What's up everyone, this is Myke Educate, and today we're going to talk about an issue that plagues many iPhone owners. If you have an iPhone, you've probably experienced your phone getting warm. On occasion, you might have even experienced it getting hot. There is an important difference between the two: warm is a normal state that your phone will reach during use, while hot is an issue.
Thermal Troubles: Troubleshooting iPhone Heat Issues
There are several normal situations where your iPhone will get warm, and as long as it stays in the realm of warm, you don't have anything to worry about. For example, if you're charging your phone and using it at the same time, you're going to notice your phone is not at room temperature anymore—it’s going to feel warmer. Using GPS and navigation, streaming a high-quality video for an extended period, setting up your phone for the first time, or using certain apps like augmented reality, a digital audio workstation, or video editing, will also make your iPhone warm because it’s working hard. When your processor works hard, it expels heat and gets warm. You do not necessarily have to be concerned about these.
Your iPhone being warm and also being hot are two very different things. When it's warm, you can basically keep using it until it reaches the point of being hot. What distinguishes warm from hot, then? Your iPhone works best between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 35 degrees Celsius). Outside of that range is where you're going to start running into problems.
So, how do you know when your phone is not just warm but has actually reached the point of being hot? Like anything, like a human being, your phone will show some symptoms. If charging slows or stops completely, your phone is probably too hot.
You might see it slow down a little bit when it gets warm, but if you notice that it’s barely moved after being plugged in for an hour, your phone is probably too hot and needs a break. If you ignore the heat and it gets to the point where the screen goes dim or black for a certain amount of time, you need to do something because your phone is giving ample warning.
First, it stopped charging, then the screen went black, so you really need to cool it down, or you’ll have long-term issues with your phone.
Another symptom is that your cellular radio actually goes into a low-power state, decreasing the quality of all your calls. Sometimes, when your phone gets super hot, it’ll alert you that the camera flash has been disabled because the flash uses a lot of resources and battery. In your phone's attempt to save itself, it will not let the flash work anymore.
The next symptom is not exclusive to heat, but if you can feel that your phone is physically hot and all of a sudden graphic-intensive apps stop working or start crashing, you can deduce that heat might be causing them to crash. If your phone is not hot and apps are crashing, you have another problem to figure out. But if you feel the heat while apps are crashing, cool your phone down.
Thankfully, your iPhone is a fairly smart device. If things get really bad and it gets super hot, your phone will go into a low-power state, and a warning will come up on the screen saying that you can't use your iPhone or cell until it cools down. If you've reached this point, you've ignored all the previous symptoms and may be doing long-term damage to your phone.
When I say put your device somewhere cooler, I don’t mean somewhere cold—don’t put it into the fridge or freezer. The sudden change in temperature will actually cause more problems for your phone. It could cause condensation, leading to long-term damage or bricking your phone. When I say cool, I mean somewhere at room temperature.
If you are forced to use your iPhone in situations where it is exposed to heat, there are a couple of things you can turn off on your phone to help minimize the problem. Obviously, if you're using your phone in a hundred-degree weather because of work, you're going to get some heat, but you can turn off background app refresh, which uses a lot of resources and generates more power and heat. Turning that off while using your phone in a warm situation will result in less negative repercussion.
You should also review your apps and see if any are consistently crashing in the background and trying to relaunch. This uses more resources and heats your phone. You can check the analytics data to see which apps are problematic and delete them. Another tip is to reduce the brightness. Lights generate heat; brightness generates heat. Using more power creates more heat, so lowering the brightness will reduce temperature and help your phone last longer throughout the day.
The last issue causing heat could be your phone searching for a connection. This generally happens when it's searching for a cellular connection but can also occur when struggling to connect to a Wi-Fi network. Constantly going in and out of signal uses a lot of power, generating heat.
The only solution here is to put your phone into airplane mode to stop searching for the signal, saving heat and power. If you need your phone for work in the heat, you'll have to manage with what you've got, taking all other steps outlined to minimize the heat as much as possible.
Hopefully, these tips will help keep your phone running for the long haul without being too affected by the heat. Be sure to visit us for all kinds of other iPhone and iOS troubleshooting tips. If your phone is having a problem, just type it into the search bar, and you'll find something.
