PSA: MagSafe in all probability isn’t charging your iPhone when utilizing Continuity Digicam

iPhones are highly effective pocket computer systems with superior chips, worth tags largely exceeding $1,000, they usually’re on the heart of a lot of our lives. Additionally they, since Apple debuted Continuity Digicam in macOS Ventura, function fairly nice options to a devoted webcam.

Sadly, as one author found, the dream of conserving an iPhone charged whereas it serves as your webcam is simply that: a dream solely. Possible attributable to warmth administration options, iPhones have a tendency to not cost when utilizing Continuity Digicam—and particularly not in the event you’re utilizing MagSafe.

The thriller of the non-charging iPhone

Adam Engst at TidBITS found that following a Zoom assembly the place he used Continuity Digicam, his iPhone had dropped battery cost considerably regardless of being related to MagSafe the entire time. This led him to the next Apple documentation:

Continuity Digicam works wired or wirelessly. To maintain your iPhone charged whereas in use, plug it into your Mac or a USB charger. Your Mac will notify you if iPhone battery stage will get low.

Engst’s idea makes plenty of sense. He writes:

I think that Continuity Digicam taxes the processor sufficiently that the iPhone heats up. (It’s all the time heat after I take it off the mount after a gathering.) Since MagSafe charging additionally causes the iPhone to get heat—hotter than USB-based charging—Apple’s battery optimization system could also be placing charging on maintain to guard the battery from thermal overload. Which is nice, if sudden within the second.

As nice a characteristic as Continuity Digicam is, it could be even higher in the event you may reliably hold your iPhone charged whereas in use. Apple recommends utilizing a wired charger, however Engst notes that a number of Reddit customers discovered that even the wired technique was ineffective.

9to5Mac’s Take

It’s comprehensible that Continuity Digicam would trigger the iPhone to heat up in a approach that makes charging tough. However it could be good if Apple’s documentation for the characteristic was extra clear about this limitation.

When you solely have occasional conferences that use Continuity Digicam, this in all probability isn’t a giant deal, simply one thing to be conscious of. However in the event you’re out and in of Zoom conferences all day, it might be time to put money into a devoted webcam slightly than relying in your iPhone for good video high quality.

Finest iPhone mounts for Continuity Digicam