We're at an amusement park. I was recording my kids and then I got a popup saying the phone is overheating and functions will be limited. Then I couldn't record video. It's not like I left my phone in the car with the windows closed and the sun beating down on it. It's sunny and 80 degrees today.
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Can't record videos when it's sunny outside?
- Thread starter dorlow
- Start date
Well recording video is one of the most heat-producing things you can do with a phone, so if the battery temperature is high it's one of the first things I'd expect to shut down. Better that than just a forced shutdown of the phone in the middle of recording.
There are many things that can affect a phone's temperature (and it probably is the battery temperature that is most important here, though phones usually have other temperature sensors). If it's sunny a black phone or case will absorb heat. If it had been doing other things that drive the processor hard (e.g. you'd been using it for navigation, playing games with the screen on high, doing anything with the screen on high for an extended period) then the battery could have been quite warm before you started recording. Even doing nothing in the shade it's probably about 10 degrees warmer than your surroundings. Or if you had been recording video for long enough that could itself produce enough heat to cause the phone to throttle like this, especially if it was in a thick case which stopped heat getting out. It's hard to say without knowing all a lot more whether this was reasonable or not, and as I don't have a Pixel 5 I don't know how conservative Google were in setting the thermal slowdown and shutdown thresholds (though I'd be amazed if it didn't start throwing warnings by the time the battery reached 110 F - assuming I've converted to Fahrenheit correctly!).
There are many things that can affect a phone's temperature (and it probably is the battery temperature that is most important here, though phones usually have other temperature sensors). If it's sunny a black phone or case will absorb heat. If it had been doing other things that drive the processor hard (e.g. you'd been using it for navigation, playing games with the screen on high, doing anything with the screen on high for an extended period) then the battery could have been quite warm before you started recording. Even doing nothing in the shade it's probably about 10 degrees warmer than your surroundings. Or if you had been recording video for long enough that could itself produce enough heat to cause the phone to throttle like this, especially if it was in a thick case which stopped heat getting out. It's hard to say without knowing all a lot more whether this was reasonable or not, and as I don't have a Pixel 5 I don't know how conservative Google were in setting the thermal slowdown and shutdown thresholds (though I'd be amazed if it didn't start throwing warnings by the time the battery reached 110 F - assuming I've converted to Fahrenheit correctly!).
How long of a video were you recording, and at what framerate and resolution?
Video recording is one of the most processor-intensive things you can do on a phone, and it's going to generate a LOT of heat on its own. The longer the video goes on, the more pronounced that cumulative heating will be. And of course this just gets worse when it's already hot outside and the sun is shining brightly on the phone.
Do you have a case on your phone? If so, removing it may help the phone to cool off better on its own. Without any internal fans, the phone frame is supposed to be able to dissipate heat into the surrounding environment. A case can insulate the phone's body and impair that heat transfer.
For what it's worth, I've recorded plenty of videos of my dog outside in the sun without encountering any temperature warnings on my Pixel 5 - but I do tend to only record a minute or two at a time.
Video recording is one of the most processor-intensive things you can do on a phone, and it's going to generate a LOT of heat on its own. The longer the video goes on, the more pronounced that cumulative heating will be. And of course this just gets worse when it's already hot outside and the sun is shining brightly on the phone.
Do you have a case on your phone? If so, removing it may help the phone to cool off better on its own. Without any internal fans, the phone frame is supposed to be able to dissipate heat into the surrounding environment. A case can insulate the phone's body and impair that heat transfer.
For what it's worth, I've recorded plenty of videos of my dog outside in the sun without encountering any temperature warnings on my Pixel 5 - but I do tend to only record a minute or two at a time.
puppykickr
Android Expert
What @codesplice and @Hadron say is correct.
Some things you can try, besides removing any case, are-
Use airplane mode when recording during such conditions.
Airplane mode shuts off all radio connections on the device, and can save power.
Less power used, less heat produced.
Turn off (ie. force stop) apps that are running in the background.
This can save you battery life at other times as well, but it can also be useful for this issue.
https://greenify.en.uptodown.com/android
Try to keep the device shaded as well as ventilated.
I have had the same type notification when the phone was left inside a tent on a summer day.
Even though there was no direct sunlight or case, the phone got too hot to function.
Do not charge the phone in this type of condition.
Charging builds heat quickly and drastically.
Some things you can try, besides removing any case, are-
Use airplane mode when recording during such conditions.
Airplane mode shuts off all radio connections on the device, and can save power.
Less power used, less heat produced.
Turn off (ie. force stop) apps that are running in the background.
This can save you battery life at other times as well, but it can also be useful for this issue.
https://greenify.en.uptodown.com/android
Try to keep the device shaded as well as ventilated.
I have had the same type notification when the phone was left inside a tent on a summer day.
Even though there was no direct sunlight or case, the phone got too hot to function.
Do not charge the phone in this type of condition.
Charging builds heat quickly and drastically.
codezer0
Android Expert
So basically, never charge a battery in Arizona. Uh huh. Like what kind of advice is that?
Do phone makers seriously think that nobody buying ever stays more than a foot away from air conditioning and a wall outlet at all times to get away with such a blatantly bad design?
puppykickr
Android Expert
So basically, never charge a battery in Arizona. Uh huh. Like what kind of advice is that?
Do phone makers seriously think that nobody buying ever stays more than a foot away from air conditioning and a wall outlet at all times to get away with such a blatantly bad design?
Too be honest, people used to have the fortitude to use the right tool for the job.
I remember when, not so long ago, when I wanted to record video out in the hot sun-
I used this thing called a VIDEO CAMERA that just did a bang up job at it.
It didn't complain about the temperature, and it even stabilized the subject matter so that my movements were almost undiscernable.
This is in sharp contrast to video produced by PHONES, that often make me wonder if the person capturing the video is having a seizure.
The should be so simple solution to this issue is to use the proper tool for the job.
codezer0
Android Expert
Reminds me of my gripes with PC usage and especially PC gaming. I want a dedicated sound card, because i want my games to sound correct. Every moron and a half keeps insisting that "onboard is gud nuff" when it sounds like watching star wars from a 1970s CRT with a mono speaker and UHF connection. And of course, realtek famously refusing to support anything, but getting a monopoly on sound chips in the current market because they charge motherboard makers like 2 cents per board to use their crap chips on everything.
Even more noticeable when the wife gifted me a set of Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2's. The dedicated drivers make positional awareness a breeze, and saved my ass more than I care to admit in games like Alien Isolation.
Even more noticeable when the wife gifted me a set of Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2's. The dedicated drivers make positional awareness a breeze, and saved my ass more than I care to admit in games like Alien Isolation.
puppykickr
Android Expert
I don't do PC at all, but I do have friends that do.
I seem to remember one PC having more than one sound card for similar reasons.
Possibly on ths same system, I really don't remember, are two 1 TB hard drives- one for the computer crap, and one only for music.
The guy that set it up for my friend made the system so simple that literally anyone could use it.
Like I said, I don't do computers- I despise them- and so have about 0 knowlege about how to use them- but even I sat down in front of the thing and easily burned many, many CDs into tbe thing for my buddy while he was at work.
While I was doing that, I was watching movies with it as well.
Funny, because when I try to do literally anything with a normal computer, I am ready to throw the whole thing out the windw and put my head tbrough the wall in about 5 minutes.
That's how I watched Star Wars, on an old black and white CRT 12in TV. Didn't have the money to afford anything better, it was 'gud enuff"
Never really got into PC gaming, or consoles either. But you don't have to gripe about PC gaming, if that's your thing, you can spend all the extra $$$$ on whatever graphic cards, sound cards, 7.1 speakers, etc. if you like. I'm sure Razer or Alienware can accommodate your credit card. 
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Well they could make phones with NiCd batteries for places like that. They tolerate high temperatures better, but are heavier, have lower capacity, suffer memory effects and are considerably more toxic (they are now only allowed to be used for special purposes on this side of the Atlantic). I suspect that you'd not regard these as a suitable solution either.So basically, never charge a battery in Arizona. Uh huh. Like what kind of advice is that?
Do phone makers seriously think that nobody buying ever stays more than a foot away from air conditioning and a wall outlet at all times to get away with such a blatantly bad design?
I'll criticize manufacturers for many things, but being constrained by the laws of physics is not one of those.
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codezer0
Android Expert
Or, you know, not just make phones for office furniture level mouth breathers that panic if they even so much as leave range of a wall outlet, much less Wi-Fi access point range.
At present, I'm looking at a realistic daily high temp of 120+, from here until November. If i had one of these so-called "better phones", it would literally leave me to die because it's too hot, as if that's somehow something I'd have any control over.
Nobody told these idiot makers to make impossibly thin phones and worthless batteries. Not to mention thin phones just cause me to have more typos. And autocorrect hasn't improved since the T9 days before smart phones were even a twinkle in anyone's eye, for steve jobs to steal and market as a damned fashion accessory.
At present, I'm looking at a realistic daily high temp of 120+, from here until November. If i had one of these so-called "better phones", it would literally leave me to die because it's too hot, as if that's somehow something I'd have any control over.
Nobody told these idiot makers to make impossibly thin phones and worthless batteries. Not to mention thin phones just cause me to have more typos. And autocorrect hasn't improved since the T9 days before smart phones were even a twinkle in anyone's eye, for steve jobs to steal and market as a damned fashion accessory.
Bingo.
Converting electrical energy into chemical energy so it can be stored in a battery generates heat; converting chemical energy stored in a battery into electrical energy which can be consumed by an electronics device generates heat. Each of these reactions is a little bit less efficient than the one before it, causing the battery to lose capacity over time (and charge/discharge cycles) - and heat accelerates this degradation.
So heat is both a product of the battery's operation and an enemy to its continued operation. Phone manufacturers know this so they implement some (extremely modest) measures to help prevent heat buildup that would cause significant and permanent damage to the battery. When you get a warning that the device is too hot to continue doing a thing, that's the phone trying its hardest to prevent you from destroying its battery.
(Of course, manufacturers are also in a ridiculous competition to see who can charge their devices the quickest because that is something consumers think they want. Charging faster generates more heat which causes more damage to the battery... which I guess eventually makes you buy a new phone so you can continue this cycle. Break out of it by being mindful of your battery's health. Try to avoid charging the battery when the device is already generating a lot of heat. Also avoid rapid charging unless you absolutely need it. It will take longer to charge but topping up your battery from a standard USB-A port will generate significantly less heat than charging from a high-wattage USB-C Power Delivery port, prolonging the battery's useful life.)
codezer0
Android Expert
Alienware can't even make a box that isn't more than a glorified tomb. Their crap is so proprietary, the unsustainable conditions it puts its components in would violate Geneva convention doctrines if they were people. Sweatshops in mainland China wouldn't be allowed to make their workers suffer as badly, as a gpu in an alienware case.That's how I watched Star Wars, on an old black and white CRT 12in TV. Didn't have the money to afford anything better, it was 'gud enuff"
Well where do you think your "Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2's" are made? And care to guess who is one the one of the largest vendors of PC accessories is here in the People's Republic of China? Yes, Razer.
Even classroom PCs here in Jinan Foreign Language School, are all using Razer branded mice on the teachers' podiums.
codezer0
Android Expert
And, your point? What does that have to do with sweatshop labor conditions? All that does is prove why the reliability of razer build quality is in the toilet. Anyone working that many hours a day is eventually not going to care what they put out, regardless of experience or skill level.
Anyways, we are getting wayyyy off topic here.
It is tremendously disappointing that Google continues to choose such poorly made phones to don their branding. But given they seem to assume that the entire Android user base is just supposed to store every thing on the cloud and hasn't used external media for the last twenty years, it's not surprising to me that their design choices are so hopelessly myopic.
Nobody told Samsung to use explosives for batteries, either, but, here we are.
Quite frankly, I thought you put it of topic when you started talking about Star wars, been elitist with PC stuff, and Razor products. And FWI I have been able to use and charge and use my devices when in temps of more than 40C.
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Well with the exception of Pixels Google doesn't really choose phones to don their branding: if a manufacturer agrees to bundle all of Google's services and the US Govt. isn't in some dispute that bans Google from working with that manufacturer, then Google will let them use it.
As for the Pixel 5, we've not seen evidence in this thread of it being "poorly made", i.e. suffering a manufacturing fault. It might be that this sample is faulty, but we don't know. We don't know how heavily it was used for how long before the warning occurred. We don't know whether it was in a case which was trapping heat (most phones are). I've actually noticed fewer complaints about the quality of the Pixel 5 than about their early devices.
That's about 46C? Yeh, I've been able to use and charge my devices in that sort of heat no problems. I had that when I was in Hangzhou.
I thought it was sub-zero temps, where Lithium battery devices started to have problems with charging, and AF has had threads about it..
codezer0
Android Expert
Every single sealed battery phone has behaved the same way with me. It would get slow to the brink of a hard freeze. Most would just refuse to charge when trying to use it like I'm used to doing.
For the three days I has an Xperia t2 ultra, it would flat out refuse to charge if i was watching a stream. My mxpe, in particular, was effing miserable, especially when i was doing that part time stint as a delivery driver. For that job, i needed to have navigation on to do it at all. Half an hour in, battery was already dead if i didn't leave it in the car charger. Then, it would go for about two hours into a four hour shift before griping it was hot enough to shut down.
It got so bad i had to go back to my sm-n900 Note 3. The 3g was slower for getting directions, but, because I had an extended battery on it, it didn't falter for the whole day.
YMMV
puppykickr
Android Expert
I need to post a complaint about my device too.
I cannot successfully wipe my butt with my PHONE.
It is not soft or absorbent, but I really want to use it in place of toilet paper and my experience was terrible.
Damn Android!
I cannot successfully wipe my butt with my PHONE.
It is not soft or absorbent, but I really want to use it in place of toilet paper and my experience was terrible.
Damn Android!
puppykickr
Android Expert
puppykickr
Android Expert
Also, today I got into my car, and tried to drive to the moon.
It didn't work, and boy am I pissed!
Why can't these auto manufacturers build a car worth two rat turds?