My iPhone speaker survives toilet water. Here's how.

I wish I had a better story involving wild sex, drugs, or fighting off a home invasion about how my beloved iPhone 4 ended up in a toilet this morning. 

Actually...I'd put the phone on some magazines that were headed to the recycling bin. Forgetting where the phone was after, um, I'd done my (stand-up) business, I grabbed the magazines from a counter and heard a highly disturbing splash as the phone hit the water.

Moving as fast as my semi-awake 63 year-old self does that early in the day, I had the phone out of the toilet in just a few seconds.

Luckily, it was snugly enclosed in both an Incipio semi-rigid "bumper" case, and an utrasuede/leather Waterfield slip-in case (highly recommended for slip-in afficionados; great case). So after toweling off the mildly wet iPhone, I decided to turn the phone on and see if it was going to explode in a shower of sparks.

Nope.

I was pleased to see that the phone worked fine. Seemingly. Except when I fired up my Solitaire app and started to play a game. It worked, but absent the clicking sounds that accompany a card turn. Shit! I thought.

Which turned to double and triple Shit! when I found that You Tube videos played, but with no sound. And I could make a phone call to my wife where she could hear me, but I couldn't hear her through the usual phone speaker -- only when I changed to speakerphone. With earbuds, sound could be heard fine through the headphone jack.

That led me to a panic-stricken Google search.

Where I found "How to fix the iPhone speaker problem (water damage)." The simple advice was to strip some cotton off of the end of q-tips, insert them into the headphone jack, rotate, and remove. I did this several times, with no success (other than getting the headphone jack really clean).

I also read the comments on that post, plus the accompanying You Tube video.

These led me to a couple of other attempted fixes: inserting a credit card in the charging slot at the other end of the phone from the headphone jack, and blow-drying the headphone jack. I also blow-dried the charging slot for good measure.

I don't know what worked, one, some, or all of these fixes. Regardless, after the last blow-drying my iPhone had recovered it's soundability. Bliss! I kept playing my "Brazilian Girls" album to confirm that everything was back to normal. 

So give these tips a try if your own iPhone gets wet and refuses to speak to you. The q-tip approach makes sense.

Some commenters on the post surmised that water (a short?) makes the iPhone think headphones are being used, so the external speaker is turned off. I seemed to see a brief message to this effect ("headphones") appear when I started to play "Brazilian Girls" before the phone was back to normal.

If you use a blow dryer, be judicious and don't run it too long.

I left my iPhone on a counter with the dryer on high pointing at it from about six inches way. When I checked back after a few minutes the metal phone casing was really hot. When I tried to turn on the phone, I got a "too hot to use; allow to cool" sort of message. After I waited a while, the iPhone worked normally, so maybe it was the final blow-drying that did it. 

Just don't overdo it, or you might have a bigger problem than a speakerless phone -- a cooked phone.

Comments

[tucson]

Last summer I was in the Rockies sitting by a cold, blue, beautiful high altitude lake frequented by tourist hikers.

Which explained the behavior of a tame, incredibly cute, chipmunk-like creature that hopped on my knee looking for its share of the energy bar I was eating.

As I was reinforcing the creature's greedy dependence on humans for sustenance by hand feeding it, my cellphone slid off my lap into the lake.

I have never moved so fast (no doubt the chipmunk thing went flying with almond in mouth). I grabbed the phone out of the water and immediately opened the back and took out the battery and dried everything as best I could.

Then I blew on the exposed contacts, etc. like I was stoking a fire and then left the phone in the sun to dry out for awile.

It still worked!

Which was a good thing. I needed the phone on that trip.

[Gil Johnson]

As klutzy as I am, I have yet to need to deal with a waterlogged phone. However, my friends who have swear by this simple method:

Embed the device in a bag of uncooked white rice for about a day. The rice will absorb the moisture from the phone.

Don't know if it works with brown rice.

[Jake]

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[I Bow To You]

i love you i love you i love you i love you

the blow dryer worked and i love you so much

[Alaina C]

OMG I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH IT WORKRD:)))) thank you soooo much!! it was the q-tip! :)))) THANKS A BUNCHHH

[Sara D.]

Thank you, thank you! I had the unvortunate disaster of spilling a cup of water on my phone ad had this same problem. Thankfully after your tips (I think it was the hair dryer mainly) it is back to working order. Thank you again!

[Ally]

Thank you so much!! The Q-tips do the trick.. you just have to do it over & over & over again. Took like 15 Q-tips but I got it :)

[Chelsea]

You are so great!!! Thank you so much!!!! One question! If your sound is working but when I push the buttons on the side of the phone, it says sound is still blank! Any way to fix it?? Thanks! Oh! And if anyone knows how to get water from out of the screen!

[Sherrie]

It worked!! The blow dryer helped a lot with the buttons working, but the speaker was still broken. The Q-tip did the trick for that! Yay!! Thank you so much!

[Heather]

i tried the qtip and the credit card to no avail. Then I tried squeezing the bottom right corner by the speaker for 20 seconds and voila! IT works again. I think it may be a combo of the credit card and the squeeze. I splashed water on it the other day and the water hit the bottom half of the phone. Thanks!

[carol]

best frekin tip ever!!!!!!!! u savedddd my iPhones sound life!!!!! thank u thank uuuuu!

[John]

thank you so much for your assistance!!!You just saved my IPhone4!!!THANKS!!!!

[Ann Rajoo]

the q-tip worked wonders!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH :)

[Lexi]

I know it's just my phone, but I feel like you just saved my life. Hahaha thanks so much!

[Capt. Awesome]

I don't know which one worked but I did both the q-tip and the blow dryer and my speakers work. So thank you, your awesome, and stay golden pony boy!

[J]

Qtip worked in two seconds!!!! Thank you so much, you saved my phone and saved me $200!!!!

[Jerry]

Thank you So much, its working again. Great to find usefull information.

[LGJ]

Bloody LEGEND!! My iPhone and I cannot thank-you enough; the hairdryer worked a treat :D :D :D

[Chase]

OH MY LORD THANK YOU i did the same thing you did and the hair dryer did just the trick.

[Clarice]

Oh my gosh! This post also helped me! I am so grateful to have found it!!! I was so disappointed in myself for breaking my phone. I feel much better now! Guess I wont be putting it back on the same ledge again! Thank you very much again! Oh and for me, it was most definitely the hair dryer!

[reeveb@gmail.com]

EXACT same thing happened to me (the toiler plunge and subsequent speaker mute) and the q-tips alone worked for me. Thanks Mr. Oregon!

[Ilma]

Thank you so much, xmas fm on now and I can hear it! fantastic. Ilma, Canada

[lisa m]

Your tips worked!!! Thank you soo much!!

[Marcy]

OMG Thank you sooooo much! IT WORKED!!! My two year old dumped water on my phone.

[gvd]

Oh my god thank you so much! The Blowdryer worked like a charm!

[Philip]

Thanks for the tip, mine was completely submerged in the sink briefly this morning - no sound and the ringer and microphone weren't much good either. I rolled up some tissues into pointy bits and dried out the headphone jack. Then let the breeze blow on it a bit and now seems OK.

[Mercy]

Thank you!!! My phone fell in the dogs bathe water (guess they paid me back!) and I could only hear iTunes or phone calls with my head set😱. I used q-tips and a blow dryer....voila! It's back! Now if the camera would start working I would be an even happier camper!😁

[Jaime]

After having my phone in rice all night I turned it on to find the sound didn't work. I followed what you said and my phone is working great from what I can tell so far. The only odd thing is I got a notification that I was sent a message but cannot open it. I am not sure but that is much better than it was. Was probably a small glitch that will work itself out. I am so relieved, I only got this phone 2 days ago and thought I had ruined it already.

[Cinkia]

Hi there - just read your post on iphone getting wet...my husbands phone was pretty much the same after getting wet - I could hear him but he couldn't hear anything and it was distorted on speaker. I followed your tips and guessed that a q-tip was a cotton bud as we call them in Australia, a very small amount of blow drying and voila - its working!!!! Felt the need to express my thanks for your advice.... I'd heard the rice and blowdryer methods but not the cotton bud :-)

[Niki]

Cotton buds really worked (Q tips), with the aid of some heat. You saved me £418.00, thank you. And thank you for taking the time out to blog this!

[Dana]

Thank you so much! Worked like a charm on my iPhone 5!

[Jay]

Thank You!!! Even though other sites said stay away from heat, all the comments on this blog convinced me to try it. Sound was back after wiping the headphone jack and 5 minutes! Iphone 4s

[Sheena]

Omg!!! This worked like a charm!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!!

[Lord]

OMFG Thanks so much! It worked!!! I used the cotton buds tip.

[G]

Daughter's 3 month old Iphone 5 had the same fate as yours last night. It is off and sitting in rice in a closed container for 2 days with SIM card removed. I will keep this link in mind if we run into problems. I plan to put up a small sign that says "No phones in the bathroom" immediately. Thanks for the tips!

[Leah]

Omg you have actually saved my life I've been in a Bad mood all day because of dropping it in a puddle and the sound didn't work but the cotton bud worked (what we call a q tip in England) thankyou so much! You have saved me so much money! All I needed was the cotton bud ripped the end slightly and twirled it round and it worked! Thankyou so much! You've saved my life!

[Goose]

Yo this worked perfectly!

[Hadashi]

Looks like you earned yourself a bunch of good karma from writing this article ;-)

[Rachael]

Thank you so much! I used the trick with the blow dryer. I put it on the "cool" setting and let it run about six inches away for 15 minutes. This did the trick! You saved my poor iPhone! So grateful!!! :)

[Maredaree]

I had the same exact problem and I did the credit card thing and it worke perfect thank you so much!! My speakers have been not working for a couple weeks now and I thought it was too late to do anything about it after dumping a glass of Mountain Dew on it. So happy!

[James]

Just got mine to work after dropping in hot tub. Hair dryer did the trick.

[Mike]

You, sir, are the best! My iPhone 4s got a bit wet in the rain and everything seemed to work except the speaker that would allow me to hear music, apps, etc. After trying the ol' rice method for too many hours I tried another, more specific Google search to fix my precisely my problem and wham! I found your blog post. After a couple of Q-tips and about 1 minute of blow drying the speaker and charge slot as you suggested I am back in business. That saved the day since my Xbox 360 kicked the bucket the same day. Thanks so much. You are da man!!

[Nan]

Thank you! After a water bottle leaked in my workout bag, the speaker quit working and I thought my phone speaker was permanently ruined. I couldn't figure out how to insert a credit card into my phone charger so I just put it in the stream of hot air from the hair dryer for a few minutes, no success. Then I inserted a stripped qtip stick into the speaker jack opening and Wow!, the sound came back. I am so pleased and will get a new water bottle (much cheaper than a new phone!).

[Ana]

I cannot thank you enough! I just dropped my phone in the bath tub, as it was draining. After a good 20 minutes of crying and freaking out, I found your post. And, amazingly, my phone works! I used the Q-tip and blow dryer!

[Tammy Lynn]

Ok so I have a weird comment to add. I tried all of the above to no avail. Then I put my mouth over the speaker holes on bottom right corner and was going to "blow dry it" with less heat. Nothing. BUT... When I inhaled to blow again I heard sound.

So I basically "smoked" my phone like trying to get smoke out of a candy cigarette... And it worked!!! Pulled speaker back into place?

Well.. That was great while it lasted. It quit again. The only way I hear sound is when inhaling on the corner. As soon as I stop , it quits.

Now what? Help!! ??

[K cor]

Thanks! Hair dryer worked for me!!

[Steffie]

Thankyou so much. Cotton bud didn't work nor did the credit card but the blow-dryer did
- don't know if what did it was the headphone jack or charging slot. Thankyou!