Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 6(S)/Plus Recover photos from drowned Iphone 6s

M

macca!

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2013
3
0
My sister in law's Iphone 6s has water damage. She splashed some water on the screen and wasn't aware of it, so was left like that for a few hours and is dead as a dodo. I've been tasked with sorting it out...
She had years worth of "precious" photos on there (I'm guessing mostly selfies....) and wasn't logged on to icloud. I tried drying it out in rice, using silica gel and took it to a shop that used a drying machine. Anything else? Can the memory chip be removed and soldered onto another Iphone's logic board?
 
I had a delivery service roll a truck into a river while carrying a laptop on its way to my company’s office. I opened it up. Exposed the innards and left it in my lan room in front of a rotating fan. Believe it or not, I tried it after about a week of 24hour/day exposure. It powered up. All i had to do was replace its “keep alive” battery and it worked ok. I had no confidence it would keep working, but if it had anything on it, i could have retrieved it. Good luck with your project.

Bob
 
Not sure I can help but the first question would be whether your sister in law has any backups of the phone in iTunes? If so even though these may not be up to date this would mean you'd have some of the photos at least (so don't lose any such backups).

If not, it's unlikely you can get the memory chip to work on another logic board (because of encryption apart from anything else). But the fail is more likely to be because of residue causing a parasitic short on the logic board (which you can try to clean with a Q-Tip and isopropyl alcohol, then let this dry before powering on) or try cleaning the connector, etc. There are also some on-line articles you can try some of which suggest the battery may be dead (so try charging including leaving for an hour or more in case this helps, after cleaning the connector).

Also, after charging, what happened if you plug the phone into a computer - is it recognized as a device or not? On it's own this won't let you access the data without unlocking and responding on the phone (which you can't easily do) but this will tell you if it's alive.

Otherwise you may want to ask a repair shop in case they can try a different battery and/or different display in case these are the issues. I would remove the SIM card before giving the phone to a repair shop though.
 
macca! said:
My sister in law's Iphone 6s has water damage. She splashed some water on the screen and wasn't aware of it, so was left like that for a few hours and is dead as a dodo. I've been tasked with sorting it out...
She had years worth of "precious" photos on there (I'm guessing mostly selfies....) and wasn't logged on to icloud. I tried drying it out in rice, using silica gel and took it to a shop that used a drying machine. Anything else? Can the memory chip be removed and soldered onto another Iphone's logic board?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't waste time on it. If she hasn't got a backup hand it back or suggest she makes her own arrangements to send the phone off to get the pictures of her dinners & selfies back as they can be recovered by people who know what they are doing.
 
Steve121178 said:
I wouldn't waste time on it. If she hasn't got a backup hand it back or suggest she makes her own arrangements to send the phone off to get the pictures of her dinners & selfies back as they can be recovered by people who know what they are doing.
Click to expand...

Who would you suggest then to extract images from a locked down iPhone that you have had success with or know someone who had them extracted?
 
you can try to put the logic board into a glass of isopropyl alcohol (the higher % the better) over night. then let dry for at least 24 hours before putting back together. and dont use the rice method. it may introduce electrically conductive particles. just let air dry.

oh and clean all connectors with alcohol and some kitchen paper towels. you can put the display into the alcohol as well, if it is heavily water damaged. theoretically you can put everything but the battery into alcohol. it might make the display look funny, but it should theoretically at least work after the procedure, if it was not damaged too much in the first place.
 
Last edited:
ericwn said:
Who would you suggest then to extract images from a locked down iPhone that you have had success with or know someone who had them extracted?
Click to expand...

Google it and find someone local. It's possible with the right equipment as the images are simply stored on chips which are 100% recoverable.
 
Steve121178 said:
Google it and find someone local. It's possible with the right equipment as the images are simply stored on chips which are 100% recoverable.
Click to expand...

That is if the device / chip still mounts as a camera, right? Because any other scenario and the user would have to extract secure information which is very difficult if not impossible as you need to get past the secure token thingy in iOS.
I guess the OP can contact any 3rd party data rescuer company in their area to see what they suggest.
 
AustinIllini said:
Use multiple backup solutions. I use Google Photos and Apple Photos. Loss of phone data should be a non-issue today.
Click to expand...

She's 17. Not that, that's an excuse, but anyway I'm guessing she will backup now.

Phone is dead, plugging it into a computer, nothing happens, doesn't appear at all as a camera or flash drive.
 
macca! said:
She's 17. Not that that's an excuse, but anyway I'm guessing she will backup now.

Phone is dead, plugging it into a computer, nothing happens, doesn't appear at all as a camera or flash drive.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that it's still dead. But even if she didn't intentionally backup, if the phone was ever connected to iTunes on a computer for iOS update or music sync then there may be a backup under "Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup" under her home directory, so you might want to check the date of any directories under this Backup directory.

Otherwise your options are to try isopropyl alcohol to clean off any residue on connectors and the logic board, or (after this) try charging for at least 1-2 hours in case the battery is dead, and/or take this to an iPhone repair shop for them to try other options such as a different battery or screen. Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: macca!
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back