Summary: Are you facing overheating of your iPhone? Getting a warning message, ‘iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it. This post shares the causes, immediate measures to be taken, and the best ways to fix overheating issue in iPhone.
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A lot of iPhone users are disappointed by the issue of overheating. Reports from around the world are pouring in with complaints about the overheating of various iPhone models to the extent of the warning message, ‘iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it and even explosion.
The Apple brand is looked up to as analogous to high quality. But the bitter truth is that Apple, too, is not immune from the technical glitches.
So how to fix the issue?
This article deals with the causes, immediate measures to be taken, and the fixes for the overheating issue in iPhones.
What happens when your iPhone gets overheated?
The impact of overheating iPhones varies in its severity. Sometimes the phone gets too hot to touch and won’t cool down even after placing it in a freezer! Overheating during use can lead to severe functional problems in the iPhone. The device might shut down, become unresponsive, or be very slow.
It is found that the iPhone gets extremely hot while performing activities that put heavy pressure on the CPU, battery, or GPU. Thus, working on intensive applications like Waves, Google Maps, Facebook videos, Safari, or playing 3-D games, etc., for a long time can result in overheating.
iPhones are designed to work at temperatures ranging from 0ºC to 35ºC. So when stressed, iPhone generates heat like other machines, which is normal. But if your phone remains hot most of the time or gets overheated especially when put under immense operational pressure, this could be a severe problem.
How to cool down hot or overheated iPhones?
Once you find your iPhone getting hot, please take it to a more relaxed environment. If the device is in the scorching sunlight, move it to a shade and wait for a few minutes to gradually dissipate the heat. If your iPhone continues to remain too hot to touch, immediately do the following, as per your situation:
- Remove the iPhone from its case.
- Switch off for some time.
- Do not charge or stop charging if you are already doing so.
- Keep the iPhone away from sunlight.
- Do not leave the iPhone in the car as the temperature rises fast in parked cars.
- Stop CPU-intensive activities like GPS navigation, playing graphics-intensive games, sharing heavy video files on chats, watching movies on your iPhone, etc.
- Stop using Bluetooth.
- Turn on Airplane mode.
- Check your charging cables to ensure you are using Apple cable.
CAUTION NOTE: Never put your too-hot-to-touch iPhone in a freezer, refrigerator, or in front of air conditioners to cool off. The sudden temperature change and moisture in such an environment can damage the device’s internal components..
If these immediate steps do not reduce the temperature of the iPhone, deeper troubleshooting is required to solve overheating iPhone problem.
Methods to fix overheating iPhone Problem
Method 1: Withdraw recent software permissions.
Method 2: Do not play games for more extended periods.
Method 3: Update iOS.
Method 4: Do ‘Reset All Settings on iPhone.
Method 1: Withdraw recent software permissions
Background Refresh automatically refreshes your installed apps in the background. In overheated iPhone or battery situations, it is advisable to turn off background refresh. You can selectively stop background refresh for not many used or unimportant applications to prevent your phone from getting overheated. It is advisable to quit all apps and wait until the iPhone cools down.
- Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
Method 2: Do not play games for a more extended period
Games are addictive, but playing them for longer overuses the device’s CPU and battery, turning it hot. So avoid playing graphic-intensive games on iPhone for long durations to prevent overheating iPhone.
Method 3: Update iOS
Updating the iOS can also help you overcome the problem of the iPhone getting hot.
- Go to Settings > General > Software Updates > Download and install the update available.
Post the iOS update, it is typical for the iPhone to remain hot for a while, especially when plugged in overnight.
Method 4: Do ‘Reset All Settings
If the iOS update fails to resolve iPhone overheating problem, try to ‘Reset All Settings’ on your iPhone. It does not delete saved data like emails, texts, videos, music, photos, etc., but only removes personal preferences for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Privacy, General, Sounds, Brightness, Wallpaper, and Notifications.
- Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. Next, enter the Apple passcode, and the iPhone starts to reboot.
CAUTION NOTE: Before performing “Reset All Settings on your iPhone,” note down your Wi-Fi passwords, network configurations, and preferred settings that you would lose after the procedure for future use.
The Bottom Line…
As soon as you discover the iPhone overheating issue, stop the heavy data usage and CPU-intensive activities to reduce the stress on the device. Next, protect your phone from sunlight and other heat-generating environments. Finally, follow the abovementioned methods to maintain the average temperature and fix the overheating iPhone issue.
Remember to back up your iPhone data before troubleshooting your device, as you might lose your iPhone data if you face data loss while troubleshooting; use Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone.
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About The Author
Sumona is a tech blogger, avid photographer, & technogeek with vast experience in writing about media file recovery tips and tutorials. She has over 10 years of experience in media file recovery/media file repair technology. She is passionate about Photography, Creative Designing, Music, and Exploring lesser-known destinations.
Do all the current models of smartphone experience overheating issues like the Apple?
Hi Joe,
Yes but on the contrary, it also depends upon internal factors like heavy graphics games, and other heavy apps that use more of the processing speed & power of any smartphone and can much more likely increase the temperature. Talking about the external factor, a smartphone can also get heated by the temperature around it. So, as far as we have observed, majority of the smartphones experience the overheating issue amid new inbuilt cooling technology.