iPhone X iPhone X boot loop after (slight) water damage

[LiquidPirateCat]

On vacation I accidentally fell into the sea with my iPhone X. It was just for a brief 20 seconds until I got out of the water. The iPhone continued working for a long period, but I noticed that my Face ID was currently unavailable. Later that evening, my iPhone died and I wanted to charge it. This was working fine, until I needed my iPhone, not knowing it was water damaged, I unplugged it causing it to die again a little later. From that moment, it wouldn't boot up anymore and it got stuck in a boot loop. Now, I realised that my phone was water damaged. I decided to put it in rice for a day. After that, I tried to boot it but it didn't do anything anymore, not even showing the apple logo. I was worried because of this and decided to let it rest a couple days more in the rice. After that, I charged it and it did boot up -> showed the apple logo -> then died again. I thought that my battery was damaged, so I decided to replace it myself. This fixed the problem of my iPhone dying but now it's just back in the boot loop. I stumbled on some YouTube videos and saw that the boot loop may be caused by some water in the connectors. I decided to clean all my connectors with isopropyl but unfortunately this didn't fix anything. I'm kind of worried now because even none apple repairs are really expensive in the area where I live and as a student I saved really long to just buy this phone, let alone buying a new one. Is there anything else I can do or try that may fix the problem? I do really appreciate the help! Thank you so much in advance.

Some sidenotes:
- the iPhone barely looks waterdamaged when I opened the phone
- I saw some vapor in the Face ID before I put in into rice, this is already gone

 

[Azathoth123]

I’d say that you will be needing a new phone. iPhones and water don’t mix and salt water is especially bad because it conducts electricity well. This is not slight water damage, this is big water damage.

We’ve all done similar things, live and learn. Good luck!

 

[44267547]

On vacation I accidentally fell into the sea with my iPhone X. It was just for a brief 20 seconds until I got out of the water. The iPhone continued working for a long period, but I noticed that my Face ID was currently unavailable. Later that evening, my iPhone died and I wanted to charge it. This was working fine, until I needed my iPhone, not knowing it was water damaged, I unplugged it causing it to die again a little later. From that moment, it wouldn't boot up anymore and it got stuck in a boot loop. Now, I realised that my phone was water damaged. I decided to put it in rice for a day. After that, I tried to boot it but it didn't do anything anymore, not even showing the apple logo. I was worried because of this and decided to let it rest a couple days more in the rice. After that, I charged it and it did boot up -> showed the apple logo -> then died again. I thought that my battery was damaged, so I decided to replace it myself. This fixed the problem of my iPhone dying but now it's just back in the boot loop. I stumbled on some YouTube videos and saw that the boot loop may be caused by some water in the connectors. I decided to clean all my connectors with isopropyl but unfortunately this didn't fix anything. I'm kind of worried now because even none apple repairs are really expensive in the area where I live and as a student I saved really long to just buy this phone, let alone buying a new one. Is there anything else I can do or try that may fix the problem? I do really appreciate the help! Thank you so much in advance.

Some sidenotes:
- the iPhone barely looks waterdamaged when I opened the phone
- I saw some vapor in the Face ID before I put in into rice, this is already gone

Some additional side notes:

1.) Rice does nothing. It’s a myth and always will be. Gel-Silica packets from shoeboxes are highly absorbent if you have them/can be bought online.

2.) Logic board damage/corrosion likely
from the salt water, if that is the case, there isn’t anything you can do. Which is why the device keeps shutting down.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Salt water intrusion is a guaranteed phone killer.

 

[now i see it]

It leaked.
Salt water got in.
iPhone is now permanently ruined.

Salt water conducts electricity almost as well as a wire. Once it gets on a circuit or component, things will short out.
Bummer days but your iPhone is toast

 

[AppleHaterLover]

You have two options.

1) Take it to Apple. It's a guaranteed cool $500 + tax bill but don't tell them you opened the phone.

2) Take it to an indie shop, tell them exactly what you did and ask them to clean it with isopropyl or something. If they can't salvage it, see option 1.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

So I'm guessing once you get this resolved you'll be getting a LifeProof case? . For the added water protection.

 

[Newtons Apple]

So I'm guessing once you get this resolved you'll be getting a LifeProof case? . For the added water protection.

From the sounds of it, it will take a while before the OP saves enough to buy a new iPhone.

 

[newellj]

You have two options.

1) Take it to Apple. It's a guaranteed cool $500 + tax bill but don't tell them you opened the phone.

2) Take it to an indie shop, tell them exactly what you did and ask them to clean it with isopropyl or something. If they can't salvage it, see option 1.

With the salt water damage, I doubt there's anything more than a very short-term fix (if that's even possible) that anyone can do.

 

[44267547]

You have two options.

1) Take it to Apple. It's a guaranteed cool $500 + tax bill but don't tell them you opened the phone.

2) Take it to an indie shop, tell them exactly what you did and ask them to clean it with isopropyl or something. If they can't salvage it, see option 1.

I think this issue is beyond any third parry repair. And nothing personal against third-party shops, however; they don’t even have some of the training to dabble in issues like this that Apple does. If it’s logic board damage from salt corrosion, not even Apple can do anything about that.

 

[teknikal90]

so annoying that apple goes to all this trouble to waterproof their phones, only for it to not work when you actually need it to. what's even the point.
sorry to hear OP.

 

[JPack]

so annoying that apple goes to all this trouble to waterproof their phones, only for it to not work when you actually need it to. what's even the point.
sorry to hear OP.

Think of it like a battery. The capacity degrades over time. Rubber seals also degrade over time. But you can't see rubber seal health as a percentage in iOS.

I would not rely on the water resistant features of iPhone beyond the first three months.

 

[AppleWes]

so annoying that apple goes to all this trouble to waterproof their phones, only for it to not work when you actually need it to. what's even the point.
sorry to hear OP.

I hear your point, however that's why Apple carefully uses the term 'water resistant'... they'll never say waterproof for exact reasons brought up in this thread.

And to OP- if you have an Apple Store nearby, try taking it in and be 100% honest and friendly about what happened. Doesn't hurt to ask or at least get quote. I know you aren't the first person they've had drop phone (or fall) in water.

 

[teknikal90]

I hear your point, however that's why Apple carefully uses the term 'water resistant'... they'll never say waterproof for exact reasons brought up in this thread.

And to OP- if you have an Apple Store nearby, try taking it in and be 100% honest and friendly about what happened. Doesn't hurt to ask or at least get quote. I know you aren't the first person they've had drop phone (or fall) in water.

i mean sure... but apple's first promo image of the waterproof feature in iphone 7 is a guy falling into water, much like what happened to OP.

 

[AppleWes]

i mean sure... but apple's first promo image of the waterproof feature in iphone 7 is a guy falling into water, much like what happened to OP.

Lol... good catch, I didn't know they advertised it that same way

 

[newellj]

Apple advertises these phones as meeting a specific standard. It says nothing about "maybe" or "for a limited number of months" or other excuses. Other equipment manufacturers, including communication equipment, don't have the kinds of problems we frequently see reported here.

If Apple is going to claim that the iPhones meet this standard, they should back that advertising claim - a claim that they are using to sell phones, after all - with warranty coverage, period.

 

[JPack]

Apple advertises these phones as meeting a specific standard. It says nothing about "maybe" or "for a limited number of months" or other excuses.

“Splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear.”
​

It’s on all product specs pages.

 

[newellj]

“Splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear.”
​

It’s on all product specs pages.

It's frankly dishonest or worse.

The tech spec quoted on Apple's sales page is this:

Splash, Water, and Dust Resistant
Rated IP68 (maximum depth of 2 meters up to 30 minutes) under IEC standard 60529​

IP68 has specific meaning:

The '6' means:
Dust tight
No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust tight). A vacuum must be applied. Test duration of up to 8 hours based on air flow.

The '8' means:
Immersion, 1 m or more depth [duration and depth to be specified by manufacturer - as Apple has done]
The equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water under conditions which shall be specified by the manufacturer. However, with certain types of equipment, it can mean that water can enter but only in such a manner that it produces no harmful effects. The test depth and duration is expected to be greater than the requirements for IPx7, and other environmental effects may be added, such as temperature cycling before immersion.

In this specific case, the only thing missing is that immersion is generally tested in fresh water. Salt water is a different issue, and that's what the OP submerged his phone in.

 

[FFR]

i mean sure... but apple's first promo image of the waterproof feature in iphone 7 is a guy falling into water, much like what happened to OP.

Yes, but that wasn’t sea water.

It’s a big difference.

 

[44267547]

Apple advertises these phones as meeting a specific standard. It says nothing about "maybe" or "for a limited number of months" or other excuses. Other equipment manufacturers, including communication equipment, don't have the kinds of problems we frequently see reported here.

If Apple is going to claim that the iPhones meet this standard, they should back that advertising claim - a claim that they are using to sell phones, after all - with warranty coverage, period.

It’s a loop hole that these smart phone manufacturers all do, not just Apple. The problem is, average consumers don’t understand what water resistance really means, as they conflate it between ‘water proof versus water resistance’. Apples clarification is outlined, but not to the point where the marketing doesn’t actually match what they’re saying.

 

[JPack]

It's frankly dishonest or worse.

The tech spec quoted on Apple's sales page is this:

Splash, Water, and Dust Resistant
Rated IP68 (maximum depth of 2 meters up to 30 minutes) under IEC standard 60529​

IP68 has specific meaning:

The '6' means:
Dust tight
No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust tight). A vacuum must be applied. Test duration of up to 8 hours based on air flow.

The '8' means:
Immersion, 1 m or more depth [duration and depth to be specified by manufacturer - as Apple has done]
The equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water under conditions which shall be specified by the manufacturer. However, with certain types of equipment, it can mean that water can enter but only in such a manner that it produces no harmful effects. The test depth and duration is expected to be greater than the requirements for IPx7, and other environmental effects may be added, such as temperature cycling before immersion.

In this specific case, the only thing missing is that immersion is generally tested in fresh water. Salt water is a different issue, and that's what the OP submerged his phone in.

Gasket aging is not dealt with in the IP test. The test doesn't say anything about permanence.

The situation is similar to battery capacity. The capacity decreases over time and Apple states this in their footnotes.

Salt water has a higher surface tension than pure water. So this will help with water resistance in key areas like the speaker and mic where the iPhone relies on a fine mesh for water resistance.

 

[Kmart9419]

On vacation I accidentally fell into the sea with my iPhone X. It was just for a brief 20 seconds until I got out of the water. The iPhone continued working for a long period, but I noticed that my Face ID was currently unavailable. Later that evening, my iPhone died and I wanted to charge it. This was working fine, until I needed my iPhone, not knowing it was water damaged, I unplugged it causing it to die again a little later. From that moment, it wouldn't boot up anymore and it got stuck in a boot loop. Now, I realised that my phone was water damaged. I decided to put it in rice for a day. After that, I tried to boot it but it didn't do anything anymore, not even showing the apple logo. I was worried because of this and decided to let it rest a couple days more in the rice. After that, I charged it and it did boot up -> showed the apple logo -> then died again. I thought that my battery was damaged, so I decided to replace it myself. This fixed the problem of my iPhone dying but now it's just back in the boot loop. I stumbled on some YouTube videos and saw that the boot loop may be caused by some water in the connectors. I decided to clean all my connectors with isopropyl but unfortunately this didn't fix anything. I'm kind of worried now because even none apple repairs are really expensive in the area where I live and as a student I saved really long to just buy this phone, let alone buying a new one. Is there anything else I can do or try that may fix the problem? I do really appreciate the help! Thank you so much in advance.

Some sidenotes:
- the iPhone barely looks waterdamaged when I opened the phone
- I saw some vapor in the Face ID before I put in into rice, this is already gone

I had a similar experience this week out in Bermuda horseshoe beach. I stepped knee deep into the salty water to take pics with my iPhone X. Got some splashes on the phone which are no worse than light rain. Went back to beach chair and browsed for about ten minutes then it resetted and went into an apple bootloop with the logo going in and out every 3 seconds. After trying a few force reboots, I luckily got back into the phone and I promptly airdrop all my vacation photos into wife’s phone. Glad I did cause phone resetted shortly after and resumed the boot loop. Went back to ship and luckily i got back into the phone again and this time I performed an iCloud backup as well as google photos backup. And that was the last time I was able to access my phone.

I removed the SIM card to see if there was water damage and there wasn’t. There was no red stripe. I assume water damage came through the speaker ports or lightning port since it’s upside down in pocket.

I took the phone to the Genius Bar when I got back. Genius went through a few diagnostics and told me the issue is with the lightning/usb port or something like that. The whole time I was fully expecting to pay the $550 replacement charge. He went to the back often so we never got to the subject of water. He offered me a one time replacement free of charge. Safe to say I was blown away. He gave me a replacement N phone and not the refurbished f phone. He told me it was new. Couldn’t had been a better outcome.

However, apple’s advertising water resistance is baloney. I did have my display replaced from the touch issue recall. Perhaps the tech did a bad reseal? Either way, I will never take a chance with water on electronic devices ever again, regardless of manufacturer claims unless they will warrant water damage.

In your case, sounds like you have the same usb damage my phone had. Remove the battery and dip the bottom 1/4 of the phone in 99% isopropyl alcohol for a few hours. 99% alcohol will evaporate and dry up pretty quickly. Hopefully the soaking will remove the salt that is shorting out your circuits.

On a side note, I was planning on using the Apple Card for the replacement device if it came down to it for the 3% cash back. Was not a good experience. I obviously couldn’t use Apple Pay since phone is dead. I had the physical card locked since I wasn’t planning on using it ever. I called Goldman Sachs to unlock the physical card and was told it must be done on the device. Or use another apple device which only my wife has and would make a mess of settings and what not if I change her iCloud account to mine on her phone. So yeah, Apple Card was a disappointment. The Goldman reps should have the privilege and ability for standard customer service. 100% relying on a device that can die is stupid. I didn’t asks how I would pay my Apple Card balance since I was so annoyed with the rep. Not his fault but the whole experience sucked.

 

[44267547]

Remove the battery and dip the bottom 1/4 of the phone in 99% isopropyl alcohol for a few hours. 99% alcohol will evaporate and dry up pretty quickly. Hopefully the soaking will remove the salt that is shorting out your circuits.

This is a horrible advice and do _not_ do this OP. Telling the OP to disassemble the phone and remove the battery to dip it into isopropyl alcohol is absolutely useless. The corrosion from salt has already reached the logic board, there’s nothing that isopropyl alcohol can resolve at this point. Also, by removing the battery,/disassembling the phone, it just creates further problems for somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing in the first place, it’s better to let a third-party store to assess the situation or Apple directly.

 

[aldoF]

so had a somewhat similar experience, last year, while on my annual late summer getaway, I was at the pool and being that the X was advertised as being water resistant up to 3ft I ventured into the water with my brand new iPhone X to snap some pictures and of course it got wet, even dipped it in the water a little to prove a point, had no issues whatsoever and the pictures were awesome...never had an issue with my phone after that event.

Fast forward a year later, last week I was again at the same getaway and did the same routine with the same phone. It worked great, nice pictures and fun time, about 2 hours later I went to pay with applePay and the camera would not recognize me, I chucked it to something silly and went back to my room to reprogram it. I noticed my battery was almost gone so plugged it in to recharge and it suddenly went into the apple screen loop. I tried all kinds of combinations to try to get it out of it but nothing worked, two days later when I was on my way to the apple store I finally noticed some condensation on both front and rear cameras....I knew I was screwed then, if I had appleCare the replacement would have been $99 but of course I didn't have one so it was a cool $500+, funny thing is that the replacement phone is only warranted for 90 days and cannot buy any kind of coverage after that....way to stand behind your product!

So the lesson is, wear and tear does indeed take a toll on the device, perhaps I sat on it at some point but had no visible issues, perhaps a gasket wore out somewhere or the sealant wore off...not sure, all I know is that I'm never going near the water with my phone.

 

[Kmart9419]

This is a horrible advice and do _not_ do this OP. Telling the OP to disassemble the phone and remove the battery to dip it into isopropyl alcohol is absolutely useless. The corrosion from salt has already reached the logic board, there’s nothing that isopropyl alcohol can resolve at this point. Also, by removing the battery,/disassembling the phone, it just creates further problems for somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing in the first place, it’s better to let a third-party store to assess the situation or Apple directly.

Op already opened the phone. The phone is dead. What does he have to lose? Taking to repair shop will costs about $300 for water damage repair. Waste of time. If the solution doesn’t work, then put everything back and take to to Apple and pay for a replacement. That’s the last and final solution.
[doublepost=1567257473][/doublepost]

so had a somewhat similar experience, last year, while on my annual late summer getaway, I was at the pool and being that the X was advertised as being water resistant up to 3ft I ventured into the water with my brand new iPhone X to snap some pictures and of course it got wet, even dipped it in the water a little to prove a point, had no issues whatsoever and the pictures were awesome...never had an issue with my phone after that event.

Fast forward a year later, last week I was again at the same getaway and did the same routine with the same phone. It worked great, nice pictures and fun time, about 2 hours later I went to pay with applePay and the camera would not recognize me, I chucked it to something silly and went back to my room to reprogram it. I noticed my battery was almost gone so plugged it in to recharge and it suddenly went into the apple screen loop. I tried all kinds of combinations to try to get it out of it but nothing worked, two days later when I was on my way to the apple store I finally noticed some condensation on both front and rear cameras....I knew I was screwed then, if I had appleCare the replacement would have been $99 but of course I didn't have one so it was a cool $500+, funny thing is that the replacement phone is only warranted for 90 days and cannot buy any kind of coverage after that....way to stand behind your product!

So the lesson is, wear and tear does indeed take a toll on the device, perhaps I sat on it at some point but had no visible issues, perhaps a gasket wore out somewhere or the sealant wore off...not sure, all I know is that I'm never going near the water with my phone.

We both learned the hard way.