2022 iPad Air becomes extremely hot while using Infinite Flight

Support
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As the title says, my iPad becomes very hot while flying - so much so that it is uncomfortable to hold. It is hottest on the top half of the rear of the iPad and the top edge.

I’m only experiencing this while using Infinite Flight and its honestly got to a point where I’m worried its damaging the iPad itself. Not sure if it’s related but I have noticed faster battery drain after only 4 months of on/off Infinite Flight usage.

Graphics settings are all at the highest, but this should not be an issue on one of the newest iPads available.

It happens irregardless if the iPad is charging or not.

Before purchasing this iPad, I used Infinite Flight on an old iPhone XR with similar graphics settings and while it did lag, it never got extremely hot (if at all). I had a search before posting this and it looks like this is a common issue, so I don’t know if it’s a matter of poor optimisation but it makes no sense as to why Infinite Flight causes latest generation hardware to heat up so significantly.

Device: iPad Air 5th
Operating system: iPadOS 16.2

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If you haven’t, I think you can try the Low Power Mode (the in-game setting, not system setting) not if you are used to flying long-haul flights with AP on. It saves a lot of the battery and hence make your ipad less hot.

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I’ve got this turned on - it doesn’t seem to do much in regards to the heat

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I have the same device and OS, it happened to me too sometimes. I am also not sure why this happens though, but I found a solution is to close the app (you might want to clear scenery cache as well), power off, let the device cool, and restart. It works for me and won’t be as hot as before when I use IF after restarting.

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Thanks, I restart after long flights but have just cleared the scenery cache - I’ll see if there’s any improvements.

But this is more of a temporary solution to an issue which obviously needs to be addressed and fixed by the developers

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6

To add on to this, I’ve heard putting a small fan near your device can help cool it down.

Some of these responses might help too:

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Put it on a cold surface face down, while it being charged at 100%!

8

I’ve had similar issue, with my IPad. I made a few changes. Turn off Anti-Aliasing, graphic settings medium. Low battery mode on. Try tweaking your device.

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Hello!

This isn’t really an issue.
Why do you think graphics cards and CPU’s have fans and in some cases liquid cooling? Because they generate heat and needs to be cooled down.

Your device doesn’t have neither fans or liquid cooling, but will dissipate the heat through the outer shell and that is something you will feel more or less depending on how you hold your device and where the heat source is located. It’s different depending on device model.

My iPad M1 does the same especially when having it set to 60FPS. So i run everything at 30FPS because then it won’t start meddling around with the screen brightness.

So if you’re running at 60FPS and think there are performance issues or doesn’t like some heating up - set it to 30FPS.

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10

This is normal and common. So I use old equipment for long flights. That way I don’t have to worry about battery damage. If you only have one device, you can try to reduce the frequency of long flights to reduce equipment damage. All in all, it is normal for the equipment to heat up.

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I have the same device and had the same problem. Yes it’s normal for devices to heat up but on infinite flight it heats up quickly and gets really hot and on other games it never heats up so in my opinion it’s not normal. At the moment for me my iPad doesn’t heat up during flights but does when I go on replay mode. I wouldn’t say turn down your graphics since I have maximum graphics and it stays cool. Try keep your device somewhere cool and reset your device before a flight, see if it helps.

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I’m always running at 30fps.

Restarting before starting a flight helps however I still think this is an issue. Surely with the amount of complaints about this, it can be passed onto the developers? Obviously it’s nothing too major as I haven’t noticed any performance issues, but a new device definitely should not be getting as hot as it is (regardless of not having cooling etc as you mentioned)

Thanks though

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I recommend having your brightness at half, since I’ve seen full brightness make more heat vs half brightness.

Also charging while flying can make more heat

(I’ve got a 2021 IPP with the same SoC, so they behave similarly)

Edit: also playing in sunlight can make your devices warmer than usual

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I run the same device and I haven’t had this problem. The only time I feel it heating up is when I’m flying into a busy airspace, brightness is up, it’s on day, volume is on, and the device is charging. I did a 22 hour flight on night, low power mode, low brightness, no volume, and intermittently charging and it did not heat up at all.

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I have the basic model of the iPad (newest gen). And I never had heating problems at all. I had heating problems though on my iPhone 8. Really weird that you have a problem with this.

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