Is there anything more stressful than realizing you’ve damaged your phone? Time seems to stand still when you drop your phone in water. Your whole life is on that phone: so what can you do to get it dry and working again?

Move fast

The instance you see your phone in water, get it out of there. Modern smartphones are capable of resisting water damage for a short period, but unless you’ve bought a seriously waterproof phone or put it in a waterproof case, the longer you keep your phone in the water, the less chance you have of getting it back.

If your phone has fallen in the toilet, you have an important question to ask yourself. Is it more important to avoid sticking your hand in the toilet, or is it more important to retrieve your smartphone? Only you can answer this question, but our advice is to get your phone out of there, pronto.

Turn it off

Whatever has happened to your phone, as soon as you retrieve it you need to turn it off. Even if it seems that nothing is wrong, turn it off just in case. This gives the phone a chance to reset and prevents any further damage if the phone attempts to run electrical processes while water is inside.

Remove the essentials

As soon as you retrieve your phone, take out the battery and the SIM card. Wipe it down with a soft cloth before you attempt to dry the insides. You can dry the battery and SIM card with a cloth, but remember that you’ll still need to deal with the inner workings of the phone itself.

Don’t panic

When you panic, you’re likely to make the situation worse by trying to pry it open. Once you’ve retrieved your phone, take a deep breath, make a quick trip to your local liquor store, and remind yourself that it’s only a thing. Relationships, trust: these are hard to replace. A smartphone is not.

Get it dry

If you want to retrieve your phone, it has to dry out, and you won’t know how well it’s going to function until it does. There are two well-respected methods for getting this done. One involves isopropyl alcohol, and the other uses rice.

Try the isopropyl alcohol method

To fix your phone this way, you’ll need a container that can hold your phone and a good quantity of liquid at the same time. Once you’ve removed your phone’s battery, pour pure isopropyl alcohol into the container and put your phone inside the alcohol. 

Leave it for at least 20 minutes, and keep it in there for 30 minutes if you can stand it. After 30 minutes, take out your phone and leave it air-dry overnight. The next morning, replace the battery and start it up.

The rice method

If you don’t have isopropyl alcohol, or if it makes you nervous to use one liquid to dry out another liquid, dry rice can sometimes work to fix your water-damaged phone.

Completely submerge your phone in dry rice. Leave it for 24 hours and change the position of your phone within the rice every six hours. The rice will absorb the water in your phone.

Get professional help

If you have tried to fix your phone and failed, or if you’re concerned your attempts to fix it might make things worse, take it to uBreakiFix and get a professional opinion on how to return your phone to perfect working condition.

Your chances are good

Your chances are good that your phone will survive a short bath. There are some amazing stories of smartphones in surviving situations they shouldn’t. Just remember to turn it off, get it dry, and seek professional help if you’re not comfortable trying to fix it yourself. 

And maybe next time, spend the extra for a more resilient smartphone.