Overheating problem in smartphones is mainly attributed to battery and CPU exhaustion. What happens is that something on the phone system prevents the processor from resting and therefore gets exhausted in time. When the processor is exhausted, the device typically gets warmer. And since the processor doesn’t stop, there’s no way for the system to cool down. As aftermath, the phone overheats. You can say that your phone is overheating if its operational temperature goes beyond 35 degrees Celsius.
Overheating issues usually occur in earlier devices from wear-and-tear or depreciating battery. But in new devices, overheating often occurs among the symptoms of application errors, misconfigured system, bad updates, and other software-related factors. That being said, the problem can be remedied at home. Highlighted below are simple ways to deal with overheating problem on the new iPhone XS Max. To learn how to fix this issue, scroll down and read further.
Before going further, if you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to your problem, then try to visit our troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed most of the commonly reported issues with the phone. We’ve already provided solutions to some of the problems reported by our readers so try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, fill up our iPhone issues questionnaire and hit submit.
First solution: Clear all background apps then restart your iPhone.
Background apps are comprised of apps you’ve previously opened but not closed. They stay idle but running in the background and all set to launch whenever triggered. While keeping background apps is essential for multitasking or quick app switching, it can also cause troubles at some point. Apps can eventually crash and go rogue when kept opened for long. And goes the same for background apps. When this happens, there’s a tendency for other apps or phone system itself to become affected. And overheating is one of the possible symptoms. To rule this out, clearing background apps is recommended. Here’s how it’s done:
- Go to the Home screen.
- Swipe your finger up and then pause.
- Swipe right or left to navigate through the app previews.
- Then swipe up on individual app preview to close it. Do the same to close other background apps.
After clearing all background apps, force restart your iPhone XS Max to clear out minor app and iOS glitches that may have triggered the iPhone processor and battery system to go rogue and exhausted. Here’s how a force restart is carried out:
- Quickly press and release the Volume Up button.
- Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
- Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears and then release it.
Use your device as you normally do after it reboots, then see if it still overheats or not anymore.
Second solution: Update apps on your iPhone XS Max.
Rogue apps that caused overheating symptoms can also be remedied by updating them. Like iOS updates, app updates also bring in fix patches to address application errors inflicted by random bugs and malware. To manually check for and install pending app updates on your iPhone XS Max, simply follow these steps:
- Open the App Store.
- Navigate to the Updates section. A list of apps with pending updates will then pop up.
- Then tap the Update button next to the name of the app to install its pending updates.
- If multiple app updates are available, tap the Update All button on the upper right side of the screen to update all apps simultaneously.
Viewing and analyzing the battery usage information on your iPhone XS Max can also help get rid of any bad apps that caused the battery to drain and heat up so quickly. Here’s how to view this information:
- Tap Settings from your Home screen.
- Select Battery.
On the Battery screen, you will see details about what consumes the most of your iPhone’s battery life along with the usage percentage. Through this information, you will know if certain apps are showing unusual power consumption at certain period of time.
Simply navigate to the Battery Usage by App section then select the option to Show Activity.
If you find any unusual battery consumption by an app, then you’ve got to do something to manage that application. If necessary, delete some bad apps especially those you no longer use.
Third solution: Install the latest iOS version available.
Installing the latest iOS version available for your iPhone is also recommended as new iOS updates often contains bug fixes and security enhancements. This should be the key to fixing overheating symptom caused by any sort of malware. If your iPhone has stable Wi-Fi Internet access, then you can check for new iOS updates via over-the-air (OTA) with these steps:
- Open Settings from Home.
- Select General.
- Tap Software update.
If an update is available, you will see the update details and option to Download and Install. For safekeeping, back up all your important files beforehand. Then follow the onscreen prompts to update your iPhone wirelessly.
Reboot the phone after the new iOS version is completely installed. Doing so will ensure that all new system changes are properly applied.
Fourth solution: Reset all settings on your iPhone XS Max.
Some settings and options that are turned off or on can also be the trigger like location services and syncing functions that are kept enabled. Settings and options that would set the processor off to work continuously are the culprits. To clear this out, follow these steps to reset all settings on the phone:
- Navigate to Settings from the Home screen.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down to and tap Reset.
- Select Reset all settings from the given options. This will delete all customized settings on the phone and then restores the default/original options and values.
- When asked to enter your device passcode, do so to continue.
- To apply the changes, tap the option to confirm all settings reset.
After the reset, your phone reboots automatically. By then you can start enabling only the features that you need to use including Wi-Fi.
Fifth solution: Reset and restore your iPhone to factory defaults.
If the prior reset failed to rectify the error and the overheating symptom continues, you need to resort to a more advanced solution. To deal with complex software issues, factory reset and iOS restore can be considered the next potential solution to try on. But before you do so, create a copy of all your critical information either to iCloud or iTunes because they will also be deleted along with other contents. Then you can proceed with a factory reset through your iPhone settings with these steps:
- Open Settings app from Home.
- Select General.
- Scroll to and tap Reset.
- Select the option to Erase all content and settings.
- Enter your device passcode when asked to proceed.
- Then tap the option to confirm factory reset.
More often than not, software-related issues are resolved after performing a factory reset. Thus overheating problem that’s inflicted by software errors on the phone should be remedied by then. Otherwise, hardware repair would be necessary. At this point, you can think of a bad battery or other damaged iPhone components as the main triggers.
Seek more help
There’s a higher chance that you’re dealing with hardware issue like bad battery or other damaged components, if your iPhone XS Max is still overheating after applying the above solutions. At this point, take your iPhone to the nearest Apple-authorized service center in your place for a thorough hardware assessment. Or you may escalate the problem to your device carrier or Apple Support for further recommendations. You may need to get a new iPhone replacement if the problem is attributed to factory defects. This however rarely happens, but a possible occurrence. And this is where warranties serve their purpose.
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If you need more help with the use of certain functions and features of the Apple iPhone XS Max smartphone, feel free to visit our Tutorial Page. There you can find a list of how-to contents, step-by-step tutorials, as well as answers to FAQs regarding iPhone XS Max. If you have other concerns or encountered some troubles while using the phone, you can reach us through this form. Just be sure to tell us more details of the problem or device issue(s) you may have and we will be more than happy to assist you further.