Apple is telling users they can finally take their iPhone 15 models out of the freezer. The company released an iOS patch Wednesday with the stated purpose of fixing some bug that’s making the phones run hotter than they should.
iOS 17.0.3 hit all iPhone XS and later models Wednesday afternoon ET. The note for the patch reads: “This update provides important bug fixes, security updates, and addresses an issue that may cause iPhone to run warmer than expected.”
Since its release, some iPhone 15 Pro users have complained their devices have been running rather hot, like pushing 108 degrees Fahrenheit hot. While the device was hitting high temps when running big, AAA games, some users complained of hot phones during normal use. Some users expressed concern when their phones would run slower or turn off completely when they got too hot. The devices have run so warm that some users are making jokes about installing aftermarket cooling fans onto the back of Apple’s latest premium phone.
At first, Apple blamed the issue on phones using up a lot of processing power during the first few days of setup. Then on Monday, Apple amended their claims and said the issue was being caused by a bug inside iOS. Certain apps such as Instagram, Uber, and the game Asphalt 9 were also overloading the A17 Pro CPU. Apple said it was working with those app developers to issue patches of their own, as well.
Apple has tried to stress the issue isn’t hardware-related, whether that was the new titanium frame or the A17 chip. Apple instead insisted that the frame had better heat dissipation ability than the previous stainless steel lineup.
The patch notes don’t exactly describe what got changed to stop the iPhones from overheating, though they did address some sort of exploit that let a malicious local actor get elevated privileges on the phone.
In the meantime, some users have discovered other issues that could break the iPhone 15 when using a wireless charging pad on modern BMW cars. Issues do crop up whenever new hardware gets released, and it’s good to see Apple is at least trying to make good on promises for fixes (though only after quite a bit of public outcry). We’ll have to wait and hear from users to see if this update truly fixes the issue.