Similar to most smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S6 will occasionally get hot while gaming, navigating or performing other similar processor intensive activities. In most circumstances, this occasional increase in heat is not harmful to the device. The problems begin to creep in when the temperature inside the phone climbs to an excessive level or the device remains hot for an extended period. How you respond to these temperature spikes may have an impact on the longevity of your device. Read on for several tips to help keep your smartphone cool even when it is under stress.
Wipe Cache Partition
Wiping the cache partition has been used by some Samsung Galaxy S5 owners to solve the overheating problem on their phones, so it is worth trying on the Galaxy S6.
- Start the process by booting into recovery mode — just press and hold down the Power, the Volume up and the Home buttons simultaneously.
- Wait for the Samsung logo and the blue recovery text to appear.
- Use the Volume up and down buttons to scroll through the Recovery menu until you find the entry “Wipe cache partition”.
- Highlight “Wipe cache partition” and press the Power button to select it.
- Wait for the wipe to proceed and then select “Reboot System now” when it is completed.
This simple procedure has fixed the overheating problem for some Galaxy owners. If you are still affected, then you should try some of the other suggestions below.
Soft Reset
Sometimes third-party apps contribute to overheating in a phone either because they are malfunctioning or are overly taxing your phone. A processor intensive app, like those used for navigation, or one that is frozen may cause your phone to produce too much heat. To force close these app, you can perform a soft reset. Just turn over your phone, remove the battery cover and take out the battery for 10 seconds, Replace the battery and then press the power button again to turn the phone back on. This simple restart may interrupt the app causing the overheating and restore your phone to its normal state.
Safe Mode
To identify a problematic app, you also can use Safe mode to reboot into a minimal version of the operating system that does not include any third party apps. Hold the power button until you see the “Power Off” prompt and then turn off your Galaxy S6. Restart the phone by holding the power button and the Volume Down button at the same time. When the Samsung logo appears, you can release the power button but continue to hold th Volume down until you are at the home screen. When in safe mode, the words ‘Safe Mode” should be present in the bottom left corner of the home screen.
Use your phone in safe mode to see if it continues to overheat. If the overheating problem is gone, then you know the issue lies with one of the third-party apps on your phone. You can remove the apps one at a time to find the culprit or perform a factory reset to start over with a clean slate.
Install Samsung Vitamins
If you need some professional advice, Samsung offers its Vitamins mobile app in the Google Play Store. This utility includes self diagnostics to identify hardware problems that could cause overheating. It also provides easy access to customer care information that may help troubleshoot a problem. .
Factory Reset
As a last ditch measure, you can initiate a factory reset, which will erase everything on the device. Just open the Settings > Backup and Reset and then tap Factory Data Reset. Follow the prompts to confirm that you want to remove all the apps, media and customizations on the phone. When the process is finished, your phone will return to the way it was when you first pulled it out of its box.
