Photo: RuinDig/Yuki Uchida, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A phone in water is a race against corrosion, not a race to see if it still works. The first ten minutes matter more than the next ten hours, because every time power runs through a wet board, damage can spread. Do the calm, simple things first — and leave the folk remedies alone.
Do this first
1. Get it out of the water and switch it off straight away, even if the screen still looks normal. Do not press buttons repeatedly to check it.
2. Take off the case and pat the outside dry with a soft, lint-free cloth. Hold the phone with the ports facing down so water can drain out, rather than further in.
3. Remove the SIM tray if you can do so easily, and leave the tray out so air can reach the slot. Do not use a hair dryer, and do not shake the phone hard.
4. Keep it switched off and get it to a repair shop promptly, ideally the same day. Tell the shop what kind of water it was — fresh, salty, soapy or dirty — because that changes how urgently it needs internal cleaning.
Never do this
Never charge a wet phone, and never switch it on to test it. Charging can short circuits that might otherwise have survived drying. Never use a hair dryer: heat can warp parts, push water deeper, and damage seals and batteries. Never put it in an oven or a microwave, and never use compressed air at close range to blast water through the phone.
And never trust the rice trick. Rice does not pull water out of a sealed phone quickly, it leaves dust and starch behind, and while the phone sits in a bowl, corrosion keeps working. A phone that seems fine after rice can fail weeks later, when contacts have quietly eaten away. Drying the outside is useful. Waiting at home while the inside stays damp is not a repair.
Why a shop still needs to look inside
Modern phones are water-resistant, not waterproof, and resistance fades with drops, repairs and age. Water can sit under shields and connectors where a cloth cannot reach. A tech will open the phone, clean the board properly, check for corrosion, and test the battery, charging and speakers before power is trusted again. That internal clean is the step that gives a wet phone a real chance, not a night in a cupboard.
Water indicators alone do not settle it, either. A triggered indicator confirms exposure, but an untriggered one does not prove the phone stayed dry inside, especially if water entered through a cracked back, a worn seal or a damaged port. Judge the phone by what happened to it, not by a small coloured dot.
Takeaway
Switch it off, dry the outside, do not charge it, do not heat it, and do not waste time on rice. Get it to a shop promptly for internal cleaning — the sooner the board is cleaned, the better its chances.
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