My iPhone 16 Pro Max overheats while using the Camera app

alekspyt wrote:

iPhone 16 Pro Max overheating whilst using camera app. Happens immediately when the app is launched

So you’re seeing a temperature warning on your screen suggesting the phone needs to cool down before you can continue using it? If no, your phone is NOT overheating. But keep in mind, you likely just set up the phone and for a few days, the phone is working in background to index the millions of bytes of data. And you’re likely doing things on the phone at the same time, like using the camera, which uses the battery harder. Every year, when a new iPhone is launched, people come here in the first few days saying their new phone is overheating, when it’s just working harder initially. Give it several days to let it finish it’s normal housekeeping tasks.

iphone 16 pro 512gb. picked up phone on launch day. first few days, had the occasional reboot and phone would get quite warm, but when i woke up on thursday, phone was quite hot and all through the day, it would constantly reboot. the only time it wouldn't reboot was when i was in my car and it was against an air vent on a mag safe holder. yesterday morning was even worse. phone would only cool down in low power mode. after about an hour of trying to cool it down, placing it on an ice pack running a fan next to it, was able to back it up to my PC and did a fresh restore. been 24 hours, phone has not even gotten warm, is cool to the touch and *knock* on wood, hasn't rebooted. i'm thinking when i did the ios 18 install that was sent to the phone, it was the culprit since the original ios 18 preinstalled on the phone gave me no problems. the heating and rebooting only started after i installed the newer ios 18 OTA.

Please do a forced restart of your device. Are you syncing data etc. from a previous iPhone you had backed up? If so, background tasks at the system level may be consuming considerable processor cycles/power. This is kind of a new toy syndrome. Lots is happening in the background and we want to play with all the new toys at the same time.

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

JestaRavi wrote:

Any confirmation on this statement?

The statement is accurate and what happens with every new model iPhone released. Depending on how much data is being moved over to a new iPhone, it takes from a fews days to longer for the millions of bytes of data to be indexed on a new device. And while this is happening in the background, people are often pushing their shiny new iPhone, watching videos, streaming music, taking photos/videos, which are ALL battery intensive activities. When you push a battery harder, it generates heat as that is physics, normal and to be expected. If an iPhone REALLY overheats, it displays a thermometer symbol and says the phone needs to cool down before it can be used again. If the phone isn't doing that, it is NOT overheating.

Make an appointment to have your local Apple Store look at it:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Or contact Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

That's not normal, and neither my phone nor any demo at the Apple Store behaves in that manner.

I just shot two three minute videos back-to-back and the phone did not even become noticeably warm.

First, update to iOS 18.1 if you haven't already.

Then if the issue continues, make an appointment to have your local Apple Store look at it:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Or contact Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

That's not normal, and neither my phone nor any demo at the Apple Store behaves in that manner.

Unless your phone displayed a thermometer icon and shut down, it did not overheat.

It's normal for the phone to get warm to hot under some circumstances, and what you describe sounds more like you have an app installed that is not playing well with iOS 18.

Check under Settings -> Battery for an application using a lot of battery.

If your iPhone or iPad gets too hot or too cold - Apple Support

Bobobobo57 wrote:

So why does this not happen on older models?

Every year for the last few years, people get their new iPhone and immediately say it's overheating while using the camera, watching video, playing games, charging. And that is common with new phones. VERY COMMON. They are indexing millions of bytes of data, at the same time people are using battery intensive activities. If you are NOT seeing a thermometer or a warning on the screen the phone needs to cool down your phone is NOT overheating.

For the first few days after getting and setting up a new iPhone, while you're using it, test things out, like using the cameras, streaming music, videos, etc., it's working hard in the background indexing millions of bytes of data. Give it a few days and let the phone do its normal housekeeping, before pushing it to do to other battery intensive activities.

That’s normal during the first 3 to 5 days while the iPhone syncs data, iCloud, and index’s all the data on the iPhone. If you’ve enabled Apple Intelligence it even more learning your device needs to do.

OmidNaseri wrote:

Same here, I got mine 2 days ago and it gets hot especially when I watch video, or record video, it's so bad , not sure what to do , can't return it either 😟

For the first few days with ANY new iPhone, while you're doing things on it to test it out, it's working very hard in the background to index millions of bytes of data. That alone makes the battery work harder. Doing ANYTHING on a cell phone like watching videos, recording videos, streaming music, makes the battery work hard. And when a battery works hard, it generates heat. This is battery physics. If you are not seeing a thermometer on your phone with a message your phone needs to cool down before you can use it again, you do NOT have anything wrong.

Bobobobo57 wrote:

You’re missing the whole point

Nope, I'm not. You're missing the point. If your phone is getting so hot it could burn your hand, complaining about it on a user to user only forum will get you nothing. Take your phone to Apple.

My iPhone 16 Pro, nor 16 Pro Max EVER get so warm I fear I could be hurt by it. And THAT is the point.

Quick additional response: my original IPhone 16 Pro was replaced as a faulty device and I now have a new one. Everything else is working fine, but the camera was unusable. Every time I’d take a photo, the camera app would crash and it would disconnect all Bluetooth, etc connections as well.

I set up the new device from my old iPhone, so I figured there was network settings clash. I reset network settings and it fixed the issue!

Make an appointment to have your local Apple Store look at it:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Or contact Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

I've never seen that on any other 16 Pro Max, and the 16 Pro Max demo units in the store are charging all day and are not even warm to the touch.

Likewise I use the camera for stills and video constantly and have no issues, nor do the demo models in stores.

I can tell you what finally worked for me… don’t know if it will help you, and while my phone is still getting too hot for my liking while editing video and pictures, what I’ve done has made it better while charging and using it in general. First, I had to reset my phone and start over from scratch, not restoring from backup, or phone to phone transfer. Then because I synced my photos with the cloud I had to rebuild all my libraries on all my devices. Then I upgraded to 18.1, but I did it incrementally. That has resolved the getting hot while charging temperature stoppages and general use heat ups. It sucks havjng figure out all my settings, apps, app settings, etc, but something somewhere wasn’t playing nicer with the new iOS & iPhone architectures.