As an iPhone owner, I know the frustration of having your device unexpectedly restart after water damage. I recently had this experience and it sent me on a mission to figure out what was happening and how to fix it. After some research and testing, I’m here to share the causes of iPhone restarts after water damage, as well as how to fix the issue.
Typically, an iPhone keeps restarting after water damage, but there are a couple of ways you can deal with the situation.
With the average person dropping their phone around four times per week, you know there were endless discussions about how to minimize damages. Let’s see how.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Turn Off the iPhone | Turn off the iPhone immediately to prevent further damage from electricity and water interaction. |
| Dry the iPhone | Remove the SIM tray and use a cotton swab or table fan to help the drying process. |
| Use Rice | Bury the iPhone in a bowl of rice for 48 hours to absorb moisture from internal parts. |
| Use Silica Bags | Alternatively, use Silica bags instead of rice for 48 hours to avoid dust residue. |
| Reset the iPhone | If the iPhone doesn’t turn on after drying, try a hard reset to fix software issues. |
| Visit the Apple Store | If issues persist, take the iPhone to an Apple Store for professional assistance. |
| Permanent Water Damage | Water resistance varies between iPhone models; older models are more susceptible to damage. |
| Importance of Data Backup | Always back up your data to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. |
Table of Contents
What to Do When an iPhone Keeps Restarting After Water Damage?
There are a couple of things that you should take care of when your iPhone suffers water damage in order to avoid ending up with a dead phone. So, here are the best practices:
- Turn It Off Immediately
While you may be tempted to tinker with your iPhone to make sure whether it’s working or not, keeping it on will do more harm than good.
Perhaps the only thing you should check for is whether the touchscreen is still functioning or not, and then make sure to turn it off.
Also, make sure not to try to charge your phone at all before it dries out. Since you’ll be leaving it off for around 48 hours, you don’t have to worry about the battery running out or dying.
This is because the electricity and water won’t react well together, so you’re trying to turn your phone into a piece of metal to prevent any reactions.
Still, water doesn’t bode so well with metal, which brings us to the second point.
- Dry It Out
It’s very important to make sure you do everything to dry your phone. Start by taking the SIM tray out and shaking the phone slightly in order to expel water.
Moreover, you can also use a cotton swab and a table fan to quicken the drying process.
Put It In Rice
If the water damage seems to be really bad, simple drying techniques might not cut it. In that case, you can resort to burying it in a bowl of rice.
This is because rice grains are hygroscopic. Meaning that they absorb water from a water-saturated environment and vice versa.
Leave your phone in a bowl of rice for 48 hours, allowing it to absorb moisture from all the internal parts and circuits. Then try turning it on to see if it functions properly.
Tip: Steer clear of enriched rice as it may leave dust behind.
Put It In Silica Bags
An alternative to rice, if you want to avoid the risk of dust altogether, is to bury your phone in Silica bags. You can typically find them packed with many of your electronics or even leather shoes or clothes. Or you can buy a Silica bag with as many packets as you need.
Similar to the rice method, seal your iPhone with the Silica for 48 hours and then turn it on to check for functionality or data loss.
- Reset your iPhone
If you’ve followed the previous step and your iPhone still doesn’t turn on, you could try a software approach by hard resetting your iPhone.
Typically, you can do so by holding down the power and volume down buttons for 30 seconds. On iPhones 6S and older, you can do so by holding down the home and sleep/wake buttons for 30 seconds.
- Take a Visit to the Apple Store
If your iPhone is turning on and there are no warnings triggered by the built-in Liquid Contact Sensors, there could be a deeper issue. While the water damage isn’t included in Apple’s warranty, they can still help you fix any damage that occurred as a result.
Is the Water Damage Permanent to iPhones?
Read more: iPhone no sound while charging
Starting with the iPhone X, Apple has made its phones water-resistant but not waterproof, which means they can handle some splashes or even drops in shallow puddles. So, older models are more likely to suffer permanent water damage.
However, in the end, it really depends on how bad the water damage was.
This means that you don’t have to fret once you drop it in water, but you have to save it before it sinks too deep or spends too much time in the water, causing irreversible damage.
As for the less recent models, your reflexes should be faster, but if it’s a big amount of water, the damage will probably be harder to contain.
Final Words
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When all is said and done, many have been through dropping their phones in water, so there are always workarounds. If your iPhone keeps restarting after water damage, try going through the above-mentioned process, and hopefully, it’ll be up and running.
Also, make sure to always back up your data to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
