How To Deal With A Damaged iPhone – And Prevent Damaging Your iPhone Again
Uh oh, your most beloved child – sorry, iPhone, has gotten into trouble.
According to business.com, which is a real website and not made up, Americans have spent over $6 billion on damaged iPhones since 2007. It makes sense – for all of their benefits, iPhones can be rather delicate. So what do you do when your baby’s been injured? Well, here are some tips for dealing with a broken iPhone:
So, You Have A Water Damaged iPhone
First and foremost, whether it’s been splashed or straight up drowned, you should follow the standard procedure for waterlogged electronics.
Turn it off, if it’s not already off. And if it’s off? Do not turn it on!
Dry it off with a towel or whatever you have immediate access to that is most towel like – paper towel, your t-shirt, your surprisingly absorbent dog, etc. Do not use a hair dryer or anything else warm. Heat could do serious damage to your damp device.
Place your iPhone in a bag (zipper bag, if you can) of uncooked rice, silica gel, or other very absorbent material. Rice is the number one choice of iPhone dunkers everywhere, but you can wing it. Worst case scenario, leave your phone face down on a dry towel somewhere dry, cool, and maybe windy (Chicago in a drought, for example).
For those with a bag of rice, try to get as much of the air as you can out of the bag and seal it. Regardless, leave it alone for 24-48 hours.
After the days have passed, check your iPhone for water damage. All iPhones are equipped with a Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) that should glow red if the device has been water damaged. You can look up where yours should be by iPhone model. If you don’t see any red there, you should be OK to turn it on.
That said, regardless, it is always wise to see an Apple genius before turning your potentially damaged iPhone back on.
iPhone officially damaged? You could always sell it on BuyBackBoss.com
So, You Have A Cracked iPhone Screen
Ok, you have a cracked iPhone. It’s going to be alright!
First, let’s get you up and running again. Unless you really, really did a number on your phone (i.e. dropped it from the top of the Empire State Building when Meg Ryan didn’t show for your Valentine’s date), a cracked screen should be something you can live with until you can get it fixed.
Carefully remove any stray pieces of glass – and watch your fingers!
Next, use clear tape to cover the parts that have been badly cracked – just be careful not to cover the microphone, speaker, or home button.
If you’re handy (or have some sort of cool, devil-may-care attitude about life), you can even get the tools and equipment you need to fix it yourself.
Or, of course, there’s AppleCare, and even AppleCare+ if you have it. Depending on your device model and service plan, you may be able to have certain accidental damage repaired for a service fee. Notably, liquid damage is definitely not included in the one year warranty. By the way, BuyBackBoss buys damaged iPhones. Just a reminder.
Let’s Not Do This Again
If you don’t want to deal with these issues again – or are some kind of worrywart reading this as a preventative measure – there are a few things you can do.
Invest in a good screen protector and case, especially a waterproof case. And while we’re at it, let’s be clear – the iPhone 7 may be water resistant, but it is not waterproof.
In the moment, try to break the fall of your iPhone, even if you can only slow it, and try to prevent front-side-down impact.
Have a back up plan, by which I mean back up your phone regularly. If you’re really accident prone, you can even get iPhone insurance.