How to Fix iPhone “Charging on Hold” Message

The iPhone has an interesting feature that will temporarily prevent the iPhone battery from charging if the iPhone temperature is not at an appropriate level to safely charge. When this happens, you will see a notification on the iPhone screen stating “Charging on Hold – Charging will resume when iPhone returns to normal temperature.” Most users who see this alert on their iPhone will find it because their iPhone is too hot, often when the iPhone is charging in a hot car on a sunny day and even immediately prior or after the temperature warning appears on screen, but you can also encounter the alert when the iPhone is too cold as well, like in below-freezing temperatures at a ski resort, or if you kept your iPhone in a freezer for an extended duration.

As you can surmise from the notification, the iPhone is not charging the battery when this alert is present on the screen. Let’s run through some tips to fix this issue and get your iPhone charging again.

Fixing the iPhone “Charging on Hold” Temperature Notification

If you see the temperature warning about charging being on hold until the iPhone returns to a normal operating temperature, you can usually fix the problem pretty quickly by going through a series of steps.

One helpful trick to remember before getting started with troubleshooting is that iPhone uses passive cooling technology, meaning that any temperatures generated by heavy usage of the processor will dissipate through the frame and device enclosure. Knowing this can help you avoid some situations where iPhone can overheat from being smothered, or exposed to direct temperature extremes.

1: Remove iPhone from Extreme Temperatures & Sunlight

The first thing you will want to do is remove the iPhone from any extreme temperature situation. This means if the iPhone is located in a setting that is particularly warm, or cold, to get it into a more neutral temperature area.

You’ll also want to remove the iPhone from direct sunlight, since the dark screen, along with the glass and metal enclosure can get quite hot when exposed to sun.

Apple recommends that iPhone is kept where ambient temperatures are between 60° F and 72° F, which are obviously pretty mild temperatures, and perhaps common temperatures for the Apple Cupertino campus. But for the rest of the world, temperatures are often much hotter and much colder than those ranges, so just be mindful of times when you’re in more extreme temperature situations.

Once the iPhone is removed from the extreme temperature environment, let the iPhone cool down (or warm up, if it was too cold), and try charging it again.

2: Quit Out of Apps That Could Be Using Heavy CPU

Another helpful trick to help the iPhone cool down and resume charging as expected is to quit out of any apps that are using a lot of CPU. There are a lot of apps that do this, even when they’re not in active use, with many social media apps being particular culprits, whether that’s TikTok, Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter/X, Snapchat, YouTube, or similar. Generally speaking, apps that play a lot of video content will also use a lot of CPU, or apps that make heavy usage of GPS and location information, sometimes even when inactive, and those are the apps you’re going to want to focus on quitting. Some games do this too, but most games tend to not run aggressively in the background.

Swipe up from the bottom of the iPhone screen to pull up the app switcher, and then swipe up on the apps that you want to force quit out of. Again, focus on the heavy-hitters of social media and video playing type apps.

Quitting out of apps that use a lot of CPU will help to reduce load on the devices processor, and thus cool it down.

3: Lock the Screen & Stop Using the iPhone for a Bit

The next thing you can do, after removing the iPhone from any extreme temperature and direct sunlight, and quitting out of apps that use a lot of processor, is to lock the screen and then stop using the iPhone for a bit. This will allow the temperature to regulate, and charging should be possible again in a short amount of time.

Now it’s just a matter of being patient, since once the iPhone detects safe temperature conditions, it will resume charging.

4: Remove Anything Smothering the iPhone, Including the Case

If you find your iPhone is overheating frequently, it may be because it’s being smothered by clothing, or even a case, while in temperature settings that it may otherwise function normally in.

Thus, if the iPhone is overheating and in a case, try removing it from the case. Or if iPhone is overheating and it has been bundled up in a bunch of thick clothes or blankets, put it somewhere where more air can circulate around it.

iPhone constantly pausing charging? Battery may need service or is failing

Finally, it is possible that your iPhone is showing the “Charging On Hold” message because the battery may need to be serviced, or is potentially even failing.

You can check the condition of your iPhone battery by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health.

If you see a message like “Your battery’s health is significantly degraded” then it is time to replace the battery.

Occasionally, failing batteries can begin to overheat easier than usual, which may cause charging to pause, or the iPhone to misbehave in general. Replacing the iPhone battery is a solution to this issue.

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Have you ever experienced the iPhone “Charging On Hold” temperature message before? Was your iPhone too hot, or too cold when you encountered this issue? Share your experiences in the comments.