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

[Arianna]

Thank you it worked :))))))

[Emilie]

Qtip worked for my Iphone 5! thank you so much. I was terrified I wasn't going to get sound out of my main music provider

[Knixxamillion]

You are awesome my friend!

[Eliesabeth Fogg]

Did the q tip thing, plugged in the charger and then dried out the phone jack a few times and it's working fine:) Thank you!!

[Nora]

Thank you. Using a combination of rice but especially the cotton bud in the headphone jack and cool hairdryer blow, which I think really made a difference. Almost back to normal. :)

[Laura]

So glad I found this page! I had tried the Q-tip and it didn't work. I inserted a corner of a credit card into the charging slot and music started playing. Thank you!!

[D Wegener]

Thank you! Thank you! I was out for my morning run and was caught in an unexpected thunderstorm. Phone, case, everything soaked! In the end, it was the headphone jack; and, the Q-tip of cotton along with some time in a bag with silica packets worked!

[Robyn]

THANK YOU!!! I have a Droid Razr Maxx HD that I dropped into the washing machine, and some combination of the qtip and the hairdryer into the headphone jack revived my speakers perfectly. Very helpful. Thanks again!

[Aaron Wiebie]

Do you know how to recover data from a water damaged iPhone?

[Blake]

I could literally cry thank you mann had show my thanks

[Levi]

Wow this worked instantly thank you so much my iPhone 5c is good as new (except the cracked screen)

[Brendan]

Thank u so much! It was the Q-tip that did it

[Justin]

Thank you so much, I received new iphone 5s, 1 week later it did a submarine in the toilet bowl.. I enough the cotton bud and hairdryer trick and my mic and speaker came back to life. Cant thank you

[Addie]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! You are a lifesaver! I dropped my ipod in the sink and put it straight in rice. A few hours later I discovered the sound didn't work so I tried the q-tips with no luck, then the hairdryer and then the q-tips worked! THANK YOU!!

[Janice]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I tried the q-tips and I got the sound back for my headphones but still no sound without headphones. and then I tried the credit card trick but its didnt work. and RIGHT then when I was about to try the hair dryer, the sound was back to normal! thank for so much, your a total live saver!

[Jade]

I just blowdried the top Of my phone and the sound is now working. But my phone is a bit tempremental so only time will tell as my sound regularly goes on and off and on and off. I can listen to videos
Etc sometimes but not Other so fingers crossed

[josh]

thank you so much!!!!!!!!!

[Marie]

Thank you so much, dropped my iphone 6+ in toilet and no sound. Tried all these tips and eventually just left the q tip stuck in for about 15 minutes and it worked Brilliant

[Jessica Ruddock]

OMG THANKYOU!! dropped mine in the toilet, put a cotton swab in the headphone jack, works perfectly again. thankyou so much

[Anna]

Thank you so much! This worked on my iPad too!

[Wes]

This worked!! Used a few qtips followed by 10 min of blow drying. My iPhone 5c works perfectly again! This, after it was bathed in the Pacific Ocean for several seconds this morning. Everyone in the apple support community said my phone was toast. Those guys aren't as smart as they think they are...

[weewee]

2 days in rice and 2 seconds of q-tip worked after a toilet dip!

[Jilda]

Thank you thank you!!! The hairdryer and qtip in headphone jack SAVED MY NEW IPHONE6!! So appreciative!!!! Thank you thank you!!!!

[Maria]

OMG, I dumped my bottle of water in my purse with my phone in there and the speaker wasn't working I could only use speaker. I searched inline all day and had lost hope. Finally I came across your article and tried the q tip and blow dryer method and low and behold it works again! Thank you thank you thank you!

[Daniela Torres]

Inserting the q-tip inside worked for me! Thank you so much!!

[Anon]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! It works :D

[Marie]

Yes, thank you sooooo much also! Qtip and dryer did the trick! You just have to do this as soon as possible and then be patient, like wait the next day to turn your phone back on again. You helped save my iPhone!!!
I have to say I have not been very lucky with my iPhones... within the last 2 years: water damage (twice counting this once), broken screens (twice, once dropped, once broken by someone else), theft (twice also, and not by negligence), and one simply died... just after the warranty expired, of course. That's why I'm soooooo happy that I got some good luck this time!!!!
A bit of advice (that I have learned... from experience):
1. even if it doesn't look as nice, protect it with a case, always;
2. never, EVER, leave your iPhone in your back pocket (theft, + fall into toilet);
3. put your iPhone in a zipped compartment of your bag, or hold on to it tight... hands of thieves can be very quick and unnoticeable.

[Gman209]

the blow dryer worked like a charm, had to do it 5 times but I kept at it and it worked perfectly. thanks for the advise, saved my phone

[Amanda]

I just got the new iphone 6s+ as a present 2 weeks ago, so you can imagine my horror after dropping it in the bath tub. I tried the Q-Tips, but to no avail, yet after less that a minute of blow drying, it was perfectly fine! Thank you so much!

[Ella Jones]

Earlier today I had gone on a water roller coaster, and since I have the common sense of a 15-year-old, I decided to bring my phone along. I was able to protect it pretty well, besides some wetness on the screen, but when I got home about 4 hours later I realized my speaker wasn't working. Stuffing cotton from a Q-tip into the headphone jack (water was still stuck in there and my phone responded to it as having earbuds in) and applying a little cool air from a blow dryer completely fixed it. Thank you so much for posting this, I would never have known what to do.

[laquisha]

PRAISE THE GOOD LORD JESUS!!! YOU SAVED ME AND MY LIFE! MY DADDY WOULDA WHOOPED MY BUTT. I WOULDA HAD BLISTERS, BUT THANKS TO YOU HINESSIGHT I DONT HAVE NO BLISTERS. I DID WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO... OH PRAISE LORD BECAUSE IT WORKED AND NOW I CAN TALK ON THE PHONE TO MY KIDS IN OKLAHOMA. THANK YOU HINESSIGHT AND THE GOOD LORD JESUS, I AINT GOT NO TIME FOR A WET FONE. I DROPPED IT IN THE TOILET, NOW I GOTTA GO TO WALMART AND GET SOME CLOROX WIPES OR SOMETHING. BUT AT LEAST I CAN TALK ON THE FONE TO MY KIDS AND BABYDADDY!!! HUGS AND KISSES. HAVE A BLESSED DAY,
LAQUISHA <3

[Kylie]

Ok so earlier today I dropped my phone in the toilet (classy right?) and I tried just about EVERYTHING (q-tip, pulling headphones out quickly, blowing, rice etc.) and nothing worked UNTIL NOW!! I heated up my phone with a hair drier for about 5 minutes, until I got the "i phone is too hot and needs to cool down" message, and once my phone cooled down, the sound was back to normal!! Thank you so much, this was the only thing that worked!!

[Tintin]

Thank u so very much! It worked. There was moisture in headphone jack and the phone acted as if headphones were plugged in. Though it started working the moment i was abt to give up cleaning using Q tip., thanks again

[Ellice Miles]

After drying thoroughly, I cleaned inside the earphone jack with a q tip, teting every 10 seconds or so, and it worked!!! Took about 2 minutes of turning the qtip around clockwise/anticlockwise and moving up and down. Thank you so much for sharing this!

[ML]

OH my godd... thanks so much! I accidently droped the iphone in the toilet. And i did see that it was saying headphone. I dried it many times, and used a blow drier. But it never worked. I then started using the qtips. After trying it at least 8 times, the speaker now said iphone instead of headphones but still no sound until i realised my volume was low. Thank you thank you thank you as it was not my phone.

[Angella]

Tried cotton buds no response to regain sound then used a genle heat with a hairdryer on phone worked a dream yea 🌟 🙏 😆 Thank you so much

[TJ]

Omg, the q-tip worked
Thank you so much

[Kathleen]

I dropped my phone in the sink and immediately pulled it out and dried it, and thought it was ok because I could text and receive texts fine. When I received my first call though, I couldn't hear the person and they couldn't hear me until I hit the speakerphone button...using headphones did not work either.
I took a q-tip as you stated and removed some of the cotton off the tip and pulled more of the cotton tip out extending beyond the end of it to where the diameter was small enough to fit in the headphone plug. My first one came out very wet, the second one just a little wet. I then took a third one and after inserting it into my headphone jack, I left it there for 5-10 minutes and when I removed it, it was dry and my phone now worked normal again. The fourth q-tip I used had a little bit of alcohol on it and left it a couple minutes just in case any moisture remained to help dry it up. IT WORKS LIKE NEW! WOO HOO!

[Susan]

Bravo! Totally worked!! 5-6 Q-tips absorbed moisture,then corner of credit card trick, and a little blow drying. Did the trick. Within 5 minutes the phone was fine! Q-tips were key. Many thanks for the excellent, practical advice.

[Lorene Wallace]

Thanks! It worked. You saved me time, stress and money!!!!

[Nikki]

Hahhahahahahahahagaggashshg as ndndindndjdfbt help
I've been going from site to site and nothing is working and my parents are gonna KILL ME.
OH NOOOOOOOOO