My wife accidentally took her iPhone 16 into a pool for about five minutes. She removed it and let it dry for roughly two hours, then plugged it in to charge. The phone stopped working completely. A carrier store said it was not recoverable, so we bought a replacement phone and transferred everything that had been backed up. Unfortunately, we discovered that around four years of photos, from 2022 through 2026, were missing because the phone had exceeded its original cloud-storage limit and was not fully backed up.
We sent the damaged phone to a professional data-recovery company. They quoted $1,500, payable only if they successfully recover the data, but they would not explain what work would be required beyond saying that it was a water-damage recovery. Is that a normal price for this kind of iPhone recovery, or does it sound excessive? Would it be possible to repair or transfer components myself using another motherboard, or would that risk permanently destroying the photos?
4 Answers
The phone’s water resistance does not make charging it while wet safe. Pool exposure, seals, age, and especially power being applied while moisture remains inside can all cause shorts and corrosion. For the future, keep important photos backed up in at least two places, such as cloud storage plus a computer or external drive. For this phone, stop powering it on and avoid repeated charging attempts while you look for a qualified repair or recovery service.
This is not a realistic DIY repair unless you already have advanced board-repair skills, a microscope, hot-air equipment, and experience with encrypted Apple hardware. Swapping only the storage chip is generally not enough because it is tied to other components, including the processor. A damaged phone may need its original board repaired just long enough to boot and make a backup. Trying random parts or moving chips could permanently destroy the data.
The safest approach is to preserve the original board and let a specialist diagnose it first. Even if a replacement board fits physically, it will not necessarily be able to decrypt the original data.
The price can be legitimate, but it depends heavily on the damage and the recovery process. If the board only needs component-level repair, it may cost less, but severe corrosion could require extensive microsoldering or moving paired components to another board. That is specialized work, and one mistake can make the storage unrecoverable. I would get quotes from several reputable specialists and ask what diagnostic steps and procedures are included before authorizing anything.
The frustrating part is that this company would only say “water damage is $1,500” and would not explain what they had actually diagnosed. I’m going to compare them with other specialists before deciding.
A successful-recovery price around $1,000 or more is common for difficult phone data recovery, although cheaper repairs are possible when the damage is limited. The important issue is transparency: a reputable shop should explain the likely work, whether there is a diagnostic fee, what happens if recovery fails, and whether you receive the recovered files on another drive. Do not approve an unexplained flat fee without checking the company’s reputation and recovery terms.
It was underwater for about five minutes, and the phone probably would have had a better chance if it had not been plugged in after only two hours of drying. Unfortunately, we did not realize the backup had stopped because the cloud storage was full.