How do I prevent my iPhone from overheating?

Let’s define “overheating”, which is always a hardware problem. If a device overheats it shuts down so it can’t be used, and displays a message saying it must cool down before it can be turned on, and it will probably be unusable for an hour or so. If you are seeing this it is a hardware problem and you should contact Apple support: 

• Click on “Support” at the top of this page
• Go to Contact Official Apple Support

Note that both of the above have options to receive a callback or chat

If you are not seeing this your iPhone or iPad has not overheated. However, if you fast charge your device it may get very warm, and may pause charging at 80% and display a message saying that charging has paused, and will resume when the phone cools down. This is NOT overheating, and is normal when fast charging. It also won’t prevent you from using any app you have on your phone.

If you have just updated allow a couple of days for iOS to complete its “housekeeping"

Some apps that use a lot of energy or that use cellular data rather than Wi-Fi can cause the phone to run warmer. Worst offenders are Meta products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc), interactive games, watching streaming videos, and the Camera app. And having VPN installed, whether using it or not, can also consume a lot of energy. But none of these can cause “overheating;” iOS will limit energy use to keep the phone safe.

All of these are manifestations of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

Instagram is a very energy-hungry app, which means it also generates heat (2nd law of thermodynamics). Safari will use different levels of energy depending on the site(s) you visit and the number of tabs you have open (to check, tap on the overlapped squares at the bottom right in Safari). Any app using cellular data rather than Wi-Fi will also use more energy; cellular data is also an energy hog. And if you have the screen brightness turned way up that is an additional heat load. If you need to use Insta for hours, turn down screen brightness. The neural engine also uses a lot of energy.

On average an iPhone will lose about 1% of battery capacity a month, so a 2% drop in 3 months is better than average.

RoyApudo wrote:

iPhone is overheating.

What could be the problem?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iPhone overheating

The phone sitting by itself doing nothing won't overheat.

The problem would be whatever it is you're doing when it overheats.

“Overheating” is often a misused and overused term to describe an iPhone experiencing increased thermal temperatures. Overheating only applies when the iPhone is operating beyond its normal temperature range and would shut down to display a warning message. If you don’t see that, you can continue to use your iPhone normally.

Now certain apps will exacerbate this phenomenon, such as using the camera, long phone calls, graphics-intensive or processor-intensive apps or games that stream high-quality video.

Your tag line suggests you own an iPhone 11. iPhone 11 was released in 2019, 6 years ago. If you still have the original battery in your phone, it is highly likely it should have been replaced long ago. Open Settings > Battery > Battery Health and if it is at 80% or lower, the battery has used its useful life and needs to be replaced by Apple. Failing batteries definitely cause an iPhone to get hot.

My iPhone 13 started to have this problem 2 months ago. It gets super hot, mainly while using Instagram or Safari. As I’m a person with visual disabilities and I rely heavily on text to speech, I use the Spoken content feature to listen to the content being read aloud with the Siri neural engine voices, so when my iPhone gets that hot, the voice starts to cut in and out, stutter or sound very distorted.

Also, the battery went down from 96% to 94% in just 3 months, so I don’t know it that’s the root cause of these problems. Is there a fix?

Its weird that even my 16 pro is getting warmer! My battery usually lasts me a whole day but now I cant even use it up to 5 hours without charging.

Are you saying that an "Overheating" message is appearing on your phone?

Help

Help

You did not answer the question that I asked.

Different poster than the one you asked