worrying, but the most important thing is not to panic.
It may be tempting to turn the phone on or plug it into a charger to check if it works but this is definitely something you should avoid.
As obvious as it sounds, the first thing you should do is remove the phone from the water as quickly as possible and wipe off the excess water with a clean, dry towel.
The longer the phone stays in water, the longer the water has to penetrate anything important and the longer it will take to dry.
Next, Apple recommends that you disconnect all cables from your iPhone and unplug the cables from the wall.
If the phone is completely soaked, it may also help to turn it off as soon as possible.
To remove excess water from the charging port, Apple recommends “gently tapping your iPhone against your hand with the connector facing down.”
Once you’ve done that, all that’s left to do is leave your phone in a dry place with good airflow and wait.
If you only get a ‘liquid detected’ warning, instead of completely submerging your phone, that means there is some moisture in the charging port.
If you see this message, Apple recommends that you wait at least 30 minutes before trying again.
Due to the moisture detection feature, the phone will not consume power when there is water in the charging port, so there is little risk of damaging your phone by testing it.
However, Apple recommends letting the phone dry for up to 24 hours to allow it to dry completely.
If you get the ‘liquid detected’ warning, the best thing you can do is disconnect your phone from the charger and give the phone time to dry
What not to do
It may have been repeated since the launch of the very first iPhone, but Apple has now confirmed that there is no benefit to putting your phone in a bowl of uncooked rice.
The idea behind this theory is that the dry rice acts as a desiccant, just like those silica gel sachets that draw water out of the phone.
In reality, rice doesn’t work that way, and leaving the phone sitting in rice can restrict airflow.
This trick seems to work because leaving the phone in rice keeps it out of sight and reduces the temptation to turn it on or charge it before it dries.
So when you finally take the phone out of the rice, it seems to have been miraculously repaired.
But in new guidelines, Apple specifically warns against trying this trick, warning that “it could cause small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.”
You may have heard the myth that a bowl of dry rice can fix a drowned phone. However, Apple now says this risks doing more harm than good as small particles of rice can damage the phone (stock image)
If your phone is really soaking wet, you may be able to dry it faster using an external source.
But while a hairdryer may seem like a good idea, Apple has warned against this too.
In the guidelines, Apple says that you “should not dry your iPhone using an external heat source or compressed air.”
Apple doesn’t explain why, but presumably letting your phone get very hot is a recipe for disaster, while compressed air could potentially cause water to be blown deeper into the phone.
But whatever the reason, it’s still better to be patient while your phone dries naturally than to try to rush the process.
Apple advises users not to dry their iPhones with external heat or air sources such as a hair dryer. If your phone is wet, it’s better to let it dry naturally (stock image)
And if you get the annoying ‘Liquid Detected’ warning, the same rules apply.
If you have waited about half an hour and still see this warning, it is because there is still water in the connector or under the pins of the charging cable.
If you’re in a hurry to charge your phone, it may seem sensible to try to suck out this water with something absorbent, like a paper towel or cotton swab.
But again, Apple specifically discourages this type of impatient behavior.
If you insert a foreign object into the charging port, you risk bending the pins out of position or getting something stuck in them, preventing your phone from charging.
So if you’ve sprayed your phone, remember that it’s always better to leave your phone somewhere dry and wait, than to rush and risk damaging it further.
If there is water in the charging port, Apple says you shouldn’t push anything into it, such as a cotton swab, as this could damage the pin sand and leave bits of material behind (stock image)