The advancements in the smartphone technologies have given rise to more powerful devices resulting in more temperature generated. Your smartphone can overheat for various reasons ranging from basic usage to faulty components. Some smartphones have measures like cooling apps and metallic boy parts to curb overheating issues.
But even if your phone has those features – and especially if it doesn’t – excess heat can be a serious issue. Not only does it make the phone less comfortable to use, but it also can slow down the phone’s hardware or even damage it.
To avoid these complications we’ve compiled a list of things to do in case you find your phone overheating.
Power down the phone
When you notice your smartphone overheating, you should power it down and let it cool down for about 15 minutes. Let it cool off in a place far away from heat sources or sunlight. You should, however, take note of moisture or humidity conditions so that the phone doesn’t get damaged. Also, don’t put it into a freezer to cool it off faster – the big and rapid change in temperature can be bad for your hardware.
After 15 minutes have passed, you can power up the smartphone and use it again. You’ll notice that the temperature has dropped back to normal. If your phone’s temperature spikes again you can repeat the procedure. But this should give an indication of an underlying problem causing the overheating, which you will need to look into.
Limit background running applications
Every app you are using or have running in the background uses your phone’s hardware resources – loading your processor, RAM, consuming the battery charge. The apps that you aren’t actively using still can be very demanding while running in the background. And the more load your hardware has to handle – the more heat it generates.
So in order to reduce the workload of your phone, you need to keep an eye on how many apps it is running. Remember to turn off applications that you’re no longer using to not overload your CPU. A lot of apps nowadays auto-launch in the background when you turn on your phone, so you might need to check which of them you need active, and which should be stopped until needed. This might not only reduce the generated heat but also increase your battery life.
Avoid exposing your phone
Leaving your phone in direct sunlight is never a good idea, but especially if you have problems with overheating. Anything left in the sun for long will be heated by it, but since your working phone is already generating some heat on its own, it will have a harder time cooling off. Also, additional temperature from sunlight can take it over the threshold where it starts to strain your hardware.
So even though you might do it without thinking – just putting the phone where it’s more comfortable right now – you need to be mindful of this. On this note, avoid putting several running gadgets together if a few of them – or even just one – have issues with overheating. Doing so may lead to accumulating excess temperature
Apps are constantly updated, not only to change or improve their functionality but also to solve existing issues or bugs. A poorly optimized app can overload your hardware and bugs can lead to performance issues as well. Developers seek to root out and solve those issues, improving the performance and decreasing their demand. And as we mentioned earlier lesser load on hardware mean less generated heat.
Properly charge the smartphone
This is an aspect well covered in the phone’s user manual which nobody reads through nowadays. As such, many phones are poorly charged leading to overheating, damaging sensitive internal components, and the battery. Therefore, we should go back to the user manuals for basic care of our phones. Properly charging the phone follows three guidelines which are:
- Using the specified charger only
- Charging away from heat sources
- Partially charging during daylight and fully charge at night.
Installing battery health software
There are several software and apps developed for monitoring and maintaining the health of your battery. These apps monitor the internal temperature of the battery and immediately report any abnormalities. Likewise, you can run the star-code battery check from your Android smartphone using the code *#*#4636#*#*.
Most of all, these apps let you know whether your battery is the culprit, and gives you the ability to decide your first line of action. If your phone still heats up and the battery monitor app indicates no error on the battery, then the issue is on another component.