Phone Fell in Water: What to Do in the First Few Minutes

The first 60 seconds: what actually matters

Speed is everything at this stage. The longer a phone sits submerged, the more likely water is to work its way past seals and into places it shouldn't be, so your first job is simply to get it out of the water as quickly as you can.

If the phone was fully underwater, even briefly, power it off before doing anything else. It's tempting to unlock it and check if the screen still responds, but running a live circuit while moisture is present is exactly when a short can cause real damage. Resist the urge to press buttons, tap the screen, or plug in a charger to test it.

• Remove any case, since water often gets trapped between the case and the phone body and stays there long after the outside looks dry.
• Eject the SIM tray too. It's a small opening, but it's a direct path for water to sit against internal components, and popping it open lets that pocket of moisture start evaporating.
• Do not plug in a charging cable, even just to see if it lights up. Charging a wet phone is one of the more common ways a recoverable situation turns into a genuine repair bill.

Drying the outside without making it worse

Once the phone is powered off and opened up as much as possible, take a soft, lint-free cloth (a microfiber cloth works well) and gently pat down every visible surface, paying extra attention to the edges, button gaps, and camera bump where water likes to collect.

It's natural to want to shake the phone hard to fling the water out, but resist that instinct. Vigorous shaking tends to drive water deeper into the device through the same tiny openings it came in through, rather than out. A gentle pat-dry on the outside is all this stage needs.

Clearing the speaker, microphone and ports with sound

This is where things get genuinely satisfying, because it's the one step that actively helps rather than just waiting. Water tends to sit as a thin film across the speaker mesh, the microphone opening, and port grilles, and it can muffle your calls or make audio sound bubbly and distorted long after the phone itself is otherwise fine.

A tuned sound frequency can make that trapped water resonate and shake loose, similar to how some smartwatches clear their own speakers. This is exactly what Eject Pro does: it's a free, ad-free app that plays a carefully tuned tone through your speaker to physically push droplets out of the mesh and openings.

• Disconnect any Bluetooth earbuds or wired headphones first, so the sound plays through the phone's own speaker rather than being routed elsewhere.
• Turn the volume all the way up, since the vibration effect depends on a strong, clear tone.
• Hold the phone with the speaker facing downward, toward a towel or sink, so any water that gets shaken loose has somewhere to go.
• Run the eject cycle in Eject Pro and let it complete; it only takes a matter of seconds to a minute.
• If your earbuds or AirPods themselves got wet, use the same approach but keep the volume moderate and don't press them right up against your ear while the tone plays.

What not to do, even though everyone says it

A few pieces of common advice around wet phones are so widespread that they feel like fact, but they're worth setting straight, because getting this part wrong can turn a fixable situation into a costly one.

• Rice: it's the most repeated tip out there, but rice doesn't draw moisture out of a sealed phone's internal gaps effectively, and it sheds starchy dust that can get sucked into your speaker, microphone, and charging port, adding a whole new problem.
• Hair dryers or any other heat source: heat can warp the rubber seals and adhesive gaskets that give modern phones their water resistance in the first place, and it can push moisture further inward before it evaporates.
• Cotton swabs, pins, or anything else poked into a port or speaker grille: this risks pushing water deeper or damaging the delicate components just behind the opening.
• Charging while the phone is even slightly damp: this is one of the more common ways a phone that would have recovered fine ends up with real internal damage.

How long to wait before charging

After the outside is dried and you've run a sound-based eject cycle, give the phone time to finish drying on its own. Leave it somewhere dry and at normal room temperature, not in direct sun or near a heater, for at least two to three hours before you try charging it.

If you connect the charger and your phone shows a liquid-detected warning, don't ignore it or try to force a charge anyway. Disconnect the cable, let the phone sit for several more hours (overnight is safer), and try again later. These warnings exist specifically to protect the charging port from corrosion.

When it's time to see a professional

Most splashes and drops resolve on their own with the steps above, but a few situations are worth a proper inspection at a repair shop or your phone's manufacturer, even if everything currently seems to work.

• The water was salt water or pool water, both of which are more corrosive and conductive than plain tap water and can cause slow, hidden damage.
• The phone won't power back on at all, even after a full day of drying.
• The screen looks discolored, flickers, has dead spots, or responds strangely to touch.
• A liquid-detected alert keeps appearing every time you try to charge, even after a full day of drying.
• Sound from the speaker or earpiece stays muffled or crackly well after you've run an eject cycle and given it time to dry.

None of this is meant to alarm you. The reality is that the vast majority of water incidents with today's phones end fine, especially when you act quickly, skip the myths, and give the device the drying time and gentle sound treatment it actually needs.