iPhone 17 Pro Max iPhone 17 Pro Max hot to the touch

[Shebulba]

My new, one week old, iPhone 17 Pro Max is almost always warm to the touch, even when it has been unused for a longer amount of time it feels warm when I pick it up. So far I have used it for scrolling the web with Safari, organizing the home screen, some social media, mail, taking a few photos and videos and some odd YouTube video here and there.
I have app refresh in background off, dark theme and have tried to turn Bluetooth off as well.

I have the tech woven case and sometimes I can feel the heat through the case. I frequently put my index finger on the camera plateau to check the warmth and 95% of the times it is noticeable warm.
Just writing this post on the phone makes it warm and I have no apps on in the background right now…

Am I expecting too much of it or is the phone really supposed to be like this or have a defect unit? I started the phone fresh, no transfer from older phone.

Looking to hear from people with the PM or Pro model of the 17-series about how your experiences has been regarding heat.

 

[Tsepz]

My new, one week old, iPhone 17 Pro Max is almost always warm to the touch, even when it has been unused for a longer amount of time it feels warm when I pick it up. So far I have used it for scrolling the web with Safari, organizing the home screen, some social media, mail, taking a few photos and videos and some odd YouTube video here and there.
I have app refresh in background off, dark theme and have tried to turn Bluetooth off as well.

I have the tech woven case and sometimes I can feel the heat through the case. I frequently put my index finger on the camera plateau to check the warmth and 95% of the times it is noticeable warm.
Just writing this post on the phone makes it warm and I have no apps on in the background right now…

Am I expecting too much of it or is the phone really supposed to be like this or have a defect unit? I started the phone fresh, no transfer from older phone.

Looking to hear from people with the PM or Pro model of the 17-series about how your experiences has been regarding heat.

That doesn’t sound good at all, got my 17 PM since last week Tuesday, on Wednesday morning when taking it off charge it was warm but it seems this was due to it doing its first iOS backup, after that I have not felt it get warm since.

I have Background App Refresh turned On, with the select few apps I want ticked to refresh.

Your usage sounds pretty lite and shouldn’t have the phone running warm at all.

You might indeed have a defective unit.
Do you by any chance have WhatsApp installed? iOS 26 and WhatsApp I discovered were a bad combo in terms of WhatsApp backup setup.

 

[Shebulba]

Oh, that’s sounds like I expected it to be. Wow, you haven’t felt it warm any time at all since that first charge?

Yes exactly that, I’m not a heavy user and it feels weird it should heat up notably when just scrolling the web. I wonder how hot it will get on a power consuming game or recording a lot of 4k video…

I don’t have WhatsApp installed. Why is that a bad combo in your experience?

 

[BuggyGT]

My 17PM I noticed gets really hot during a specific scenario. I play FC Mobile, if I leave the game to maybe check some messages, Safari, another app or whatever then go back to resume the game it would sometimes get super hot and never cool down. I also tried force quitting every app but eventually I would have to restart the phone to get it to cool down. It feels like something type of OS process is stuck running in the background. This happened 10+ times now and still same problem on 26.0.1.

If I play the same game but never leave it in suspended mode (force quit every time I need to leave and come back) the issue doesn't happen. I havent noticed this issue in any other game though. I know its not a direct answer to your question but something I noticed, I also submitted feedback to Apple and hopefully a future update can fix it.

 

[Jackbequickly]

First thing I would do is reboot the phone. No way it should be hot unless something is running in the background. Look under settings/battery and see what the battery graph show is operating.

Last resort is the reset the phone to as new.

 

[Shebulba]

My 17PM I noticed gets really hot during a specific scenario. I play FC Mobile, if I leave the game to maybe check some messages, Safari, another app or whatever then go back to resume the game it would sometimes get super hot and never cool down. I also tried force quitting every app but eventually I would have to restart the phone to get it to cool down. It feels like something type of OS process is stuck running in the background. This happened 10+ times now and still same problem on 26.0.1.

If I play the same game but never leave it in suspended mode (force quit every time I need to leave and come back) the issue doesn't happen. I havent noticed this issue in any other game though. I know it’s not a direct answer to your question but something I noticed, I also submitted feedback to Apple and hopefully a future update can fix it.

It’s good to hear people’s experiences nonetheless. Let’s hope that’s a problem from the OS.

Maybe it’s a little the same as mine where it feels warm when I pick it up from not using it for a while, maybe there’s one of the apps running in the background that is causing it. I haven’t been able to figure out which one it is in that case though.

 

[Shebulba]

First thing I would do is reboot the phone. No way it should be hot unless something is running in the background. Look under settings/battery and see what the battery graph show is operating.

Last resort is the reset the phone to as new.

I have tried to reboot it a few times, don’t notice any difference. Maybe it’s time I try a complete reset.

The graph shows Safari by 10% the most used app today, and then it’s Facebook, YouTube and Home Screen. Nothing that to me makes a sense should keep the phone warm?

 

[Jackbequickly]

I have tried to reboot it a few times, don’t notice any difference. Maybe it’s time I try a complete reset.

The graph shows Safari by 10% the most used app today, and then it’s Facebook, YouTube and Home Screen. Nothing that to me makes a sense should keep the phone warm?

If it is still heating up, time to reset it. How did you restore your new phone?

 

[Shebulba]

If it is still heating up, time to reset it. How did you restore your new phone?

Yeah I guess it’s time to try that now.
I started it fresh, I came from Android, so I haven’t transferred anything over to this one.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Yeah I guess it’s time to try that now.
I started it fresh, I came from Android, so I haven’t transferred anything over to this one.

Maybe something “glitched” when you installed your apps. My 17 ProMax has not even got warm, much less hot. Battery seems to last forever.

Good Luck! Sorry you're having problems.

 

[Tsepz]

Oh, that’s sounds like I expected it to be. Wow, you haven’t felt it warm any time at all since that first charge?

Yes exactly that, I’m not a heavy user and it feels weird it should heat up notably when just scrolling the web. I wonder how hot it will get on a power consuming game or recording a lot of 4k video…

I don’t have WhatsApp installed. Why is that a bad combo in your experience?

Not felt it get particularly warm since that first backup it did, I haven’t used the camera enough though so maybe when I start using it more extensively I will notice, I remember the 15 PM would get hot with the camera over longer periods of usage.

Yeah something is off, it is bound to get hot when you game or shoot video at 4K, all the vapour chamber will do is help spread the heat more evenly around the chassis, but it definitely shouldn’t get hot when just using it the way you have been at this point.

Yes, WhatsApp has this weird bug that reoccurs in iOS where the backup goes ballistic, basically the moment you get on WiFi it triggers a backup of everything off WhatsApp and causes the phone to heat up, picked this up on 15 PM so on 17 PM I set it up to only do the iCloud backup that will include WhatsApp instead of WhatsApp itself doing the backup.

 

[Thor_9]

Outside of the initial setup were it was a little warm, my phone has remained cool while using it. Everything you described and games as well, both wifi and cellular.

 

[Shebulba]

Outside of the initial setup were it was a little warm, my phone has remained cool while using it. Everything you described and games as well, both wifi and cellular.

That sounds great! Haven’t you ever felt it get even slightly warm at all after the setup?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

My new, one week old, iPhone 17 Pro Max is almost always warm to the touch, even when it has been unused for a longer amount of time it feels warm when I pick it up. So far I have used it for scrolling the web with Safari, organizing the home screen, some social media, mail, taking a few photos and videos and some odd YouTube video here and there.
I have app refresh in background off, dark theme and have tried to turn Bluetooth off as well.

I have the tech woven case and sometimes I can feel the heat through the case. I frequently put my index finger on the camera plateau to check the warmth and 95% of the times it is noticeable warm.
Just writing this post on the phone makes it warm and I have no apps on in the background right now…

Am I expecting too much of it or is the phone really supposed to be like this or have a defect unit? I started the phone fresh, no transfer from older phone.

Looking to hear from people with the PM or Pro model of the 17-series about how your experiences has been regarding heat.

Take it in to Apple for analysis.. My caseless 17 PM does not heat up as you seem to describe.

Just curious, do all you [many] folks using cases not realize that cases sequester heat into the phone?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

That sounds great! Haven’t you ever felt it get even slightly warm at all after the setup?

Of course all phones will get warm. Unfortunately the adjectives being used are not precise enough for any meaningful analysis. Like I said, have Apple look at it.

 

[snow755]

If all else fails and it's still too warm to touch I take it to apple they can run diagnostics and they can give you a new phone or replacement if they find it to be defective

 

[Shebulba]

If all else fails and it's still too warm to touch I take it to apple they can run diagnostics and they can give you a new phone or replacement if they find it to be defective

So I’ve been in contact with apple via phone now and the diagnostic they could run showed nothing, all okay. It sounded that the person I talked to thought it was a bit weird the heating behavior of my phone but when the diagnostics didn’t show anything they said it’s normal behavior and that’s that… They can’t do any more so my options are to visit an Apple Store and let them look at it physically or try to return it and get a replacement (which I believe is going to be hard).

 

[Jackbequickly]

If you are within the return period, return it and buy another.

 

[nperei]

You could try reset all setting or setup as new see if produce the same problem. since moved old setting previous iPhone to new iPhone might be hiccup. when I transferred my phone new iPhone ask me keep my old setting or new setting I choose new setting transfer all my data. just to clear the path no conflict.
hope your iPhone isn't defective. doesn't hurt if you like to check with apple genius why not

 

[Shebulba]

You could try reset all setting or setup as new see if produce the same problem. since moved old setting previous iPhone to new iPhone might be hiccup. when I transferred my phone new iPhone ask me keep my old setting or new setting I choose new setting transfer all my data. just to clear the path no conflict.
hope your iPhone isn't defective. doesn't hurt if you like to check with apple genius why not

I have tried to reset all settings, but it didn’t make any difference. Maybe I could try to setup as a new phone, but I started this phone fresh with no transfer at all from older phone.

I talked with apple on the phone and their diagnostics they ran didn’t show anything wrong. Planing to drive a an Apple Store tomorrow and let them check it there as well.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I have an iPhone 17 (non pro) and found it was getting very warm to hold without a case. It seems to have settled down in the past day, although I also haven't been using it much until my case arrives. If it continues to run warm I will absolutely take it to an Apple store for a replacement. 5 days old is too new to be having problems.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

If you are within the return period, return it and buy another.

Why? It sounds like the phone is fine. "Return it and buy another" raises costs for everyone. If the OP remains concerned the phone needs to be physically examined by Apple.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Why? It sounds like the phone is fine. "Return it and buy another" raises costs for everyone. If the OP remains concerned the phone needs to be physically examined by Apple.

If the problem can not be resolved, and it was not resolved when I posted this, be ready to return it before the limit.

I have tried to reset all settings, but it didn’t make any difference. Maybe I could try to setup as a new phone, but I started this phone fresh with no transfer at all from older phone.

I talked with apple on the phone and their diagnostics they ran didn’t show anything wrong. Planing to drive a an Apple Store tomorrow and let them check it there as well.

Keep us posted.

 

[nperei]

I have tried to reset all settings, but it didn’t make any difference. Maybe I could try to setup as a new phone, but I started this phone fresh with no transfer at all from older phone.

I talked with apple on the phone and their diagnostics they ran didn’t show anything wrong. Planing to drive a an Apple Store tomorrow and let them check it there as well.

hope you get it resolve at Apple Store I'm sure they will have try setup as new.

Incidentally, this issue came to my attention. Perhaps you could consider having your carrier reset your eSIM. This was a peculiar quirk that I never suspected would work with an eSIM due to some unusual behavior. It may require some re-activation from the carrier. This issue has occurred with an employee I work with during troubleshooting sessions. Apple Genius suggested this as a potential solution. You might want to consider this as a second option or ask an Apple Genius about it if possible.

 

[Thor_9]

Return it and buy another" raises costs for everyone.

I am ok with someone returning a potentially defective phone. Some people post they got one of each model and returned the 3 they didn’t like. That raises prices.