iPhone 15 Pro Max Thermalgate (yup, it's happening): Pics of how you're coping

[teh_hunterer]

The ordinary 15s do not suffer from overheating “that can’t be explained” so they are recommended.

Yes they do. I went to the Apple store and experienced it first hand. There was a regular 15 sitting there that nobody had touched for a while, just sitting there doing nothing, and my girlfriend picked it up and remarked that it was extremely hot. She handed it to me and it was as hot as if it had been running a benchmark for 20 minutes.

I think the only way out is to give each Pro user a toggle switch in the settings for economy or performance with the proviso that performance can heat up the phone diminishing battery life and may require things like a fan clipped in the back. That could work.


I had the same problems last year from “camera shake gate” and the guy that broke the story said he could not recommend the phone - and he is still around.


So it’s not the end of the world but tech enthusiasts and journalists have a job to do regardless of what the fans think. And he was right to not recommend the 14 Pro phones last year while I held one in my hand. Until the issue was fixed his recommendation was spot on!

You completely dodged my questions again. Are you just posting here to shill for that YouTuber? Are you in fact that YouTuber?

When you run the 15 Pro in benchmark stress tests next to a 14 Pro, it doesn't get significantly hotter. So what would throttling down the A17 Pro achieve?

Benchmark stress test the 15 Pro next to a 14 Pro and it doesn't get significantly hotter. How do you explain that?

The mostly aluminium chassis radiates more heat out of the side rails than the stainless steel iPhones. But you said titanium has to go. How do you explain that?

The iPhone 15 with the same A16 chip from last year, and no titanium at all, suffers from the exact same random heating up issue. How do you explain that?

 

[TimmuJapan]

For those of us on here who are also mac users, we know that when new software is pushed out, sometimes a bug will work its way into the OS, and you get a “runaway process” that massively consumes CPU. When this happens to a Mac, the fans spin up for no reason, and the more tech savvy users will then check the activity monitor….. and low and behold, there is a runaway process eating up all of the CPU. …. for example, a normally tiny background process like “secd” will suddenly be consuming 400% of the CPU Non-stop, unrelenting.

You can have a million good macs, but the software bug will not affect them all uniformly. Some of them will start overheating, but others will not be affected by the software bug.

My guess is that this is what has happened at the iPhone 15 pro launch with iOS 17, because when I updated to iOS 17.1 public beta today, the heat issues that I was having disappeared.

I think that those people who are postulating about about the design or the A17 chip or whatever—they are over thinking this possibly. Software bugs and runaway processes do not infect all hardware equally, there is an element of randomness to it. I had three 2012 macs in my house running Catalina some years back, and one or two of them would occasionally get hit with a software bug and runaway process and subsequent overheating after an update, while another Mac with same processor would be totally fine.

The overheating issue for iPhone 15 pro is real, but my guess is that will be fixed in a week or two, though, with a software update that doesn’t necessarily neuter the A17 pro, but just corrects some runaway processes that are eating up all the CPU power. It’s probably just a bug that randomly affects some phones running iOS 17. The same kind of thing happens to macs all the time.

 

[teh_hunterer]

You are right. If it's happening to phones with the A16 as well it's likely a software issue. Why some have it and others don't? That's how bugs go. Software issues are still serious and Apple better get control over it because it's reached a broad audience. Local news, national news, WSJ, NYT. Not good optics no matter the problem.

What do we care if it's good optics or not for Apple. That's up to Apple to worry about. What I care about is the truth about what's actually going on here, which frighteningly few people seem to.

 

[teh_hunterer]

For those of us on here who are also mac users, we know that when new software is pushed out, sometimes a bug will work its way into the OS, and you get a “runaway process” that massively consumes CPU. When this happens to a Mac, the fans spin up for no reason, and the more tech savvy users will then check the activity monitor….. and low and behold, there is a runaway process eating up all of the CPU. …. for example, a normally tiny background process like “secd” will suddenly be consuming 400% of the CPU Non-stop, unrelenting.

You can have a million good macs, but the software bug will not affect them all uniformly. Some of them will start overheating, but others will not be affected by the software bug.

Yep. I have an issue sometimes on my 14" MacBook Pro where the iMessage app (or whatever it's called) on my Mac will suddenly start consuming massive amounts of energy, heat my MacBook up as if it's running Cinebench, and eat 20% battery life before I realise what's going on.

By the logic of some people here, Apple needs to release an update to throttle down the M1 Pro chips immediately to fix this software issue.

 

[callen_v1]

What do we care if it's good optics or not for Apple. That's up to Apple to worry about. What I care about is the truth about what's actually going on here, which frighteningly few people seem to.

You're never going to get the truth as long as apple isn't commenting. Even if 17.1 fixes it. If they are tight lipped, you'll never know why or what the fix was. Maybe you don't care. I generally don't as long as it works normally. What ever normal is. But you'll always have speculation without some comment.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

This is so odd with all these issues. Meanwhile some people are having bad battery drain issues. Features like stickers breaking. But I have yet to see any thermal issue on my iPHone 15 PM. Even when I was setting it I didn't notice it getting so unbearably hot at all. So why are some people experiencing it and not others? And same with the battery drain. Some are seeing it while others say they don't. So many contradicting anecdotes and observations.

 

[teh_hunterer]

You're never going to get the truth as long as apple isn't commenting. Even if 17.1 fixes it. If they are tight lipped, you'll never know why or what the fix was. Maybe you don't care. I generally don't as long as it works normally. What ever normal is. But you'll always have speculation without some comment.

The truth is plain to see - it's a software bug with iOS. Why would Apple comment when this frenzy of nonsense and misinformation is utterly baseless?

If I were Apple I wouldn't dignify this with a response, maybe just a patch note in iOS 17.1.

 

[NeonIbis]

For those of us on here who are also mac users, we know that when new software is pushed out, sometimes a bug will work its way into the OS, and you get a “runaway process” that massively consumes CPU. When this happens to a Mac, the fans spin up for no reason, and the more tech savvy users will then check the activity monitor….. and low and behold, there is a runaway process eating up all of the CPU. …. for example, a normally tiny background process like “secd” will suddenly be consuming 400% of the CPU Non-stop, unrelenting.

This is very true. My intel MacBook Air occasionally decides - for no apparent reason - to download a full Monterey OS installer and continually run something called “syspolicyd’ on it. Result: the laptop gets VERY hot and runs fans full bore with battery life of about two hours. Until I did some poking around in activity monitor and on web forums I thought it was just really poorly optimised or defective in some way. But now I know to delete the installer and all is good and cool again.

In the case of my iPhone 15 pro, I haven’t had any issues at all. (Indeed, macrumors is one of the sites that usually gets my devices a bit warm, and it is cool as a cucumber as I type this.) So the random software bug explanation seems worth exploring.

Is there anything like activity monitor for phones?

 

[TimmuJapan]

What do we care if it's good optics or not for Apple. That's up to Apple to worry about. What I care about is the truth about what's actually going on here, which frighteningly few people seem to.

@NeonIbis , we don’t have activity monitor on the iPhone, unfortunately.
if they would just put something like “activity monitor” from the Mac on the iPhone, everyone would be able to see exactly what the CPU is doing and why it is getting so hot… it would be awesome if Apple would put an activity monitor like feature on the iPhones…. It would reduce the drama on websites like this and in the media….

But….. everyone who comes to Mac rumors likes a little bit of drama, I think. 🫢😹

 

[primarycolors]

I feel like overheating issues started last year with the A16 and just got worse.

I got this message a few times on my Pro and her Pro Max. This one was on an Apple Magsafe charger at home but I also get it a lot in an air conditioned car on wired charging. No apps or tasks running, just charging.

View attachment 2282948

I'm not panicking over it or anything. But I am pretty concerned because we hit 110+ in the summer so I'm curious if this will be an issue next year.

I had a 14 Pro, and now have a regular 15, and the "charging paused" warning comes up pretty much every time I drive for longer than 20 minutes. Air conditioned car, wired CarPlay. I don't ever remember getting it on my 11 Pro.

 

[profcutter]

It’s not a gate.

Neither was Watergate.

 

[satinsilverem2]

Ive had my 15PM for a few days now and it's been cool as a cucumber. Even fast charging it and recording ProRes video.

 

[FunkyTang]

All of these reported heat problems, yet no one has posted a verified way of how to reliably reproduce the issue.

 

[orev]

Titanium has a slightly BETTER heat dissipation than stainless steel, so it's not related to the titanium.

I can see some plausibility in the back glass not being fused, which would reduce the heat conduction through that.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Titanium has a slightly BETTER heat dissipation than stainless steel, so it's not related to the titanium.

I can see some plausibility in the back glass not being fused, which would reduce the heat conduction through that.

Wouldn't that lead to people feeling it hotter than the previous SS version?

 

[ignatius345]

The first few hours after setup and transfer yes. Next day everything was fine, no heating up issues. Those that are unhappy are complaining louder than those that are happy and have nothing to complain about.

I'm among the "no heat issues" people. But I don't assume that means nobody is having the issue. Could be any number of hardware/software issues. Let's remember that it's not only a brand new piece of hardware, but that it's running a version of iOS that only got released very recently.

 

[orev]

Wouldn't that lead to people feeling it hotter than the previous SS version?

Yes, it would feel hotter, but it would also reduce the CPU temp faster, so people wouldn't be seeing the "your phone is too hot" messages.

 

[klaudio]

Yeah that's not normal. Try resetting it as new and use it without retrieving any backup and see if it does the same. If not return it. I've been doing cell phone calls and FaceTiming and mine is still cold and loses 1% after 10 minutes.

Did reset in dfu and installed everithing from scratch with no success. Still overheating during calls with huge battery drop.

However installed 17.1 public beta and apparently it solved the problem. Did a call of 40 mins, the iPhone was cold and battery down 1 point only. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

 

[Fat_Guy]

Yes they do. I went to the Apple store and experienced it first hand. There was a regular 15 sitting there that nobody had touched for a while, just sitting there doing nothing, and my girlfriend picked it up and remarked that it was extremely hot. She handed it to me and it was as hot as if it had been running a benchmark for 20 minutes.



You completely dodged my questions again. Are you just posting here to shill for that YouTuber? Are you in fact that YouTuber?

When you run the 15 Pro in benchmark stress tests next to a 14 Pro, it doesn't get significantly hotter. So what would throttling down the A17 Pro achieve?

Benchmark stress test the 15 Pro next to a 14 Pro and it doesn't get significantly hotter. How do you explain that?

The mostly aluminium chassis radiates more heat out of the side rails than the stainless steel iPhones. But you said titanium has to go. How do you explain that?

The iPhone 15 with the same A16 chip from last year, and no titanium at all, suffers from the exact same random heating up issue. How do you explain that?

Courier a letter to Tim Cook - he has all the answers. Yes I have done that and see what he says…



People are buying phones now and want as much information to make informed decisions on whether to buy or return phones while they can.


I am pro-consumer as opposed to pro-corporate. I’m no YouTuber either.

 

[bradl]

Did reset in dfu and installed everithing from scratch with no success. Still overheating during calls with huge battery drop.

However installed 17.1 public beta and apparently it solved the problem. Did a call of 40 mins, the iPhone was cold and battery down 1 point only. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

This is good to know.. As I don't follow the betas, anyone happen to know if the release notes of the betas are published?

BL.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Yes, it would feel hotter, but it would also reduce the CPU temp faster, so people wouldn't be seeing the "your phone is too hot" messages.

There is no evidence people are seeing the "your phone is too hot" message with this year's phones more than last year's phones.

But with what you're saying, I think it would stop the phone from heating up as quickly to begin with, but eventually it would saturate the thermal capacity. So you might see it doesn't throttle quite as quickly as the 14 Pro, OR it can operate with a higher power draw than the 14 Pro but throttles just as quickly (it seems to be the latter from what I have seen).

That being said, the difference is probably negligible.

Wouldn't that lead to people feeling it hotter than the previous SS version?

I think so - you can really feel the heat emanating from the left side rail on the 15 Pro in a way that you can't from the stainless steel iPhones. This might add to the perception of the phone running hotter.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Courier a letter to Tim Cook - he has all the answers. Yes I have done that and see what he says…

But you're the one making all these claims, not Tim Cook. If there are very simple questions that debunk your claims entirely and you refuse multiple times to answer them, maybe it's time to admit your claims are dubious.

 

[AndyDandy1]

The heat issue is for real , Apple would of released a press statement days ago denying the problem.

no issue with my 15 PM

 

[callen_v1]

The truth is plain to see - it's a software bug with iOS. Why would Apple comment when this frenzy of nonsense and misinformation is utterly baseless?

Dunno what to tell ya man. Just having fun tossing about ideas and theories. We're not in a frenzy. We're having a pretty calm discussion in here.
A software bug is no less serious. I guarantee you, Apple cares a lot.
I care a lot. I use their products. I like Apple. I want them to continue to succeed. I also want them to do better.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Dunno what to tell ya man. Just having fun tossing about ideas and theories. We're not in a frenzy. We're having a pretty calm discussion in here.

I wouldn't characterise the media and social media blowup about this "overheating" issue with all the misinformation being pushed as anything other than a frenzy.