Water-Damaged Phone Data Recovery
A phone that's been in a toilet, a pool, the ocean, or a spilled drink can short out right away or fail days later as corrosion spreads across its logic board. Power it off, don't charge it, and get it to a lab quickly. We clean and repair the phone's original board enough to recover your data for one flat $1,200 with free prepaid shipping, and you pay nothing if we can't recover it.
Signs of phone water damage
- •Dropped in a toilet, sink, pool, lake, or the ocean
- •Shut off right after getting wet and won't turn back on
- •Turned on after drying out, then died hours or days later
- •Screen flickers, shows lines, or has fog or moisture under the glass
- •A liquid-detected warning when a charger is plugged in
- •Restarts on its own, gets hot, or the battery drains unusually fast
What’s actually happening
Water-resistance ratings wear down with age, drops, and screen or battery repairs, and they aren't meant for salt water, chlorinated pools, or other liquids. Once liquid gets inside, it can bridge connections on the logic board and short components immediately, which is why a phone often shuts off right as it gets wet.
The slower damage is corrosion. Minerals in water, and salt, chlorine, sugar, or acids in other liquids, attack the board's metal contacts and solder joints. Even a powered-off phone still has its battery connected to the board, which can speed that process up. Corrosion keeps spreading after the phone looks dry, which is why phones that seemed fine sometimes fail days later.
Your data is stored on an encrypted chip soldered to that same board, with keys tied to the board's own security hardware. Recovery means stopping the corrosion, cleaning the board, and repairing damaged components until the original phone can boot and be unlocked with your passcode.
What not to do
- ✕Don't charge it or keep turning it on — power running through a wet board is what causes most short circuits.
- ✕Don't put it in rice — rice doesn't draw liquid out from under chips or stop corrosion, and grains and starch can end up in the ports.
- ✕Don't use a hair dryer, oven, or heater — heat can damage the battery, warp parts, and drive liquid deeper inside.
- ✕Don't blow compressed air into the ports — it can push liquid further into the phone; gently wiping the outside dry is enough.
- ✕Don't wait several days to see if it dries out — corrosion keeps progressing, and earlier cleaning gives the board a better chance.
- ✕Don't let a shop replace the board or reset the phone — your data lives on the original board, and a reset erases it.
How we recover it
Disassemble and assess
Engineers open the phone, disconnect the battery, and inspect the board for liquid residue, corrosion, and damaged components.
Clean the board
Corrosion and residue are removed with board-safe cleaning methods, such as ultrasonic cleaning, to stop further damage and reveal what needs repair.
Repair until it boots
Shorted or corroded components and connections are repaired under magnification until the original board can start, with a known-good battery and screen if the phone's own parts were damaged.
Unlock, extract, and verify
The phone is unlocked with your passcode, your data is copied off and checked to confirm it opens, and it's returned to you on a secure return drive. We can't bypass lock screens or encryption.
Can the data be recovered?
Water-damaged phones can often be recovered when they were powered off quickly, weren't charged while wet, and reached a lab soon after. Salt water, chlorinated pools, sugary drinks, and long delays all make corrosion worse, and corrosion that has eaten through connections near the processor or storage chip can make the board impossible to revive. Because the data is encrypted and tied to the original board, there's no fallback to reading the chip in another device, and your passcode is required. We'll know more once the board is cleaned and assessed, and if we can't recover your data, you pay nothing.
Recovery by device
Related guides
Phone Water Damage — common questions
My phone is water-resistant. Why did it fail?
It dried out and works again. Am I safe?
It's still on. Should I turn it off?
Does the type of liquid matter?
How much does phone water damage recovery cost?
Other failures we recover from
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