iPhone 5 gets very hot

In my previous experience all phones get hot sometimes. My iPhone is usually good unless my reception is poor. Then it does get hot. I think that the metal back makes it feel much hotter because of the material & not because the phone gets heats up more. Will keep an eye on this thread & my usage to see if it become unbearable at some point.

Sorry just out of curosity, where are you from? the reason phone might be getting too hot could be directly related to your geo location, e.g if you are in a hot climate your phone is more likely to get hoter. Plus, how you hold it could also be a reason.

Here's a question for everyone: Where are you located in the building? Is your signal strong or weak? Are you behind a lot of concrete? It might be the case that the iPhone is boosting its antenna if it is in an area that has bad reception, and, thus, is heating up more to try to transmit the signal to maintain communication. I know that Android phones can have that problem. I've seen people's batteries die very quickly during train rides underground for an hour on their Android phones.

Perhaps, try putting your phone in airplane mode if you're feeling experimental, and see if you have the same problem with heating up. I am noticing that my phone does not heat up if I am out in the open, but certainly heats up and drains the battery if I am in the basement of a large concrete building. There needs to be some sort of fix for this. I'll gladly accept not being able to receive calls in the basement if my signal is bad, if I had the option to boost the antenna gain when I wanted to make a call.

I did what rjthorsen suggested. Reset iphone to factory settings, then set it up as a new phone.

Running 1 day now - no overheating issues.

Currently running only the apple apps: talking on the phone, texting, Mail, safari, and maps. Going in and out of LTE and 4G. No problems.

Someone suggested it's b/c of Facebook trying to sync data - I haven't tried running FB yet, was going to run w/o it for a day. Tomorrow I am going to add that and see if the overheating still stays away. For now, I am enjoying my cool phone and w/o FB I all of a sudden have extra time in my life.

Apple acknowledged the issue.

I visited the GENIUS today, who said that apple is working frantically to solve this software issue in poor data reception/edge(3G/4G/LTE) signal area, and that there is no ETA 😉

I am new to using iphone but I just figured it was normal that it would get warm under heavy use. Didn't the prior phones warm up?

Apple replaced my extremely hot iPhone 5. I have had it several days and have used it a lot. This one has not got hot once and the battery drain is far better than the one they replaced. They gave good customer service.

MY IPHONE 5 gets o hot that I ALMOST BURNED MYSELF.APPLE I WILL SUE UR *** IF I get burned.Best you replace ALL IPHONE 5 or do a recall ASAP BEFORE SOMEONE GETS HURT.Iam not HAPPY with your product your making unsafe phones which are well over priced.Time to stand by your product or time for apple phones to go.

Being a new apple user, I've not been very impressed. First thing was I was unable to search on the App Store as nothing comes up and the my phone literally burns up like a stove. I can't even hold it for 2 long and this causes my battery to drain so fast. How do I solve this, I'm so unhappy

That is right, when signal is low or in a densely crowded area, ip5 gets really really hot. But not when I'm in the open. I'm not even on LTE btw.

Apparently there is an issue or we would not be doing a search for "iPhone 5 gets very hot."

I have completed the battery drain and recharge a few times in the past 2 weeks. Mine only get hot when I charge it. I have noticed a greatly reduced battery life compared to my 4S.

I am only seeing the issue when not on WiFi. When I am on WiFi the battery seems fine and the phone does not get too hot. When I am not on WiFi it gets very hot and I lose 15-20% battery life each hour even when I am not using the phone. (It sits on my desk or in my pocket)

If I turn the phone on Airplane mode it cools back down and the battery stops draining.

I am in doors most of the time and like TheFerruccio said a handful of posts before, perhaps it is related to 4G/LTE boosting for better signal?

Can anyone else confirm that on WiFi it is ok? But on 4G or LTE something is wrong?

I am on my 2nd iPhone5 (32GB ATT) (I had the 4 and the 3 also). The first one has battery and heat issues after leaving the store. The battery would last only 1/2 day if that. I turned everything off (except put it in airplane mode, whats the point) and it still drained in 4 hours. I eventually timed it several times and with no use it would go from 100% to 0 in 3 1/2 hours. I restored it and no luck. I had it replaced and didn't do a restore and it worked fine for 2 weeks, then about 6 days ago it started with the same issue, runs hot and drains fast. I did another complete wipe and restore last night, and it is somewhere inbetween now. used 30% of battery in 2 hours, but not hot (yet).

there seems to be some sort of antenna issue or software glitch. never had these issues with the iphone 4 or 3. going to be taking it back AGAIN. they were nice in the store, but it is a pain to get a defective device.

Before even seeing this post. My fix was to go into airplane mode. I figured the phone was trying to maintain a signal and that was the root of the problem.

I called the Apple store today and they told me to make an appointement... so tonight I went there and the guy made an entire restore of my iPhone. He told me that if the problem seems to still be there within the next couple of days, they would give me a new one.

My iPhone's problem was/or still is the following : I've had it for two days and the battery was drained within a couple of hours. Moreover, my iPhone was heating...

I hope it will be fixed soon. I love my new iPhone and I don't want to take it back to the store. :/