How to Recover Photos from a Water Damaged iPhone Without Backup

authorPic

By Anna Sherry

2025-03-25 / iPhone Recovery

Rate now!

The latest iPhone models are offering strong water resistance, but they can still be water damaged. Sometimes such damage can wipe out photos and other data from the iPhone. The situation becomes even worse when you don't have a backup to recover the lost photos.

If you are stuck in this situation, don't panic. There are now effective ways to recover photos from water damaged iPhone without backup. That's what this article is all about.

Today, we will first look into the chances of photos recovery from water damage and then present the steps to get back photos without backup.

recover photos from water damaged iphone without backup

Part 1: Can Photos Be Recovered from Water Damaged iPhone?

Yes, there is a strong possibility that you can have iPhone photo recovery after water damage. However, the success rate depends on the extent of the damage. If the internal components remain intact, you will be able to eventually recover the lost data. Head to the next part to learn the essential steps to take to maximize recovery chances.

Part 2: Immediate Actions to Maximize Recovery Chances

Your actions after the iPhone's water damage define your recovery chances. Some of the immediate actions you should take include:

Step 1: Dry & Stabilize the iPhone

The first thing you need to do is make your iPhone dry and stabilize. To do so:

  • Turn off your device immediately.
  • Remove all accessories to avoid trapping the water.
  • Remove the SIM cards.
  • Dry the surface using a dry cloth.
  • Place the iPhone in a container filled with silica gel packets to absorb internal moisture.

Step 2: Check for Residual Functionality

Once your iPhone is dry, the next step is to check its residual functionality:

  • Inspect for physical damage, such as corrosion, discoloration, etc.
  • Power on your iPhone briefly and test the hardware components, such as buttons, screen, cameras, etc.
  • Evaluate your software performance and observe any unusual behavior, such as unresponsive apps, system crashes, etc.
  • Check the built-in liquid contact indicator (LCI), which is usually located in the SIM card slot. Remove the SIM card slot and see LCI. If it's red, it indicates liquid exposure.

Part 3: Recover Photos from Water Damaged iPhone without Backup

Now that you have taken immediate actions, let's shift our focus on how to get photos off water damaged iPhone without backup. Below, we have shortlisted the two best recovery methods:

Method 1: Use Data Recovery Software

When photos are lost due to water damage, they are mostly still intact with the internal storage but are inaccessible. So, a deep scan of your iPhone storage can help you pull out the photos. That's exactly what you can do with UltData iPhone Data Recovery.

UltData iPhone Data Recovery is a powerful iPhone data recovery tool that can extract lost photos and other data from an iPhone through a deep storage scan. Its deep scanning algorithms can intelligently pull lost photos from your water damaged iPhone and then lets you preview and restore all or selective files.

The key features of UltData iPhone Data Recovery include:

  • Recover photos from minor to severe water damaged iPhone without backup.
  • Extract all recoverable photos with deep scanning.
  • Preview-based recovery of selective photos.
  • Click-based, intuitive interface with no learning curve.
  • Recover data beyond photos, such as videos, documents, audio, messages, contacts, and more.
  • Compatible with almost all old and latest iPhone models, including support for the latest iPhone 16 series.

Follow the below steps to learn how to get photos from water damaged iPhone:

  • Install and run UltData iPhone Data Recovery on your Windows or Mac computer. Click "iPhone/iPad Data Recovery" from the home screen.
  • selecting iphone/ipad data recovery
  • Link your computer and iPhone using a USB cable.
  • connecting iphone to computer via usb cable
  • From the list of file types to recover, click "Photos" and any other file type to retrieve. Afterward, click "Scan" to start scanning.
  • selecting the data types to scan
  • After the scan, you can preview and select the photos to get back. Afterward, click "Recover to PC" to save them on your computer.
  • preview-based recovery

    That's all! This way, you can effortlessly scan, preview, and recover photos from water damaged iPhone without backup.

Method 2: Extract iCloud Cache from Computer

Another way for iPhone photo recovery after water damage is through extracting iCloud cache from the computer. If you have enabled iCloud Photo Library, your photos should be getting synced. This means that you can extract the iCloud cache directly to your computer.

Follow the below steps on how to recover photos from water damaged iPhone by extracting iCloud cache:

  • Open Chrome, Safari, or any other web browser on your computer and go to the iCloud.com website.
  • Sign in using your Apple ID credentials.
  • sign in to icloud using apple credentials
  • Click the "Photos" option from the main dashboard. It will display all the photos stored in your iCloud account, including those synced from your iPhone.
  • Browse and select the photos to recover. Lastly, click the "Download" button.
  • download photos from icloud photos

    That's it! This way, you can smartly use iCloud cache to extract lost photos from the iPhone.

To Sum Up

A water damaged iPhone is frustrating, but what's even more terrifying is the loss of important photos. From the above discussion, we can conclude that you can recover photos from water damaged iPhone without backup if you act promptly. You have to take the immediate actions to prevent the damage and then use UltData iPhone Data Recovery to smoothly get photos off water damaged iPhone.

FAQs about Get Photos off Water Damaged iPhone

Q1: Does putting a wet iPhone in rice help recovery?

The theory is that the dry, absorbent rice can help suck the moisture from the wet iPhone. However, experts have warned against it with proof through many tests that show it doesn't work. In fact, Apple is now also warning users to avoid using this technique, as the small grain particles can further damage the device.

Q2: Can I recover photos if my water-damaged iPhone is stuck on the Apple logo?

Yes, there is a chance that you can recover photos even if a water-damaged iPhone is stuck on the Apple logo. In this scenario, you can recover photos using a reliable iPhone data recovery tool or seek help from professional data recovery services. Besides that, you can also recover photos by restoring iCloud or iTunes backups.

Q3: How to get photos off a water-damaged iPhone for free?

The best free way to get photos off a water-damaged iPhone is to recover them from your previously made iCloud or iTunes backup. If you have synced photos with iCloud, you can access them from iCloud.com. Alternatively, if you don't have a backup, you can use an UltData iPhone Data Recovery to scan and recover photos from internal storage.

Speak Your Mind

Registrer/ Login

then write your review

Speak Your Mind

Leave a Comment

Create your review for Tenorshare articles

Related articles

All topics

Tenorshare UltData

UltData - Best iPhone Data Recovery Tool

Recover Deleted & Lost Data from iOS Devices Easily, No Backup Needed!

UltData: Best iPhone Recovery Tool

Recover Lost iPhone Data without Backup