iPhone Overheating and Battery Draining - What's Causing It?

Roon Software Discussion ARC
1

Hey all,

Whenever I stream music from my phone through ARC to a Bluetooth device my phone gets noticeably hotter and my battery drains pretty damn fast. Does anyone know what’s causing this? (I haven’t tried wired)

Of note, I’ve opted to download all songs to my phone, and they’re in original quality, most often 16/44. Are any of you noticing these 2 issues when you opt to download files at lower-quality?

Thanks so much!

  • Corey

Edit: since posting this 10 minutes ago, my battery has drained by 9%. I can actually watch the battery go down.

2

At a guess it’s due to streaming via mobile data and then transmitting via Bluetooth.

More so as you’re streaming in original format and your phone will convert to AAC for Bluetooth transmission.

Whilst possible, it’ll cause heat from the radios and battery consumption as well.

Try a wired connection to the speaker if possible and see how you get on.

I wouldn’t say there’s a fault.

3

It seems to affect some people for no clear reason. There is an open support topic for this:

1 Like
4

I have this same issue when using ARC and I didn’t see the same issue when listening to the same playlist using Tidal app. I have a feeling something to do with how ARC handling the data before transmitting it via bluetooth.

5

I would as it wasn’t like this before the latest updates to add downloads. Previously it never got warm for me. Also use it at office on WiFi same Bluetooth headphones doesn’t get warm like this.

1 Like
6

@Simon_Arnold3

What about your use case, but using mobile data and Bluetooth.

The OP doesn’t state if mobile data or WiFi.

It’s been a while since using my AirPod Pros, but don’t recall my phone getting overly warm. Maybe the once.

7

When your iPhone is getting warmer and is not being charged, there’s a process/App draining the battery. Looking into the battery usage statistics of your iPhone may give you a hint.

8

Hey all, thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

The use cases where I’ve had the overheating/ battery drain issue has occurred when on wifi, and also other times when on cellular data. Of note though, this is when playing content that’s been already downloaded to my phone through ARC. I haven’t seen if it’s also the case when streaming non-downloaded content from my library. But yes, I’ve also only tested and noticed this using bluetooth. I can try using a physical connection now. iPhone 15 Pro > apple USB-C to 3.5 dongle > KEF LSX (aux).

Edit: Same issue when plugged in via aux, on wifi, playing downloaded content. Phone got noticeably warm and dropped 8% battery in 10 min. It’s playing fairly quiet too.

9

This same behavior happens on Android as well. See my thread in Early Access: B231 High Idle Battery Usage on Android 14