iPhone 5s headphone jack corrosion

[stanthejeep]

I used the headphones 1 time for about an hour and the headphone remote stopped working - no volume control. When I looked at the phone, I noticed the jack had corroded. I didn't get it wet, and even if I had this is crazy. Has anyone else seen this? #headphonejackgate

 

[Skull One]

Take that in to Apple ASAP. Seriously, they need to see this now. There are only a few ways this can happen and all are bad news.


My iPhone 5 would be hooked to my car, thru a patch cable, for 4 hours at a time with no issues. But I haven't tested my 5S yet. I'll test mine as soon as I can.

 

[Silverado8405]

Looks like the magic white smoke that makes everything electrical work was released.

Sent from my iPad using iPF.net

 

[Skull One]

My wife has several hours of headphone time on her iPhone 5S. So it isn't common at least.

 

[Neubeehunhun]

Wow that's crazy!

Looks like a chemical reaction of some sort..did the metal not like each other? o_o


I checked mine and there is nothing, at least 5hours of headphone plugged in combined

 

[stanthejeep]

Thanks for the comments, guys

I'm taking it in to the apple store today.... I'll update later after it's done

 

[Sierra]

Wow, looks like galvanic reaction but 1 Hour? What is the headphone connector plated with? Should be Gold. Does it show any corrosion? I would like to hear what Apple says (take your headphone with you too).

 

[Skull One]

Wow, looks like galvanic reaction but 1 Hour? What is the headphone connector plated with? Should be Gold. Does it show any corrosion? I would like to hear what Apple says (take your headphone with you too).

As long as both materials are the same, which they are if the OP used the provided headphones, there can be no galvanic reaction. Apple does not use gold in the iPhone 5S headphone system. Nor did they in the 5, 4S or 4 that I have owned.

The fact that the reaction took place on the outer banding of the iPhone actually suggests that it is a corrosive reaction and most probably is due to a battery leak.

 

[jntdroid]

*fingers crossed* that you get someone decent at the Apple Store, instead of someone that blows you off or assumes you must've gotten it wet...

 

[stanthejeep]

Ok so setting up my new 5s that they just replaced. They gave me a new set of headphones too which were also corroded and gained a green discoloration.

It seems to me that galvanic corrosion is a strong possibility here. It's true that this happens between dissimilar metals, but there might have been an issue with the plating, dimensionals, or even a short.

Either way, it's some other engineer's problem now

The apple store people assured me that they had not seen that before though

 

[5er driver]

I'm glad that Apple did the right thing for you.

Sent from my iPhone 4S or iPad 3rd gen, whichever I happened to have in my hands at the time, using iPF.net

 

[Skull One]

Ok so setting up my new 5s that they just replaced. They gave me a new set of headphones too which were also corroded and gained a green discoloration.

It seems to me that galvanic corrosion is a strong possibility here. It's true that this happens between dissimilar metals, but there might have been an issue with the plating, dimensionals, or even a short.

Either way, it's some other engineer's problem now

The apple store people assured me that they had not seen that before though

Galvanic requires direct contact between the two dissimilar metals. And for it to happen quickly, there needs to be a decent amount of electron flow. But your picture shows the corrosion went beyond the headphone jack's internal section and spread to the metal outside of the jack. For that to occur there would need to be metal in contact. And there can't be any based on the current headphone design. Also the exterior pitting is just about a dead give away, at least to me, that it was probably a liquid/gel chemical reaction. The only item in an iPhone with that much liquid/gel is the battery.

 

[codysanborn]

Galvanic requires direct contact between the two dissimilar metals. And for it to happen quickly, there needs to be a decent amount of electron flow. But your picture shows the corrosion went beyond the headphone jack's internal section and spread to the metal outside of the jack. For that to occur there would need to be metal in contact. And there can't be any based on the current headphone design. Also the exterior pitting is just about a dead give away, at least to me, that it was probably a liquid/gel chemical reaction. The only item in an iPhone with that much liquid/gel is the battery.

Yeah my guess is the battery got swollen from a bad cell and aluminum body made it come out path of least resistance such as the headphone port

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Sierra]

As long as both materials are the same, which they are if the OP used the provided headphones, there can be no galvanic reaction. Apple does not use gold in the iPhone 5S headphone system. Nor did they in the 5, 4S or 4 that I have owned.

The fact that the reaction took place on the outer banding of the iPhone actually suggests that it is a corrosive reaction and most probably is due to a battery leak.

Battery leak is something I didn't consider, you don't usually see Li-Ion leaking, but who knows.

And yes, it takes dissimilar metals before you can have Galvanic reaction. I never knew what contact material Apple used in there headphone jack.

Hmmm what about the Gold iPhone 5s? Sorry couldn't resist.

 

[Skull One]

Battery leak is something I didn't consider, you don't usually see Li-Ion leaking, but who knows.

And yes, it takes dissimilar metals before you can have Galvanic reaction. I never knew what contact material Apple used in there headphone jack.

Hmmm what about the Gold iPhone 5s? Sorry couldn't resist.

Li-Ion cell phone batteries have some of the best outer casing made because of how many devices they are now installed in. But a box cutter could nick the casing in such a way that only under heavy usage would the battery leak. This fits the picture and the OP's stated usage. And this is why I thought Apple should see this ASAP. If it is a box cutter incident, they dodged a bullet. But if they get more than 3 of these turned in, then they have to do a heck of a lot of work to see how many phones got a battery from a possible faulty batch. And Apple really doesn't need the PR headache from it.