Things you need to do if your Samsung Galaxy J3 fell in water and won’t turn on after that [Troubleshooting Guide]

Smartphone and water don’t mix well. If by any chance your phone got submerged in water, the latter always wins. We did receive a few emails from our readers complaining about their #Samsung Galaxy J3 (#GalaxyJ3) units that got submerged in water and failed to turn on after the incident. Such issue is most likely to happen since the phone isn’t water-resistant, although a splash may not cause some serious issues.

However, when your unit got submerged in water and failed to work properly after that, it’s obvious that water found its way into your device and messed up some components. As an average user, you are not advised to open your phone up as the warranty will surely become void. Instead, there are some things you can do on the outside that may prevent your phone from getting damaged seriously. Go through the steps below to understand why you need to do such things.

But before anything else, if you have other issues with your Galaxy J3, drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed several issues reported by our readers. Odds are that there are already existing solutions to your problems. So try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions and troubleshooting guides we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire to contact us.

Troubleshooting Galaxy J3 that won’t turn on due to liquid damage

This troubleshooting guide is basically just a procedure to minimize collateral water damage. We may be able to bring the phone back to its original state and performance but there’s no guarantee. But that’s not important for now, what’s necessary is we can prevent further damage. So, without further adieu, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Remove the battery right away

After you fished the phone out of the water, remove the back cover and then pull the battery out immediately to prevent possible short circuits that may cause a lot of trouble to any electronic device, in this case, your Galaxy J3.

After pulling the battery out, use a clean, dry cloth to wipe off water residue on the battery’s connectors. Do NOT place the battery back in yet, instead proceed with the next step. I understand your phone no longer turns on after being submerged in water but don’t mistake it with low battery because that, obviously, isn’t the case. Therefore, never make the blunder of charging your phone because that will surely result to a more serious issue and might damage the phone for good. Remember, short-circuits may cause explosions in electronic devices and batteries do explode; I’ve seen it personally. So, beware!

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Step 2: Remove the SIM and SD cards

They can also get damaged by liquid, so to prevent that from happening, remove both the SIM card and the SD card after you’ve removed the battery. This way, you can be sure that they won’t be affected by liquid damage on your phone.

It’s also recommended you wipe off their connectors as well so as to make sure that water can’t damage them even if they’re no longer inserted into your phone.

Step 3: Bury the phone in a bowl of rice

You may not have known it yet but rice is actually one of the best absorbents. Burying your phone in it for a couple of days will get rid of water residue that may have entered the device’s openings. What you need to do is position the phone upright while being buried in the grains of rice. Leave it there for a couple of days to make sure liquid will be absorbed. Once you’ve done this, you may proceed with the next step.

Step 4: Place the battery back in and attempt to turn the phone on

Only after you’re sure that you’ve gotten rid of the water residue in your phone that you’d have to do this. Place the battery back in, secure it with the back cover and then attempt to turn the phone on. Had the water residue been absorbed by rice grains, the phone should turn on without any issues. Otherwise, it’s an indication that liquid may have messed up the device so bad that these procedures don’t work.

Step 5: Attempt to charge the phone just to see if it responds

You have to do this to know if your phone responds when it detects electric current is flowing through its circuits. If it does charge but won’t turn on, then leave it charging until it reaches 100% but make sure to check if it’s heating up or not because if it does, unplug it from the charger right away.

RELATED POST: How to fix your Samsung Galaxy J3 that won’t turn on [Troubleshooting Guide]

Step 6: Send it in for checkup and/or repair

If your Galaxy J3 is still not turning on after you did all the steps above, then it’s time you sent it in for repair or you can bring it to the store where you bought it so that a technician can check on it. As far as troubleshooting is concerned, you’ve already done everything an average user can do to prevent further damage.

On the other hand, if the phone turns on but won’t charge or some of its features are no longer working, you have to do the master reset first before sending it in for repair. Here’s how you reset your J3:

1. Power off your Galaxy J3. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up button and then press and hold the Home key. While holding both, press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Android logo appears on the screen, release all three keys. It may take a minute before the Android recovery screen appears.
4. While on Android recovery screen, use the Volume Down key to highlight options, in this case, highlight the option ‘wipe data/factory reset.’
5. Press the Power key to choose the highlighted option.
6. Press  the Volume Down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ option is highlighted.
7. Press the Power key to confirm the reset.
8. Once the reset is complete, press the Power key to choose ‘Reboot system now.’
9. The phone will restart a little longer than usual and the reset is finished.

I am hoping that this troubleshooting guide can help you fix the problem or somehow prevent the problem from getting worse.

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