Phone went for a 5 minutes swim. What to do?

[iMore Question]

Hi, yesterday my Iphone 5C had a swim in a chlorinated pool. I would say it was between 3-5 minutes before I realized what I had done. I quickly dried off the phone and shoved it in a bag of rice. I did not have to turn it off....screen went black on it's own. Having said that, I think the battery was below 20%, possibly it drained?? Being impatient after a few hours I attempted to turn on the phone - nada. I left it now for 24 hours and tried again - still nada. I plugged in the charger thinking maybe the battery was dead, said a little prayer and waiting about 3 minutes. Guess what --- nada. The back of the phone started to feel a little hot, so I quickly unplugged and threw back in the bag of rice.

I can handle the fact that I may be out of pocket a few hundred bucks....but I'm rather upset because I have a lot of pictures on the phone (some are work related - pictures of clients I care for and make albums at Christmas). I've read probably 15 articles today. Everyone says rice and leave for at least 24 hours. Some have indicated great success, other state it is a lost cause. I'm hoping that by being impatient I haven't caused more damage (if that is possible).

So, does the rice trick actually work? And if so, seriously -- how long do you have to keep it in there? I've also read that it is best to take apart and use alcohol to give a good cleaning and possibly buy a new battery. Does this work? Sounds somewhat difficult. I appreciate any advise. Sadly, many of us rely waaaayyyyy too much on our phones. I feel very lost without it.

 

[Tartarus]

Yes, rice is the first thing you should try.. After a few hours, I recommend at least six hours, you will have to go to a repair shop which can sonic clean your device, to get rid of the chlorine and other stuff in water.

And for in the future, have your phone set up to sync to iCloud when asleep and on charger.. You can also use iCloud Photos to backup your pictures or any other random photo backup services like Dropbox/Carousel, Google Photos, Box or OneDrive, to avoid photo loss when something like this happens again.

 

[kch50428]

If you have AppleCare+ - use it.

If you have 3rd party insurance via your service provider or another source - file a claim...

With water damage - it might be possible to dry it out and get it working... but it will only be a matter of time before it fails. Replacement is about the only thing you can do to be assured of having a viable device in the long term,

 

[HankAZ]

Hi, yesterday my Iphone 5C had a swim in a chlorinated pool. I would say it was between 3-5 minutes before I realized what I had done. I quickly dried off the phone and shoved it in a bag of rice. I did not have to turn it off....screen went black on it's own. Having said that, I think the battery was below 20%, possibly it drained?? Being impatient after a few hours I attempted to turn on the phone - nada. I left it now for 24 hours and tried again - still nada. I plugged in the charger thinking maybe the battery was dead, said a little prayer and waiting about 3 minutes. Guess what --- nada. The back of the phone started to feel a little hot, so I quickly unplugged and threw back in the bag of rice.

I can handle the fact that I may be out of pocket a few hundred bucks....but I'm rather upset because I have a lot of pictures on the phone (some are work related - pictures of clients I care for and make albums at Christmas). I've read probably 15 articles today. Everyone says rice and leave for at least 24 hours. Some have indicated great success, other state it is a lost cause. I'm hoping that by being impatient I haven't caused more damage (if that is possible).

So, does the rice trick actually work? And if so, seriously -- how long do you have to keep it in there? I've also read that it is best to take apart and use alcohol to give a good cleaning and possibly buy a new battery. Does this work? Sounds somewhat difficult. I appreciate any advise. Sadly, many of us rely waaaayyyyy too much on our phones. I feel very lost without it.

If you have previously set up photo syncing with iPhoto and/or Photos (or a non-Apple site like Dropbox or Google), you should be able to get the photos from that site. Otherwise, you are probably out of luck.

When a phone gets wet internally, it's a matter of time before it totally dies. A 3-5 minute swim is pretty much immediately catastrophic. The rice trick may work if you manage to get the power turned off before the internals get fried. But with the phone powered on and totally submerged for 3-5 minutes, the odds are very good that there are multiple short circuits that have totally killed any component that had power to it at the time, and totally removed any possibility of a good outcome in your case.

 

[Just_Me_D]

The iPhone is not water-proof or water-resistant so make preparations to get it replaced.

 

[nikkisharif]

Happened to my daughter's 5C & I had to get it replaced. Good Luck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk