Life Hack: What to do when your phone starts overheating and how to prevent it
If your phone is in the sun, it could start overheating. Picture: iStock
Between sun holidays and warmer weather at home, summer is a prime time for our phones to be exposed to too much heat. Phones can become overheated if left in direct sunlight or a too-warm space, like a car.
It’s not just the weather that can impact your phone’s temperature, however. If you spend a lot of time using your phone — making phone calls all day or having too many apps open at once — that can make your phone’s battery work overtime and cause overheating. You’ll notice this when your phone starts to feel too warm in your hand. Speaking of the battery, overcharging the phone is another culprit. If you leave your phone on the charger even after it’s reached 100% battery life. Plus, make sure you're using an approved and undamaged charging cable.
An overheated phone can cause a lot of problems, including battery drain, spontaneous shutdown and inability to restart after a forced shutdown, and your phone’s Central Processing Unit could even melt at extreme temperatures.
Sometimes the simplest things do the trick, like fanning your phone to generate cool air around it. Some phone covers keep in heat so removing the cover can also help cool it down. You might be tempted to pop a hot phone into the fridge or freezer to cool it quickly but this should be avoided: exposing it to excessive cold will strain the components and could break your device due to the moisture risk.
If your phone is overperforming while hot, dropping a few jobs like turning off Bluetooth will also help. Turn on airplane mode too so it’s not constantly searching for a connection. Switch to a power-saving battery mode if that is an option on your device.
The main thing is to keep your phone out of the sun. Your phone picks up heat quickly and direct sunlight will increase its temperature and it will get hotter the longer it is in the sun. Again, if your phone is straining from a tech angle, lower your screen brightness and close any apps running in the background. Your screen uses the most battery power so if it’s set to a high brightness the battery will work harder and generate more heat.
Similarly, if lots of apps are needlessly running in the background then your phone is always working that bit harder — and getting hotter. Close any you are not using. Keep apps up to date too as many updates help to improve that app’s efficiency.
