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iphone took a swim, want to sell, but I have "sensitive" photos on there

JPIndustrie said:
Pics or it didn't happen. Just kidding. ;)

You said you plugged into the computer, which program are you referring to that's viewing the pics, iTunes or something else like Windows Scanners/Cameras wizard?

If it's something else, for example - Windows Scanners + cameras wizard has the option to clear the phone once you import. Try that, and then plug it back in again to verify the pics have been cleared.


You can also try a restore (that will definitely clear it, because it loads the whole OS again) but if you're having issues with the phone turning on, a restore may not take all the way and you could end up with a paperweight you can't sell.
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ok so I have a macbook so it has itunes and iphotos. I just plugged in my iphone and the whole screen popped up. I used the phone to manually delete all my texts and after that I used my mac iphoto to download every single photo on my iphone to my mac, I also pressed the "delete original" button and all the photos disappeared on the iphone.

I could see everything on my iphone after I unplugged it from itunes. and I could press the little app buttons but the phone wont power off :/ also the screen is way dark, but I can't see if water actually got on the screen

so do you all think that the photos are permanently deleted?

There is NO WAY in hell I want to sell this phone if there is ANY way those photos can be pulled up. I am in med school and planning on going into public policy public health one day and I don't want to have my body/face or anything personal out there. is there a way I can download my contact list on to my mac and restore the whole thing and delete everything (including my calendar, notes, etc.)

I put the iphone in a pair of thin nylon stockings (so that rice wont get into the little headset, charger area and buried the whole thing in a jar full of uncooked long grain rice. I read somewhere else that heat helps this process... so is it a good idea to stick the jar in my car (it gets hot during the day)
ok please keep in mind that

1) I know very little about electronics and computers

2) I want to take it apart but have no idea how to go about doing this... so should I even bother

3) I read somewhere that you should soak it in alcohol before drying it because the corrosion from the water will wear down the photo quickly even if it starts working... especially since it was chlorinated water from the pool

any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Secretly I am crossing my fingers that my dad never upgraded and I have an excuse to drop $200 on the new iphone!!!
 
btw, I just read my original post and noticed all my weird grammar mistakes... sorry everyone, I typed this up at like 6:45 in the morning cuz I couldn't go to sleep and kept having dreams about my iphone... pretty sad but funny
 
well - if someone wanted them bad enough - they could get them. I would just keep it and upgrade to the new 3GS that is coming on the 19th. I would never sell the phone given the info that you provided us here.
 
I wouldn't take a risk, even if you wiped it. Just keep it. It was dropped in a pool, it has little value anyway and the repercussions outweigh the $200 you might get. Since you can use your dad's upgrade, you aren't out much anyway.
 
uberamd said:
I wouldn't take a risk, even if you wiped it. Just keep it. It was dropped in a pool, it has little value anyway and the repercussions outweigh the $200 you might get. Since you can use your dad's upgrade, you aren't out much anyway.
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good point.

is there any way I can at least attempt to fix this? soak it in alcohol and open it up? that way I can use it as backup phone or give it to my mom or SOMETHING?
 
lolahere said:
ok so I have a macbook so it has itunes and iphotos. I just plugged in my iphone and the whole screen popped up. I used the phone to manually delete all my texts and after that I used my mac iphoto to download every single photo on my iphone to my mac, I also pressed the "delete original" button and all the photos disappeared on the iphone.
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The fact that you were even able to do this is a good sign. I think there's a fair chance that the phone can be fixed. But you need to stop using it!

Turn it off, and either try the rice idea or put the phone near a low but constant source of heat for a good week. Don't touch it, don't use it, forgot you even have it for the week. Good luck
 
uberamd said:
I wouldn't take a risk, even if you wiped it. Just keep it. It was dropped in a pool, it has little value anyway and the repercussions outweigh the $200 you might get. Since you can use your dad's upgrade, you aren't out much anyway.
Click to expand...

I would agree, you’ve already spent the money to buy both phones, why risk that someday these pictures COULD be floating around the internet?
 
lolahere said:
good point.

is there any way I can at least attempt to fix this? soak it in alcohol and open it up? that way I can use it as backup phone or give it to my mom or SOMETHING?
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Put it on your desk and use it as a very classy looking paper weight, and consider yourself saved from potential scandal down the road.
 
lolahere said:
2) I want to take it apart but have no idea how to go about doing this... so should I even bother
Click to expand...
When I did mine, I just took the cover off, the battery out, the sim out, basically anything easily removable and left it at that. (like I said it was a nokia though)

lolahere said:
3) I read somewhere that you should soak it in alcohol before drying it because the corrosion from the water will wear down the photo quickly even if it starts working... especially since it was chlorinated water from the pool
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The corrosion will kill it eventually, but as long as it is working long enough to wipe the phone that shouldn't be a problem anyway
 
Couldn't she just put the iPhone in DFU mode (recovery mode) and just restore the 2.2.1 firmware?

That would overwrite everything.
 
lolahere said:
Ok so please don't laugh at me, but basically I am a dumbass... ok go ahead and laugh :p


Anyway, I have an iphone 3g 16GB and so last night I went for a swim and needed to time myself so i had my phone sitting at the edge of the pool. I am very careful w/ it (have it in a hard case, skin covers the screen blah blah, well of course my dumb ass ends up knocking it into the pool the moment that I actually climb OUT of the pool. So yeah, it was in the water for a good 3 seconds or so. I dry it off right away and being the ditzy girl that I am I come home and attempt to try it on and off and get it to work over and over again... later on I come to find out you're not supposed to do any of this when you get electronics into water :(

at first I could still see everything on my screen. I clicked the calendar box and all of my stuff was still on there, contact list was there but the screen was just way darker, anyways I read on here to attempt to put some heat on it. So I take the sim card out and basically take my blow dryer to it and I also put it on top of my toaster oven for like 2 hours at low heat. At this point the apple logo keep appearing on the screen but I can no longer see all of the stuff on my screen, the apple logo appears and it goes away

towards the end of the night my fiance finds out what happened and he attempts to turn it on a few more times and I yell at him about it.

leave the phone there till morning and the fog has disappeared from the camera lens. i try to click on and nothing happens.

I am assuming that I short circuited it either by 1) the water itself or 2) trying to turn it on and off afterwards

I have taken good care of this phone and I can most likely get a new one because my dad loves his phone and has not upgraded, so I can basically just use his upgrade to buy the new iphone that's coming out... and I also saw that on ebay you can sell water damaged iphones for between $150-250

the ONLY thing that I am worried about is this... I am kind of a gym rat so starting about 2 months ago I started taking some naked pix of myself in the mirror just to check out my progress on certain areas of my body that I am working on. Nothing too racy but still I am naked in the pix, and on the rest of the photos there are regular pix of myself........ so i don't want to sell the phone if anyone will be ever able to pull up the pix. is this a possibility? how can i make sure that the pix are totally wiped out before I sell it?

ok you may all proceed to laugh now and call me a dumb ass

thanks!
Click to expand...

submerge the phone in about 5 lbs of rice (put the iphone in the middle). and let it sit there for a few days. the rice should act as a dessicant and remove all the water from inside the phone. hopefully should bring your phone back to good as new condition.
 
lolahere said:
There is NO WAY in hell I want to sell this phone if there is ANY way those photos can be pulled up.
Click to expand...

Based on this sentence I wouldn't sell it. While the odds are low that anyone would be able to recover your deleted photos the POSSIBILITY is still there.

Ask yourself this. Is the amount of money you could make worth the peace of mind you'll lose wondering if your photos are out there someplace?

Money is nice, but it's not always worth it. Destroy the phone and upgrade to a new one. You'll sleep better. =)
 
venasque said:
Based on this sentence I wouldn't sell it. While the odds are low that anyone would be able to recover your deleted photos the POSSIBILITY is still there.

Ask yourself this. Is the amount of money you could make worth the peace of mind you'll lose wondering if your photos are out there someplace?

Money is nice, but it's not always worth it. Destroy the phone and upgrade to a new one. You'll sleep better. =)
Click to expand...

True. Done and done
 
I couldn't gather from your posts but if you have the 2.0 firmware (or later, which you should have because its a 3g) and you can still see the screen just do a "content and settings" reset. It will take over an hour, because it will overwrite your flash mem with random characters and completely zero it out.

You'll hear tales of NASA scientists cracking open your phone and bringing it into their Level 1 CleanRoom and recover data using reverse osmosis and alien technology, but the truth is that 99 percent of people don't know how to do this , and of the 1 percent that do, 99% don't care or wouldn't want to use it for malicious purposes, especially when there are girls willing to show "the goods" for free anyway, resulting in a lot less effort.

If you want peice of mind don't sell the phone, but don't let the forum members prod you into thinking that the average joe can retrieve data off a phone that's been through the above mentioned erase process.


See this : http://www.intomobile.com/2008/06/2...ta-iphone-20-os-offers-data-wipe-feature.html
 
lolahere said:
True. Done and done
Click to expand...


If you've destroyed your phone just because there are a few pictures of you in the buff on it (that no one but you cares about!) then you are nuts!

Unless you have 3 breasts or some sort of mutation that makes you any different than the other 50% of the population of the world, you haven't got anything that hasn't been seen before!! Get a grip.... and if you happen to find any pictures of me naked.... good for you.
 
UPDATE: took it to the apple store and the girl working the help desk took a look at the spot in the headphone jack and also at the bottom (where you plug the phone in to charge) and she said there's a strip in there that turns red to indicate water damage :/

the phone screen is all dark still, but I was able to make calls, and pull things off of it. I backed everything up, restored factory settings... screen is all dark still :(

I guess I am going to be stuck having to shell out $199 and use my dad's upgrade to get a new phone... not toooo bad, I mean I do get to play with the new iphone... hopefully it wont be anywhere near a pool or jacuzzi. I am NEVER going to take my phone near water ever again!!
 
oh i have one more question.

Okay so I pressed the back up button and it backed up everything before I restored factory settings.

If i get a new iphone and plug it into my macbook is it going to recognize it and allow me to put my backed up stuff on to the new iphone?
 
You might just try replacing the LCD/screen assembly, about $120 on eBay and about a 15min to swap it out.
 
lolahere said:
doing it as we speak :) I buried it in a jar covered with rice and put the jar in my car so it also gets some heat. we'll see ;)

at least I can call out on it
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leave it there for at least 2-3 days (undisturbed). you don't need the heat. it should work.
 
lolahere said:
oh i have one more question.

Okay so I pressed the back up button and it backed up everything before I restored factory settings.

If i get a new iphone and plug it into my macbook is it going to recognize it and allow me to put my backed up stuff on to the new iphone?
Click to expand...

yes. make sure you put your old sim card in the phone first though.
 
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