Using hotspot for long periods of time?

[Brandonjr36]

Hey guys just wondering if I use my iPhone X as a hotspot to other phones for 2-3 hours at a time. Will it hurt the phone any? I use to have a galaxy s6 when it first came out, and while I was at the bestbuy store a rep told me if I used the hotspot more then an hour at a time, it would make my phone get to hot and cause my screen to bulge out. Figured he was full of you know what. Just wanted to know if there was any risks to using it.

 

[noobinator]

Your phone will shut down if it gets too hot.

 

[Packers1958]

Put it in the fridge.

 

[akash.nu]

Generally it doesn’t get hot enough from just using it as a hotspot but it also depends on if you’re in generally a warm country / place.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Phone only gets warm if you're using the hotspot a lot, and by a lot, I mean A LOT - downloading a 12GB movie or something - even then it just gets warm. I accidentally downloaded 10GB of iTunes movies via hot spotting my laptop.

I've accidentally left my hotspot on for days (no one used it) - and it was 100% fine and I didn't even notice it affecting my battery life, lol.

But I've done my hotspot for HOURS and HOURS - and used it for work related and personal reasons and it never got warm or harmed the phone any.

iPhone 8+ (previous phones I've used my hotspot on a lot - iPhone 6+, iPhone 6s+).

 

[eyoungren]

I accidentally downloaded 10GB of iTunes movies via hot spotting my laptop.

How do you accidentally start a download of 10GB? And at what point during the download did you notice you were downloading 10GB of stuff?

 

[BigMcGuire]

How do you accidentally start a download of 10GB? And at what point during the download did you notice you were downloading 10GB of stuff?

This was years ago when iTunes would start downloading all your purchased movies on a fresh install on Windows - without asking you. So, I installed iTunes on my Dell laptop, turned on hotspot on my iPhone, and went about my business. 15 minutes later or so I noticed my phone was warm (not hot), I wondered wtf, checked a few things and noticed 10GB had been used. Had an "oh crap" moment, went to my Dell laptop and saw iTunes furiously downloading movies that I had purchased. Wasn't terribly happy but I had unlimited Verizon data.

 

[KingslayerG5]

It gets hot if you have data, hotspot, and location all turned on. That's why iOS needs a location toggle. I can't leave it on and have hotspot turned on as well. Tethering on iOS also requires Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on. Actually you can manually turn off BT.

So that's four toggles turned on to tether - mobile data, Wi-Fi, hotspot, and location. If location is turned on with hotspot, it will battery drain like 2-3x faster and get hot. On my Androids, it's better to tether since it does have a location toggle for me to switch off.

 

[Brandonjr36]

Yeah I used my hotspot today for about 2 hours straight with my phone connected to my radio in the car via Bluetooth, it just got barely warm. So I didn’t worry to much about it. I let me cousin connect to it with her tablet. I just didn’t want to damage my phone.

 

[akash.nu]

It gets hot if you have data, hotspot, and location all turned on. That's why iOS needs a location toggle. I can't leave it on and have hotspot turned on as well. Tethering on iOS also requires Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on. Actually you can manually turn off BT.

So that's four toggles turned on to tether - mobile data, Wi-Fi, hotspot, and location. If location is turned on with hotspot, it will battery drain like 2-3x faster and get hot. On my Androids, it's better to tether since it does have a location toggle for me to switch off.

The radios being on doesn’t mean much to be honest, in my case all of those radios stay on 24/7 & I just enable hotspot when required. The only difference is constant data transfer.

 

[Jtludwig]

Hey guys just wondering if I use my iPhone X as a hotspot to other phones for 2-3 hours at a time. Will it hurt the phone any? I use to have a galaxy s6 when it first came out, and while I was at the bestbuy store a rep told me if I used the hotspot more then an hour at a time, it would make my phone get to hot and cause my screen to bulge out. Figured he was full of you know what. Just wanted to know if there was any risks to using it.

Using the hotspot for more than 3.1 hours at a time could result in the internal hotspot components melting and being damaged. This would mean that your hotspot would be slower.

This is what happened to someone after they used their hotspot for four hours.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Using the hotspot for more than 3.1 hours at a time could result in the internal hotspot components melting and being damaged. This would mean that your hotspot would be slower.

This is what happened to someone after they used their hotspot for four hours.

Awww I just have a picture with a red X. Was so looking forward to something. ahahaha.

 

[akash.nu]

Awww I just have a picture with a red X. Was so looking forward to something. ahahaha.

Me too!

 

[Brandonjr36]

Using the hotspot for more than 3.1 hours at a time could result in the internal hotspot components melting and being damaged. This would mean that your hotspot would be slower.

This is what happened to someone after they used their hotspot for four hours.

Really? Even just connected to a tablet for like Facebook?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Really? Even just connected to a tablet for like Facebook?

I hope you realize he was being sarcastic - funny. I've left my hotspot on for days (and used it for 6 hours one time). You'll be fine, don't worry.

Only thing I recommend is an Anker external battery to help keep the phone topped up (or connect it to a wall plug if you can).

 

[Brandonjr36]

I hope you realize he was being sarcastic - funny. I've left my hotspot on for days (and used it for 6 hours one time). You'll be fine, don't worry.

Only thing I recommend is an Anker external battery to help keep the phone topped up (or connect it to a wall plug if you can).

Ok well thanks guys. I appreciate it just didn’t want to screw my new phone up.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok well thanks guys. I appreciate it just didn’t want to screw my new phone up.

Same here! - Best thing you can do is keep it out of direct sunlight for long periods of time (like, don't leave it in a hot car for hours and hours in direct sunlight). The phone getting warm during intensive operations is normal and totally ok - the phone will shut off if it gets too hot before any damage is done.

Get a case that can handle a drop if you're prone to dropping your phone a lot.

Try to keep the battery above 20% if you can - going down to 0% won't kill it, but keeping it above 40% can help the battery life a bit over the course of a few years.

Try to enjoy it - it's a solid device that can handle many years of heavy usage. Don't make the mistake of not using it just so you don't wear it down a little.

 

[Brandonjr36]

Same here! - Best thing you can do is keep it out of direct sunlight for long periods of time (like, don't leave it in a hot car for hours and hours in direct sunlight). The phone getting warm during intensive operations is normal and totally ok - the phone will shut off if it gets too hot before any damage is done.

Get a case that can handle a drop if you're prone to dropping your phone a lot.

Try to keep the battery above 20% if you can - going down to 0% won't kill it, but keeping it above 40% can help the battery life a bit over the course of a few years.

Try to enjoy it - it's a solid device that can handle many years of heavy usage. Don't make the mistake of not using it just so you don't wear it down a little.

Yeah I have a glass screen protector on it and a speck case. Haven’t dropped it yet. “Knock on wood”