There’s no reason to panic if your iPhone suddenly displays a temperature warning telling you that it needs to cool down before you can use it. Your iPhone simply needs a breather and it’s not permanently damaged. This guide will explain what the warning means and how to cool your iPhone down so you can start using it again.
Apple states the ideal iPhone operating temperature range is from 32F to 95F. Remember that official temperatures are measured in the shade, but beach-goers, those working outdoors, and others often use their iPhones in the sun.
How to Cool Down an iPhone
- Get Your iPhone out of direct sunlight. Leaving your iPhone exposed to direct sunlight in even moderate temperatures can heat up your iPhone.
- Remove your iPhone’s case. Removing your iPhone’s case can help cool it down, especially if it’s dark or bulky.
- Go somewhere cooler. If you need to use your iPhone urgently and the above two steps don’t work, you can try bringing it into a cooler environment if possible.
- Cool it with your car’s air conditioning. You can blast your iPhone with cool air from your car’s air conditioner vents to cool your iPhone down quickly. This trick works even better if you have an iPhone mount that fits over a vent on your car’s dashboard.
- Take the iPhone off the charger. If you get an overheating warning and you happen to be charging your iPhone you should stop charging until the warning goes away and you’re able to get to somewhere cooler.
- Pour water on the iPhone. Starting with the iPhone 7, all iPhones are water resistant. If you need to use your iPhone urgently, you can try pouring water over it to accelerate the cooling process. Don’t use ice water and make sure that your iPhone doesn’t have any cracks in it before trying this.
How to Keep an iPhone Cool
Once you get rid of the iPhone’s temperature warning, you’ll likely want to actually use your iPhone without seeing the warning pop up again. To reduce the chances of that happening, you should:
- Avoid playing video games. Games use a lot of resources and can heat up your iPhone from the inside out.
- Don’t stream videos. Streaming videos can heat things up. Take a break from your shows to keep things cool.
- Use Your iPhone in shorter bursts. Rather than using your iPhone for a long stretch, try breaking your tasks up into shorter stretches so your iPhone doesn’t have a chance to heat up.
- Reduce iPhone’s screen brightness. High screen brightness uses drains the battery and throws off extra heat. Turn on auto screen brightness or simply lower it to the minimum usable brightness.
- Keep Your iPhone in a pocket or bag. Instead of walking around in the heat with your iPhone glued to your hand, tuck it into a bag, purse, or pocket. That will keep your iPhone shaded when you’re not using it.
iPhone Temperature Warning is Normal
If you do see the iPhone temperature warning, you shouldn’t worry too much. Apple built this warning as a feature to keep your iPhone from suffering permanent damage. Of course, you don’t want to trigger the warning consistently, but it’s common for users to see the warning occasionally.
Once the warning goes away, you can access all of your iPhone apps and data like normal. In other words, the temperature warning does not indicate any data loss or permanent damage.
