[starlights]

As many have complained here, the wireless charger in BMW is a glorified microwave and just cooks the phones. I experienced that over a long drive and decided to add the Apple MagSafe Fast Charger. Its an induction (fast) charger similar to the one in BMW with a USB C wire. The idea was to not have to plug in the phone but just drop it in the center armrest so the phone could charge and be able to lift the phone out one handed while driving.

In my usage however, I realized that my phone (iPhone 12) gets as hot with the Apple MagSafe charger as it does with the BMW charger. This is when the phone is connected to the car (CarPlay mostly). I then connected the phone via the lightening port using a cable to the center console and the heating problems went away.

My conclusion is that this is a phone problem when charged with a fast induction charger and is being actively used. Perhaps induction charging somehow utilizes the main processor that creates additional heat vs using the cable?
Not sure if this is limited only to iPhones and Pixels as I have read that Samsung phones charge just fine in BMW. Additionally, is it possible that slow chargers work fine (however I am not sure if they will be able to add charge to the phone when being actively used with CarPlay)?

Feel free to chime in with your experience.

[fate9834]

My S23 cannot charge at all with BMW wireless charging. But my Vivo X80 Pro can charge just fine.

[crackerjack15]

My s22 samsung overheats in the wireless charger when actively navigating via wireless Android auto. I don't use the wireless charger anymore. I plug into wired charging.

[AndrewG25]

My iPhone gets so hot it auto-shuts to cool down off which breaks car play navigation while driving, so I can no longer rely on it for navigation. I have an iPhone 15 Pro, and with all of these complaints, they should have tested this feature or added some type of cooling built into the charging pad. But if the issue persisted with magsafe charger, I'd say the root cause is the phone, it cannot handle CarPlay + Wireless charging.

[dwwStL]

Is this a side effect of car play or Android auto? I stopped using car play some years ago in my 21 40i, preferring iDrive. I also stopped using the charger. Now, in my 50e, the phone has not overheated but it also doesn't really charge. I'm going to start paying more attention to how it works.

[nZtiZia]

starlights
wireless induction charging always causes heat. actually, charging batteries always results in heat (wireless > wired); it’s unavoidable and the nature of charging batteries.

some charging devices and phones are better than others, but that has to do with their heat sinking capabilities

[starlights]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

starlights
wireless induction charging always causes heat. IOW charging batteries always results in heat (wireless > wired); it’s unavoidable and the nature of charging batteries.

some charging devices and phones are better than others, but that has to do with their heat sinking capabilities

Agreed. The point is that when the phone is in total idle state (such as when on the induction charger at night, using the same/similar apple charger), it doesn't get hot to the point of shutting down but when being actively used for CarPlay and or navigation, which are both processor intensive activities, it overheats - so the problem lies with the phone and not the BMW wireless charger (or any other fast induction charger).

[mscot]

Has anyone tested with and without a phone case/cover?

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by starlights

Agreed. The point is that when the phone is in total idle state (such as when on the induction charger at night, using the same/similar apple charger), it doesn't get hot to the point of shutting down but when being actively used for CarPlay and or navigation, which are both processor intensive activities, it overheats - so the problem lies with the phone and not the BMW wireless charger (or any other fast induction charger).

again, it’s dependent on either. in your experience it could be your phone, but you can’t generalize and say it’s the phone because I always connect my iPhone 14 Pro via CarPlay with at least 7 apps open and mounted on a 2YO third-party MagSafe charger. even while using Google or Apple Maps, it never overheats to the point of shutting down

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by mscot

Has anyone tested with and without a cover?

you mean a phone case? yeah, but no smoking gun as the cases used had different specs

the manual lists both and case specs that the tray is designed for. anything outside those specs one can expect issues with wireless charging. that said, it’s a very inefficient 5W charger that does a poor job even if the phone and/or case are within spec

I typically have a case (Mous, Element); not a contributing factor in my use case

[starlights]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

again, it’s dependent on either. in your experience it could be your phone, but you can’t generalize and say it’s the phone because I always connect my iPhone 14 Pro via CarPlay with at least 7 apps open and mounted on a 2YO third-party MagSafe charger. even while using Google or Apple Maps, it never overheats to the point of shutting down

Interesting. Is the third party MagSafe charger a fast charger? (Not sure if that is a factor), and does this phone (14 Pro) get hot on BMW charger under similar conditions?


in response to mscot's question - I have - and my phone (iPhone 12 mini) overheated in both cases.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by starlights

Interesting. Is the third party MagSafe charger a fast charger? (Not sure if that is a factor), and does this phone (14 Pro) get hot on BMW charger under similar conditions?

I get the full 15W with my MagSafe charger

my iPhone 12 Pro overheated in the BMW wireless charger which is why I went the external MagSafe charger route one week into ownership. I’ve used it on occasion since, and it’s 30:70 in overheating my iPhone 14 Pro.

[BlkGS]

Samsung S22+ with a little case on it. Never any issues charging on the wireless mat. Usually streaming Bluetooth from it. Works fine in our Expedition as well.

My wife has some sort of iphone and it doesn't seem to wireless charge in either car, and our random smattering of standalone wireless chargers are only so so with it.

My take, it's the phones.

[tooloud10]

My iPhone 15 Pro Max (sans case) gets a little warm on the X5 wireless charger, but it's running CarPlay, streaming music, nav, Motus, etc. It does charge during all of this, but rather slowly. To be fair though, the phone gets warm on the wireless charger in my home even when it's not doing anything.

I'm actually fine with that because I treat it more like a battery level maintainer than a charger--I don't want the car topping off the battery in my phone several times a day because that's the fastest way to degrade the battery.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

…
My take, it's the phones.

and it right well could be

[dwwStL]

I'm coming around to this being a phone problem.

[eelnoraa]

My experience with Iphone 12 pro (wife's previous phone), Iphone 13 pro (my current phone), Iphone 15 pro (wife's current phone), Pixel 5 (wife's work home), Pixel fold (my work phone), they all get pretty warm in the BMW charger even if they are all idle. These are 5 different phones across 2 big manufacturers. Add to that with all other wireless charging pads we have around home or car, none get to the same warm level under same workload (idle). I am not sure phones are the issues.

Now one can argue the charging pad is in the kind of enclose location with minimal air flow. It is not impossible, but this points to the implementation of the wireless charger, the chosen location is bad.

[dwwStL]

Originally Posted by eelnoraa

Now one can argue the charging pad is in the kind of enclose location with minimal air flow. It is not impossible, but this points to the implementation of the wireless charger, the chosen location is bad.

Some manufactures have started venting AC into the phone compartment to manage phone heat.

[mscot]

I charge my iPhone 14 Pro every night on a mag charger. No problems at all.

[BlkGS]

So one other thing to keep in mind, most phones have VERY POOR thermal management. Phones aren't like a PC with fans to keep everything cool, etc. they have some internal heatsinks, but they have very poor methods of dissipating heat, they don't have fins, fans, etc.

Wireless charging does create heat. So does computing, someone's wireless communications, etc. So if your phone is heating up while it's on the charger, streaming music, doing nav, and wirelessly talking to the car... WELL DUH.

That's basically a max case usage, about the only thing you could do more than that is play a very taxing game on it while live streaming it, lol. There are a select few gaming phones out there that actually do take into consideration thermal management. Your average iPhone doesn't have any real significant design for cooling, so it isn't surprising that it would heat up when you're putting it through strenuous use and charging it, its making a lot of heat and has no way to dissipate that heat.

[Dandle]

Dont really have a problem with the Samsung S23Ultra. I think the issue is of the phone cases are to thick it requires more power to charge which in turn causes extra heat.

[eelnoraa]

Originally Posted by mscot

I charge my iPhone 14 Pro every night on a mag charger. No problems at all.

I charge my iPhone 13pro on office desk, on this cheap wireless charging stand. Usually playing YouTube music, for 8+ hours a day, 4-5 days a week, no problem at all. Don’t even get a bit of warm.