Iphone 12 Water Damage - Won’t turn on and can’t reboot.

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Iphone 12 Water Damage - Won’t turn on and can’t reboot.

I am fairly certain my phone is fried, but figured I’d ask in case there’s anything maybe I’m missing. My phone has suffered some unfortunate water damage and has apparently seen better days. After the initial damage my phone was working perfectly fine, it was only submerged for about 30 seconds max BUT it has cracks on the back of the phone… About 15 minutes after I had come inside and my silly little brain didn’t think to take the case probably full of water off, my phone shut off. Out of nowhere. Turned it back on, worked fine, then did it again. When I turned it on the second time, I got a notification my Face ID needed to be serviced and was no longer function able. Within 10 minutes my phone had a total spazz out and began turning on and off incessantly, could not use the screen, it was completely glitched out. Then it ‘died’, but kept turning on and off (only the apple logo would appear) all night. The next day it did turn on again and I could use it, but now it’s officially turned off and when I try to turn it on it says to connect to a computer and update/reboot. When I try that, it stays connected for a minute, but every time it hits 1/4 of the way through the update/reboot it says error, cannot update phone (error 2, it says). Is it even worth taking this thing to a shop or is she completely gone for? Are all my files and everything on that phone recoverable through repair or no? Help a girl out, I’ve lost hope, but maybe I’m just silly and don’t know anything about phones and it’s totally fine. (Definitely isn’t.) I did remove the SIM card and I am praying to the lord it works.

iPhone 13, iOS 17

Posted on Aug 22, 2024 11:57 PM

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Answer 1

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caspersimon

Level 1

26 points

Aug 23, 2024 4:33 AM in response to Alexisb88

Hi!

So, this is very sad, but there is likely not much you can do.

It seems like there is still some life inside your iPhone, but the logic board is probably fried (why it won’t turn on or update).

Did you see this page? It has instructions for when you see error 2. Might be worth a try.

If that doesn’t work and you take it to the Apple store, Apple will probably tell you that it’s water damage that they can’t fix. They’ll probably offer you ‘service’ (a new iPhone 12) for $449. But - unless you have a backup - your files will be lost. On this page you’ll see how you can check if you have an iCloud backup: View and manage iCloud device backups - Apple Support

Your local repair shop might be more willing to try to help and extend the life of your phone! A friend of mine dropped his cracked iPhone in the sea once and his iPhone didn’t turn on anymore. We were on holiday on a Greek island, and the local repair shop was able to bring the phone back alive. It died a couple months later (likely still from the water damage), but if you really want your data back, you could try and see if your local repair shop can (temporarily) fix your phone.

By the way, it is probably best to try and keep your phone turned off now and leave it to dry somewhere. When water is inside your phone while it is on, the water can cause the internals to short circuit and break your phone even more. If you are really lucky, it might even work again after leaving it to dry for a while. I had a similar issue when I got my MacBook wet (it kept restarting itself). I then left it do dry and didn’t touch it for a week, after which it worked as normal again. I wish you the best of luck!

TL;DR:

Your data is probably lost :(
Your local repair shop might help to temporarily fix your phone, so you can make a backup
It is probably a good idea to leave your phone to dry for a while, you might get lucky!

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Answer 2

Alexisb88 Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 24, 2024 2:24 PM in response to caspersimon

Thank you for all of that! I ended up taking it in for a diagnostics at a local repair shop after nothing else worked and they confirmed my motherboard is indeed fried, and my data is lost. They said they could attempt to repair the damage but the cost would end up being 3/4 of a new phone, with no guarantee it would work, and I backed up all the information that I really need months ago so I’m just going to move on and get myself a new phone.

Sad as it is I made my peace with it a few days ago and have moved on now, lol. Lucky for me there’s Labour Day sales to take advantage of. I am going to still leave it alone for the week and see if anything changes but I know it very likely won’t.

I think if I had turned it off immediately after the water damage and put it in rice, left it to dry for a week like you say, it would have survived. I just happened to NOT do that. So in case anyone is reading this turn it off ASAP!!!! Even if it seems to be working fine!

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