iPhone left in the cold

[starswept]

I came home from work today and about half an hour later couldn't locate my iPhone. I used Find my iPhone, and it showed my phone was in the house and I played a sound multiple times but couldn't hear it anywhere, searching the house high and low. After awhile the phone stopped showing as online and I could no longer get it to play a sound. Eventually I went out to check if it was in my car, and found the phone lying in the snow on the driveway. It must have fallen out of my bag when I came home. I estimate it was out there 1.5 hours in total. It's about -8 Celsius (18 F) here today. The phone was in a case (the Casemate Tough Xtreme), and had died when I found it. I brought it in, removed the case in case there was any moisture on the phone (which there didn't seem to be except in the camera area since that's not covered by the case), and now have it wrapped in a microfiber cloth to warm up a bit.

Any recommendations on next steps to try and get it working again without inflicting damage? I'm not sure whether I should just go ahead and plug it in and turn it on. There are a lot of tutorials on what to do for wet phones, but not phones exposed to the cold. Thank you!

 

[Intell]

Slowly let it warm to room temperature again before you start charging it. Do not warm it up quickly or charge it when cold.

 

[starswept]

Slowly let it warm to room temperature again before you start charging it. Do not warm it up quickly or charge it when cold.

Great, thank you. I wasn't sure if I should try any of the more elaborate stuff people do for wet phones, like the 'putting it in rice' technique. Hopefully moisture from the snow didn't get in :/

 

[eastercat]

If you think it's wet, it can't hurt to put it in rice. Thank goodness you had it in a case.

Great, thank you. I wasn't sure if I should try any of the more elaborate stuff people do for wet phones, like the 'putting it in rice' technique. Hopefully moisture from the snow didn't get in :/

 

[The Doctor11]

Well it is normal it died in the snow. Cold kills battery. And well that's about it as already said let it warm up and charge it.

 

[starswept]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I let it get back up to room temp, then plugged it in and it seems to be working fine. Interestingly the battery level was right where it was before I lost track of it, so I guess it just shuts off when it gets very cold but the battery isn't actually drained.