Or "how to fix
an iPhone after its been dropped in the loo"
So a few weekends
ago (admittedly on a first-world scale) disaster struck. I'd filled my iPhone
to capacity with photos and videos of Doof and was on my way downstairs to
download them all onto my computer. I'd been meaning to do it for the last few
weeks but kept putting it off and thinking "tomorrow tomorrow".
Anyway on the way downstairs I popped into the bathroom... and accidentally
dropped my iPhone into the (clean!) loo.
I fished it out immediately
and so "Operation Save iPhone" began...
Below I'll detail a
mixture of information I gleaned from the Internet, things I did or didn't do
and what could work.
How to de-waterlog your phone:
Step 1:
Easiest way is not
to break it. Specifically don't put it in your back pocket because it probably
will fall out. And if you're unlucky enough to be standing near the loo, it may
fall in :(
Step 2:
Remove any screen
guard/protective case etc and dry it off superficially as best you can using
paper towels (more absorbent than a regular towel and you can bend over a
corner to go inside little nooks and crevices). Never use a hair dryer.
Step 3:
Pick your preferred
long-term drying method. The most popular options are a bag of uncooked rice or
a huge amount of silica gel sachets. Whichever you choose leave your phone for at least 48 hours but preferably for 3-4 days minimum for best chance of resurrecting your phone.
I put my phone in a
Tupperware with a dehumidifier block for 3 days and then tried to turn it on
and charge it - when nothing happened I then hedged my bets and put it in a bag
of rice for 4 more days.
 |
| Dehumidifier block - make sure your phone is not touching the bottom of the tupperware in case any water pools there |
 |
| Bag of rice - submerge your phone completely and get rid of most of the air in the bag. Use uncooked and plain rice (without any coating on). |
Step 4:
After 7 days of
trying to dry my phone off I plugged it into my computer again to see what
would happen. Excitingly the battery sign came on as if it was trying to charge….
But then nothing else happened :(
I left the phone “charging”
for the next hour but still nothing more happened – it wasn’t being picked up
by my computer and when I tried to turn it on nothing happened.
So I took it to an “iPhone
repair shop” in West Kensington. We found this
small independent shop advertising on the internet as being able to repair
water damaged phones and as the Apple shop won’t help with repairs for
water-damaged phones we thought it was worth a try.
And… after 5 days
they called me and said it was completely fixed! Cost £49 and for that I got a
fully functional iPhone back, with all my photos/videos intact and a warranty
for the next month.
So happy!
And the first thing
I did as soon as I got home was download all my photos to the safety of my
computer! And then backed them up on an external hard drive. And then further
backed them by uploading them to an online storage system. Lol
So a happy ending
for me and all my photos of Doof. Below are a few of the ones which were
lost but are now ok :)
Hopefully you will
never get your phone wet but here are some other tips I read/was told (I can’t
vouch for the reliability of any/all of them!!):
-
remove
the sim card holder before drying
-
don’t
try and turn your phone on after submersion before drying it – risk of
frying/shorting all the insides
-
hoard
all the mini silica packets that come in new handbags etc and put those in a
sandwich bag with your phone to help dry it out
-
after
drying it out attach phone to computer with lead, rather than to wall charger.
That way you may still be able to access (and save) all the data on the phone
even if it doesn’t work to make calls etc
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