Your phone got wet on holiday: what to do, step by step

The first five minutes

Apple's instructions for a wet iPhone are short. Wipe it with a soft, lint-free cloth, such as a lens cloth. Tap it gently against your hand with the charging connector facing down to get the water out of the port. Then leave it somewhere dry with some airflow; Apple adds that a fan blowing cool air straight into the connector might help. Do not push a cotton bud or a twist of paper towel into the port, and make sure the phone is dry before you open the SIM tray.

Samsung splits its advice in two. A water-resistant Galaxy can stay on. An older Galaxy without water resistance should be switched off at once, with the SIM card, memory card and any removable battery taken out, wiped with a dry cloth and taken to a Samsung service centre. Samsung says not to switch that kind of phone back on before it has been inspected.

On a beach, the cloth may be the hardest part. A dry cotton T-shirt is closer to what the manufacturers describe than a sandy towel.

Sea, pool and sand are not the same as a splash

Water resistance is tested in a lab with fresh water, and the manufacturers are clear about its limits. Apple lists the things to avoid: swimming or bathing with the iPhone, high-velocity water such as surfing or jet skiing, saunas and steam rooms, and dropping it. It also says resistance is not permanent and can decrease with normal wear, so a phone that survived a dunk two years ago is not a guarantee for this one.

Salt and chlorine are what make a dip on holiday different. Samsung's advice for a water-resistant Galaxy that has been in dirty water or other liquids is to rinse it in clean water for 1 to 3 minutes to remove residue, salt or foreign materials, then dry it completely. Apple asks you to clean an iPhone straight away if it touches sand, sunscreen, insect repellent or other substances, following its cleaning instructions, and to avoid direct contact with larger particles like sand. A phone that lands on the beach after the sea needs both: the salt and the grit out of the ports.

Charging: wait longer than you want to

This is where a wet phone usually gets damaged for good. Apple says to unplug every cable and not charge until the iPhone is completely dry, and to allow at least 5 hours before charging with a cable or connecting an accessory. Recent iPhones can show a liquid-detection alert when they find water in the connector. In that case Apple says to unplug both ends of the cable, try again after at least 30 minutes, and expect it to take up to 24 hours to dry fully if the alert keeps coming back. There is an emergency option to override the alert and charge anyway, meant for real emergencies, not for an early dinner reservation.

Samsung says the same in fewer words: do not connect a charger or accessories until the device is fully dry. If you need the phone in the meantime, a battery pack will not help either, since it plugs into the same wet port. Borrowing a travel companion's phone for the evening is the safer bet.

Rice, hair dryers and a hot balcony

The bag of rice is the advice everyone hears first, and Apple says plainly not to use it: small particles of rice can get inside and damage the iPhone. Apple also rules out drying it with an external heat source or compressed air. Samsung says not to use heat sources such as hair dryers, and not to use compressed air either.

On holiday, heat is easy to find by accident. The hotel hair dryer, a radiator, the dashboard of a hire car or a balcony table in full sun all count. Shade, a breeze and time are slower but they are what both manufacturers recommend.

It works again, but the speaker sounds muffled

That is normal for a while. Apple says water in the port might degrade speaker or microphone performance until it evaporates, and suggests placing the iPhone speaker-side down on a lint-free cloth to see if any water drips out. Samsung notes that call quality may suffer until the microphone, speaker and receiver are completely dry.

Samsung also recommends having the phone inspected at a service centre even if it seems to work normally, because corrosion can show up later. Keep the cost in mind before you book that appointment: Apple states that liquid damage is not covered under its warranty, although you may still have rights under consumer law.

If it does not come back: keeping the trip going

• Your usual SIM: once the phone is dry, a physical SIM can go into a spare or borrowed phone, so calls and bank texts still reach you.
• Your operator's eSIM: it can usually be issued again by your operator for another phone.
• A prepaid travel eSIM: it stays on the phone it was installed on, so ask your provider what it can do before buying a new plan.
• Tickets and bookings: copies saved in your email or cloud storage can be opened from any phone or laptop.

How to move your operator's eSIM is covered in our guide to transferring an eSIM. The phone also holds the passport scans and boarding passes, a good reason to keep copies elsewhere before you travel, as in keeping travel documents offline. If the phone is gone for good, the steps for locking accounts are the same as in our lost or stolen phone guide.