How to Fix iPhone 12/13 Overheating Issues

Overheating issues on your iPhone/iPhone 13 smartphone can be a letdown, but can you handle it? Once the heat is up, the performance of your device suffers, and it will start to exhibit any of the following symptoms:  

• Heated screen/back-end 
• Reduced screen brightness 
• Accelerated battery drain 
• Notice of temperature warning 

As bad as it looks, overheating can be reined in. In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix the overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 13, revealing its causes along with 12 proven fixes and unique ways to prevent such a mess — so read to the very end. 

Difficulty	Easy ●●○○○
Duration	8 to 10  minutes
Things You Need	iPhone 12 or iPhone 13A working internet connection

Why is my iPhone overheating?

Overheating occurs when your iPhone 12 or 13 generates more heat than usual due to ambient conditions, hardware defects, and software errors or malfunction. Here are some of the common reasons for iPhone overheating:

• Leaving your iPhone in a closed, hot space such as a car or kitchen will make it accumulate unhealthy amounts of heat that causes internal damage.

• Placing your iPhone directly under the sun for some time will cause the battery to heat up gradually and may even result in it catching fire or exploding.

• Running graphics-intensive games and multiple instances of apps generates a lot of heat and can easily reach dangerous levels if done over a long period. 

• Charging your iPhone or operating it under high ambient temperatures will cause it to produce more heat without enough time to cool itself down.

• Charging your iPhone using a defective or counterfeit charging accessory will overheat and damage the battery due to incorrect power output.

• Operating an iPhone with a faulty battery that overheats and drains itself quickly.

• Using outdated apps or a buggy iOS version that causes overheating issues.

Technically, your iPhone will experience overheating when it exceeds the normal operating condition of 0 to 35 ºC or 32 to 95 ºF. Then, the iPhone 12/13 will send you a temperature warning to let you know you’ve reached this threshold. 

How to Fix Overheating Issue on iPhone 12/13

Fret not. If you’re scrambling to figure out how to fix the overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 13, below are the quick and effective troubleshooting methods you can start with. 

1. Restart your iPhone 12/13.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	5
Duration	20 seconds

The most basic way to fix minor problems on any smartphone, including the iPhone 12/13, is by performing a soft reset by restarting the device. This will shut down and refresh its system and remove software issues causing the problem.

Follow these steps to restart your iPhone 12/13:

• Press/release the volume up button.

• Press/release the volume down button.

• Press/hold the side button.

• Ignore the power slide key.

• Keep holding the side button until Apple’s logo appears.

2. Close some of your apps.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	2
Duration	5 seconds

Another way to overcome the overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 13  is by closing down multiple active apps on your device. Lots of apps running on your phone put a lot of workload on the processor and cause it to produce more heat.

Believe it or not, it’s common for most users to forget to close their apps, thinking that pushing the home button is enough to shut them down completely. But they’re none the wiser.

Close your apps using the steps below:

• Swipe from the bottom of the display up to the middle.

• Swipe the apps upward to close them.

3. Uninstall apps that are crashing.

Applications that constantly malfunction and crash are usually the prime suspects of software issues such as overheating. Since the system tries to run these apps and processes repeatedly to no avail, the processor works harder than is necessary.

You can view a report on crashing apps through the Analytics Data. Once you’ve determined which apps are usual repeat offenders, we recommend uninstalling them to prevent them from causing more problems.

Go to Analytics Data using these steps:

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	4
Duration	7 seconds

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click Privacy.

• Scroll down/click Analytics & Improvements.

• Click Analytics Data.

Use these steps to uninstall apps on iPhone 12/13:

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	5
Duration	10 seconds

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click General.

• Click iPhone Storage.

• Scroll down/click on the app.

• Click Delete App and click Delete again to confirm.

4. Uninstall power-hungry apps.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	2
Duration	5 seconds

Keeping power-hungry applications on your iPhone is extra troublesome. Not only do they cause battery drain issues, but they also overwork your device’s processor, which makes it generate more heat.

Your app’s battery consumption is listed in your device’s battery settings. This should help you decide which apps need to be given the boot.

Check your app battery consumption using the following steps:

• Open Settings.

• Click Battery.

Once you’ve identified the culprit app(s), you can follow the steps for uninstalling them on iPhone 12/13 from the previous section.

5. Update your phone’s apps.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	4
Duration	10 seconds

Are the problematic apps on your phone important, and removing them will do you more harm than good? If so, you might be able to salvage them by installing their latest updates.

Updates usually include performance and battery efficiency upgrades, which should help you deal with overheating issues on iPhone 12/iPhone 13. iPhone app updates are downloaded and installed from the built-in App Store.

Follow these steps to update apps on your phone:

• Open the App Store.

• Click your account profile.

• Scroll down/click Update All to update all pending apps.

• Click the Update buttons beside the apps to install their updates individually.

6. Low Power Mode

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	3
Duration	10 seconds

Low Power Mode (LPM) is a built-in tool to reduce battery consumption on Apple devices. As its name implies, this mode will consume less power than normal in exchange for reducing some features on your phone.

Features affected by LPM include 5G connectivity, auto-lock, screen brightness, display refresh rate, display visual effects, iCloud photos, automatic downloads, email fetch, and background app refresh. Once on, the battery icon turns yellow.

Activate Low Power Mode using these steps:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click Battery.

• Toggle Low Power Mode on.

Note: Low Power Mode automatically turns off when your phone’s battery reaches at least 80% capacity.

7. Turn off network connections.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	2
Duration	5 seconds

Network connections consume battery whenever they’re active. In particular, places with weak signal receptions will cause your phone to actively scan for better connections repeatedly and overheat your device in the process.

Additionally, multiple user reports of overheating issues occur when using 5G services. As such, we recommended turning off network services when they’re not in use.

Use the steps below to turn off network connections:

• Swipe down from the upper-right-hand side of the display.

• Toggle off the switch for cellular data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Pro tip: Alternatively, you can also toggle on airplane mode to temporarily disable all network services simultaneously.

8. Update your iPhone 12/13 iOS version.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	10
Duration	10 minutes

System updates help fix overheating issues on iPhone 12/iPhone 13 by patching errors and bugs in the previous version of iOS. It’s essential to regularly check for updates as they’re also the only way to update the security features on your device.

Use the following steps to update your iPhone 12/13:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click General.

• Click Software Update.

• Click Download and Install.

• Enter your passcode.

• Click Agree to accept the Terms and Conditions.

• Click Agree again to continue.

• Click Use Cellular Data to begin the download.

• Give it some time to prepare the update.

• Click Install Now.

9. Reset the phone’s settings.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	7
Duration	30 seconds

Oftentimes, system and software errors can arise because of specific changes you make on your iPhone device. In such cases, resetting all settings is one way to fix the overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 13 caused by these kinds of errors.

This action will remove your phone’s network settings, location settings, privacy settings, Apple Pay cards, and the keyboard dictionary and revert them to default.

Don’t worry; your data and files should remain intact.

Reset your phone’s settings using these steps:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click General.

• Scroll down/click Transfer or Reset iPhone.

• Click Reset.

• Click Reset All Settings on the pop-up menu.

• Enter your passcode.

• Click Reset All Settings.

10. Repair the system using Tenorshare ReiBoot.

Difficulty	Moderate ●●●○○
Number of Steps	11
Duration	15 minutes

Tenorshare ReiBoot is a system repair tool for Windows and Mac that you can use to overcome overheating issues on iPhone 12/iPhone 13. Aside from overheating problems, this tool can also repair over 150 system problems on all iOS devices.

With ReiBoot, repairing the iPhone’s system is made simple, and you can breathe easily, knowing there will be no data loss after the process.

Install ReiBoot to repair your iPhone’s system using these steps:

• Open an internet browser on your PC.

• Visit the Tenorshare ReiBoot website.

• Download and install the ReiBoot app for Windows or Mac.

• Launch the ReiBoot app on your PC.

• Plug your iPhone 12/13 into your PC with a USB cable.

• Click the Start button on the ReiBoot app.

• Select Standard Repair.

• Click the Standard Repair button.

• Click Download to download the latest firmware.

• Click on Start Standard Repair allowing it to begin the system repair.

• Click Done once the repair is complete.

11. Restore your iPhone with DFU mode.

Device Firmware Upgrade or DFU mode is a feature that allows your phone to be restored to any state. Usually, this mode is used to restore or downgrade the OS on the iPhone when the new iOS version is causing problems.

The process is simple, but the different button combinations you have to perform can be tricky and confusing. Pay careful attention to the instruction so you don’t encounter any problems along the way.

Follow these steps carefully to go into DFU mode:

Difficulty	Easy ●●○○○
Number of Steps	10
Duration	1 minute

• Plug your iPhone 12/13 into your PC with a USB cable.

• Press/release the volume up button.

• Press/release the volume down button.

• Press/hold the side button.

• Press/hold the volume down button with the side button when the screen turns black.

• Release the side button after 5 seconds while holding the volume down button.

Note: The Apple logo will appear to indicate that you failed to enter DFU mode due to holding the side button for too long, and you have to start from the beginning. If not, you can continue.

• Keep holding the volume down button until your PC detects your iPhone.

• Release the volume down button and turn to your PC’s screen.

• Click OK to continue.

• Click Restore iPhone.

Exit DFU mode using the steps below:

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	3
Duration	15 seconds

• Press/release the volume up button.

• Press/release the volume down button.

• Press/hold the side button until Apple’s logo appears.

12. Get your phone’s battery replaced.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	4
Duration	10 seconds

If any of the abovementioned troubleshooting methods were unable to fix the overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 13, you might have a faulty battery. That means, battery needs to be replaced immediately.

When the battery capacity falls below 80%, we recommend contacting Apple Support to schedule a visit with your nearest service center. Normally, it takes two years of regular usage to reach the 80% mark.

Check your battery’s health using the steps below:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click Battery.

• Click Battery Health.

• Check the Maximum Capacity for your battery’s health.

That should wrap things up on dealing with overheating issues on your iPhone. However, a better way to rein in the issue is to make sure it doesn’t happen at all and that’s where preventive maintenance comes in. 

Tips to Prevent iPhone 12/13 From Overheating

If prevention is indeed better than cure, then it follows that observing any of the tips listed below should count as an effective way to fix overheating issues on iPhone 12/iPhone 13.

1. Avoid hot rooms or places with a nearby heat source.

Typically, operating your iPhone already consumes power and generates heat but the added effects of heat sources such as the sunlight or a nearby cooking stove can build it up even more.

It’s advisable to keep your phone away from such places as heat is the number one enemy of the lithium-ion batteries on the iPhone 12/13. Extended exposure to heat sources not only shortens a phone’s lifespan but is also a fire hazard.

2. Remove your phone’s protective case.

Protective cases, especially the thicker, more rugged variants, can deter or slow down the cooling process of your phone. Depending on the case’s material, it can even be a heat magnet, which makes it harder for heat to escape.

Take extra caution, however, when removing protective cases. If you don’t do it right, you can send the phone flying or drop it several meters down. 

Here’s a quick way to get it done right: 

• To boot, you should hold your device securely using one hand with the screen facing down (camera facing you).
• Use your thumb to push gently the smartphone’s cut-out; doing so should cause your device to pop out of the grip of the case. 
• Slowly, peel back the phone case, starting from the top corners. 

3. Use authentic charging accessories.

Fast chargers are a godsend for most people who don’t have the time to wait for their phones to charge up fully. However, since they output more energy, the phone produces more heat than regular chargers.

Now, if you use a fake charging accessory, the energy output can reach even more dangerous levels. Using a fake charger is ill-advised since they aren’t regulated and don’t meet safety standards.

4. Lower the display’s brightness.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	2
Duration	5 seconds

A simple way to prevent overheating is to lower the display’s brightness. After all, the display is always turned on whenever the phone is in use, which makes it a big part of the overall power consumption.

Use these steps to lower the display’s brightness:

• Swipe down from the upper-right-hand side of the display.

• Slide the brightness meter to adjust.

5. Limit the phone’s frame rate.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	4
Duration	10 seconds

Setting your iPhone’s refresh rate to 120Hz makes the display more visually pleasing. However, this also ups your processor’s performance, giving it a heavier workload that will result in more heat.

Refresh rates can be confusing, especially for non-techie people but think of it as the number of times your phone’s display updates the images in a time duration of 1 second. A low refresh rate is best if you don’t need to handle so many graphics. 

Of course, the higher the refresh rate becomes, the better your smartphone experience rises. There was a time a 60Hz refresh rate was considered topnotch until 90Hz and 120Hz display rates came to the fore to steal the show.  

Use these steps to limit your phone’s frame rate:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click Accessibility.

• Click Motion.

• Click Limit Frame Rate to set it to 60Hz.

6. Use low power mode.

Difficulty	Very Easy ●○○○○
Number of Steps	3
Duration	10 seconds

LPM is not only a good way to resolve overheating issues on iPhone 12/iPhone 13 but it’s also an effective preventive measure. Basically, anything that reduces the processor’s workload and power use is good for avoiding any overheating problems.

Activate LPM using these steps:

• Open Settings.

• Scroll down/click Battery.

• Toggle Low Power Mode on.

Wrapping Up

With the guide above, you should learn how to fix an overheating issue on iPhone 12/iPhone 12 in no time. Both iPhone models are elite performers but giving them time and attention is wise for a more seamless user experience that lasts. 

FAQs About Overheating Issues on iPhone 12/13