Like other electronics, it’s normal for your smartphone to heat up from time to time during everyday use. This is especially true when charging your phone battery, as heat transfers from your charger to your device.
5 tips on how to stop your phone from overheating:
- Avoid direct sunlight to your phone. The easiest way to prevent overheating is to keep your phone out of the sun. Your phone catches light and heat from the sun and retains it, getting hotter the longer it remains in sunlight and heat.
- Turn off unused apps on your phone. Open, unused apps running in the background cause your phone to work harder, which in turn causes it to heat up. The solution is super simple – on an iPhone, for example, all you have to do is press your home button twice and swipe the apps away. Bonus: this will also increase your phone’s battery life.
- Avoid turning your screen brightness up. Just the same as running background apps, turning your brightness up will force your battery to work harder and create more heat. Instead, look for an anti-glare cover for your device. This low cost solution can help you see your screen in the sun.
- Turn your phone to airplane mode. Airplane mode allows you to continue to use basic functions on your phone, but turns off other non-essentials that can take a toll on your battery.
- Take your case off. If your phone is overheating, your case isn’t helping. Taking the case off will allow the phone’s heat vents to do their job fully without being blocked, allowing your phone to cool down quicker.
How to cool down your hot phone
Here are 5 tips on how to cool off your phone if it’s already hot to help get you back to using the tech you love and rely on.
- Keep your applications up-to-date. Many app updates include bug fixes that can improve your phone’s efficiency, meaning they’ll use up less of your device’s energy.
- Separate your phone from your other tech. Stacking your running phone, tablet, and computer together in a bag makes them more susceptible to overheating. Help them keep their cool by keeping them separated.
- Trim unneeded apps. If your phone continues to overheat, you might want to consider the number of unnecessary items on your phone that can add to its workload — like ringtones, games, backgrounds, or apps that you never use.
- Fan your phone, or blow on it. It may sound silly, but fanning your phone or blowing on it can help. Just as fanning keeps a body cool, a breeze can help cool off your device when it’s getting a bit too toasty.
- Avoid sudden changes in temperature. You may be tempted to place your overheating device in the refrigerator or freezer for a minute or two, but we wouldn’t recommend it. Exposing your phone to extreme temperatures strains the components and also puts it at risk of collecting moisture, a surefire way to break your device.
