As some people have discovered, Apple has included “liquid submersion indicators” (moisture sensors) in the iPhone and iPod Touch (and also in the MacBooks—see this diagram for details) for several years now. This knowledgebase entry describes the location of the sensor(s) on each iPod or iPhone. Apple maintains that if the sensor turns from pink to white, the unit has been submerged in (or exposed to) enough water that the warranty is voided. On the surface, this seems reasonable. People have reported, however(1)(2)(3), that the sensors can show false positives (due to excess humidity or even sweat, for example). Should the sensor turn pink in the absence of any water damage or excessive exposure to moisture and the iPod or iPhone subsequently require service, Apple claims that the warranty is void because the indicator is pink and refuses to service the unit under warranty.
In the spirit of openness and documentation, I will share a workaround. If your sensor has turned pink but your unit has not been exposed to water or excess moisture, this simple procedure may work for you.
Materials needed:
1. White paper;
2. A wooden toothpick; and
3. White nail polish.
4. Bright flashlight, penlight, or desk light.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Inspect your iPod or iPhone’s moisture sensor: shine a bright flashlight or penlight into the headphone jack. At the end is a rectangular indicator. If it is white, you are lucky and this tutorial is irrelevant. If, however, it is half pink, your liquid submersion indicator is indicating that your device is now out of warantee, regardless of actual liquid exposure.
2. Cut out a small piece of white paper the same size as the indicator, roughly 2mm by 4mm. This may require some trial and error, but the closer the size of your faux indicator to the size of the actual indicator, the easier your job will be.
3. Break one end off of the toothpick so you have a squared-off end with which to insert the faux indicator you cut out in step 1.
4. Dip the squared off end of the toothpick lightly in polish (I recommend starting lightly, just put a drop on the end of it) and use it to pick up the faux indicator, securing the paper to the end of the toothpick.
5. Allow the polish to cure for a time, enough so that the paper is held slightly to the toothpick, but not so much that it won’t come off with gentle force.
6. With a steady hand and adequate light, orient your toothpick-with-indicator relative to the iPod or iPhone so that the faux sensor will fully cover the real sensor when inserted.
7. Insert the toothpick gently into the headphone jack until you feel resistance; your white indicator should now be positioned over the pink one. Nudge the toothpick to one side and pull back on it, ensuring that the paper is left behind at the end of the headphone jack.
If all goes well, the white paper should now be placed directly over the immersion sensor, and no pink should be visible.
The Apple Genius I saw inspected my iPod thoroughly, first shining a penlight into the jack, and then connecting a multimeter to test it electrically. He concluded that it was covered under warranty and gave me a replacement iPod Touch. My Genius Bar work authorization (invoice) stated, in part:
Known liquid damage: No
Issue: customer states ipod will not power on
Steps to Reproduce: attempted resets, plugging into computer and power, will not power on tested with multi meter
Proposed Resolution: replace ipod
NOTE: This guide explains the iPod Touch’s indicator location. The iPhone has one sensor in the headphone jack, and also a longer, thinner one in the dock connector area. See the Apple knowledgebase entry linked above for details of the location(s) of the indicator(s) on other iPod/iPhone models. The methods explained above should be easily adaptable to other iPod/iPhone models; let me know of your experiences in comments, please.
NOTE ALSO: This procedure has been shared to assist iPod and iPhone owners that require warranty service to obtain it despite their liquid submersion indicator giving a false positive for excessive exposure to water or moisture. It is not to be used to assist people in committing fraud or “gaming the system”. Using this method to obtain service after knowingly damaging your device by immersing it in liquid or water is not recommended and is unethical. The author of this work does not condone passing off water damage as equipment failure.
(1) More details on the immersion sensors of Apple http://www.hardmac.com/news/2009/07/16/more-details-on-the-immersion-sensors-of-apple
(3) Google search on apple.com for “liquid submersion indicator” http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=site:apple.com+liquid+submersion+indicator
