Has it ever happened to you that you took your GoPro camera, mounted it somewhere cool trying to capture your adventure and then the camera suddenly just stopped recording because it was too HOT? Believe it or not but that’s a typical overheating problem with GoPro when you push your camera to its limits. Hopefully, there is something you can do about it if you want to avoid this issue.
In this article, I am going to cover all the tips and tricks you need to know to make sure your camera stays cool, has improved battery life and gonna be more reliable. Let’s face it, when your camera overheats it, you can miss the shot just a moment before something amazing happens. It can be pretty frustrating coming back home, previewing your footage and discovering that one particular shot or scene is missing because it hasn’t been recorded… and the camera turned itself off.
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It doesn’t matter what GoPro you have, the tips that I am going to share with you are quite universal and can be used with different camera models such as GoPro Hero 11, 10, 9 or even older models.
Table of Contents
Why Exactly Does GoPro Get HOT?
You are using too many advanced features/settings
GoPro cameras come with plenty of features such as Hypersmooth stabilisation, GPS, Voice commands, Wifi and so much more but what most people don’t realise is that you don’t really need to use all of them all the time. You see just because you can record 5.3k resolution in 60 fps or use 10-bit colour doesn’t mean you should always do that.
One reason is that perhaps your computer is not powerful enough to edit that footage, to begin with, but another is the camera needs to work extremely hard, using all these extra features, making your camera accumulate heat.
The battery is too hot
What’s more, don’t forget that the main source of heat inside of your camera is the battery, if it gets too hot the camera will automatically shut down, don’t worry it’s perfectly normal it’s just a safety mechanism to protect all the components inside of it. However, there are ways to use your camera without the battery, I personally tested it recording for over 2 hours and the camera kept recording.
Are your videos too long?
How about the length of your video? Many people just treat GoPro as set it and forget it, recording videos over 20 or 30 minutes long when in reality you only gonna need a few minutes of it. I personally always record shorter clips, mainly because it has much smaller file sizes but it is also easier for me to find some cool shots. Yet, when you record shorter clips the camera doesn’t have to work that hard and has enough time to cool down between the scenes.
The GoPro camera is too hot
Perhaps you heard about all those silicone sleeves, dive housings and other gopro accessories that cover the camera? While they provide some sort of protection for your camera the thing is that they almost completely cut off the important airflow that’s needed to cool it down. GoPro camera releases the heat through its body, when you cover it all with a silicone sleeve you just make it harder for it to breathe so it might overheat quicker.
Stationary recording
In fact, many people use their GoPro cameras incorrectly, as they leave them on a tripod recording a stationary video when they should be used in motion. Keeping the camera fixed in one position prevents the natural airflow to cool down. If you plan to use your camera stationary, please turn OFF Hypersmooth stabilisation as you don’t need it anyway. Digital stabilisation puts some extra work on the camera’s processor and drains the battery much faster.
How to keep your GoPro from Overheating
So what can you do about it? If you don’t currently need all those extra new features simply turn it off for example if your camera will be recording on a tripod, perhaps you may want to turn off Hypersmooth stabilisation? If you have a weaker computer or do not have enough space on your Micro SD card then maybe you should record in 4k or 2.7k instead of 5.3k?
The idea is that you don’t want to enable all the settings that are available and believe me your camera gonna thank you for that! Please check if you really need to use GPS, Voice Commands, Wifi, 5.3k, 10- bit or a Front LCD screen. Maybe you want to lower your frame rate as well?
Recording in 4k120 fps over an extended period of time gonna severely limit your battery life and make the camera hotter, so why not go with 4k 60 or even 4k 30 fps ??? You can even lower down your LCD brightness level and set it to 50%, but you can also set the front LCD screen to display only the basic information or completely turn it off. Whenever, you mount your GoPro to your body, gear or anywhere else chances are that you don’t need that screen anyway.
If you need to use your camera for an extended time, let’s say you are on a trip and plan to use the camera quite often it’s not a bad idea to remove the battery, and use a power Grip that has a built-in power bank and USB-C cable. Remember that the battery can get extremely hot but when you remove it and supply external power then you can record pretty much endlessly. Just be aware that the power supply needs to be at least 5V 2A, otherwise, the camera won’t power on without the battery.
I personally can recommend battery grips such as the official GoPro Volta and Telesin Rechargeable Selfie Stick. The first is around 4900 mAh battery, works as a remote control and offers integrated buttons to use the camera while the latter offers 10 000 mAh.
That’s more than enough for a whole day and it can be even used as a selfie stick. Both of these power grips are splashproof so you can use them around water, but they are not fully waterproof. Nevertheless, if you love recording time-lapses of sunsets/sunrises, day-to-night transitions or even setting your camera for a whole night to capture stars in the dark sky having a power grip is one of the most important accessories for you.
What’s more, one of the easiest ways to make sure the camera doesn’t overheat is to not cover it all up with any silicone sleeves or dive housings when you use it on a hot day or record for a longer time. Let the camera breathe and release the heat like it is supposed to. GoPro Dive housings are designed to tightly seal the camera so it can withstand the pressure of water up to 60 meters deep but they shouldn’t be used outside of it.
It is a similar story with silicone sleeves which only have a few cutouts for microphones and the back LCD screen, other than that they cover the whole camera. I used to use them for some protection and I still like them, they help me personalise my GoPro a little bit more, as you can use different silicone colours but they block the airflow and increase the heat so try to avoid them.
How to keep GoPro Cool? – Extra Tips
Once you follow all the tips that I mentioned above there is still one little thing that you can do. Ever heard of a feature called “Quick capture” it basically lets you conveniently start the recording as soon as the camera powers on, hit the shutter button again to stop the recording and turn off the camera. This way the camera doesn’t have to be turned on when it is not recording anything at all. It not only saves you the previous battery life but also makes sure that you record your video only when you feel it’s necessary. Assuming you have all the settings prepared in advance and you shoot in the correct mode etc.
Well, there is actually something more that you can do especially if you have GoPro 9 or GoPro 10. Please make sure that you get yourself the latest Battery from GoPro called Enduro Battery. It is primarily designed for cold weather environments and extends the overall battery life, but GoPro also claims that it helps to maximise the battery performance and heat distribution so it might slightly help with overheating problems.
Additionally, make sure that you use a proper Micro Sd Card with your GoPro, people tend to spend 400 $ on their camera and then get the cheapest micro sd card which is not fast enough. This way the processor has to work twice as hard to write data on it, as a result, it accelerates the heat and the camera can even incorrectly save the video file. So always make sure you get a micro Sd card called SanDisc Extreme, this card has been recommended by GoPro and I have been using this card for many years now and I never had any problems with it.
Whenever a GoPro camera is released it often needs a couple of firmware updates to remove some bugs, improve its performance or add some new features. However, if you have outdated firmware on your camera it can also lead to some overheating problems as the camera doesn’t work as smoothly as it should.
Updating a GoPro camera is pretty easy and you can do it either with your smartphone and GoPro App or you can download the firmware update directly from the GoPro website and transfer it via Micro SD card. It is quite simple and the whole process is done automatically if you do it with your phone but it might speed up your camera.
GoPro Getting Hot – Final Thoughts
Last but not least, don’t forget that GoPro cameras are designed for action, they need to be used outdoors with some wind cooling them down. Setting the camera on a tripod especially indoors may not give you the best results, so go outside and have some fun with it.
Believe me that as soon as you lower down the settings and turn off some of the unwanted features you will experience a significant improvement with overheating which will help you keep the camera much cooler. Remember, to record shorter clips so you don’t waste your battery and capture only what’s important, that’s gonna make your life a whole lot easier.
Thank you for reading through this article, I hope it managed to help you out with your Overheating issues and now this problem gonna be gone If you wish to discover more of my work regarding GoPro cameras please visit my youtube channel: Youtube
