iPhone 16 overheating issue after switching from iPhone 8

Out of the blue my iPhone 16 gets very very hot I take the cover ( bumper cover) off and that doesn’t help. Any suggestions? Why is this happening? I went from a iPhone 8 to this 16. I like the 8 better I never had this issue. I paid a small fortune for this iPhone and I’ve not had anything positive to say about it yet.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iPhone 16 is getting very hot and I just started using it? Why is this happening?

iPhone 16, iOS 18

Posted on Jul 17, 2025 2:13 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 17, 2025 3:33 AM

That’s hard to answer without knowing your usage patterns. You can go to settings/battery and see which apps use the most energy (and thus generate the most heat).


As a start, 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, the Camera app and any other app that uses the camera (TikTok, Snapchat, etc). Charging while using apps will also generate a lot of heat. 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, perhaps by dimming the screen.


Lately there have been recent reports of the Amazon app and Words With Friends 2 using excessive amounts of energy, which, as already said, can cause the iPhone to heat up. And periodically other app releases may not have been thoroughly tested that will cause similar symptoms.


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

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 17, 2025 3:33 AM in response to Lucky-Lucy

That’s hard to answer without knowing your usage patterns. You can go to settings/battery and see which apps use the most energy (and thus generate the most heat).


As a start, 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, the Camera app and any other app that uses the camera (TikTok, Snapchat, etc). Charging while using apps will also generate a lot of heat. 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, perhaps by dimming the screen.


Lately there have been recent reports of the Amazon app and Words With Friends 2 using excessive amounts of energy, which, as already said, can cause the iPhone to heat up. And periodically other app releases may not have been thoroughly tested that will cause similar symptoms.


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

Jul 17, 2025 9:35 AM in response to Lucky-Lucy

For better battery optimization you can apply these:

  • Disable Siri
  • Disable Apple Intelligence
  • Disable Background App Refresh
  • Disable System Haptics from Sounds & Haptics
  • Disable Always on Display and True Tone
  • Disable Reduce White Point and Auto-Brightness from Accessibility > Display & Text Size
  • Disable StandBy
  • Change App Location Services to "While Using" and disable unnecessary location services per app.


Hope this helps.

Jul 17, 2025 10:42 AM in response to emirulug

emirulug wrote:

• For better battery optimization you can apply these:
Disable Siri
• Disable Apple Intelligence
• Disable Background App Refresh
• Disable System Haptics from Sounds & Haptics
• Disable Always on Display and True Tone
• Disable Reduce White Point and Auto-Brightness from Accessibility > Display & Text Size
• Disable StandBy
• Change App Location Services to "While Using" and disable unnecessary location services per app.

Hope this helps.

In other words, turn off everything that makes an iPhone and iPhone.


Really great idea!!!

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iPhone 16 overheating issue after switching from iPhone 8

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