How to Eject Water From an iPhone Speaker

Does the iPhone have a water eject feature?

No. The Apple Watch has a water-clearing function, but the iPhone does not ship with one. Recent iPhones are water resistant, which means they are built to survive a splash or a short dunk, not that their speakers stay clear afterwards. Water still sits in the grille and muffles the sound until it is moved or dries out.

The practical answer is to play a low tone through the speaker yourself. You can do that with the water eject tool, which runs in Safari without installing anything.

Where the speakers are

An iPhone has two speakers, and it helps to know which one is wet.

• Bottom speaker. On the bottom edge, to one side of the charging port. The matching grille on the other side is a microphone and a vent, not a second speaker.
• Earpiece speaker. The slot at the top of the screen. On modern iPhones it also plays the other half of stereo sound, so a wet earpiece makes music sound lopsided as well as making calls quiet.

How to run the tone on an iPhone

1. Flip the ring/silent switch or Action button so the phone is not silenced, and turn the volume up fully with the side buttons.
2. Remove the case and disconnect AirPods or any Bluetooth speaker.
3. Open the tool, choose Eject water and press Start. Confirm the checklist.
4. Hold the phone with the bottom edge pointing straight down over a cloth.
5. When the cycle finishes, turn the phone so the earpiece points down and run it once more.

Three cycles in total is the limit. If the sound is still dull after that, the rest is a job for time rather than more noise.

The liquid alert in the charging port

If you plug in a cable and see a warning that liquid has been detected, the phone is protecting the connector from corrosion. Unplug the cable. Tap the phone gently against your hand with the port facing down, then leave it somewhere dry with moving air for at least thirty minutes before trying again. Wireless charging is fine in the meantime as long as the back of the phone is dry.

The tone does not clear the charging port. It only acts on the speakers.

What not to do

• Do not use rice. Apple’s own advice is against it. Small grains and dust can get into the ports and it dries the phone no faster than open air.
• Do not use a hair dryer or compressed air. Heat can damage seals and compressed air can drive water further in.
• Do not push anything into the grille. Cotton buds and toothpicks tear the mesh behind it.
• Do not keep running the tone. Long, loud, low tones can damage a small speaker.

If it still sounds muffled

Leave the phone face down on a cloth overnight and test again with a stereo sound test. If one speaker is still quiet the next day, or the phone was in salt water or a pool, follow the steps for a water-damaged phone and consider a repair appointment. The background on why the tone works at all is in the guide to how the water eject sound works.