If you’ve dropped your iPhone in water and need to dry it out, plenty of people will give you a simple piece of advice: put it in a sealed bag of rice. The idea is the rice will draw out the moisture and allow your device to dry. The problem? It probably doesn’t work, according to experts, and now Apple has joined the fray by warning users not to do it.
In a support document spotted by Macworld, Apple’s advice is simple: “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice.” The reason? “Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.” As rice absorbs water, it quickly becomes gummy, which could stick inside your phone. It may also attract dust, causing further problems, and in any case, it doesn’t act quickly enough to prevent corrosion.
It’s not the only method that Apple says is best avoided. The company also advises that you should not “dry your iPhone using an external heat source or compressed air,” nor should you “insert a foreign object, such as a cotton swab or a paper towel, into the connector.” At best, these methods will do nothing to help. At worst, they could damage your iPhone.
Of course, you won’t want to do nothing at all if your iPhone is wet. For one thing, attempting to charge it while there’s moisture in the charging port will lead to an on-screen warning in iOS – pressing ahead and charging anyway could corrode the pins in your phone’s connector or on the charging cable, leading to permanent damage to one or both.
How to dry your iPhone, according to Apple
OK, so what should you do instead of using rice, compressed air, or one of the other methods Apple disapproves of? According to the company’s support document, there’s a specific set of steps you should take:
- Tap your iPhone gently against your hand with the connector facing down to remove excess liquid. Leave your iPhone in a dry area with some airflow.
- After at least 30 minutes, try charging it with a Lightning or USB-C cable or connecting an accessory.
- If you see the alert again, there is still liquid in the connector or under the pins of your cable. Leave your iPhone in a dry area with some airflow for up to a day. You can try again to charge or connect an accessory throughout this period. It might take up to 24 hours to fully dry.
- If your phone has dried out but still isn’t charging, unplug the cable from the adapter and unplug the adapter from the wall (if possible) and then connect them again.
With any luck, this process should help if you get a warning on your iPhone saying that liquid has been detected in its charging connector. If not, it might be time to get a new phone. But one thing is for sure: instead of employing rice to dry out your device, stick to using it at mealtimes instead.
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