Help False overheat warning--phone won't stay on.

[Rebecca321]

I've had this issue a couple times in the past, where I was able to resolve it with a forced restart. This time, the issue has persisted.
My phone will shut off and only respond--after a slight delay-- with the overheat thermometer symbol when I plug it it. I've done the manual restart two or three times now, (and that itself only works sporadically) but it gave me the overheat warning again and shut itself down, despite being quite cool to the touch. I even put it in a container of rice overnight to see if there was a humidity-related problem bugging the heat censor, but to no effect.

This all began out of nowhere. Is there anything else I can do?

EDIT: As I wrote in the title, this is a FALSE overheat warning. The phone was not warm to the touch, and not processing anything at all--it shuts off even with no apps running.

JULY EDIT: Force Rebooting to Safe Mode worked at first, but now the problem is back and worse than ever. For a couple days my phone would only power on if it was plugged it in (despite already being at full charge,) and then two days ago it just stopped responding entirely other than with the red thermometer symbol when I plug it in. At one point I tried to get it to force restart into safe mode, but it cut off part way through the restart.

When I was eventually able to boot it to safe mode this morning, it still gave me the heat warning and powered down. The phone is NOT physically warm, but seems beyond convinced that it is. There were no apps running. Clearing the cache from the manual reboot screen did nothing.

I understand other A20 users have this false overheat problem--but is it a software issue or a hardware one? This phone is so absurdly expensive to service, if I cant fix it myself, its gone. All I want now is for my phone to stay on long enough to back up, but even opening the "settings" menu seems like too much for it.

 

[MrJavi]

Welcome to Android Forums @Rebecca321

Is your phone still under warranty?

 

[svim]

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a20-9640.php
Have you actually dropped it into water previously? Leaving you phone inside rice won't fix a heat issue, it only pertains to if the phone was immersed in water (to draw out any moisture that remains inside).
If you did have an accident with water, and your phone is now heating up spontaneously than you should send it in for servicing as that indicates a hardware problem that needs to be addressed. (.... and if involves anything that shorts out the battery, an even more serious problem.)

But if water wasn't involved, don't bother with the rice trick. It sounds more like some app or background service is running amok, causing your phone's processor to run continuously. When the processor is running at full speed all the time, a by-product is a lot of heat. Smartphones don't have the same ventilation and heat transfer mechanisms that a typical computer has, so heat dispersion is always an issue.
If you look in your Settings >> Battery menu, does anything look out of sorts? Some things like the Android System will of course always have to be running, and some things like the Display inherently require a lot of system resources as is, so you need to be looking at some app or service that's using up a power that doesn't make sense.
Another thing to keep in mind is if your phone is heating up while doing something like watching streaming video content, it's not surprising if your phone heats up quite a bit. (... try watching things at a lower resolution). But the fact that your phone is overheating to the point of shutting itself off isn't a good sign.

 

[MrJavi]

Try booting into "Safe Mode".


https://support.google.com/android/answer/7665064?hl=en

 

[Rebecca321]

Try booting into "Safe Mode".


https://support.google.com/android/answer/7665064?hl=en

Excellent! I've booted it into safe mode, and so far so good. It hasn't shut down yet or given me any sort of overheat warning. I suppose I'll leave it for a while before I try to boot it again normally. Thanks!

 

[svim]

When you start up your phone into it's Safe Mode, only the base Android operating system gets loaded into memory. When you start up your phone normally, the Android OS gets loaded up, and along with a few third-party apps. That's a very rough description, but the basic premise is if your phone isn't having those heating up problems while running in Safe Mode, that's a pretty indicator the source of the problem is one of the apps you install. Of course now you need to determine just which one. You can go through the process of elimination but I'll repeat that you should check your Settings >> Battery menu and see which app is taxing your battery in a significant manner. (Not while in Safe Mode but when you start up your phone normally)

 

[Rebecca321]

When you start up your phone into it's Safe Mode, only the base Android operating system gets loaded into memory.

This worked at first, but now the problem is back and worse than ever. For a couple days my phone would only power on after I plugged it in (despite already being at full charge,) and then two days ago just stopped responding entirely other than the red thermometer symbol. At one point I tried to get it to force restart into safe mode but it cut off part way through.

When I was eventually able to boot it to safe mode this morning, it still gave me the heat warning and powered down. The phone is NOT physically warm, but seems beyond convinced that it is. There were no apps running.

The first time this happened back in winter, I was convinced water was the culprit, but the problem went away pretty promptly with no servicing so I assumed my issue was just a firmware/software bug like everyone else's, since that is apparently common with this model.

Now that its become CHRONIC, though, I'm circling back to that initial incident and wondering if this is some sort of slowly developing physical damage that's resurfaced.

 

[Zoskalous]

worked

So did you find any permanent solution, my phone won't start unless I plug it after it shutdown due to "system overheat"