
iPhones may shut down in cold weather - fiveFeet
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201678
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scblock
iPhones, Android phones, music players, and other electronic things, if the
weather is cold enough. Are we just trying to find anything bad to say about
Apple so we can say it? Why is this on the front page?

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Bartweiss
The instructions on this page offer " _Use iOS devices where the ambient
temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F)._ "

Hopefully Apple is just being cautious and giving a range where they're
confident no one will have problems. But if not, that's a pretty narrow range.
I've had problems with music players and Android phones down at <5F,
certainly, but <32F is the one part of this that looks like an Apple-specific
issue.

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vonzeppelin
I've never had a problem with my phone when it's been below freezing out.

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pmjordan
This may be obvious, but when it's cold out, it helps to keep the phone in a
warm pocket close to the body (e.g. on the inside of your coat) rather than a
bag or so. I've never had any issues with iPhones that way; using it for more
than a short period of time when it's very cold is unpleasant anyway, so it
never gets the chance to cool down too much. (I can confirm this works even at
-40°, although you've got to be very careful with charging cables at that sort
of temperature. Don't try to bend them, they'll snap.)

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nrki
Everyone I've ever skied with knows this already...

Anecdotally, my phone (LG) doesn't whinge until it's at least -15C outside.

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ng-user
I've got an S8 and had no problems this winter using it while skiing.

The lowest temperature I was out in was -25C, I think keeping it on your body
is the best way to combat the temperature issue.

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mbell
I'd be surprised if all phones don't have thermal range protection. At the
very least the battery almost certainly does, not having it would be
dangerous. Going into a partially operating state and giving warnings rather
than just cutting off the battery is actually a nice feature that I doubt many
phones have.

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tamersalama
That's common knowledge here in Canada :)

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trosi
How frequent is it? I've seen it happen to a couple of friends this year and
the temperature was barely below 0 Celsius. It must be worse up there.

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tonyarkles
When it's -30, I don't even try to use my phone. I keep it in my pocket close
to my body with the hopes that my body heat will keep it warm enough for it to
work if I need it.

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bradgnar
This is nothing new right? I learned the first day I went snowboarding with my
iphone that it was useless to bring with me... at least without some thick
rubber case.

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Stephen304
Yeah I went skiing with my new Pixel 2 last Christmas and couldn't get it to
stay on long enough to record a video. Doesn't seem very deveice specific. My
sister had better luck on her older iPhone, but on the coldest day neither of
us could use our phones outside for very long.

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jbob2000
Just as an addendum to this, I learned an expensive lesson about temperature
changes in computers a few years ago.

I had a fancy Dell XPS gaming laptop and was at a LAN party with my friends,
playing the latest and greatest. The computer was very hot to the touch. Well,
it was time to pack up and leave, so I put my laptop in my flimsy backpack and
took a 20min walk home in the freezing cold.

I get home and lo, the computer, ice cold to the touch, wouldn't boot. Took it
to the shop and the tech said that a few of the components were cracked and
i'd need to replace them or get a new laptop.

That's when it hit me; of _course_ when you take something very hot and put it
in something very cold, it's going to break. Should've waited like 5 minutes
instead of rushing out...

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kylnew
If you lived in a cold temperature with an iPhone for long enough, you learn
to keep it close to your body when wrapping up for the outdoors. Sure, you
need to pull it out for some functions and that's awkward, but the gloves you
are wearing get in the way of that too. These are general challenges of
navigating the cold. I can see the irritation, but I'm in agreement with other
Canadians here that this isn't really news :)

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bfred_it
I noticed last winter in Seoul. I could barely use my iPhone 6S Plus outside.
I had to regularly walk in stores and blow on its back to warm it up. Super
annoying when it turned off at the peak of a mountain and I couldn't turn it
on until I was half-way down.

It doesn't tell you why it turns off either, I thought the battery was dead
when it started regularly turning off around 20-40%

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hokumguru
Isn't this one of the primary reasons they were undervolting iphones? I
thought this was already common knowledge.

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roryisok
It probably is, but a thing being common knowledge is not the same as apple
confirming it.

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mikerice
This has been happening already for at least the past 4 winters. This was
pretty common knowledge, right?

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madcaptenor
Also in hot weather. I don't _store_ my phone in my car, but I've brought it
_into_ my car when my car is above 95F (say, when it's been parked and I get
back to it) and had it shut down on me.

(I probably shouldn't have bought a black car - that doesn't help.)

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kimusan
We had -20C the other day. My samsung S8 was perfectly fine while in my
pocket. At one point i placed it on my outdoor table and within a minute it
showed a warning and then closed down (correctly closing down - not
dying/crashing).

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johncalvinyoung
Not too surprising. Definitely happened to me on the summit of a 14er in the
Colorado Rockies last year. I was glad I had my DSLR as well as my iPhone
7...the Canon had no problems (it was only about 30F).

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equalunique
Same goes for Android. Got stuck hiking on a mountain once in windy 15F
weather. Neither my friend's iPhone nor my Android would stay turned on for
more than a minute.

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vthallam
Of Course they do. My iPhoneX dies often these days to NYC weather. Was
planning to go the Apple store to find out why.

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danschumann
Since I started Wim Hof method, I'm more immune to cold than my HTCOne. ( I
have an old phone, I know )

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Ryan_IRL2
I live in Canada, and this is not news.

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0xCMP
iPhone also turns off it gets too hot. I left my black iPhone in my car's cup
holder once while the sun roof wasn't being blocked and I picked it up and
after it cooled down a bit turned right back on.

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waytogo
12 °F / -11 °C.

On my bike.

Listening to Gorillaz on my Powerbeats 3.

They shut down after 5 minutes every time.

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33degrees
My iPhone stopped doing this when I had the battery changed

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sneak
Designed by Apple in _California_.

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overcast
California has snow.

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madcaptenor
Not the "California" that Apple means.

