Apple has issued a support note on its website that advises iPhone users to avoid putting a wet phone in rice to dry it.
Placing a water damaged iPhone or any similar device in uncooked rice has long been a popular home hack, with proponents claiming that the rice will help to remove the moisture in the phone.
Apple, however, has repudiated this. “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice,” its suggestion reads. “Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.”
According to the Verge, the idea of fixing a waterlogged phone with rice has its origins in a 1946 article that claimed rice, tea and brown paper could be effective materials to keep photo film dry.
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An experiment conducted by an electronics reseller revealed that the rice method was not effective in terms of drying wet phones and, in fact, ranked the lowest out of the seven methods used.
In addition to the rice trick, Apple advises users against drying their wet iPhones with “an external heat source or compressed air,” and says “a foreign object” must not be inserted “into the connector.”
Rather than resort to these tricks, Apple suggests users ensure wet iPhones remain unplugged. Liquid should be removed from the connector by gently tapping on it. The phone should then be left in a dry area, with airflow, for a minimum of 30 minutes before attempting to reboot the device. If a liquid-detection alert remains, the phone should be allowed to dry for another 24 hours before retrying.
