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Apple Officially Warns Users to Stop Putting Wet iPhones in Rice | The company said the popular remedy could cause "small particles of rice to damage your iPhone."

Apple Officially Warns Users to Stop Putting Wet iPhones in Rice | The company said the popular remedy could cause "small particles of rice to damage your iPhone."::The company said the popular remedy could cause "small particles of rice to damage your iPhone."

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Saving a wet iPhone by putting it in a bowl or bag of uncooked rice has been a popular go-to rescue method for years, with the logic being that the rice absorbs the excess water from the phone.

However, the God of iPhones has recently warned poor mortals against resorting to rice in these situations, saying it could make things worse.

The company also recommended against using other well-known hacks, such as using an external heat source to dry the phone or sticking a cotton swab into the connector.

Time is crucial in these situations, as the most important thing is to prevent the water from damaging the electronics inside the phone.

If your iPhone or charging connector is wet—in the latter case, an alert will appear and disable charging—Apple recommends the following:

In case Apple’s advice doesn’t work, it’s safe to say that you probably need help from professional repair experts and may even need to prepare yourself to buy a new iPhone.

The original article contains 258 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 36%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Voroxpete , (edited )

Meanwhile my Samsung has been dropped in the bath more times than I can count and gives zero fucks.

Maybe Apple just make bad phones?

Ashyr ,

There's so many reasons to hate on Apple and iPhones, but build quality simply isn't one of them.

iPhones are IP68, which means they can be immersed in serveral meters of water for up to 30 minutes.

Gork ,

I like the nicer, more protective, IP69k rating.

xkbx ,

nice 😎

Municipal0379 ,

Nice

ThePantser ,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

If they are waterproof how does rice damage them? Pretty sure rice chunks are larger than water.

Ashyr ,

So the IP68 ratings are on a scale of 1-9 for dust and water respectively.

So the 6 is for dust and particulates and the 8 is for water.

With a rating of IP68, which is an industry standard, it is actually better at keeping out water then dust and particulates. I have no idea what the deal is with rice particulate, but it's obviously not great to get into charging ports and the like.

It's worth noting that Samsung shares the exact same rating and would also struggle with a bowl of rice.

dustyData , (edited )

There's no deal. 6 is the highest level for dust protection. It means “No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust-tight). A vacuum must be applied. Test duration of up to 8 hours based on airflow.” It means an airtight device. There's no dust protection above that. If water, the molecule, can't get in or harm a phone, no particle will get in.

EDIT: Just realized I didn't clear up this point well enough. You got it the other way around. Keeping dust out is easy, water is hard. Because with water you have the factor of pressure defeating seals and leaking in. Something that is less likely to happen with a gas forcing particulates in. There's no natural atmospheric pressure on earth that could defeat an airtight seal enough to force dust in. But on the contrary, water pressure that can easily crush phones is actually a quite common occurrence. And enough pressure to break seals and leak water in can happen in only a few meters of water submersion.

Atmospheric dust is anything between 0.001 and 40 microns. Typical rice starch (what rice dust is made of) is around 0.5 microns, the smallest it can get is 0.1 micron.

Rice particulates do nothing to phones. Apple just wants people to pay for a new phone or Apple's overpriced tech service.

ADD: As stated by the article the rice hack doesn't work anyway, it's just a meme. But the rice won't hurt an IP68 phone.

Garbanzo ,

To be fair to Apple, I don't think they're referring to rice dust getting past seals. They're likely referring to bits of rice getting stuck in lightning or USB ports, starch on camera lenses, or a small particle working its way into a button. All of that could be solved by putting the phone in a paper wrapping or envelope and putting that in a real desiccant instead of chucking the phone in a bag of rice.

dustyData ,

Starch dirtying up a lens or glass is easily solved with a warm damp cloth, starch is water soluble this way. Rice in a port can easily be dislodged without damage with a pin needle. And no particle is going to get into a button in any way that impedes function or causes harm, that's kind of the whole point of an IP6x device.

But again, we are talking about the company that made trendy the bendy phone, and the “cracked screen and glass back” aesthetic.

stoly ,

LOL build quality is very high on all Apple products. To get the same level in mobile, you have to go higher-end Samsung or Lenovo in the computer market.

aelwero ,

In case Apple’s advice doesn’t work, it’s safe to say that you probably need help from professional repair experts and may even need to prepare yourself to buy a new iPhone.

"Don't do anything yourself, just come give us more money"

Supermariofan67 ,

Just use silica gel packets

tourist ,
@tourist@lemmy.world avatar

only used apple approved silica packets

for just $40/grain

NewPerspective ,

Coming this Fall: Apple Dryness Pellets! A bag of Styrofoam rice that'll run you $499.99 and an extra $70 for it to come in colors. Not compatible with CE models.

reddig33 ,

What a stupid recommendation. It’s not going to hurt anything. I wonder if the idiot pushing for this documentation realizes what bad press it’s generated.

stoly ,

One presumes that there is at least one case where it was determined that rice particles did something to the phone. Then Apple analogized and extrapolated from there.

Pissnpink ,

Well of course particles will get in, that's why you gotta wash the rice first!

otp ,

Don't put your phone in rice! You'll break it and have to buy a new phone!

Ok, what should I do instead?

Buy a new phone.

...so what's the harm in using rice?

......waste of food?

GenderNeutralBro ,

Silica gel desiccant bags. That's the same thing used in a lot of packaging material, like the little thing that says "do not eat" in a pill bottle or electronics bag.

Landless2029 ,

I save every one of these packs. Keep them in a gallon storage bag. Use in case of emergency.

naevaTheRat ,
@naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

you need to boil the water out of them before use btw

KeenFlame ,

Like in the oven?

waterSticksToMyBalls ,

Oven at 150c for 2-3 hours according to google

naevaTheRat ,
@naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah, if you want to keep them ready then bake them off above 100 C for 2 hours or so then whack em in something airtight so they don't hydrate again.

You can actually buy silica gel beads with an indicator dye that goes from blue to purple when wet so you can tell at a glance if they're ready.

KeenFlame ,

Pretty cool, thanks

joel_feila ,
@joel_feila@lemmy.world avatar

If put 30 in a bowl if milk you have to go to the hospital

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

Epic tale

Imgonnatrythis ,

There is a small risk the rice will work and you won't buy a new iPhone. Do you want to break the economy??

Rumbelows ,

This is actually a thing. Worked in Apple Stores for years and saw laptops and phones full of rice. Whole grains and bits n bobs.

So before the rice you could actually do a modular repair sometimes. Swap out the battery or SSD.

Whole thing full of rice bits attached to every component? Forget it.

Also, once a device is liquid damaged, often rice will resurrect it but only until the logic board rusts through / goes dry. Copper oxidises over time.

On the other hand, if you can’t afford a repair or swap out, (contrary to popular opinion, Apple sell replacement devices through their service channel way cheaper than new units) rice might give your device a new lease of life. So sometimes worth the gamble.

Edit: missed the D off SSD which kind of changed the context!

ScreaminOctopus ,

You can also hang on to silica gel packs that come in various packaging, they do the same thing as the rice but are more effective and wont clog up your device

Rumbelows ,

That’s a great point!

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

I assume most folks here didn’t actually read the support article. It’s pretty reasonable.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102643

iOS can throw a warning message if there is water in the USB port during charging. Electricity and water are famously spicy friends.

Their recommendation is just to tap the bottom of the phone to get the water out, let it sit and dry for a few minutes, or use a Qi charger if you absolutely have to charge with a wet USB C port.

Most phones, including Apple’s, are pretty water proof these days. Rice is only going to get rice dust in your speaker, mic, and charge holes. Just tap the water out of let it sit for a few minutes.

feedum_sneedson ,

My girlfriend's dad just bought her a £1,500 iPhone, and I pay for fucking everything when we're together, and for some reason it has really pissed me off.

Rice.

SomeGuy69 ,

Don't trust apple, I remember when they recommended people to put their iPhone into the microwave for fast charging. /s

wahming ,

Given that the iPhone is rated IP68, or impervious to dust and small particles, this seems like grounds for a return claim (or lawsuit in the states, idk).

32b99410_da5b ,

The charging port is very pervious to dust and small particles.

...they shouldn't get into the phone innards, but shove a USBC in there with them and they can definitely ruin the charging port.

mastod0n ,

There are humidity indicators even outside the IP rated parts. If the technician finds a colored one you're out of warranty by default.
Source: started out at a store with repair shop.

wahming ,

I'm referring to the rice grains, not the water.

mastod0n ,

Yea, but usually your device was in touch with liquid before you put in rice.

hemko ,

Technically you could just remove those humidity indicators yourself before taking the phone to service, but they'd still find any water damage inside the phone if present - just more time consuming for the tech

hazardous_area ,

lol you know what else may damage your phone? Being full of water /s, get a grip apple. Make something useful if you must make more money, don’t sell obsolesce and failure.

sebinspace ,

Okay but this advice applies to all phones ever.. Rice is absolutely useless for fixing anything but Raja’s economy and being an excuse to eat soy sauce

hazardous_area ,

I am not proposing rice as a solution to anything aside from wetted phones.

My post is pointing out that instead of doing something productive or new, apple is telling people not to do something that may actively prevent further damage to their phone. At best that reads like a poor use of time to me.

sebinspace ,

may actively prevent further damage

No, it won’t. Used to work in shops that fixed phones. In no instance, fucking ever, did rice have any effect, at all, ever. “I put my phone in rice” is followed by “that’s why you’re here, in my shop, right now” 100% of the time.

GunValkyrie ,

The next time someone puts their phone in rice and it does work, do they still need to go to your store to tell you?

sebinspace , (edited )

Oh god yes, please come tell me. Show me what you did, shit, show me what kind of rice you used, show me everything about the process so that I may learn from it, but until I see hard evidence, especially that which cannot be easily attributed to something that isn’t stupid, that something is actually fucking happening, chortle my balls!

Jakeroxs ,

The point is the bias is obviously going to be that you'd see the instances where it didn't work, otherwise they wouldn't have gone into the shop.

sebinspace ,

Yeah yeah, I know, survivorship bias and all that, but the rice still does fuck all

Cataphract ,

Have used rice multiple times from old Nokia phones to newer iPhones, it does work and have helped multiple people. Idk what you're imagining but you don't shove the phone into rice and repeatedly shake it. Small Tupperware with a lid, small bed of rice on bottom, set the phone on top and allow to sit in the sun. The warmth turns the moisture into humidity in which the rice will absorb. The phone never even needs to be in contact with the rice with the right setup (same as the desiccant bags method). It's just about getting the excess moisture absorbed, you can even inspect the phone and clean it up before use.

demesisx ,
@demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

Can’t believe no one has recommended putting your phone in a ziplock with a big bag of desiccant. That’s basically exactly what the rice is doing (minus the grains getting everywhere).

JigglySackles ,

Also rice isn't a super effective way of desiccating the phone to begin with. Like you mentioned, desiccant packs are a way better option. Just save the ones you get from packages in a dry ziplock and store for a rainy day...

n3m37h ,

But how else does one entice an Asian to come fix a iPhone?

profdc9 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96iJsdGkl44

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