Your Mac can now tell on you if you get it wet and ask Apple for help

If you own a Mac running macOS Sonoma 14.1 you might want to be even more careful than usual when you have liquid around it, especially if you're hoping to have Apple repair it should the worst happen.

While Apple has long had Liquid Contact Indicators (LCI) in its devices, including the iPhone, to allow it to know when devices have gotten wet, a new addition to the latest Mac software takes things a step further, according to a new 9to5Mac report.

That report claims that macOS Sonoma 14.1 has a new daemon called liquiddetectiond which runs and monitors the computer to see if it has been exposed to liquid. It runs in the background and analyses the moisture in every one of the computer's USB-C ports, we're told.

The feature already runs on iPhones and iPads and in those implementations can tell users that moisture was detected and that they should unplug any charging cables to allow the port to dry. However, in the case of the Mac, it appears the daemon does little more than collect the data - presumably so that it can be used later.

With that in mind, it now seems likely that anyone who goes into an Apple Store to have a Mac repaired will have the information this daemon collects, checked. If it is determined that the Mac got wet it's possible that the repair could be found to be beyond the scope of warranty. If that's the case, a cost will be applied to any repair carried out.

The upshot? We'd always suggest that the best course of action is to keep liquids as far away from your computers as possible. But maybe don't try to pull the wool over Apple's eyes if you get yours wet from now on.