What you should not do:

Experts have for years pointed out that’s a bad idea – and now Apple is officially warning users not to do it.

“Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” the company says in a recent support note spotted by Macworld. Along with the risk of damage, testing has suggested uncooked rice is not particularly effective at drying the device.

What you should do:

If your phone isn’t functioning at all, turn it off right away and don’t press any buttons. The next steps depend on your specific circumstances, but broadly speaking: dry it with a towel and put it in an airtight container packed with silica packets if you have them. Don’t charge it until you’re sure it’s dry.

  • cholesterol@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Given that iPhones have had at least IP67 rating since 2016, you probably just want to dry it off and move on.

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      The problem is rice getting jammed in the usb port when the phone refuses to charge with a warning the port is too wet to charge

  • tabular@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Stop putting your wet iPhone in rice, says Apple. Instead buy a new one because we make repairing it artificially expensive by restricting the manufactures from selling parts and we just replace the whole motherboard every time!

    • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Last I heard Apple won’t even do out of warranty repair work if the device is water damaged. They just tell you to buy a new one.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    No matter how your phone gets soaked – you’re caught in a downpour, you drop it in the bath or you fall in a pool – perhaps the best-known folk remedy is to put the device in a bag of rice.

    Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” the company says in a recent support note spotted by Macworld.

    Along with the risk of damage, testing has suggested uncooked rice is not particularly effective at drying the device.

    The fix may have its origins in the history of photography: the Verge traces the method back as far as 1946 as a way to maintain your camera.

    The next steps depend on your specific circumstances, but broadly speaking: dry it with a towel and put it in an airtight container packed with silica packets if you have them.

    There are a few more instructions for iPhones dropped in water that are worth memorizing – because even if many of today’s phones are water-resistant, liquid disaster has a way of sneaking up on you.


    The original article contains 372 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 52%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Salt absorbs water, and then it does something called caking. Which means it glues into large clumps of crystal when wet then dried, instead of reverting to tiny cubes. The idea of the rice has nothing to do with moisture but to prevent the clumps after the salt dries with a physical barrier. If you shake it in place after it dries, the rice also mechanically break the lumps. It’s an old restaurant trick because they use commercial table salt, which is specifically made for and restaurants has no anticaking agents (usually some form of silicate) and no iodine, so it’s taste is not metallic. That’s how all salt used to be. But modern household table salt does include it, and as result doesn’t cake and it remains granular no matter the moist.

  • Teknikal@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’ve kinda figured out from YouTube repair videos Immediately disconnecting the battery then using pure alcohol and cleaning the components is probably the best solution.

    Unfortunately by the stage I could even open my phone and remove the battery it would probably be wrecked anyway by my attempt to do so.

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Everyone knows the appropriate solution is drying the device in your microwave.

    • brought to you by terrible advice duck or whatever
  • Donk240978@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I found if the car is nearby, place the wet phone over the windscreen de-mister vent and then run the aircon through that vent. Doesn’t have to be hot air to dry it as long as the compressor for the aircon is running… Aircon dries out the air before blowing it through the cabin so you will have bone dry air circulating around the phone pulling the moisture out by evaporation. About 10 mins is plenty. Best done idling in the shade. Don’t want to sun damage the phone while trying dry it out…

      • Donk240978@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        No, hair dryer works by taking ambient air and heating it before blowing it out. Besides, definitely don’t want to heat up the phone. The aircon dries the air itself as part of the cooling. When using your windscreen vents you don’t have to set the temperature to hot to clear the windscreen as long as that aircon compressor is running. People just do because when you need to defog your windscreen it’s usually cold as fuck outside…

        To dry the phone, set vent to windscreen, temperature to cold, and make sure the aircon indicator on. Cold, dry air.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The heat does help defrost/defog quicker. Hot air can hold more moisture than cold air plus it needs thermal energy to transition from solid/liquid to gas.

          For a phone, the heat is mostly bad because the phone itself is generating heat that it needs to dissipate, so blasting it with hot air will reduce its cooling efficiency and it will find a new equilibrium at a higher temperature. But if the phone is off, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s fine in the heat (but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it causes issues with some adhesives, so maybe don’t blast it on max unless you can comfortably keep your hand close to the vent).