You've dropped your iPhone in water, and right now you want to dry information technology out, appraise and ready the damage, and recover the data inside. You lot've come up to the right identify for advice.

Water is the 2d most common blazon of damage faced by iPhones (after smashed screens, which we discuss in our article on getting a broken iPhone repaired). Simply a douse isn't necessarily a death sentence. No guarantees, but with our tips at that place's every risk your phone will survive to fight (and become moisture) another day.

In this article nosotros explain the best strategies for dealing with a wet or water-damaged iPhone.

What to do if your iPhone gets wet

What to do if your iPhone gets wet

Get the iPhone out of the h2o right away, if y'all oasis't already.

Do not plug in the iPhone. If it'due south plugged in already, unplug information technology (very advisedly).

Do not turn it on. This can cause short circuits.

If the wet iPhone is in a instance, take information technology out. Remove the SIM menu besides. Water can linger in these nooks and crannies.

With a soft towel or cloth, wipe liquid off everything yous can attain. Turn the iPhone upside down and give it a gentle milkshake to clear the ports and sockets.

Power off the wet iPhone

Power off the wet iPhone

Yous want to avoid activating the circuits inside the iPhone, because this is likely to crusade curt circuits and long-term damage.

If the iPhone is switched off already, get out it off. Don't be tempted to power on to come across if it notwithstanding works. It might, and then promptly stop working forever precisely because you took a wait.

If your iPhone is switched on, you're looking at ii unappealing options: power downward (just in the procedure cause the screen and operating system to wake up briefly earlier switching off) or leave the device in sleep fashion and hope you don't get any notifications.

Information technology's your determination, but later discussions here in the Macworld offices nosotros've decided that the lesser of 2 evils is to wake the iPhone briefly in gild to do a full power off - and that's what we propose in the video at the top of this article.

If yous were lucky enough to be in Aeroplane Mode when yous dropped the device, however, or are confident that nothing will wake your iPhone in the next 48 hours, leaving it alone might be the ameliorate choice.

Dry out your iPhone with uncooked rice

Dry out your iPhone with uncooked rice

At present we need to depict as much interior liquid out equally possible. Resist the temptation to use a hair dryer or other heat treatment, as this tin can harm the iPhone's internal components.

(A few iPhone users propose the use of a not-heated fan, which at least shouldn't make things worse, even if nosotros call up the below techniques are likely to be more than effective.)

To go moisture out of the iPhone'southward interior, y'all need a desiccant. Many people swear by uncooked rice, advising owners to put their damp iPad or iPhone in a big bowl of the stuff (embrace it completely) and leave it there for 48 hours or and then.

The rice will absorb the moisture effectively, and most of usa have some uncooked rice in our homes (or tin go hold of some fairly easily). Simply information technology may get dust or even entire grains into the ports. Be warned.

Nosotros discuss this method in more item in our commodity: rescue a soaked iPhone with the rice play tricks.

Photo by Steven Depolo; used (unmodified) nether Creative Eatables Licence. Information technology's an iPod affect, in fact, just you lot go the idea.

Dry out out your iPhone with silica gel

Dry out your iPhone with silica gel

A better selection than uncooked rice if you've got it is silica gel - those little (and inedible) packets that come with some electronic components, particularly if they've been shipped from a country with a humid climate.

You need plenty of them to cover the iPhone. You may be able to buy them en masse from a craft store, and handbag shops are a great source - inquire the staff if they mind you lot fishing out the sachet that you'll probably observe zipped into each purse'south interior pocket.

Silica gel sachets should dry out a moisture iPhone out more than efficiently and less messily than rice. You should nevertheless give the iPhone at to the lowest degree 48 hours to dry out out completely, yet.

Dismantle your iPhone

Dismantle your iPhone

If you're really confident near doing DIY repairs on your iPhone, the best way to deal with a wet iPhone is to unscrew the bottom screws (on near models of iPhone this will require a proprietary type of screwdriver head, bachelor as function of some iPhone repair kits sold by unofficial third-party accessory makers) and admission the interior.

Simply bear in mind that this is likely to invalidate any warranty coverage you've got, and there's a take a chance that your DIY work will crusade impairment rather than repair information technology.

Still: the most effective style to get water from the inside of an iPhone is to get right in at that place and dry it out from inside.

You lot'll want to take the bombardment out, for instance (this also minimises the potential for short circuits), and get water out of all the internal nooks and crannies. Use a soft dry textile to all interior surfaces while endeavouring to be equally gentle as possible.

We're not sure we'd recommend this approach, primarily because of its potential to exacerbate the problem. But in some situations it may be the only way to relieve the twenty-four hour period - and if nothing else works and you're out of warranty, you may find yourself with naught to lose.

What to do next

What to do next

Once you've waited a couple of days and retrieve you've successfully stale out your iPhone, you can endeavor switching it on. If it still doesn't piece of work, or if you want to get the internals checked out, you can ask an Apple Genius to take a look, just conduct in mind that iOS devices have internal liquid detectors, so they will know what happened.

One final warning: a bad submersion may cause long-term damage, peculiarly to the battery, that only becomes apparent months later on. In 1 famous case, an iPhone 3GS spontaneously overheated more a year afterward being dropped in a puddle. The possessor had used the rice technique and the iPhone had worked fine subsequently... initially.

We would therefore advise that, if you're lucky plenty to be able to go your iPhone to run later on a dip, yous should back upward all of import files on the device in case it packs upward again in the future. Its recovery, we're sorry to say, may simply be temporary - although we hope not.

Waterproof cases & emergency kits

Waterproof cases & emergency kits

Hopefully the steps above helped yous revive the drowned iPhone in your life, just there are manner to avoid the situation in future.

Water's not skilful for iPhones and iPads, penetrating deep within their circuitry and leading to dissentious short circuits. And then those (extremely common) hazards and then many iPhone owners risk - taking photos on the beach, browsing the web in the bath, even reading email on the loo - are best avoided. Most of us only cotton on to the dangers after our first soaked iPhone.

If you really want to read eastward-books by the pool or in the bath, consider ownership a waterproof iPhone instance. Some other option to behave in mind is some kind of handle or wrist strap so you lot're less likely to drop the device in the start place.

Yous might like to buy an emergency package for drying out an electronic device - obviously information technology's best to have it set up in advance, instead of waiting for the crunch to occur and and then queueing at the shops.

The AF Tech Rescue Kit is an affordable selection bachelor on Amazon.

Which iPhones are water-resistant?

Which iPhones are water-resistant?

If buying a waterproof case doesn't appeal, you might consider upgrading the phone itself. In contempo years Apple's handsets have got better and meliorate at h2o resistance.

Water (and dust) resistance is normally expressed past the IP rating system. Before 2022 Apple tree didn't disclose IP ratings for its phones, but that year's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were certified as IP67 - an excellent score which indicates they should survive submersion in upwardly to 1m of h2o for 30 minutes.

In 2022 the iPhone XS and XS Max went 1 footstep further, scoring IP68. This extends the immersion to 2m, and you lot will very rarely run into a consumer product become a college rating than this.

Here are the IP ratings of Apple tree's telephone range:

  • iPhone 6s and earlier: not rated
  • iPhone 7: IP67
  • iPhone 7 Plus: IP67
  • iPhone 8: IP67
  • iPhone 8 Plus: IP67
  • iPhone 10: IP67
  • iPhone XR: IP67
  • iPhone XS: IP68
  • iPhone XS Max: IP68
  • iPhone 11: IP68
  • iPhone 11 Pro: IP68
  • iPhone 11 Pro Max: IP68

You tin can buy a new iPhone handset on Apple's website, or browse our roundup of the all-time iPhone deals.

How to squirt water from an iPhone speaker

How to eject water from an iPhone speaker

While the iPhone 7 and later are water-resistant, it doesn't stop h2o from getting into the speaker grille. The Apple Lookout man Series ii and later have a like upshot, although they come with a born characteristic that can exist toggled to 'eject' the water by playing a specific frequency.

Why the iPhones don't feature a like option, nosotros're not quite certain - just there is a relatively piece of cake way for users to eject h2o from inside an iPhone seven or afterward speaker, and it's by using a free app called Sonic.

Just download the app and tap the h2o droplet icon in the centre of the screen. This should cause the water to 'bound' from the speaker so you can absorb it with a tissue.