Ideally, your phone should not be over 50-degree celsius. Your phone might even give you a temperature warning or a similar overheating alert. A phone overheating scenario can also differ depending on the phone’s battery health, history, surrounding, and much more. So, without further ado, let’s dig into in-depth detail on why your phone is so hot and how to cool it down.
Why is My Phone So Hot?
Your phone can randomly start heating due to some of the following reasons:
Prolonged Sun Exposure
It’s a norm that direct and prolonged sun exposure or hot weather can quickly raise the temperature of your phone. Even if you’re inside a car, your phone can get hot if it’s on hot surfaces, like the leather seat. In such cases, it’s best to keep your phone away from the sunlight and in shaded areas, like inside your bag or wrapped inside a scarf.
Using Multiple Resource-hogging Apps
Do you have multiple apps active in the background? Especially, if you’re running heavy games, like Call of Duty or Genshin Impact, your battery will start to produce heat. This is because these games require a ton of resources, like graphics and battery. In this process, your phone starts to work hard, causing a rise in temperature.
Potential Viruses
Usually, it’s tricky to detect viruses on phones. However, one common sign of a virus is an overheating phone. This is especially true if there’s a sudden spike in temperature at random times, even when you’re not using most apps. So, if you notice this very unusual behavior on your phone, it’s time to verify if it’s a virus.
Faulty or Counterfeit Adapter
If your phone gets hot while charging only, chances are there are issues with the power adapter. This is common when the adapter is broken, faulty or counterfeit. So, we recommend verifying the authenticity of the adapter by checking it at your phone brand’s official store.
App or System Bugs
Not all apps consume the same amount of processors. Some random apps can have bugs and may have several features that constantly use up the processor, even in the background. This can ultimately lead to your phone heating up. Similarly, it’s common for some software updates to have bugs or glitches that can lead to your phone overheating.
Bulky Phone Case
Although phone cases are helpful and attractive, some specific bulky designs can trap the airflow into your phone. This can produce small amounts of heat around your phone. Although this may seem insignificant, the surrounding heat can encourage your phone to increase its existing heat. This combined with the lack of air can influence further heat.
Faulty Battery
Your phone’s battery quality and its temperature go hand in hand. If the battery health is not in optimal condition, your phone becomes more prone to overheating. In some older and specific Android models, you can take out the battery and check its authenticity. On iPhones, you can also check the exact percentage that denotes the condition of the battery’s health.
Using GPS
Using GPS navigation and other location services on your phone consumes a lot of your phone’s resources, draining your battery. This naturally increases your phone’s temperature.
Brightness Too High
Similar to GPS, having your brightness level to full takes up a lot of your battery. This combined with outdoor heat can significantly increase your phone’s temperature.
Dangers of an Overheating Phone
If your phone occasionally gets hot, it is not a huge threat. However, if your phone is too hot to touch (over 50 degree celsius) on a regular basis, there are several risks that your phone can run into. The dangers to your phone due to overheating are all correlated with each other. One risk automatically encourages another. For instance, the first risk is that your phone’s battery health will significantly decline. Eventually, the battery will not last long as well. Similarly, if the battery health is not in good condition and is also heated, it can lead to a state called Thermal Runway. When your phone reaches this stage, there’ll be serious damage like a potential fire or explosion. A very hot phone can also cause internal hardware components to melt or swell up, causing severe damage. Additionally, such risks can also accidentally wipe all your data.
Don’ts of Cooling Your Phone
Before we move on to the solution portion of the article, it’s helpful to be notified about what you should not do to cool your phone. This way, you can save your phone from any accidental damage.
Do Not Put Your Phone Into the Refrigerator
Even if the phone is very hot, it’s best to let the temperature decline naturally and slowly. The rapid reduction of the temperature inside the refrigerator creates condensation inside your phone, which leads to humidity. Repeating this trick will cause serious damage to the phone’s overall battery life.
Don’t Sprinkle Water on Phone
Although there are water-resistant phones on the market today, it’s not a good idea to put your phone into water or sprinkle cold water on it. This is because we won’t know if the water has gotten into the speaker or the charging port. Any accidental water droplets can lead to water damage and also potential corrosion.
Do Not Charge Phone
While cooling your phone, do not charge your phone even if the battery is very low. This is because charging creates more heat which can cause more damage along with slowing down the cooling process. Instead, it’s better to completely turn off the phone.
How to Cool Down Your Phone (Android and iPhone)?
Now that we have a clear picture of why your phone can overheat along with preventive measures let’s move on to the fixes. Here are some effective steps on how you can cool down your phone, whether it’s Android or iPhone.
Turn Off or Restart Phone
The first step to cooling down your phone is to completely shut it down to prevent it from forming further heat. Since turning off your phone disables all processes, the heat will have a harder time increasing. If you’re going to restart your phone, it’s better to give your phone a few minutes of break to cool down before turning it back on. Similarly, unplug your phone from any charging outlet or a computer to prevent further heat formation.
Turn Off All Network Services
If shutting down is not possible in your case due to work obligations, you can try turning off some or all network services, like location services, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. These network services are what consume a lot of your phone’s resources and can continue encouraging your phone to heat up. So, turn off all such services to take the load off your phone. An easy way to do this is to simply put your phone into Airplane mode. Along with that, it’s also a good idea to close certain apps that are running in the background.
Take Phone to a Cool Area
After turning off your phone, immediately take it to a shaded area, away from sunlight or extreme heat. If you’re in a room with a warm AC temperature, we advise going to another room where it’s cooler. It’s also important to take off your phone from hot surfaces, like a couch, jacket, blanket, or leather seat inside your car. It’s better to place your phone on other cool surfaces, like a glass table or a wooden table.
Take Out Your Phone Case
As mentioned in the causes section, phone cases can trap the airflow and encourage more heat on your phone. This is why it’s best to take out your phone case. You can put it back once your phone has properly cooled down.
Place Phone in Front of a Fan
One of the proper and effective ways to cool down your phone is by using a fan. As discussed above, it’s important to reduce your phone’s heat gradually. So, a fan is very suitable for this purpose. However, make sure to first take off the phone case. Then, you can even use a mini or a table fan. When placing the phone in front of the fan, make the screen side face downwards. Then, make sure the charging port/speaker side is facing towards the fan. Doing so will ensure the fan’s air is properly reaching the internal parts of the phone as well. You can also place your finger on it to check if the fan’s air is successfully going through.
Don’t Place Other Electronic Devices Near Your Phone
If you’re in a work setting or in the kitchen where there are multiple electronic devices, your phone can have a hard time cooling down. This is because all such devices produce hot air gradually, which can also heat up your phone. So, it’s better to take your phone to another room where there are not a lot of electronic devices. If you can’t switch rooms, it’s helpful to turn off most of the electronic devices.
Adjust the Brightness on Your Phone
The high brightness on your phone can consume a lot of battery, heating up your phone. So, we recommend lowering the brightness. These days, smartphones come with an Auto-Brightness feature that automatically adjusts the phone’s brightness level based on the surrounding. On Android phones, you can find this setting as Adaptive Brightness. As some Android models can have different settings depending on the brand, look for settings related to Display > Adaptive Brightness. On the iPhone, you can turn on Auto-brightness by following these steps: On the other hand, sometimes the auto-brightness can mistake the phone’s surroundings and increase the brightness randomly. In such cases, you can turn off the Auto-Brightness.
Delete Suspicious Apps
Faulty apps with bugs or potential viruses can heat up your phone. So, check and uninstall all such apps you believe could be the reason. You can also check the app developer to know more details.
Use Antivirus Apps
On Android, you can use an antivirus app like Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus, McAfee Mobile Security, and Lookout Security & Antivirus. An iPhone won’t necessarily need antivirus apps due to its robust ecosystem. However, if you’re sure of viruses on the iPhone, you can get rid of them by restoring your backup or factory resetting your phone.
Change Adapter or Charging Cable
Since faulty adapters or charging cables can also be at fault for an overheating phone, it’s best to change them to new ones right away.
Don’t Use Camera or Flash
Filming videos for a long time or using flash can also heat up your phone by consuming a lot of battery. So, it’s a good idea to close the Camera app as well as the flashlight.
Turn on Low Power Mode/Battery Saver
Since a lot of the heat on your phone can stem from the amount of battery usage, it’s better to turn on the Low Power mode. Doing so will turn off or stop refreshing background apps, making your phone consume less battery overall. On Android, you can turn on the Battery Saver mode by following these steps: On the iPhone, you can follow these steps to turn on Low Power mode.
Update Your Phone
If your phone is overheating due to potential software glitches, it’s a good idea to update your phone entirely.
Take Your Phone to a Repair Center
Finally, if nothing is working to cool down your phone, there may be severe issues. In such a scenario, we recommend leaving it to the professionals. Take your phone to any local electronics repair store or one of the respective brands.
