In today’s times, everybody owns a smartphone and with owning a smartphone, comes the threat of water damage!
Maybe your friends pushed you into the swimming pool or the beach waves took over you. There are plenty of situations where your phone might end up underwater.
So removing water from your phone’s charging port is a common problem faced by plenty of people and not just you! So sit back and relax and we’ll guide you through the process of getting water out of your charging port:
- First off, you can start by using a towel to dry your phone and help tackle moisture from building further
- Try switching off your phone and removing the battery of your phone( if possible)
- Try tapping and shaking your phone to get rid of any excess water stuck in your charging port
- Now put your phone inside a sock and start blowing cool air into it for sometime
You can expect your phone to be dry and working in 3 hours but if it still doesn’t work, do not panic, this was just First aid!
Please make sure you do not use car litter, any additional heat source, or any unconventional method to remove water, they might further deteriorate the situation.
Water in the charging port- Explained!
One can detect water in his/her charging port when one sees a pop-up message saying “Liquid Detected in Lightning Connector”, this means either your charging cable or your port has some moisture present.
Now, there are several reasons why your charging port may get wet, some most common examples are:
- Imagine you are out in the park when it starts raining heavily, you are trying to rush home but your phone will still get wet which can lead to water trapping inside the charging port.
- This is a lesser-known fact that if your phone is kept near or inside your shower cubicle, the humidity inside can also cause moisture to build inside the charging port.
- Mistakenly jumping in the pool with your phone in your pocket is yet another reason
- Accidents like spilling water, coffee, or any drink on your phone are another common reason your charging port is wet.
How to Get Water Out of Charging Port? (What to do?)
The first and foremost thing to remember when you encounter a wet charging port is to give your charging port ample time to dry out naturally. Don’t rush and use the “Emergency Override option”.
If your phone was not in direct contact with water and has just built moisture due to humidity, in 8 out of 10 cases your phone might start charging again once the charging port dries in a few hours but if your phone was totally submerged in water then follow the following steps:
1) Take a dry towel and use it on your charging port
Your job here is to make sure that there’s no excess water dripping from your charging port and that it is all dried up.
2) Switch your phone OFF immediately
Electronic devices encountering water damage is a match made in hell and one must switch their phone off to prevent their device from shorting out due to the water.
So it is always preferred to remove the presence of any type of electric charge in such situations.
3) Take your SIM card and the battery( if possible) our of your device
Your SIM card contains unique and important information that we can’t risk losing. SIM cards are delicately designed in such a way that they can’t handle any contact with water.
SIM cards being so crucial to your phone, we make sure to prevent its data as much as we can, so removing the SIM card from the SIM tray when your phone comes in contact with water is the only sane choice.
The process to remove your SIM card easily is as follows:
Look for a small hole, it’s a pin-sized hole, use a pin and firmly press it. Once your SIM card tray pops out, take your SIM card out of it and let the tray dry for some time.
Next up, we see if we can possibly remove the battery from our phone but since the last few years, most phones don’t allow you to remove their batteries, so we can skip this step if that’s the case.
4) Using your palms to take out excess water
This sounds like one of the most generic solutions but once done properly, it can be really helpful.
So to efficiently apply this step, make sure you’re holding your phone with its charging port facing downwards and start tapping on the top of your phone.
Use your palm firmly and keep on repeating this process until you observe no more excess water coming out of the port.
5)Use a sock to store your phone and start blowing cool air into it
This step is proved to be one of the most helpful solutions to your problem, most people who have used this technique have found positive results so you should surely try this!
Additionally, if you are worried this might cause further damage to your mobile phone, this technique, if done in the right manner should not cause any additional damage.
Let’s start off with the procedure now, we need to find something to blow air. So look for a shop vacuum cleaner or something similar to it. Now proceed by taking its hose off, and shifting it from the suction side to the other side which is the exhaust side of the cleaner.
Another alternative to a shop vacuum cleaner could be a hair dryer. You need to take care of the fact that using your hair drying on the normal heat mode would be a huge mistake! Switch it to Cool or Cold mode and then use it.
Now you need to find a sock to put your phone into, find something you don’t use anymore and is just lying around. Gently place your phone inside the sock and attach the blower side of the drying or shop vacuum to it, you can take it if you want so it doesn’t move.
Now, start the supply of cool air and let your phone stay inside the sock with the cool air supply on for about 3 hours.
Now try using your Phone again!
What should you AVOID doing when water gets in your charging port?
The major reason for your phone damage in most cases of water damage is not just water but a ton of bad solutions and techniques applied to dry it out. So make sure your filter out the advice you are getting in terms of credibility.
Of course the idea of drying your charging port in a few minutes sounds enticing but please refrain from doing the following steps:
- Avoid putting your phone inside a rice container or a cat litter box or any other quick-fix container.
- Do not use any excessive heat on your device, this would hamper your phone’s working even further. Some people tend to use radiators or hair dryers on heat mode, so please refrain from doing that.
- The worst thing that can happen to your charging port after water damage is something getting stuck in it. Make sure you don’t insert any napkins or Qtips in the charging port.
Water-resistant phones and water damage
Most smartphones today come with a tag of being water-resistant but you must note that although your phone is water-resistant, it is not WATERPROOF.
What this means is that some elements of your phone can still suffer damage, although this damage would be comparatively lesser than damage to non-water resistant phones it can still hamper your phone’s efficiency.
The metal pins inside the charging port can corrode due to liquid damage and might be an issue for you. This is due to the reason that most phones tend to disable the charging connector as soon as they detect any liquid.
What if my phone was not completely submerged but a little wet?
If your phone was just exposed to some moisture and was not completely submerged, then the process is much easier for you!
The best thing you can do is wait for the charging port to dry off itself and just be patient. We are pretty sure your phone would be as good as before in a few hours.
Conclusion
So, to summarise what we have talked about above, first of all, you need to calm down and follow the steps mentioned in the above article.
If none of the above solutions work for you, we recommend you contact your device’s support team and ask them for assistance.
The key here is to not hurry and give your charging port a few hours to dry out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How long does it take for the charging port to dry?
Answer: It can take approximately 3 to 24 hours for your charging port to completely dry.
Q2. Can a liquid cause permanent damage to your charging port?
Answer: Whenever your device is exposed to liquid, the moisture built inside the charging port can damage the wiring and might permanently affect it.
Q3. How do I clean the USB-C charging port?
Answer: You can clean your USB port by using cold air that can help you shake off the dirt.
