Are you wondering why your M8 suddenly gets hot? To be fair, all electronic and electrical devices can potentially overheat. Heat and electronics don’t usually mix but thanks to modern engineering and insight, this problem is now minimized. Designs of smart devices nowadays consider ventilation as a critical factor so even if you have a thin smartphone like the HTC One M8, air circulation should be enough to keep hardware components going for years. And yet overheating happens!

Find out what are other causes of overheating and their solutions below.

If you have a problem you want to share with us, don’t forget to use the link provided at the bottom part of this page.

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Problem #1: HTC One M8 battery get hot

Recently bought this phone second hand. Initially wouldn’t charge despite red light on. Replaced battery. Seemed to work as phone booted up. However, it got exceedingly hot! I did a factory reset, hoping it would solve this issue. It didn’t. Now it’s back to square one in that it won’t boot up. Shows red light when on charge but nothing else happens no matter what I try. The battery no longer heats up and the screen stays blank. Do I try another new battery or is it shorting somewhere or is it a hardware problem?

Also, on the long antenna wire, there is a section roughly half an inch long that is bare. Is this normal?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks guys, Regards. — Dave

Solution: Hi Dave. There are a few factors that we need to consider when dealing with an overheating phone like an HTC One M8. Our first task is always to identify what the real problem is so we can work on resolving it. There are three possible reasons why an Android device may overheat: battery malfunction, hardware failure, or software issue.

Unlike other phones with removable batteries, knowing exactly if an HTC One’s battery is at fault is tricky as you cannot physically check (unless you forcibly open the phone). To isolate if there’s a battery problem, you must first try to do the basic software troubleshooting. The steps involve booting the phone in diagnostic mode (safe mode), clearing the cache partition, uninstalling apps, and restoring the phone to its factory defaults via master reset. Doing all these software solutions are, frankly, the only things that an end-user can do on his/her end. If nothing changes after doing them, you are almost certain that you either have a battery or hardware trouble in your hand. So, let’s get started with these software solutions first.

Boot the HTC One M8 in safe mode

Rogue, incompatible, or outdated apps can sometimes cause run endlessly in the background, forcing the processor to waste resources and draining battery fast. Android is designed to minimize processor use to save battery power and keep heat within acceptable levels but if rogue apps override this mechanism, a problem like the one you have can happen. That’s where safe mode comes in. This software solution was created to address an issue like this. Safe mode forces the phone to run only trusted and reliable pre-installed apps so if overheating problem is being caused by third party apps, it should not show while the device is in this mode. Here’s how to restart the phone in Safe Mode:

• Press and hold the Power button until you get the Phone options on the screen.
• Tap and hold Power off and wait until Reboot to safe mode is shown on the display. Release the button after Reboot to safe mode
• Tap Restart option from Reboot to safe mode
• Wait for about 30-60 seconds to allow the phone to process the request. A Safe mode line will show in the lower left corner of the screen after the reboot.

Try to run the phone for several hours to observe if the overheating still occurs.

Note: To go back to normal mode, simply restart the phone.

Delete the HTC One M8 cache partition

While a corrupt or outdated cache can not directly cause an overheating issue, it’s association with apps may still possibly contribute to the trouble. To be safe, we decide to include this Android maintenance tip here to make sure that apps run as they should be. If you notice slow performance issue aside from it getting warm to touch, deleting the cache may help. Here are the steps:

• Shut the phone off.
• Press and hold the Volume Down
• Press, then release the Power
• Make sure to keep holding the Volume Down button until the Android images are displayed on the screen.
• Use the Volume Down button to go to Recovery.
• Use the Power button to confirm Recovery
• Press Volume Up and Power simultaneously once you see the red triangle icon.
• Use Volume Down again to go to Wipe Cache Partition and press the Power button to select.
• Wait for the confirmation that the wipe has been completed.
• Press the Power button to select Reboot System Now.

Remove apps

Uninstalling apps can be done either in normal mode or in safe mode to verify if the problem occurs without some of them. This can take a huge portion of your time if you have a long list of apps so we recommend that you simply do another round of factory reset, observe the phone for several hours without installing anything, and see what happens. A clean firmware/operating system re-install is needed in your case as there’s no way for us to check the status of the hardware.

If the problem does not happen after doing a factory reset, try to re-install app individually. Make sure that you give the phone enough time to run between each installation so you can narrow down which app is problematic.

Send the phone for repair or replacement

Unless you know how to repair electronic devices, we don’t recommend that you even attempt to open the phone itself. Not only will it void the manufacturer warranty, but there’s always a chance that you will be doing more harm than good in doing so. Please seek the help of professionals if you want to go the repair route.

Problem #2: HTC One M8 overheating problem even after doing a factory reset

I’ve been having two issues with my M8. One is the rotation of the screen does not work for some reason. I just started to notice 2 days ago. just thought it was software issue but I’ve done a hard reset and put everything back to factory and still having the same problem.

Also my phone gets very hot more than normal.

The tap to turn on your screen doesn’t seem to work even though you can double tap to turn it off. Before, you unlock the phone seems to still work. I tried everything I could think of in settings but still nothing now. I’m asking what can I do. Yes my phone is updated to Lollipop and on Sprint. Thanks! — Freddy

Solution: Hi Freddy. As mentioned above, there’s little to nothing that a user can do if the problem is hardware in nature simply because manufacturers want it that way. All hardware problems usually require expertise and special tools so your best bet is ask the help of others. End users can only troubleshoot the phone if they suspect that there’s a firmware or software issue behind the problem.

We understand that you already did a factory reset but that will usually not work if you install the same set of apps afterwards. If an app is the culprit, you’re actually not doing anything by re-installing it after a hard reset. Make sure to clean up your phone’s apps first before proceeding to other solutions. Please refer to troubleshooting instructions above.

Problem #3: HTC One M8 started getting hot, among other problems after updating to Lollipop

Hi. HTC (Lollipop) update has ruined my M8 phone and made it unusable. It perpetually reboots, using up all the battery, makes the phone boiling hot and a factory reset hasn’t fixed it, instead all my backed up data is missing.

The phone only works as long as I’m holding it and using it m as soon as I put it down it reboots, so any updates I try to add have to be restarted. I cannot speak to anyone at HTC who can help. I can’t afford to buy a new phone. Do you know if HTC will be releasing an update to fix this bug?

They haven’t responded to any of my correspondence and I am a single parent with disabilities. I rely on this phone, it’s somewhat of a lifeline.

I am in the UK. Thank you. — Karen

Solution: Hi Karen. The most likely reason for your problems are your apps. Please do a factory reset and follow our suggested solutions above on what to do next.

This article may also interest you: Why Android Lollipop Causes Problems.