How to save your phone from water damage

So your phone landed in a sink, the toilet or a big glass of beer. We're not going to get into the details why this happened, and we're not judging! The first thing to do (a no-brainer, really) is to get it out of the water/liquid as fast as possible! After that, it's critical to not do certain things. Those are:

• Don't turn it on.
• Do not press keys or buttons.
• Do not shake it or tap it.
• Do not blow on it – it can send water into more internal parts of the phone, causing even more damage.
• Do not attempt heat it up – blow dryer is a no-no.

So you haven't done anything on the list? Good job so far. Let's see what you should do. Remember – time is of the essence here so do all the steps as soon as possible to avoid extensive damage.

• Turn it off, if it's not off already. Take it out of protective casing if you're using one
• While holding it upright, take the phone apart (this is not possible with all phones) by taking out the battery. If possible, remove SIM and SD cards.
• Use an absorbent cloth or a paper towel and try to soak up as much liquid as possible with it. Make sure you're not pushing the drops further inside the phone. Gently dab the phone.
• Try using a vacuum cleaner if there's a lot of water - sometimes it can suck up the drops from the cracks. Just be careful that all removable parts, such as your SIM card are out of the way.
• It's time for the well-known step: the bag of rice! Get a ziplock bag full of uncooked rice, put your phone in it, and close it. If this is something that happens to you often, you might consider using an emergency kit with a special phone drying pouch. But since you probably don't have that at home, a bag of rice will do the job and absorb the moisture from the device.

• Let it dry for a day or two. Don't turn it on during that time!
• After a few days, try turning the phone on, and test if it's working. You might need to charge it first if it doesn't work right away.
• If your phone turns on, test the speakers, the microphone, and the touchscreen. Keep an eye on it for a few days to see if you can notice anything that would require professional help.
• If it's working – congratulations! You saved your phone! If not – we're really sorry. But in any case, don't forget the step next step
• Backup your data! Chances are, that apart from the expenses for a new phone this accident also upset you because of all the stuff that's stored on your phone. We store a significant portion of our lives on these devices! That's why you should make sure you back up your files – and Koofr helps you with that.

Once you get your free Koofr account with up to 10GB of storage and install the Koofr mobile app, your media files are automatically backed up in Koofr cloud storage. Pretty cool right? And you can also store any other important files on Koofr – they will be safe and secure no matter where you take your phone. We're not recommending dropping it in a pool again, but if it does happen, it will be much less of a disaster!

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