Keeping your iPhone from overheating is imperative in maintaining the health and physical integrity of your battery. In fact, exposing your devices to extreme ambient temperatures is a no-no as it can quickly degrade your device's battery life.

Apple said devices can be used in ambient temperatures between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). You should avoid really cold conditions as it might temporarily shorten battery life and possibly shut the phone down; however, it would return to normal once it returns to warmer temperatures.

On the other hand, your phone left in really hot temperatures, like leaving it inside a parked car on a warm day, can permanently shorten its battery life.

Is Your iPhone Overheating While Charging, After Update?

Apple said a number of conditions leads your phone to warm up more than its normal temperature. This could be when you set up your device for the first time or when you restore from a backup.

When apps reindex or reanalyze data like when photos are tagging faces, places, or keywords after a software update, your phone can warm up. Using graphics-intensive or augmented-reality apps or features can also make your phone do some extra work that can lead to a warmer device.

These instances aren't too serious, and Apple even calls them normal and assures that the device will return to a regular temperature.

On the other hand, leaving your device in a vehicle on a hot day, exposing it to direct sunlight for an extended period of time, and/or using certain energy-consuming features in hot conditions can cause the device to change performance and behavior.

To protect its internal components, your device will try to regulate its temperature. It does this by slowing or stopping charging, wireless or otherwise.

You may also find that the display dims or goes black, cellular radios enter a low-power state since the signal might weaken during this time, the camera flash is temporarily disabled, and performance slows with graphics-intensive or augmented-reality apps or features.

Your iPhone will also let you know when it needs to cool down with a warning on your screen that says "Temperature: iPhone needs to cool down." If you do need to make emergency calls, Apple noted you can click on the "Emergency" button found at the bottom of the screen.

Read Also: Is Your iPhone Battery Draining Fast? 5 Ways to Improve Battery Lifespan and Avoid Replacement

7 Ways to Cool Down Your Overheating iPhone

If you find your phone heating up, Apple suggested taking it to a cooler environment quickly, and to turn it off.

Stellar Info also suggested a few ways on how you can cool down your over heating iPhone:

1. Remove the Case

Remove your device from its case as it may trap some of the excess heat, not allowing your device to cool down easily. If you are charging your phone, stop charging it and refrain from charging it until your phone has returned to a cooler temperature.

2. Turn on Airplane Mode

You can also turn on Airplane mode to stop any need for the phone to search for signal that may cause it to work even more while it's overheating, and this includes turning off your Bluetooth.

3. Keep CPU Activites at a Minimum

CPU intensive activities like GPS navigation, sharing heavy video files on chats, or watching movies on your iPhone can exacerbate the temperature rise, so take a pause from that until your phone cools down and regulates itself.

4. Check Your Cables

You might also want to check your charging cables to ensure you are using Apple cables. This will ensure that you are juicing up your batteries with a cable that does not harm them.

Please do not put your iPhone in the freezer, refrigerator, or in front of an air conditioner, Stellar Info stressed. Not only will the sudden change in temperatures damage the interior, but it can also introduce moisture into the device and we all know that water and electronics do not mix well together.

5. Turn Off Background App Refresh

You can also make a few changes in your settings to help your iPhone from straining too much. This includes turning off background refresh to stop apps from taking up extra energy even though they aren't being accessed in the moment. Simply go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and toggle the setting off.

6. Take Gaming Breaks

As much as gaming is such a fun activity, staying on a game for a long time can greatly take a toll on your phone's performance and make it overheat. So if it can be helped, take breaks. Your eyes will thank you for it too.

7. Reset All Settings

You can also reset all settings on your iPhone. What this does is it removes personal preferences for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Privacy, General, Sounds, Brightness, Wallpaper, and Notifications that may possibly be putting extra pressure on your phone.

Don't worry, it does not delete saved data like your texts or Camera Roll.

You can go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings to do this. Stellar Info does note that when you do this, you need to keep a record of your Wi-Fi passwords, network configurations, and preferred settings just so you can configure these after the reset.

Also note that backing up your phone is in your best interest, especially whenever you are doing any troubleshooting of some kind, so as not to lose any of your precious photos and other data.

Overheating With the iOS 14.6

iPhone users who have upgraded to iOS 14.6 are reporting abnormal battery drain and overheating, said Tom's Guide. Even basic tasks on the new iPhone 12 mini like browsing the web have caused overheating.

Despite the numerous threads on various forum sites regarding this strange problem, Apple has not confirmed its knowledge of any battery drain or overheating problems. It is also worth noting that the overheating and battery drain issue is not universal and some might not even notice any changes in their phone's performance after updating their iOS.

The iOS 14.6 was released early as a response to the safety vulnerabilities found in iOS 14.5.1 that made users with the older iOS susceptible to harmful bugs and malware that could potentially steal sensitive information.

Tom's Guide suspects that maybe the new iOS introduced a bug in the battery sensors making it overreact. It could also be possible that the update wasn't properly optimized making it use far more resources than it needs to.

Related Article: New iPhone Bugs Can Expose Sensitive Information: How to Download iOS 14.6 to Fix