Here’s why your phone is overheating and how to stop it

Phones overheating is a common problem today with an increasing amount of apps that want to run in the background, the location tracker of your phone always being on and just general constant use of a phone.

And, once your phone overheats it starts to slow down or even shut off altogether. This can be an especially frustrating problem if you’re travelling and don’t necessarily know the local shops to fix your phone.

Here are some of the common reasons that you phone overheats:

1. Simple overuse.

Having too many apps running the background is the number one reason behind phone’s overheating. Many people don’t necessary exit apps completely once they’re done using them.

2. Your display brightness is turned up way too high.

Your phone doesn’t always need to be at its brightest round the clock. If you’re indoors or its night time, it’s recommended that you turn down the brightness of your phone so that its not as taxing to your smartphone device.

3. Excessive gaming.

The growing popularity of mobile gaming has more people using their phones to play heavy games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) or Fornite that can tax the phones graphic processor, causing the phone to overheat. Taking a break from gaming isn’t just recommended for the sake of your resting your eyes, but also for resting your phone.

4. Intensive camera use.

While the reasons listed above are more common causes of overheating for entry level and mid-range phones, even the best phone can overheat if you’re constantly using it to take photos and record videos.

In doing so, the phone’s brightness is always at max and you’re normally outside to shoot — so, environmental factors like India’s searing summer temperatures also have a debilitating effect.

There may not be much that you can do to fix those two causes, but lowering the resolution and frame rate of your shots would reduce the pressure on your phone to continuing to spit out its best performance.

5. Malware.

It might not always be your usage of the phone which is causing the phone to overheat. The growing risk for cyberthreats and your phone acting sluggish could mean that you’ve inadvertently installed malware on your phone.

The easiest solution is not install mobile apps from unknown sources and if you think your phone is infected with malware, run a virus check using any of the scanner available in Google’s Play Store.

6. Phone cases that don’t allow for ventilation.

Phone cases are usually made of plastic or leather. In both cases, the phone is insulated within the casing, trapping the heat inside and keeping the cold out. You can think of it like trying to exercise with your winter coat on.

The best thing is to just get rid of the cover.

7. Battery problems.

Don’t overcharge your phone. Even though your phone has the capacity to go to a 100% charge, in order to keep your phone’s battery life at its best, you should ideally only be charging your phone to the 90% or 80% threshold.

In case your phone is heating up excessively even before hitting the 100% mark then you should check the quality of your battery to make sure its not damaged, cross check the charging cable and ensure that the phone’s charging port is intact.

If you aren’t able to pin-point the primary cause of your phone overheating, here are some simple solutions you can try to cool your phone:

1. Remove the phone’s outer casing.

2. Turn on airplane mode so that apps can no longer connect to the internet. This will keep them from running in the background and give your phone some time to rest.

3. If you’re outside, make sure your phone isn’t placed in direct sunlight.

4. You can’t put your phone in the fridge or freezer (the moisture would cause more problems than it would solve) but can place your phone in front of a fan so to cool off.

5. Turn down the brightness of your phone’s display.

6. Remove junk files from your files using your device’s in-built cleaner or install any of the apps available in the Play Store than can clean your phone up for you.

7. Switch off location, bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Not only will these practices help keep your phone cool, they will also keep your phone’s battery healthy so that it lasts longer.