Your fingers slip when you’re enjoying a wonderful day at the beach or in the water, causing a splash. Your smartphone plunges into the salty depths, or ideally only a few inches of salt water. Here’s what you need to do since either case might be disastrous.
Try to locate it first
You should try to find your phone and bring it out of the water as soon as you can, unless you’re in a circumstance where doing so would be unsafe. Here are some suggestions: If you are unable to see the phone, use your feet to feel it submerged or get a fishing net and dig through the sand until you locate it.
You should probably consider the phone a total lost if you can’t find it. Inform your mobile phone provider of what transpired and request that they transfer your old phone number to a new phone.
You may report your device as lost or stolen, disable it remotely, or delete it from your account using remote administration tools like “Find My” in the Apple ecosystem. You may subsequently recover your data on a new device using local or cloud backups (for Android or iPhone).
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As much as you can, turn it off and dry your phone
Power down your phone fully after removing it from the water. To dry the phone as much as you can, use a fresh towel. Remove the battery if it isn’t integrated into the phone, the SIM card tray, and any memory card trays if you can. Remove the case as well if it’s in a non-waterproof case.
Turn off your smartphone and wash it off with fresh, clean water while it’s still in the waterproof case if it has one if your smartphone has water resistance or is currently in one (not salt water.) After wiping it off with a towel, allow it to air dry for a few hours before attempting to use it once more. If everything goes according to plan, you should be all set.
You may have heard that if your phone isn’t water resistant, putting it in rice would help it dry off, but that’s a fiction. Rice won’t help, and if you leave it there, the saltwater that has gotten inside the phone’s body will have more time to destroy the circuitry. You must quickly disassemble the phone and clean it out if you ever want to use it again, else corrosion will irreversibly harm the inside circuitry.
If possible, disassemble the phone
Use the appropriate tools to swiftly open your phone if you feel competent and able to dismantle it. Free guidelines with step-by-step instructions on how to dismantle several well-known smartphone models are available at iFixit.
Once the phone is open, completely clean out the interior with distilled water, use a soft brush to remove any corrosion, and then immerse the phone for an hour in a bath of 90% rubbing alcohol, gently swirling it to release any trapped water.
Reassemble the components and test the gadget after letting them air dry for at least 24 hours. If it functions, you should be good to go. If the gadget is still functional, make a backup in case the water damage is not repaired and it fails again.
If not, consult a professional
Naturally, the disassembly procedures described above call for a certain level of technical expertise as well as the tools and components needed to open a contemporary smartphone securely and damage-free. So, as quickly as possible, take your phone to a reputable smartphone repair shop if you’re not comfortable taking it apart. They should know what to do if you tell them that you dropped your phone in salt water.
If you want to keep the phone, it has to be disassembled right away and thoroughly cleaned inside and out. Take the phone somewhere else if they are unwilling to start working on it right now and it is absolutely critical. Consider scheduling an appointment at an Apple shop, for instance, if you have an iPhone.
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Taking Precautions
Benjamin Franklin allegedly apparently used the phrase “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” That implies you can spare yourself from a much greater catastrophe later on if you take tiny actions to avert difficulty before it arises. In this situation, leaving your smartphone on dry land when you’re close to the water could be your best course of action.
If that doesn’t work, you might also put your smartphone in a dry bag or waterproof case before getting anywhere near the water. For instance, this JOTO Universal Waterproof Phone Pouch is a cheap way to protect your smartphone from unintentional water exposure.
When combined with a floating strap, your smartphone will be able to be recovered even if it is dropped into the water inadvertently and will not sink to the bottom of Davy Jones’s locker. Wishing you success and a safe journey!
