The other day our youngest son had his mom’s iPod Touch with him as he headed to the bathroom. Resting the device near the sink seemed safe. That is, until he started washing his hands. Moments later he came back out and handed a soaking wet iPod to his mom.
Fearing the worst we fired it up and were happy to see that it was still working. But on further inspection it was clear that there was some moisture under the screen.
Never fear, we have a fix for that! Actually, this works for iPods, cell phones, and pretty much any small electronic advice that’s a little bit wet. Put this tip in your arsenal.
Step One: Power off the device as soon as possible. For an iPod that just means shutting it down. But if it has a battery or is connected to a power supply… turn it off quickly!
Step Two: Dry it off as well as possible with what is visible to you. Don’t take anything apart. Don’t shake it. Just get it dry as possible with a towel.
Step Three: Wrap it in a paper towel and place it a ziplock bag. Don’t seal the ziplock bag! That’ll just make things worse.
Step Four: Place the bag in a window sill or on the dashboard of your car.
Step Five: Give it some time. A day usually seems to do the trick.
Step Six: Take it out of the bag and fire it up.
Typically, this process will remove moisture from circuitry. If it doesn’t fire up it’s safe to say that you have cooked a board or something like that. You can try the process again but if it doesn’t turn on at all it’s not looking good. For us, this process has fixed several phones and, we’re happy to report, removed moisture from mommy’s iPod screen.
What if this doesn’t work? If there is a major problem and this didn’t work I’d suggest talking to my friends at The Pod Drop. Seriously, these guys are better than Apple repair. Typically, Apple will just give you a new one and if isn’t under warranty they will tell you to buy a new one. I’ve seen it myself, the folks at The Pod Drop can bring back almost any DOA iPod. Even better, if they look at it and it can’t be repaired they will likely buy it from you for parts and apply that towards the purchase of a new one.
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
What do you do if you live in a cold weather state and it is winter time? Because neither the window sill or car dashboard will get warm enough, nor enough sunlight, to dry it out. I have heard of people putting them in their ovens, which is essentially the same thing.
this happened to me with my ipod touch. i was near the sink and accidentally dropped into a soapy bowl of soaking dishes (we, alas, do not have a dishwasher). i yanked it out as fast as i could, but it seemed to be pretty much saved because of the belkin case i had it in.
it isn’t a hard back case, but it appeared to be enough to soak most of it up.
water *did* get inside, and i used a hair dryer on low heat.
i read some comments somwher else n it said tht u shoodnt use a blowdryer cuz it mite mess it up n i dont kno if its on low it mite b fine
Reminds me of this episode of Dylan’s Couch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjK0fJDCt8s&eurl=http://dylanscouch.com/
i soaked my iPod touch and then plugged it up to my wall charger and I’m pretty sure i shook it a few times. is it ruined now?
kim, there is a big difference between a lil water got under the screen and dropping it in the toilet. Check with The Pod Drop, if anyone can fix it– it’s them. My wife actually just sent her iPhone off to them today… she broke her screen.
yea i dropped it in the bathtub so its more than a little water but thanks i’ll check out The Pod Drop
My friends little girl spilled water on my ipod touch and it was soaking wet. I dried it off and it was working fine intill a couple of minutes later. It started to act up the vloume was going up and it was turning off and on. Theres still water inside the ipod but the buttons work. Exccept the screen. This happend 3 days ago. What can i do to fix it??
i was working on my Fantasy Football team and watching t.v. my ipod touch somehow fell off my couch and into a fresh beer i poured into a big glass (it was a light beer). it was submerged anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes. i am sick about it. i heard its good to put in some dry rice for a few days. anyway it could work after being socked for that long? or would it be better to wrap it in a paper towel and place it into a ziplock bag?
@Joe- I’d think that your touch is toast. If it was submerged for more than a second my guess is that you’ve got light beer all up in the electrical circuits. If the above trick doesn’t work, I don’t think there is much left to do. If you sent it into PodDrop they could probably get data off of it if you needed stuff from the hard drive.
Dry ice is not a good idea. Actually, that’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! It would remove some moisture but it would also EXPAND as water left, thus completely ruining the circuitry. Plus, pretty sure if you drop the LCD screen down to 300 below 0 you’re going to crack it.
About 3 Days ago, i accidentally dropped my iTouch in the toilet. i IMMEDIATELY took it out and began drying it with my hand towel. However, the batter was already on E when it fell in, so as i was drying it, i noticed that the screen light kept flickering and then it shut off.
SO, i put it on the docking station to charge. The next day, it worked fine, however the luminescent light is completely DULL! what to do what to do?!
renee: Any ensuing problems with your touch?
Joe A: Did you ever get your touch working?
adam: Joe said dry RICE, not dry ICE. Thanks for your blog, but a quick note: I’ve found that the phrase “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” can come off a bit rude.
No, I never got it to work out. I did vacum it out and a lot of beer was pooring out. This was amazing to me. I kept it in Dry Rice ( NOT DRY ICE ) for a few days. Thanks Adam that was one of the “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” as well.
I went to Startpage.com (test this browser and type in “Fall of the Republic” over a two hour video on YouTube. It’s a must watch and tell others to watch as well). It’s the world’s most privet search engine (like google and yahoo but more privet. Try using for 7 days and you will be hooked).
Anyways, I typed in how to take a iPod Touch apart and you get a Youtube video or pages of pictures. I took it apart which is a scary thing to do, but the touch was already toast. Didn’t break the connector. Got a q tip or 2 or 3 and cleaned the screen as well as I could. Sent it in and got a new one for free. I lost everything on it but whatever. They do have a sticker on the inside that turns red when wet but they never checked. I just said I had it charging for a day which I did after I tried everything to revive it. And then said it still will not turn on which it didn’t because it was toast. But you don’t say everything just enough truth.
That’s for everyones concerns
watch Fall of the Republic- I just watched it and it makes you think!
help me…my niece accidentlly spilled water on my ipod touch and i let it dry up in the sun at first then later on plugged it into the usb cord and it charged and then only showed the slide to unlock screen. If i touched it though it wouldnt move so i let it dry more but than when i tried to plug it into the computer it wouldnt work completely. what do i do?
The last thing you wanted to do was plug it in. You might have fried it all together. A vacum is good, then put in the middle of some dry rice for a few days to make sure the inside is dry. If you don’t wait for it to dry you can guess what happens when you plug somthing in when it’s wet.
this happened to me i was standing outside waiting for the city bus it was raining real hard i had no umbrella but my ipod touch was safe….so i thought….i go get some breakfast and i was going to turn off my ipod but the screen was socked from the rain. I wipe of the water and try to turn it off but when i try to slide it doesnt listen to me it doesnt register.
I had to reset my ipod and just wait i tried turning it on the following day i got a response and then it gave up on me…idk what to do and i am really stressing out on this…got any advise or help????
@mario- I’d try the methods mentioned here in the post. If that doesn’t work, you’ll probably need to get it repaired. Whatever you do… DON’T PLUG IT IN!
If the window or rice trick don’t work, contact thepoddrop.com.
My daughter got her itouch for christmas. she thought she lost it in the house buit she lost it out side in the snow for two week and it started to rain last night and the snow melted on the way to school we foun it out side. it was soak and wet should we still try to dry it outand put it in a zip lock bag?
thanks
shonda
It is certainly worth a try. I would say your chances are 1:1000 that it’ll work though. Whatever you do, don’t try to turn it on.
Wrap it up good in a paper towel, set it in the window sill for a few days (or somewhere where it will warm up but not freeze again)
Then see if it’ll take a charge. Then try powering it up.
Since water contracts and expands when frozen (this is what causes pot holes!) I’d say you’re not going to get it to work. That’s a lot like dropping it in the toilet and then throwing it in the freezer.
I just put mine on the heater for a day, and than in rice in a ziplock bag, about half way in the ziplock bag, for another day just to make sure. And it worked but never blow dry it, it causes water to spread, nor shacking it. And yes my idea dose work
Well I was at my brothers hockey game with my friend and she went to the bathroom and her iPod just slipped out of her back pocket and fell in the toliet it has a lot of water in the screen we put it rice (minute rice or whatever it’s called) is minute rice ok in a ziplock bag and will her iPod ever work again
@sidney- a little bit wet, like it was on the edge of a sink and got sprayed, and submerged in a toilet are two different things.
Whatever you do, let it dry in the method described above for a couple days. Make sure it is completely dry before trying to charge it or turn it on. (Like, give it a shake… does water come out?) It’s winter… you can also do the bag trick and place it near a heater. You just need dry heat to slowly evaporate the moisture.
But a submersion is pretty much impossible. Sadly, I think you’ll be needing a new iPod. It’s worth a try to dry it out though.
Here is an odd one. My daughter Touch was in her purse and she put a cup of tea in purse and it spilled. The tea spilled in puse and the touch got wet. She took out after about a minute or two. However it appears based on the comments above she may have done all the wrong things….tried a blow dryer and then when she got home plugged in. I will try the paper towel and ziplock, any chance it will recover?
i let my brother use my ipod and he forget my ipod was in his pocket so he washed his pants and notice my ipod was in his pants and i tried every thing but it dosent seem to work i put it in dry rice for a day i try to blow dry plug it up but the ipod seem to work but the screen dosent want to work if u have some helpful tips please let me know i am begging………..thxxks yaaaaaa
Hi! My Itouch got wet when i had a water bottle that leaked in my purse ( bottle only in there for like 5 minutes) I have a case for it, both a hard shell and then one that you slide the ipod into it (like a sleeve)… i didn’t realize that it had damage until i tried to turn it on a few days later.. wouldn’t turn on.. reset it.. it turned on to show me the water behind the screen. Googled how to fix it.. saw the rice thing.. but the ipod won’t turn off now (i’ve read your warnings).. so… i’ve had it in rice the past few days, water seems to be drying out, but still won’t let me slide to power off… should i try to wrap in a paper towel in a baggie thing? Thanks!
It can’t hurt. It sounds like there may be a minor short in there. If this doesn’t work, give the folks at http://www.thepoddrop.com a shot.
my itoch got soaked by a monster energy drink in my purse so what do i do please help
There’s a difference between a splash from a drink and submerged in a drink. If it got submerged in any way, it’s probably toast. You can try the technique I’ve listed above and it may or may not help. If it got splashed, I’d totally try the technique above. Chances are good that you can clean it up and it’ll go back to normal.
My son threw up on his Ipod touch, thats right, it was in his lap in the car and he got sick and threw up on it. My husband cleaned it off and didn’t give it another thought until about 45 min. later when he picked it up and it was scorching hot. It was powered off at that point, so he held it in front of the a/c vent in the car to cool it down. It does not work at all now. I’ve read about putting it in a bag of rice, so we are trying that, but do you have any other suggestions? Man I hate long car trips.
This is a bigtime “ew.” If the battery got super hot before you shut it off there is a good chance you’ve fried something. If the above didn’t work, I’d suggest sending it to http://www.thepoddrop.com. If anyone can save it, and get the stink out, it’ll be them. At the very least… they’ll give you a few bucks towards a new one for the parts.
Hi my girlfriend’s Touch was soaked in her bag where water spilled, its not submerged but water seeped into it..i’m seeing a hint of red inside the headphones jack. The touch can turn on but the screen is unresponsive when i try to slide to unlock it and it automatically turns on periodically, i’m currently testing out the methods given above. Does anyone have a heads up whether or not the touch will still work?
Until you dry it out, you won’t know. Give it a couple days. Chances are pretty good that it’s busted though. Electronics + liquid = bad…
I have a 2nd Gen iPod Touch which keeps crashing in warm conditions. I tried an experiment by putting it in the freezer compartment of my fridge for a few minutes and hey presto, it switched on no problem, but then after it got warm again it switches off and often has great difficulty rebooting, with a yellow tinge appearing over the Apple logo. A couple of minutes in the freezer and it’s able to boot again. I have a small electric fridge which I place the iPod into and it allows me to do all the syncing I want. The minute I take it out and start using it in the warm again, it shuts down. Any ideas what the problem is and is there a solution to fixing this, maybe a heat paste or something?
I’m not positive. But it sounds very much like you have a bad battery. That heat is likely generated by a small electrical short and is very dangerous. The reason your iPod shuts off when it gets hot is to keep it from catching fire. I’d recommend contacting http://www.thepoddrop.com and asking them what it would cost to repair it.
Hi Adam, thanks for your reply. It’s not the iPod which gets hot, it’s the outside temperature. Both when the weather gets warm and when it is used in a house with good insulation or central heating on. When used in my, usually cold office, it’s fine – or it WAS, but now shutting down more frequently – but then again, the summer weather may be the cause here too.
Just found it strange when it works almost perfectly when it’s kept in the fridge, I can just see myself walking around with my 12v car battery strapped to one shoulder, powering my portable fridge on the other lol
Because the iPod was bought cheap from eBay I don’t want to be spending as much as it would have been to buy a new one which is often the case when asking commercial repairers to look at it.
Thanks anyway for your suggestion, be glad if you can think of anything else.
The case of an iPod is made of aluminum, which dissipates heat pretty well. For example, when I left my office yesterday I stuck my Macbook Pro in my backpack. For some reason it didn’t go to sleep and just stayed on. 4 hours later, when I opened my bag to check my email… the case was literally so hot I needed an oven mit to take it out of the bag. But 5 minutes later… it was cool to the touch. (And still working)
Along the same lines, I was in Haiti last week and it was 115 F with a heat index much higher. No one had a problem with their iPod overheating.
I really think you have a bad battery that is overheating. Since you bought it used, you don’t know if it has the original battery or not. You shouldn’t have to keep an iPod on ice to keep it working. It could be that the case is able to dissipate the heat fine while you are in air conditioning, but without that the heat of the malfunctioning battery takes over and shuts it down. Replacing the battery is fairly easy to do and batteries a cheaper than a new iPod. The flip side is that The Pod Drop actually pays decent money for older iPods which they use for parts. So if you contact them they may buy that old one from you in exchange for a newer Nano or something like that.
i left my i pod in my dad’s car but i didn’t know that he had old beer spilled there.so i forgot about it for a few days and then when i found it, it was smelly and you could’t see the screen that well. what do i do?
oops i did this really wrong i ddnt turn it off automatically n i shook it so many times i guess im a huge dummy for doin tht n i ddnt spill water i spilld iced tea is tht still mean the same thing? n i guess it seeped inside n its probly ruinin all the memory n my mom said i cnt get a new one onli to get it fixed i really hate myself this hppnd yesterday n i relli want it to b fixed. they say to vaccum it out but i dnt kno if thtll work pleeez help giv me tips save my ipod touch its not turnin on… :’(
Try the technique described in the post. If that doesn’t work you’ll need to have it repaired. Sorry! Electronics and iced tea just don’t mix.
my itouch got pretty much soaked when i forgot to cap my bottle in my bag, and the worse thing is that i didn’t even realise it a few hours later.
i think i screwed up as i didn’t realise it was gone (the battery was already very low before it died) so i plugged it in, only to have nothing turn up on the screen
i tried the blow-dryer method but it didn’t work, and i can’t head for the pod-drop because i don’t live in a country that has any of their outlets :/ thanks for the help! (: