iPhone 12 Anti Magnetic Case for ICD Patients

This whole “just buy a somehow-shielded case” seems ripe for a whole range of outcomes, ranging from an actual and working magnetic shield, to not adequately solving the problem, to quackery, to, well, death.

And approximately nobody (competent) is going to want to blithely take on the risk inherent here. Not without study and testing, and quite possibly involving medical device approvals where those are required.

And also whether or not any particular person even has a medical device with sensors that might be or are sensitive to magnetic fields.

Talk to your physician or cardiologist. See what the doctors suggest for you, your situation, and your particular implanted medical device hardware. Or what they might think about your shielded-case suggestion. Having chatted with many docs over the years, they tend to be a cautious lot.

Here’s what Apple states:

About the magnets inside iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and MagSafe accessories - Apple Support

Excerpt: Consult your physician and medical device manufacturer for information specific to your medical device and whether you need to maintain a safe distance of separation between your medical device and iPhone or any MagSafe accessories. Manufacturers often provide recommendations on the safe use of their devices around wireless or magnetic products to prevent possible interference. If you suspect iPhone or any MagSafe accessories are interfering with your medical device, stop using your iPhone or MagSafe accessories.

The magnet ring on the iPhone 12 consists of many alternating N S poles. When a matching ring of matching S N poles is next to it there is a strong attraction, but with nothing next to it the magnetic field is mostly between adjacent N S poles and drops off very quickly (by the cube power) with distance from the phone. That is why they make special MagSafe cases. With the thickness of a normal case the field would drop so much that a MagSafe charger wouldn't stick to the phone, or the phone couldn't stick to a magnetic mount. The MagSafe case have a ring of magnets or pieces of iron that line up with the magnets of the phone to bring the field to the outside of the case. A normal case with no pieces of iron of magnets would have a lot weaker magnetic field outside the case. Putting a thin sheet of iron inside the case would shirt circuit the magnetic field between all the adjacent N S poles and leave very little outside the case.

Of course you won't be able to use wireless charging with the metal plate in there.

For the lowest external field, use a non-MagSafe case with a sheet of iron or steel inside. Non-magnetic stainless won't work. Make sure the steel is attracted to magnets.

You might have more success reaching out to some of the major cell phone case manufacturers to see if they have anything in their pipeline.