I’m hearing from a number of readers who are seeing — and feeling — their iPhones overheat since installing iOS 26 beta. These iPhones become physically hot to the touch and the battery depletes in a few hours with little to no usage. And it seems pretty widespread, with a lot of chatter about it on social media and on Apple’s own support forum.
An overheating iPhone — or for that matter any device, especially if that device contains a rechargeable battery — is no joke. Prolonged high temperatures can cause glitches and crashes, damage internal components, drain the battery and permanently shorten the battery lifespan. This is something you need to get on top of.
If you have also updated your iPhone to iOS 26, you might have started to wonder how to make your iPhone stop overheating. This problem is not, as it turns out, your fault. There are tons of reports of iPhone overheating after iOS 26 update. Luckily, there are simple tips to fix the iPhone overheating problem.
Follow these steps to fix iPhone overheating after iOS 26 update.
Wait
A lot goes on during and after installing an iOS update, and tasks such as reindexing photos can consume a lot of processing power, which in turn can temporarily cause the iPhone to heat up. Things should return to normal within a few days of installing an update.
Close all apps
Having multiple processes running simultaneously makes your iPhone work harder and feel hotter. Lightening the processor’s workload can prevent it from generating excess heat and draining the battery too quickly. So closing all apps should be the first thing you do.
. Double-click the Home Button (the circular button below your iPhone’s display), and swipe each app (except this one, if you’re reading on your iPhone) off the top of the screen.
If your iPhone doesn’t have a Home button, open the app switcher by swiping up from the very bottom to the center of the screen. Swipe your apps up and off the top of the screen to close them.
When you’re done, tap on Safari and come right back to this article!
Restart your iPhone
If you don’t have the time or patience to close out your apps, you can simply restart your iPhone – this will close all open apps automatically. The process for restarting your iPhone varies.
To restart your iPhone:
- Hold down the Power button and either of the Volume buttons for a few seconds.
- A slider will appear at the top, telling you to slide to power off. Press the power icon in the slider and drag it to the right.
- Let the iPhone cool down for a few minutes.
- Hold down the Power button for a few seconds and release it when you see the Apple logo on the screen.
Update your apps
Update all the apps you run, as updates often deliver critical security patches and improved functionality. Apps that are not optimized to work with iOS 26 can overload the processor and cause heat buildup.
- Launch the App Store.
- Tap the Profile icon in the upper-right, scroll down to Available updates, and tap Update all.
Turn off Background App Refresh
Apple’s Background Refresh feature lets apps that you aren’t actively using and haven’t yet closed out check for updates and new content.
This background activity could be causing the iOS 26 overheating issue. To turn it off, go into your iPhone Settings, then tap General followed by Background App Refresh. Tap the name of the feature again, located at the top of that screen, and then choose Off.
Limit processor-intensive tasks
If you are using your iPhone for heavy processing tasks like playing high-end games, streaming, using graphics-intensive applications, or recording videos for an extended period, this can cause your phone to overheat.
If you notice that your iPhone gets too hot when performing a demanding task, you might want to limit that task.
If there are other devices in your vicinity that do the same thing — like a PC or game console — use them instead so you don’t overheat your phone.
Turn on auto-brightness
When your brightness is too high, it can deplete your battery and cause your iPhone to get hot.
Luckily, iPhone has a setting that automatically adjusts the brightness based on the conditions around you.
Here’s how to turn it on.
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap on Accessibility.
- Under the "VISION" heading, tap Display & Text Size.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and switch the toggle for Auto-Brightness.
Scan for apps causing overheating
Sometimes it’s a particular app that’s causing issues for your iPhone, including overheating and even crashing.
If you suspect that’s the case, you can check by going into your Settings and selecting Privacy & Security. Next, tap Analytics & Improvements and then choose Analytics Data. This will show you a list of any apps that have been crashing.
It’s normal to see a few entries in this list because log files end up here too, but if you see the same app listed over and over again, you’ve got a problem with that app. If you can, try downloading a different app that does essentially the same thing.
Use low-power mode
In low-power mode, the iPhone uses less energy and only carries out essential functions, thus saving battery life while the phone runs cooler. Your iPhone produces less heat when the battery discharges more slowly.
Go to Settings > Battery and toggle on Low power mode.
Reset your iPhone
If you find that your iPhone’s still getting too hot after trying the steps mentioned above, you should try resetting All Settings by heading to Settings > General > Transfer Or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset All Settings.
Tapping Reset All Settings erases and restores everything in the Settings app to factory defaults. This reset clears out Wi-Fi passwords (so make sure you know yours before you do it), resets your wallpaper, forgets your Bluetooth devices, and more. It doesn’t delete any of the data on your iPhone. I’ve seen it fix problems with misbehaving apps.
Bottom line
One effective method you can use to cool down an iPhone after an iOS update is to turn it off completely and let it come down to normal temperature naturally. Don’t try to "speed up" the process by putting the iPhone into a refrigerator or ice box as this could also damage the battery
See also: iOS 26 problems and how to fix them
