How to Save A Water-damaged Smartphone

It may be very frutrating when you see your phone falling into water, whether it’s a pool or a toilet. You just know nothing good will happen next. After all, this high tech device probably costs you multiple hundred dollars, and chances are very high that it will be deemed unusable.

Before we talk about how to save your phone after that disaster, let’s get to know what you shouldn’t do first.
1. Do not turn on the phone, that’s most important.
2. Don’t plug it in either!
3. Don’t press any keys. This can push water further into the phone.
4. Don’t shake or blow into the device. This could also push water into deeper areas of the phone.
5. Do not apply any heat to the phone. Remember excessive heat can also damage the phone.
6. Don’t move the phone around too much.

Then what you should do to get your phone back?
1. Disassemble the phone
Remove everything that is user-removable. If you back cover is removable, take it off. Similarly, try to remove the battery (if you can), SIM card and SD card. Lay it all out in the paper towel.
Now, if you are an experienced tech specialist of sorts and know the ins and outs of a phone, and don’t mind risking voiding your warranty, you can go ahead and take the whole phone apart too. It might help with drying up every single piece faster.

2. Dry the exterior with a paper towel
We first have to try to get rid of all the excess water found in the exterior of your phone. Use the paper towel to dry out every component. Just make sure you don’t mess with the phone too much. Gently dry everything out without moving things around too much.

3. Dry the inside of the device
The hardest part is coming, because it involves leaving the phone untouched for an extended period of time. This means you can’t use your smartphone! If you have another phone you can borrow, just make sure the SIM card is completely dried out and stick it into the working handset.
So how do you dry your phone out? You could just leave the phone on top of the counter or inside a drawer, but some people like giving it a little help. The idea is to put it in an environment that will ease its drying process. A very common practice is to put the phone in a Ziploc bag full of rice and let it rest there for about 2-3 days.

Here we have done everything we could to save this little gadget. If you still can’t get it work properly, you just have to let it go. Hopefully most of you get it back up and working, though!

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