- It's normal for your Samsung Galaxy S10 to get warm when playing games or performing other processor-intensive activities.
- If your Galaxy phone gets unusually hot in routine use, it might be caused by corrupted software or data.
- Follow these troubleshooting steps to resolve your phone's overheating issues.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
It's not unusual for a phone like the Samsung Galaxy S10 to occasionally get warm to the touch. It has a fast processor and graphics chip, as well as memory and a battery — and unlike traditional computers, has no way to actively cool itself, such as with a fan.
Check out the products mentioned in this article:
Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)
How to troubleshoot your Samsung Galaxy S10 if it's overheating
If your phone gets warm when you play a graphics-intensive game or watch a video for an extended period of time, and cools down again afterwards, there's probably no cause for concern.
But if it seems to get uncomfortably warm in normal use, there may be a problem. Here are some tips for solving overheating problems and keeping your phone as cool as possible.
Remove the phone from its case
Phone cases can trap heat, and in some cases — especially if thick and bulky — are more likely to make your phone unnaturally warm. If you find that your phone is getting hot, especially when it's charging, try removing it from the case and see if that solves the problem.
Reset the phone
Whenever you're troubleshooting a problem with your phone, you'll invariably encounter advice to restart it. Turning your phone off and back on again can flush out a misbehaving app or corrupted data. You can turn simply turn off your phone and then restart it, or perform a soft reset.
Use Safe Mode to see if a buggy app is responsible
If you've installed a buggy app, it might force your phone's processor to over-extend itself, which can both make it run hot and run down the battery faster than usual.
One way to see if this is the culprit is to boot your phone into so-called "Safe Mode," which prevents third-party downloaded apps from running.
If your phone doesn't overheat in Safe Mode but does ordinarily, you can try uninstalling recently downloaded apps until you find the one causing problems.
Here is how to boot into Safe Mode:
1. Hold the Power button on the side of the phone until the Power Off button appear.
2. Tap and hold "Power Off" for a second or two until the Safe Mode button appears.
3. Tap "Safe mode" and let the phone restart.
4. Use the phone in Safe mode to assess if it's overheating. When you restart the phone, let it boot in normal mode.
Clear the phone's cache partition
If your phone still gets uncomfortably warm in normal use, it's possible the phone's cache partition has corrupted data.
1. Turn off your phone by pressing the Power button on the side and tapping "Power off," then tap "power off" a second time.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Bixby keys, then press and hold the Power button. Hold all three buttons until you see the Android logo.
3. After the menu appears, use the Volume Down button to choose "Wipe cache partition" and then press the Power button to select it.
4. Use the Volume Down button to choose "Yes" and then select it with the Power button.
5. When the cache wipe is completed, press the Power button to select "Reboot system now."
Contact support
If your phone still seems to run much hotter than normal, you may want to contact Samsung technical support for help.
Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
How to see the passwords you've saved on your Samsung Galaxy S10, and delete or copy them
How to move apps on your Samsung Galaxy S10's homescreen or Apps screen
How to remove the SIM card from your Samsung Galaxy S10 to replace it or perform troubleshooting
How to turn off AMBER alerts on your Samsung Galaxy S10, along with other public safety alerts (though you should keep them on)