iPhones Pause MagSafe Charging During Continuity Camera

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Originally published at: iPhones Pause MagSafe Charging During Continuity Camera - TidBITS

Don’t bother getting a Continuity Camera mount that incorporates a MagSafe Charger to prevent your iPhone’s battery from draining during meetings. It won’t charge wirelessly—and maybe not even over a USB cable—while using Continuity Camera.

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I could be wrong, but I recall being on low battery during a continuity call and using my USB cable to charge it during that time. I will have to check this more closely in the future. Thanks for the heads up.

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I sometimes have a similar issue when using my iPhone to navigate in my car, while connected to power with a cable, sometimes it will not charge. In the Battery settings there will then be a message stating charging was paused due to high temperature.
Wireless charging generates more heat than charging by wire, so, combined with using the camera which also generates heat, I would guess the amount of heat generated becomes too high to continue charging?

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I have not tried MagSafe charging for my iPhone 14 Pro, which I use as continuity camera during Zoom calls. I use a USB-A to Lightning cable plugged into a charging block and the iPhone. The charge is put on hold during the duration of the call, but the battery level at the start of the call is the same at the end, so the cable is providing the needed power.

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Yes, if I’m charging my phone in the car, running a GPS map route, and listening to a podcast, it’ll sometimes pause for overheating.

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This is not unusual when navigating in a car. Between the high heat from a car’s dashboard and the heat generated by a display at full brightness, it can easily trigger the “overheated, no charging” message. It may even overheat enough to force a shutdown.

For this reason, I usually use a vent-mount for mounting my phone in the car. This way the car’s AC blows across the phone, keeping it cool even on very hot days with bright sun.

I’ve occasionally also seen the “overheated, no charging” message when not driving - while playing games at home. I suspect the screen brightness (when it’s not a dimly-lit room), coupled with the high CPU usage of many games is enough to overheat it. Especially because my phone is in a silicone case, which will act as an insulator.