You know how sometimes companies who sell electronics and give them a good warranty or guarantee they do little things so that if whatever you come in needing fixed was caused by accidental damage done by you, instead of a hardware failure they can make you pay? Like for this example, cell phones that you have dropped in a puddle will show it with a little sticker that changes colors, usually next to the battery cover.
Well the iPhone and iPod Touch have those too, its just a lot harder to find unless you know where it is. Look down your headphone jack on either of those devices, and at the bottom of that well, you’ll see the sticker.
I am sure there are ways to circumvent it, but at the same time, its kind of crappy of them to put it in a place where a single drop of rain could cause it to change, but not cause any damage to the rest of the phone. Maybe if they hadn’t sealed the rest of the phone away from easy access they could have put it somewhere more practical. Regardless, you now know you can’t play off that canoe trip you took with your iPhone as a hardware malfunction, so don’t try it.
Your iPhone knows when it gets wet [via SlashGear]
Great article, just wanted to speak on some things that I’ve come in contact with recently. First, in early September my iPhone was washed in a washing machine. Fortunately the power was drained, so no damage whatsoever, except the top two corners had extreme fading. About a week ago part of the multi-touch went out, I called Apple, just to entertain if they would fix it. Sure enough they sent me a loner phone and I sent mine on Friday last week. My brother sent me this link yesterday and it had me really nervous about my phone. But, I got the phone this morning and they didn’t repair it, they replaced it. Along with it was an enclosed letter, here is a bit of it.
Thank you for selecting AppleCare Service to repair your Apple product. To ensure the highest level of quality and reliability, Apple-approved technicians performed all diagnostic service on your iPhone.
After thorough diagnostic testing, it has been determined that a replacement iPhone is necessary. Enclosed you will find the replacement iPhone.
So, maybe this was a one-time deal, but it looks like it didn’t matter that my phone had water damage.
Hey Matt. Unforutnately my iphone just took a bath in the washing machine. I am trying to charge it now, but the screen keeps flashing “Your phone is recharging ” and this alternates with the apple symbol but it wont come “on”. Additionally there appears to be water damage behind the screen. (It looks like water is stuck behind the screen but the water wont move.) Any tips on what to do? I bought it in September…
Hey Matt,
I left my iphone in the washing machine.
The battery is dead. I am trying to charge it but it appears to be charging at a minimal rate (if it actually is charging I cant switch it on. When the screen flashes, it appears that there is water under the screen. The water does not move, so I dont know whether it is stuch there. Any tips?
hey Tim, I faced similar problem with the water stuck behind the screen as well…it happen when i put too much water while applying invinsible shield on it. Have u found any solution to it?
what is that link that your brother gave you?
coz i just spilled water on my phone, and now its not working
Hi, I got my phone wet, and I am drying it now, but I can not get it to come on, or even charge. Any help?
Hi, Unforutnately my iphone just took a bath in the washing machine. After 15 minutes I was missing my phone so I called myself and… surprise it was ringing…then I realise where it was. :-((
I have stop the washing process, dry out the Iphone with the help of a hair dryer. It still working but the display is mirrored(menus, images, left is right and so on, q is p..)I have tried to restore the software(have software 1.1.1) but it didn’t work.
Does anybody else have this problem. Does anybody else have that problem.
Any help, solution or advices would be appeciated.
Thanks
Okay, so really I could be the luckiest girl in the world. 2 days ago, I dropped my iPhone in the water while getting a pedicure. It went to the bottom of the little tub of water & I snatched it up right away (the other ladies said they never saw anyone move so fast!). I wanted to throw up & was trying to think of how to tell my husband, but it is working fine. I shook out a little of the water and just let it rest. I had problems with the sound (my keypad wasn’t clicking & sound wasn’t playing on itunes or you tube, etc). Also, the accessories screen kept popping up (saying an accessory wasn’t compatible with the iphone & would you like to turn airport on). These issues seem to have resolved themselves after about a day. This seems so odd to me that I have no damage to the phone. Any thoughts? I hope everyone else is as lucky as I am if yours is dropped in water – I don’t know if it’s a miracle or if they are sealed really well.
hey, i was wondering if i could buy the apple care for my iPhone but how does it work? do i have to show them my iPhone before i buy it or can i just buy it like that?
I dropped my iphone in the bath when it was on. I quickly pulled it out and it stayed on for a few seconds but has now died. I am devastated as it holds all my contacts and my complete diary so I am totally lost. would welcome any ideas please…
I dropped my iPhone in a puddle my sensor is still white (indicating no water damage). The top half of my screen doesn’t function no matter how hard I try. The touch sensitivity is just gone every thing else works perfectly fine I don’t understand what should I do???
today i dropped my iphone in water and i picked it up immediately but it was completely submerged. i was freaking out, but it stayed on. it was nonresponsive though, so i shut it off and tried turning it back on and it was ok except for the bottom part of the screen was unresponsive so i couldnt un lock it and the “this accessory is not made for the iphone” windo kept popping up. i tried to plug it into my comp to restore but it said this device is not recognized. so i tried to dry it out with a hair dryer and tried to plug it in 2 hours later and the comp recognized it. so i updated to the new firmware. now, when i turn it on, the pop-up that the homescreen is movable comes up, then the iphone accessory thing but i cant exit them cuz that part of the screen is not working. so now, im praying that if i wait it’ll work again. also, the water indicator at the bottom of the headphone slot is half white- half purple. does anyone know what this means? i looked it up and all i could find is that when the indicator gets wet, it turns black, not purple. so i might bring it in to apple and see if they’ll replace it.
i unfortunately dropped my iphone in a puddle yesterday, i took it out immediatly and it was fine. when i got home it said it had 10percent battery left so i put it on charge and the apple logo kept flashing on and off. Eventually it died, now it wont turn on at all. i checked the water sensor inside the headphone jack to see that its still white. i connected it tom my computer and it says usb device not recognised it has malfunctioned. im going to take it to the carphone warehouse to see if they will replace it but will i still be on the same contract or not
My mum told me that my ipod touch had gone through the washing machine, i dosnt wrk whatsoever, but the sticker is still silver, any ideas
my ipod touch went swimming fot 15mins in my back pocket whilst on holiday. when i tryed turning it on nothing would work! i quickly started drying it, after a while it all started working again, but the battery wont charge so it only works from mains power. i have sent it to apple and they have emailed saying its a faulty battery and they will be sending me a replacement!!! must have been vey lucky!
YOU GUYS ARE SO LUCKY!!!!!
I washed my Ipod Nano 3g and everything was fine cept battery dies in 2 hrs!!! apple wont cover either
So I left my I pod Touch in my pants….which got washed it didn’t turn on for about 7 hours. It just turned on the screen is really dark but everything seems to work fine. Think if I send it in they’ll replace it?
I found that if you put your iphone on a table where drinks left water drops it WILL be the end of the phone. The water enters in the seam between the silver and the black plastic.
This is definitely a design defect. I don’t know of any other phone that would have this problem from placing it on a table. After many complaints the manager offered a 10% discount on my next purchase. NOt only do they charge $249, but they do NOT extend the warranty.
They basically call you a liar saying the indicator will only go off if immersed or water is poured on it.
I dropped my ipod touch in the snow and threw it in my bag and didnt think anything of it intill when i got home.
It worked just fine only my headfones were busted so then the
next day I went to turn it on and it works only the screen is dark.
idk what to do. Help PLEASE!
i spilt a little bit of milk on my ipod touch now it wont work, the sensor isnt red
but its like pink, will they replace it?
You should let it dry up, then just bring it into an apple store – play dumb and see what they say? If there are ZERO sign of abuse or accidents – I believe they will.
This sucks… okaayyy…. so my ipod touch was working fine until 3 months after ive bought it. It starts to give me problems… I cant switch it on but after few tries of switching it off and on again cos it will keep on showing me the apple logo after switching on. That sucks… And even if i can get it workinf after a couple of swithicng ons and offsm it will switch off by itself after hearing some songs… That sucks… And so, im on my way to the applestore, note that i was being considerate enough to go to the store to get my deafualted ipod touch referred to them… Well, on my way there it rained. And i guess from there the rainedwater seeped in through my bag and into the ipod touch… Upon my arrival to the counter, the lady plugged ipod touch into her computer and she gave me the fuct up look and said “im sorry your ipod touch has got water marks in it, it’ll void the warranty, theres nothing i can do, thank you, have a nice day”… wtf. “have a nice day”??? i feel like slapping ehr face so hard. After waiting for 2 hours there cos the queue was long, and the advice was so simple… So i tried explaining to her that what had happned was that it was defaulted even before the water got in and the freaking phillipino lady thinnks im lying and ask me to refer to the customer relations officer which i did and now my case is pending. The CRO told me though that lil she can do about it cos shes not the technician but she told me to go to another applestore to verify it with other technicians or accept the e-coupon that they can offer me.
“I dropped my iPhone in a puddle my sensor is still white (indicating no water damage). The top half of my screen doesn’t function no matter how hard I try. The touch sensitivity is just gone every thing else works perfectly fine I don’t understand what should I do???”
Andy, I had the EXACT same problem, everything worked fine except for the top half of my touchscreen. You’ll have to send it to apple to get a replacement, hopefully you are still under warranty. Good Luck!
P.S. Make SURE that your sensor is not half pink, I thought mine was still white too, but after I cleaned out the fuzzy stuff in the bottom, it was half pink. Not that I recommend it, but whiteout is your friend for this situation :)
my ipod touch got wet.. i thought it was dead.. but suddenly it turned on.. but i lost the wi-fi capabilities.. and some parts of the touch screen dont work.. i dunno if my guarantee covers this..
Yeah, I woke up one morning to my phone laying in a pool of beer that my cat had knocked over!! I read on the internet that I should get a ziplock and rice and put the iphone in there for at least 24 hours. You could tell it had sucked any moisture out of the phone because some of the rice was swollen from absorbtion. Unfortunately, like a few of you others, my key clicks and phone unlock sounds go in and out and I get that super super super annoying pop up “this accessory isnt compatible with iphone…etc” I want to try a restore but I need to back up all my pictures. Also, my phone is jail broken so i have to make sure i dont brick it!
I droped my iPhone in to the sink :(.. and I cleaned all water from outside and tryed to dry it from inside with blow dryer but didn’t help much :(.. I lefted it outside on sun but didn’t help either :(.. my friend told me that best think is to BAKE IT IN OWEN. I was shocked and I didn’t want to bake my iPhone because I expected that it will explode in owen, but he convinced me and this is recepy for HOW TO BAKE YOUR iPhone :)
Take a sheat pan and put on the botom rice (not cooked dry rice) put your iPhone on the rice with screan up (rice is just insolatore betven metal sheat pan and phone and rice will pick-up some of moist is well). Pre-heat owen on 125 F and put your iPhone in for at least 1 Hr. Take it out and leave in wormer drower (under the owen) on low temperature for 5 to 6 Hr.
After this my iPhone was dry and it still working :)
good luck
i washed my iphone in January in the washer. I even used second rinse option. I waited about two days but didn’t do anything. I bought a new iphone 2 days after. 5 days ago, May 8th, I turned on the iphone which was washed in January. It is working perfectly ( except phone and text message-no service, of course ). Everything else working. So, Don’t give up. i don’t know how long it took but it surprised me after “cotton cycle” “heavy load” and “extra rinse option”, it still works.
Simba: you might not have been so lucky had you put in fabric softener in the load!
Hello people,
I partied pretty hard during the first week of march, got sloshed and forgot to take my iphone outta my jeans pocket. to top things off, i had my clothes in a 3hr soak wash cos i spewed on my trouser legs. anyway, i only realised it the next day when i got my clothes outta the washer and tried to turn it on.. it came on but the screen was faded and had puddles all over. i read online in order to save such “water-damaged” iphones, u gotta turn them off and seal them in a bag of rice or silica gel (or anything which’ll absorb moisture) for a couple of days. i tried using silica gel for 5 days but my phone was dead. i tried to switch it on while on charge and all i could see was flickering of light around the corners. i tried again after a week and same thing, din turn on at all, so i packed it back in its box and kept it aside. yesterday, while cleaning up my room, i found the iphone box and just for the heck of it, i took it ouT and tried switchin it on, and first the apple logo appeared, then a few moments later, my iphone restarted! my recent calls list was dated back to 09 march 08 and everything was wokring fine, except for my mic, so i’m using the headset now, but wow! and my mates made fun of me wasting money getting my iphone shipped to singapore… they don’t know that its back from the dead. so just like wat simba said, dun give up, just try after awhile..
sorry if i ranted for awhile..
Idiots!! hhahahhaha
I wasched my iPod video and got an iPod touch
But you guys are messed up (no offence)
But maybe I should try my 80gb video
Thx
OzMafioso and Andy, I also have the same problem, last night I had it near my bathroom sink and just a drop of water fell on it, right between the screen and the black plastic, and even after restoring it the top half of the screen is not responding. I held it upside down by the ipod cable all night to see if maybe I could get the water above the screen, but it’s still not working.
To OzMafioso: Did you send it to apple saying it had been in water and you wanted a replacement, or did you just say it was broken? I’ve had mine for less than a year so the warranty is still good, and obviously I haven’t gotten any water inside the headphone jack to turn it red. I’d feel bad playing dumb, and I’m willing to pay for a replacement, but if I can just mail it to them and see what they do with it, then maybe that’s the way to go.
Hey,
so yesterday, I was at my friend’s house, and we were playing a game on my iPod touch (Tap Tap Revenge 2 player, w/ 2.0 software upgrade). We were listening to the song that we were tapping to, and we got really intense, and we dropped my touch into a bucket of water, with the headphones still in. We hurried up and yanked it out, and it worked for a minute or two, but then the screen went black, and the internal “clicker” speaker kept clicking. It did that all night and then stopped. I let my touch dry and plugged it into my wall charger and it showed the apple screen. I thought it was going to work, but it stayed on that screen for at least 20 minutes. After that time, the screen went black, so I pressed my home screen button, and IT WORKED! However, my sleep/wake button is shorted out, and the battery has shorted out as well. The operating system works, but when I go to do anything with it other than move the home screens, or go to system settings, it locks up. I’m glad to hear that the water damage sticker is inside the headphone jack, because since my headphones were in during the water incident, the water didn’t get in there. Well, plus the fact the iPod hadn’t fallen deep enough into the water to reach the headphone jack (it was upside down) helps.
I called Apple this morning, and they said that I could bring in my iPod to my nearest store and if they couldn’t fix it, they’d replace it. Since the water sticker is still in pristine condition, they should replace it without any thought of it being water damaged… I hope.
Update::
I went to the Apple store today, and they are giving me a new one, but they didn’t have any in stock, so I have to wait a week to get it.
Someone at my girlfriends house thought putting a dead (battery) i pod touch in water was a smart idea. They were wrong. The screen looked like it had water damage and the headphone jack was all red inside. I left a fan and light on it for 2 days to see if that might help. Should I plug it in to charge it or just send it in? help me out my friends ’cause I miss my music!!!
i found a great place that will repair water damaged or any other type of damage to the iPhone
they work with AT&T and Apple with non warranty repairs
you can mail it in or if you are in the San Francisco Bay area they are up 101 north of the Golden Gate
http://www.northbayelectronics.com is the website i was in the bay area and just called and they fixed my phone the same day
Jimmy was your ipod hacked? or did you purchase the apple upgrade?
hi iv read all the comments and its great to read all the stories of water damged iphones and itouches that have survived water damage.
Unfortunatley i dont think im so lucky,i went on holiday at the end of june and i had my itouch in a bag that also had a small shampoo bottle(like the ones in a hotel) and im sure u can guess wat i found wen i opened the bag.the shampoo had spilled ,some of it on my ipod.i freaked out because i had only gotten it in december as a birthday present and i absolouley adore it.
Anyways my first reaction was to turn it on and it wouldnt.there was a plastic cover on the ipod at the time so not much had gotten in but it still wouldnt work.anyways i cleaned it as best i could with only a towel and left it in my bag till i came back home(bout five days later).since then its been completely dead -no flashing,no lights,nothing.i looked in the ear jack and yes half of the sensor was pink so i knew apple wouldnt do anything.
As crazy as it sounds im so tempted to dunk it in water just to see wat happens because i realy dont understand how people have managed to recover ipods that have been completely submerged in water and now theyre working fine yet only a small amount of shampoo got in mine(i dont know the exact amount but the bottle still had some in it)and it dies just like that, So if anyone has any sugestions as to what i should do now i would realy appreciate it.i havent listened to my music in nearly 3 months and im getting more depressed by the day.
thank u.
Hey i dropped my iphone in water and now it won’t turn on. When i grabbed from the water the screen was flashing and it kept saying that the sim card wasn’t being read. Then the phone went completely dead. Any ideas what i should do?
My husband bought two iphone, one for him and one for me. Well i was washing his clothes and forgot that he had his iphone in his work jacket. I immediately took the phone out after being wash in there for about 5 or 7 minutes. I was so terrified thinking he would be so mad but he didn’t he was planning on getting the 3g since the internet was faster but i was still upset of the fact that such expensive phone is now dead. well i left the phone in a bowl of rice and then blow dry it for about 4 hours and waited another day or two until i charge it. IT actually works ! i thought the wifi wouldn’t work but everything seems to be working fine except the home button which sucks. I was wondering if anyone has any idea what i can do to fix that or maybe i can buy the home connector cable to fix it….. please let me know my email is ixnoyxi@aol.com …. i would appreciated it a lot !!!!!!!!
Hi
i have buy an ipod touch 4 mont ago .. and i was going at scool in bike and when it get time to recome to home it was rainnig out side so i put it of and in my pant whent i arive to home i was sokken wet and i take out my ipod and when i start it the screen was all reck like we only see a couple of line in the center of screen and yeah i play whit it and i reallise they work but u have to use ur sense like wher is the play button ( so they play my music )
sorry for my eng Im french :(
and if some one got an sollution plizz say me :)
my email niconicoohla@hotmail.com
i just dropped my iphone in the bath it stayed on for a few seconds and then turned off!! when i charge it it stays on when i take it off charge it turns off a dew seconds later please help!! what can i do!!
If you search for “www.northbayelectronics.com” you’ll find many
entries that are exactly the same as the one posted above on this
forum. Clearly someone from the company posted all these identical
entries under different user names. Let me balance that entry with
the perspective of a real customer.
I sent my iPhone 3G to NorthBay Electronics to repair water damage.
I called them before I sent my phone in and they said they were getting
so much business that it would take 3 – 5 days to fix my phone.
In the end, they had my phone for an entire week (let’s say 5 business
days), and with the shipping time I was without my phone for 12 days.
I sent the phone in via USPS Express Mail. Apparently no one was home
the first time they tried to deliver it, so a day was lost there. I
chose FedEx for the return shipment. The phone was shipped back to me
via FedEx on a Friday. The price for the FedEx shipment was more than
what I paid for overnight Express Mail, but it was only for the FedEx
2day shipping, so I didn’t receive my phone until Monday, despite the
fact that I’m only 3 hours away from them.
They claimed the battery in my phone wasn’t working as well as it
should, which is plausible for damage such as this. It’s also the
kind of thing where they could claim the battery is bad, charge me
for a replacement, and do nothing. So, I asked them to send me the
old battery. When I got the phone back, the old battery wasn’t
included. Almost two months later, and after several emails to them
and several promises from them, I still don’t have the old battery,
which makes me extremely suspicious.
In the end, although they did actually fix my phone, I can’t recommend
them. Their customer service is poor, and their business practices
are questionable. There are plenty of other companies that offer
this service, some of them very well established. Take your business
to one of these other companies.
The rice method works- trust me! I just restored my iphone after a fall into the toilet. I let it sit in dry rice for 24 hours and it’s now working…thank you God!
Guys, my name is maurice, and like many of you my iPod touch 2G got wet, and it died, but what if i say there’s an alternative solution to the water damage, and the alternative is to get a new one for free?
believe me i dont need to trick other people i’m just too happy because i had water damage and got a replacement ipod touch 2g for free! and i’ll share this if youre interested.
This is my story:
i bought the invisible shield (ironically) to protect my ipod touch even before i bought the ipod itself, so when you apply it you need to spray the shield with a solution bla bla blah, and the solution screwed my ipod touch (water poured in through the ipod’s home button).
in other words, water damage.
i reasearched about this water sensor and find a perect solution, so perfect, i fooled apple itself and got a new ipod touch, you’ll probably think yeah sure, how did you did it??
glad you asked, when we bought our ipod, apple gave us the pefect solution to fool the genius bar guys, the “Apple Stickers”
EUREKA!
Just cut a piece of the white colored area of the sticker into the shape of the sensor, its best of you use smaller scissors because the cut will be mor accurate.
Dont worry of the first one is too big or to small. Experiment till you have it.(you have material)
once you think the shape is ok, get a a needle and carefully place the sticky part of the sticker into place, if it doesn’t feel right, the glue of the sticker isn’t that strong, so pull the sticker out with the needle and retry, but once you got it, get some super glue, and cut a Q-tip in half, use the plastic edge on any of the halves, and get some glue on it and our a few drops of super glue in the q tip to super glue the sticker and let it dry for a couple of minutes and your’e on , it looks so real that they will believ it for sure, and to prove it i’l soon post a video on youtube of the replacement ipod and post the link here, Oh btw some tips to get your free ipod risk-free.
1-. bring thw ticket of the place where you bought it and talk abou the warranty and the fact that you ipod just broke, it’s not your fault ;) so dont act like it is
2-.describe malfunctions that make sense, and do NOT ever n¡mention water its suicide
3-. if youre worried of lawsuit, dont worry once the genius guys handle in the ipod apple clearly states that any kind of accindent under apple’s jurisdiction is there problem, and so it tis, claim you handled it in in good conditions and the technician aproved it, so it’s their bad.
4-.if you dont know what the servie will be like, keep reading
once you enter the placa, ask for the genius bar, go ther and ask of an appointment, once a technician calls you, go and follow steps 1 & 2 (ABOVE). so the technicians will take your ipod and plug it into their macs, if it doesnt work, thay will ise a little flash licght and look in your headphone jacket and if necesarry, they will use an aircan, dont worry it wont come up, then maybe they will test it somewhere else and come back in a minute, dont be nervous., then if youre good to go, the technician will show up and say that your ipod has hardware malfunction and they will take it in and give you a replacement and you’ll sign some papers. maybe they are out of stock so you’ll have to wait a wwek to get your ipod, but dont worry.
and that’s much about it, i hope this helps a lot of people, i know maybe its wrong but we help this companies to grow stronger and richer, 200 bucks will not hurt them, believe me, just be more careful next time,ok? if you need anything else, here’s my e-mail: mau_faz@hotmail.com
GOOD LUCK!
Took Maurice’s advice and I must say it looks pretty convincing. Taking my iPod to Apple tomorrow … so we’ll see how it goes.
Will post what happens tomorrow evening.
:)
hey.
Im more or less sure iv broken my ipod touch, i had soup and burnt my hand on it and quite a lot of it went over my ipod. it was faced upwards So im pretty sure its gone inside. I put it stright on the radiator. and its been there for hours . i havint tried turning on or anything, just left it.
Im going to try sending it back if it doenst work.
Does my ipod have any hope?
or is it compleatly broken,.
Hey,
My ipod touch it unfortunately fell into a bucket of water and i quickly took it out. It stood on for about 5 seconds and then shut off, so i started drying it and when it was dry i let it sit in a bag of uncooked rice for several hours but nothing happened. Now when i charge it nothing happen nor does it turn on. The back of just gets hot. Can someone email me Apple’s email address when i can contact them and tell them of this. My email is nehalp92@gmail.com
ok, so im brushing my teeth jammin out to my ipod touch 16g 2nd gen and i went to grab my toothpaste and knocked my ipod into the sink and the water sensor is half pink and half white i was wondering if bestbuy’s 2 year warranty will cover it?or just what do i do if it doesnt
My iPhone was dropped in water, it was 3/4 of the way submerged- the very top of it was above the water line (IN THE TOILET-GROSS). The water-mark thing is still white? What are the odds I can take it in to Apple and play dumb and say it stopped working…I mean I had one really do that the second week I had it and they just handed me a new one :)
Seriously, anyone tried this?