How to recover photos on a completely broken iPhone?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How to recover photos on a completely broken iPhone?

My phone is completely broken, it won't turn on at all. I need to recover photos and I don't have an iCloud backup. I think what happened was, lots of water got into my phone when I was at the pool. Yesterday I didn't notice anything unusual with my phone when I came back from the pool except that like my phone kept going dim and bright not with the brightness bar it was just doing that, I woke up the next day thinking nothing of it and the issue is still happening but there's a green horizontal thin line across my screen, I think nothing of it, I use my phone for about an hour and this green static screen popped up then my phone went black and now it won't turn on. I didn't download anything fishy. Is there any way to recover my photos?

iPhone 14, iOS 26

Posted on Jun 28, 2026 3:10 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Zachyy

Level 7

20,237 points

Jun 28, 2026 3:58 PM in response to ishaan252

Water exposure to any electronic is fatal and will enter the iPhone and corrode the parts, causing them to fail. Unfortunately you should have backed your iPhone up will it was still operational, but now that is it non-functional, restoring the photos are impossible. Sorry this has happened to you.

I don't suggest you try third-party photo recovery services. Most don't work as advertised, and cost quite a bit. Also, since water damage voids servicing rights from Apple, the best option is to purchase a new iPhone.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 29, 2026 7:41 AM in response to ishaan252

It's possible that the memory is intact, and the pictures are recoverable, but it might cost. You could try an Apple Authorized Service place to see if they could help:

Apple Authorized Services

There are also plenty of iPhone repair places that routinely open up phones to replace batteries or screens. You might find someone at one of those places who could access the memory for you.

You might have to decide how much those pictures are worth.

Unfortunately, if you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't much else you can do. To back up your pictures you can just plug in an external drive, select the pictures, and use Share>Save to Files. Alternatively, you can backup to a computer:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC

Reply

Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

202,785 points

Jun 29, 2026 12:49 AM in response to ishaan252

You mentioned that you do not have an iCloud backup, but do you perhaps have a backup on a computer?

Have you been sharing your photos on web sites or as Mail attachments or in messages or in Shared albums? Perhaps you can recover some of your most important photos from the places where you shared them.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 28, 2026 9:33 PM in response to Zachyy

Zachyy wrote:

Water exposure to any electronic is fatal and will enter the iPhone and corrode the parts, causing them to fail.

Sometimes an iPhone might survive even prolonged immersion in water:

"A filippine tourist visiting Lapland dropped his iPhone in the lake while watching northern lights in March. A month later a local happened to see it, cleaned it, and put it to the charger and to her amazement could power it on and see the owner's email and phone number. So she contacted the owner and sent the iPhone back to him in Philippines."

https://yle.fi/a/74-20229400

Reply