A popular method for removing water from an iPhone has been debunked by Apple along with a widely followed hack for prolonging battery life.
According to official documents released this year from Apple, the tech giant specifically advises iPhone owners not to ‘put your phone in a bag of rice’.
The theory goes that the dry rice will draw out and absorb any water if a phone has been submerged but Apple said it is not more effective than allowing the device to dry in the open and that the rice particles could in fact damage the phone.
Apple also explained that users who try to squeeze out more minutes of charge from their batteries by closing background apps are actually draining more battery.
Apps which are put into background mode are paused in the phone’s RAM which does not drain battery and allows them to easily resume. The phone maker said clearing background apps uses more charge as it drains battery when they reopen.
A wet iPhone should be left to air-dry Apple has said, correcting the myth that dry rice will draw out more moisture
Apple said the hard rice particles could actually damage connectors in the lightning port, scratch the screen or get lodged in the device
Recent iPhone models are all waterproof which should prevent damage to components if dropped in water, however, they also have a feature alerting users that charging is disabled if water is detected in the lightning cable port.
Apple said users should follow these three steps if they get this alert on their phone.
First, tap the phone gently on your hand with the connector facing down to remove excess liquid.
Next, the phone should then be left in the open to dry where there is airflow.
Users can check if charging is enabled after 30 minutes but it could take up to 24 hours to completely dry.
After a day if the phone will not charge, disconnect the cable from the phone and wall and reconnect them.
If you are stuck with a ‘liquid detected’ warning, the best thing to do is disconnect your phone from the charger and give the phone at least half an hour to dry
The company said inserting cloth or cotton swabs into the connector port could damage the metal pins, as could rice particles.
For those looking to improve battery life, Apple said a more effective way than closing background apps is to switch off ‘background app refresh’ in the settings.
Location services can also be switched off to use less battery.
The phone screen brightness is also another battery hog and dimming the screen or using dark mode in apps will help a phone stay charged for longer.
Heat can also affect the battery so it’s best to not leave a phone in direct sunlight, but the manufacturer said leaving it plugged in to charge overnight is generally fine as the software will turn off charging if the phone gets too warm.
