Don't Get Burned: Tips to Avoid an Overheated Phone

Fall brings cooler weather to much of the US, but even chilly outdoor temperatures don't guarantee that your phone won't heat up indoors. Fast processors, demanding games and even charging adds heat to your phone. If it gets too hot, it may shut down abruptly, potentially damaging the battery, shortening its lifespan and reducing the time you can use it before needing to recharge.

But there's no need to get hot and bothered, especially when you know these easy ways to keep your iPhone or Android phone from overheating.

Heat doesn't just come from the outside environment.

Your phone's processor has to work a lot harder when you do something like play graphics-intensive games, which can generate more heat than usual from within your device.

And playing these games can also drain your battery quickly, so it's natural to want to plug into power.

However, this combination of high processing and charging increases the heat generation even more, leading to overheating.

It's normal for a phone to heat up while it's charging -- the phone's surface dissipates that heat away from the inside by design. But if you're using a bulky case, the heat could get trapped. If the phone seems to be heating up too much, remove the case before charging.

Video recording is resource-intensive, capturing and storing multiple megabytes of data per second and usually processing that footage at the same time. Even expensive mirrorless cameras capable of shooting high-quality video hit thermal ceilings (or have add-on fans to dissipate the heat). 

If you're recording lengthy clips, you may need to pause for a few minutes between them to allow the phone to cool down.

It's just a power charger, so why not get the cheapest one? Be wary of amazingly low prices, because they're often attached to knock-off products that don't include safety electronics for regulating power throughput and preventing overheating. 

Better to pay slightly more and get a recommended USB-C charger or power bank you know you'll be able to trust.

Manufacturers like to boast how bright their phone screens can get, allowing you to see your display clearly even in direct sunlight. Pushing the intensity of those pixels to 1,000 or 2,000 nits of peak brightness is great for reading what's on the screen, but sustaining that level uses more power and generates more heat than when you're inside or in the shade.

Plus, direct sunlight delivers radiant heat to items like metal and glass, increasing the temperature of your device. If you need to use your phone for an extended period of time during sunny, hot days, find some shade to protect both it and you.

It sounds like the worst sort of overly general advice: Make sure your device's software is up to date. And yet it's usually good advice, especially in this case. 

For example, a bug in iOS 17, plus a problem with apps including Instagram and Uber, caused many iPhone 15 Pro phones to overheat. Apple soon released iOS 17.0.3 to fix the problem. (The current version is iOS 17.6.1, which adds new features as well as bug and security fixes.)

Note that it's normal for a phone to warm up during and after a system update as the software optimizes data in the background. However, this is a temporary temperature elevation.

If you can't avoid the heat and often find yourself waiting for the phone to cool, consider buying an inexpensive thermal phone pouch to store it in. Using materials designed to protect astronauts from temperature extremes, a pouch will reflect direct sunlight and heat away from the phone. Thermal pouches also work at the other end of the spectrum, protecting your phone from cold weather such as when you're skiing.

If you don't want to expose the phone to the sun, what about keeping it in a car while you're frolicking on the beach? Setting aside the risk of having it nabbed in a break-in, cars turn into hotboxes on sunny days, which can easily push past the recommended operating temperatures. It's better to take the phone with you.

If overheating becomes a frequent problem -- and the phone isn't exposed to the other situations mentioned in this gallery  -- a faulty or failing battery might be the cause.

First, see what the phone is telling you: on the iPhone, go to Settings > Battery and check Battery Health. On Android go to Settings > Battery > Battery Diagnostics (Pixel) or Settings > Battery and device care (Samsung). If the functionality is degraded, it might be time to schedule a battery replacement.

And if the phone is bulging, cracked or shows other signs of a swollen battery, turn it off and contact the company's support programs immediately. That's a less likely circumstance, but with lithium-ion batteries, you don't want to mess around with safety.