If you accidentally drop your phone in water, or it gets wet during a sudden downpour, you might be tempted to pop it in a bag of rice so it can “dry off”.
The dry, absorbant rice is said to suck the moisture out of your device avoiding any lasting water damage. Experts have however long suggested the theory may not be as good as it first seems.
And now, the Guardian reports, Apple also appears to have warned iPhone users not to follow the popular trick. “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” the company says in a recent support note spotted by Macworld.
As well as possibly risking your device, tests have also shown uncooked rice is not particularly succesful at drying out a mobile phone.
It appears the origin of the rice theory could lie in photography. An investigation by The Verge in 2015 found it was considered to be a way of maintaing your camera.
While the method can be traced back as far as 1946, it is only recently panicked phone owners have started using it for their mobile. But if the rice technique is flawed, what should you do to dry out your phone?
Apple actually offers guidance to people who get a message saying “liquid detected” when trying to charge their phones. It says you should first unplug the device.
You should then tap the phone “gently against your hand” with the connector facing down to remove excess. Before leaving it to dry for around half an hour.
If the phone and cable are “completely dry” then you can try charging again. If that fails, then you should wait at least a day.
Apple’s new support documentation says you should not use an external heat source or compressed air to dry a phone. Nor should you use a cotton swab or a paper towel.
If the phone is not functional, then you should turn if off straight away. Apple suggests drying the device with a towel and then putting it in an airtight container with sillica packets.
It suggests not charging the phone until it is dry.
