Restoring data from a wet LG phone

August 26, 2011 5:29 PM

My son got his LG VX9200 phone wet. As in the bathroom, caught some spray from the shower, not under a constant stream or submerged. This morn, he turned it on, and now he only gets the Verizon screen...then flashes to all gray. and repeats that. The googlefu says put it in rice for a day to get the moisture out. It been in about 6-7 hours and no miracle cure. We are prepared for the fact he might need a new battery, or at worst a new phone, but the direst question he has, is will they be able to restore all his contacts/textx/messages? I thought Verizon did this for me once, they say "maybe", but he is convinced he has lost everything. tl:dr? Is there a way/a hack etc to get back the data off his phone?
posted by timsteil to technology (13 answers total)

Anything on the sim card- contacts if anything- might be possible. If the phone won't boot to the home screen (i.e. Functionally normal) there's basically no chance the store can do it.
posted by tremspeed at 5:34 PM on August 26, 2011

I don't know anything about technology, but my husband's phone fell in the ocean and though it died, everything on the sim card was fine.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:42 PM on August 26, 2011

I dropped my iPhone in the toilet once, completely submerged. (I'm glad it fell in before I peed.) The screen was completely wonky. I turned it of, I wrapped it in a small towel and and put it on a heating pad at its lowest setting overnight. I wanted to make sure it was completely dry inside but didn't want to bake it. It lasted 4 more years. I just got a new iPhone, after I dropped the toilet one off a balcony from the 18th floor. That did kill it but it still lit up when someone was trying to call me. YMMV.
posted by shoesietart at 5:45 PM on August 26, 2011

For next time: Get the battery out ASAP after exposure. Don't turn it on until you know that you know it's completely dry inside.
posted by ferdinand.bardamu at 6:42 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Verizon allows for free backup to the cloud that may have happened automatically for him. Log into your My Verizon home page and noodle around until you find your son's phone and see its features
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:43 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

JohnnyGunn is referring to the Verizon Backup Assistant - if he has that, all his contacts will be intact.
posted by SisterHavana at 7:05 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

For next time: Get the battery out ASAP after exposure. Don't turn it on until you know that you know it's completely dry inside.

This. Water + electricity = damage. Take the battery out and leave it in rice for several more days. I recently resurrected a camera this way after it took a swim in the lake.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:27 PM on August 26, 2011

6-7 hours is *definitely* not long enough to have the desired effect. Patience, young man!
posted by incessant at 9:02 PM on August 26, 2011

Leave it in the rice for 48 hours. No peaking. Try it then, or if you have a box full of those dessicant packets that come in damn near everything, that will work too.
posted by iamabot at 9:48 PM on August 26, 2011

SisterHavana: "JohnnyGunn is referring to the Verizon Backup Assistant - if he has that, all his contacts will be intact."

Thank you. I could not remember for the life of me what it was called, but I have had the need to use it unfortunately. It works.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:56 PM on August 26, 2011

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bitpim.org%2Fhelp%2Fphone-lgvx9200.htm&ei=cvxYTqrpLML50gHgwviUDA&usg=AFQjCNHez-bjGY_MR7EvhaeQl0w_W91H_A&sig2=12tjTNSYn5dpCrHn1ZD6rA
posted by oceanjesse at 7:18 AM on August 27, 2011

Sorry. You can get some things off with Bitpim. You will need a USB data cable. Here is a link.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:19 AM on August 27, 2011

This literally just happened with the same model phone to a friend of mine. My understanding is that if you have Verizon Backup Assistant (or whatever it's called), you'll be totally fine, but he didn't and I don't have Verizon, so I'm not sure how the Backup Assistant works. If you don't have the Backup Assistant, here's what I would suggest (no guarantees, obviously!). If you haven't already, take the battery OUT of the phone, and put both in a bowl of rice (or dessicant packets), covering both completely. After waiting a long time (24 hours maybe?), take both out and try again. The battery may need to be charged - we thought his phone was totally dead at this point until we struck on the idea of charging the battery. It worked! The screen was still too dark to see anything on, but the keys lit up, and he could even make calls with his speed-dial numbers. Verizon told him that if the keys light up, they can almost always retrieve your data. If your keys light up, go immediately to the Verizon store, and ask them to do what they call a "Phonebook Transfer". You need to have a new phone picked out, either from their store or off Ebay/Craigslist. Verizon told us that it's at the store's discretion as to whether or not they want to charge you for the Phonebook Transfer - if you buy another phone from them with another contract, it's usually free, but if you bring one in, some stores will charge you $10 or $20. Don't wait for a while after the keys light up to take it to the store for the Phonebook Transfer: in my friend's experience, the keys lit up for a few days when he turned the phone on (after the whole rice bowl drying thing), but then it stopped working. He hadn't realized it was urgent, and hadn't taken it in yet for the Transfer, and wasn't able to do it. He ordered a new battery for his old phone, in the hope that that will turn on the keys and he can do the Transfer, but better just to do it right away! Anyway, this is slightly jumbled, but I hope it helps!
posted by UniversityNomad at 8:34 AM on August 27, 2011 [1 favorite]