I’m an iPhone owner who recently found myself in a frustrating situation. After my iPhone got wet, the touch screen stopped working completely. I was determined to find a solution, so I did some research and discovered some tips and tricks that helped me get my phone back up and running. In this blog post, I’m sharing what I learned as well as other solutions I found while trying to solve this issue.
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Causes of Unresponsive Touch Screen | Water damage can cause the touch screen to become unresponsive, as electrical impulses between the screen and device can be disrupted. |
| Precautions | 1. Turn off the iPhone immediately. 2. Remove the casing and SIM card tray. 3. Avoid banging the phone, as this can cause further damage. |
| Solutions | 1. Let the iPhone air-dry overnight, without connecting chargers or headphones. 2. Use a blow dryer at a regular temperature to speed up the drying process. 3. Submerge the device in a bowl of uncooked rice or place it near silica gel packs to absorb moisture. 4. If the touch screen remains unresponsive after trying these methods, seek help from an authorized Apple service provider. |
| Bottom Line | When an iPhone’s touch screen becomes unresponsive due to water damage, it is important to take precautions and try various solutions. These include turning off the device, removing the casing and SIM card tray, allowing the phone to air-dry, using a blow dryer or rice/silica gel to absorb moisture, and seeking professional help if necessary. By following these steps, you may be able to restore your iPhone’s functionality and prevent further damage. |
Table of Contents
Why Does Your Touch Screen Become Unresponsive?
Water and electricity aren’t the best of friends, unless your device is designed to be completely waterproof.
Since you’re most likely using a water-resistant iPhone, you’ll certainly need to be careful when it comes to your phone getting exposed to water.
In such accidents, the water can seep through the inside of the phone. The electrical impulses between the touch screen and the device itself are the first components that can get damaged.
This stops your device from recognizing your keystrokes on the touch screen. On that account, the first sign of water damage is your screen’s unresponsiveness.
Note: light charging your phone or connecting your headphones could be the worst thing to do to your phone at this stage, so avoid them completely until the matter is resolved!
Precautions to Take Once Your Screen Becomes Unresponsive
There are some precautions that you need to take before attempting to deal with the situation at hand:
- First and foremost, you’ll need to turn your iPhone off. It’s the most important step to take once you notice that your device has become unresponsive. Don’t risk using your phone to double or triple-check that it’s indeed affected and not working.
- Make sure you remove the casing on your phone because you’re undoubtedly going to find water trapped underneath it. You’ll also need to remove the SIM card tray.
- Don’t bang your phone on the table or wall in an attempt to remove the water from the device. That could cause more harm than good. Not only can you break your iPhone’s hardware, but you can also dislocate the inside components of your phone.
What to Do When Your Screen Becomes Unresponsive?
Once you’ve taken all of the necessary precautions, here are a few things you can do to try to fix your phone:
Let Your iPhone Air-Dry Overnight
Firstly, you need to stop tampering with your phone and just let it dry overnight.
Make sure not to connect your charger or headphones to your iPhone so that you don’t generate an electric current within your phone when it’s wet. That will only make the matter worse.
Blow-Dry Your Phone to Speed Up the Process
To speed up the drying process, you can use a blow dryer. Make sure you use your blow dryer at a regular temperature so that you don’t overheat your phone.
We recommend that you keep your smartphone turned off for at least 12—24 hours before checking if it’s working again.
Submerge Your Device in a Bowl of Rice.
This sounds a bit strange, right? But it can work wonders sometimes.
All you need to do is get a bowl of the rice grains, uncooked, of course, and place your phone in it overnight. The rice grains will absorb moisture throughout your phone.
An even more effective substitute would be silica gel packs. You can find them very easily. Just head to the nearest Walmart or Home Depot.
Once you have some silica gel packs, simply place your phone near them. Silica gel has some properties that enable it to absorb moisture efficiently.
Go to an Apple Genius
As a last resort, if you’ve left your phone out to dry and followed the precautions steps properly, but your phone is still unresponsive, then you’ll unquestionably need to have it looked at by an authorized Apple service provider.
These trained professionals can identify the exact issue and fix it for you in no time. Just make sure to back up your phone first.
The Bottom Line
Since the newer models of iPhones are water-resistant and not waterproof, we’ve put together a bunch of methods to try if your iPhone’s touch screen is unresponsive after water.
First and foremost, you’ll need to turn off your phone and remove any accessories and the SIM card tray. Then, you can keep your phone to air-dry, or you can blow-dry it and keep it switched off overnight.
You can also submerge it in rice or silica gel to absorb the moisture in it. If all these attempts fail, you might want to have it checked and diagnosed by an Apple service provider.
