Drop Your iPhone In The Toilet? Here’s What To Do!

Few things are more distressing than dropping your iPhone in the toilet. This can happen when you have it in your pocket and it unexpectedly slips out. Depending on the model you own, this might mean death for your iPhone, but you might not have to panic.

Table of Contents

• Can an iPhone survive being dropped in the toilet? 
• What Should You Do After Dropping Your iPhone in the Toilet?
• What if the Toilet Isn’t Clean?
• How Should You Clean and Disinfect Your iPhone After it Dropped in the Toilet?
• What Should You Do if Your iPhone Seems to Work After Drying It?

Can an iPhone survive being dropped in the toilet? 

It’s possible to save your iPhone if you’ve dropped it in the toilet based on whether you have a model that’s water-resistant with a rating of IP67 or IP68. As long as you take certain necessary steps to protect and properly clean and sanitize your iPhone, it should be able to endure a toilet dip.

Dropping an iPhone into the toilet is a common thing. Around one out of every 200 people have this kind of accident. Even if you think you’re extremely careful, a drop can occur, but you can take steps to rescue your precious iPhone.

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What Should You Do After Dropping Your iPhone in the Toilet?

If the toilet is clean and you’re at home, you can fish the iPhone out with your bare hands. Immediately dry it off with paper towels and power it off. Turning off your iPhone as soon as possible is crucial to ensure that the dip into the toilet doesn’t result in water damage to the internal components.

Remove the case or cover from your iPhone to avoid trapping excess water inside. You should also remove your screen protector.

Use the SIM tray ejector tool to open the SIM tray and remove your SIM card if you use one instead of an eSIM. Dry off your SIM tray and SIM card.

You can try the uncooked rice trick by using a plastic baggie filled with rice. If you have any silica gel packets, throw those into the bag as well. Put your iPhone inside, seal up the baggie and let it sit for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours has passed, you can retrieve your iPhone from the baggie filled with dry rice. There’s a good chance that the rice trick will prove successful and that all the water is now gone from your device.

However, you can take an additional step just to be absolutely sure that all the water has dried up. 

Turn your iPhone back on, turn the volume all the way up and run the Water Eject feature to eliminate all remaining water from your iPhone. Water Eject is a third-party addition to your Shortcuts that relies on a tone and vibration to work by pushing water out of your iPhone’s speakers.

If you don’t have any rice at home or prefer to eat it instead of using it to dry your iPhone, you can use alternatives.

If you have enough silica gel packs, you can pack a baggie full of them and keep your iPhone in it overnight instead. Another option is to use Damp Rid in a bag with your iPhone in it overnight.

It might be tempting to take a hair dryer to dry out your damp iPhone. However, this can do more harm than good and damage the delicate internal parts of your device.

What if the Toilet Isn’t Clean?

Unfortunately, if you dropped your iPhone into a public toilet, you run into more of a risk of having urine or fecal matter ending up on it. There are health risks associated with putting your hand into a soiled toilet, even if you want to recover your iPhone. 

However, if you have access to rubber or latex gloves and can easily sanitize your iPhone immediately, you might be safe.

How Should You Clean and Disinfect Your iPhone After it Dropped in the Toilet?

You should clean and disinfect your iPhone after it’s dropped into the toilet. However, it’s important to take care that you do it the right way. How you disinfect an iPhone also depends on the specific model you own.

Regardless of which iPhone version you own, you should power off the device first. If you have a charging cable connected or any other cable inserted in the phone, remove them. 

You should use a soft, slightly damp but lint-free cloth to gently wipe down your iPhone.

You can also use a can of compressed air to clean off any debris, such as dirt, dust, or lint. Be careful when cleaning any areas with openings to avoid getting extra moisture inside.

When disinfecting your iPhone, you have to be careful to use the right kinds of products. 

You can use Clorox disinfecting wipes or alcohol wipes that are 70% isopropyl alcohol or 75% ethyl alcohol. Avoid using hydrogen peroxide or bleach, which can damage your iPhone.

Never place your iPhone inside any kind of cleaning agent.

What Should You Do if Your iPhone Seems to Work After Drying It?

After you have taken the proper steps to dry out your iPhone and protect components such as the SIM card, you can try to begin using it again. Put the SIM card back in the SIM tray, power it back on and start using some basic functions to test it out. 

Unfortunately, you won’t know for sure whether your iPhone has survived its dive into the toilet until after you use it again.

You should quickly know whether you can continue using your iPhone or if it’s suffered some damage. However, it might take a few weeks to see if it acts strangely. In that situation, you should consider replacing your iPhone.

If it continues to function normally after a few weeks, you’re in the clear and can continue using your iPhone for as long as you like unless and until you think it’s time for a newer model.

As added peace of mind, if you want to ensure that your iPhone has survived falling into the toilet, you can take it to the Apple Store to get checked out. An employee from the Genius Bar can test out your device to see whether there is any water damage. 

One way to see if water is still in your iPhone is through the SIM tray port, which turns red to indicate moisture.

Unfortunately, many iPhone users have accidentally dropped their devices into the toilet. Depending on the situation, some iPhones have survived with fast-thinking actions on the part of their owners. You might be able to salvage yours if this ever happens to you.