How to stop my brand new iPad Air M2 from over heating?

It’s not that surprising actually. If the app’s code has been optimized for the hardware it utilizes the system resources more efficiently and subsequently produces less heat. Inefficient code forces the hardware to compensate by running a max speed, utilizing the high performance cores, rather than the high efficiency cores. The high performance cores clock at higher speeds and require more battery, which has to discharge faster. All that produces much greater heat. iPads do not have active cooling (fans) just the conductivity of the heat from the chips sets and batteries conducting to the metal back and sides and then cooling by circulation of the ambient air.

The bottom line is iPads get warm. You may prefer to say hot, but that’s only relative to your experience. I’ve owned every iPad Pro 12.9” except the M2. By your definition of hot they have all run hot from time to time. If you really think it gets too hot get an instant read infrared thermometer. Start tracking the temperatures as you use the iPad. Run some animation test apps and recorded the temperatures. Then over time you’ll get an idea of what different apps are doing to your iPad’s internal components.

Then yours is an exception to what others are experiencing. Take it to an Apple Store, read a book and demonstrate that your iPad gets too hold to hold. They’ll probably replace it. Nothing should get so hot it’s unbearable to hold. Something that hot should be displaying a warning and stopping many functions.

Well, the Apple Senior Advisor was absolutely incorrect - the iPad still gets hot when writing notes, even on iPad OS 18.

This is really disappointing and I do not believe that Apple will ever fix this.

For future readers facing this problem: the only solution I have found, which really isn’t a solution but a workaround, is to close all your other applications and turn on “Battery Saver” before opening Apple Notes. This seems to prevent it from getting incredibly hot, but after about 10 minutes the iPad will start to lag and freeze - just close the Notes app and open it again, and you’ll have another 10 minutes.

Honestly super disappointed in Apple with all this, and so disappointed there are so many others gaslighting affected users into thinking this is somehow normal

It is not unusual for an iPad to become warm when being used - more so when using some types of iPad case. High screen brightness and/or CPU intensive Apps will also create more heat.

The key point is that whilst your iPad may become very warm in normal use, the iPad should not become uncomfortably hot to handle. If your iPad is becoming too hot to hold, initially try a forced-restart - as this can clear an isolated software issue.

Force restart iPad (models with Face ID or with Touch ID in the top button)

If your iPad doesn’t have the Home button, do the following:

1. Press and quickly release the volume button nearest to the top button.
2. Press and quickly release the volume button farthest from the top button.
3. Press and hold the top button.
4. When the Apple logo appears, release the top button.

If the problem persists, try to correlate unexpected heating with specific Apps or tasks - as some poorly optimised Apps are known to lead to consistently higher chassis temperatures.

If you have any concerns, you should take your iPad along to the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store - where the technicians can examine and test your iPad for faults:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Be aware that if purchased directly from Apple, in most countries/regions you have 14-days within which to unconditionally return the iPad for exchange or refund. If applicable, you might be best advised to act quickly - as upon expiry of the 14-day window of opportunity, remedy for faults will be handled as a warranty issue.

iPad Air M2 is worst, it is getting heat up too much while charging and normal usage, not expected from apple

Same is happening with my iPad too. It’s my first apple product and i am disappointed.

Apple should solve it or replace it.

I have noticed this also . It does seem to be with particular application that is graphic intensive. What I find to be disappointing is that the same application does not cause overheating on a 2017 iPad. One would expect a newer more powerful chipset to have fewer issues with identical apps.

I have done a force restart and have made adjustments to the display to no avail.

It makes no difference whether the device is in a case or not. I think this is something Apple needs to address in an update

Recently I had bought a new ipad air 13 inch (2024), The ipad is getting heated even on normal usage like the temperature goes till 40 degree Celsius, while writing on the notes app with sometimes getting stuck while writing. I had been using Ipad air 4 from last 4 year but I hadn't face this kind of issue earlier what a new gift apple had given with this new model and launch I hope apple takes it back and provides concession for the same. Or provide an software update which will stop this heating issue Immediately.

Just spoke with an Apple Senior Advisor; the issue has already been submitted to Apple Support - "iPad Overheats when using Apple Notes with Apple Pencil" in the issue tracker. Diagnostic profile has already been submitted by another user and it is under review.

Apple Senior Advisor made a very interesting suggestion:

Suggested that users who are experiencing this issue should perform a factory reset of their device using recovery mode (not the standard "Erase All Content and Settings") and then setting the iPad up as a new device (electing not to "Restore from iCloud Backup" or "Transfer from Another Device").

According to this advisor, the fact that two separate devices I have used both had the same issue, there is a high likeliness that the problem exists within a given user's iCloud Backup for their iPad. If this is true, it would mean that each time a user sets up a brand new iPad as "new device," opting not to "Restore from iCloud Backup" or "Transfer from Another Device," the issue is avoided. But, when a user sets up a brand new iPad and chooses to "Restore from iCloud Backup" or "Transfer from Another Device," the problem is then installed through this transfer. Thus, performing a Recovery Mode reset and then setting up the iPad as a new device would, in theory, eliminate this issue.

I will be testing this solution and reporting back.

Okay folks - well, I followed through with testing out the recovery mode factory restore and completely set the new iPad up from scratch, to make sure it wasn’t something faulty in the backup I was restoring from.

Lo and behold - the problem persists. This means, as far as I can tell, the issue is (a) not device specific (as I have now replicated the issue on three separate devices, two which were the same model and one an iPad Air 4), and (b) the the issue is not related to a given user’s iCloud backup of their iPad.

Hopefully Apple solves this soon. Really kills the magic of the device.

Manullascard488 wrote:

So, you’ve restored your iPad as a new device and the problem still persists!!!

This might be absurd, but I think it’s possible that there’s an issue with your Apple ID causing overheating,

Or, it's a hardware problem.

M2 11inch owner here, this issue really is bugging me too. My iPad is less than a month old and whenever I take notes the camera region heats up significantly. And it's happening on apple notes and files, but not on Notability or any other note taking application. I have no hope of getting a fix, since it's apple. Better switch note taking application, try goodnotes or notability and see if problem persists.

There seem to be many individuals replying to this thread who come across as frustrated with the users experiencing this issue.

I do not believe that users who purchased a new, $600+ device which is advertised as having the ability to take notes should be blamed for “not understanding the limitations of the device.” Any reasonable person can deduce that out of the hundreds of millions of people who purchase an iPad, a great deal of them do not understand what is happening “under the hood,” and paid a premium to Apple to trust their R&D team so they they did not need to understand the intricacies of what is happening internally.

These users spent a great deal of their relative income on a device which they then found to be producing a level of heat which they are convinced is not to be expected from their new devices. They then search on the internet for a forum and find a “support” page on Apple’s website, and reasonably conclude (however wrong they may be) that by posting about their issue on this forum, it may lead to a solution for their perceived issue.

The vast majority of iPad owners are not, as surprising as this may be, computer engineers, software developers, former Apple Store employees, or even novices in the field of computer science. To these users, a $600–$1400 device which produces an amount of heat considerably higher than other devices they own when performing a function or task that was advertised as standard for the device is concerning and not to be expected, nor was it “obvious” to them that this would occur at the time of their purchasing a premium product. Many don’t even know what an SoC is, so ridiculing them for being surprised their premium device produces exceptional heat is actually more of a testament to the narrow mindedness of the ridiculer rather than the ridiculed.

It is also not surprising that users are coming here to report their issues, and asking Apple to fix them, even though those who are more experienced on the forum know that Apple mostly does not see these posts, nor are they likely to resolve this issue.

Please remain kind and remember that your expertise and elevated understanding obligate you to have greater patience and an increased responsibility to assist those tho do not know as much as you do or who do not possess your talents or knowledge. Subtle, thinly-veiled remarks of condescension against those less knowledgeable users posting in this forum is likely more useless than the posts themselves asking Apple to “pls fix,” in spite of Apple’s unlikeliness to do so.

Please make sure to update it to the latest version of iPadOS. If this is not working please force restart your iPad to see if the issues persist

Force restart iPad - Apple Support

I do not think this has anything to do with my Apple ID, as I was able to replicate the issue after rebooting into recovery mode and performing the restore prior to signing into my Apple ID… When I set up the iPad after the recovery mode restore, I didn’t log into my iCloud account at all, I selected “no iCloud account” >> “set up later in settings.” I then opened the notes app and confirmed the issue persisted, without being logged in to my Apple ID.

I have already brought the iPad in to the Genius Bar. The Genius Bar is certainly more limited than the Apple Senior Advisor I am working with, and who I spoke to again today. The Apple Senior Advisor is able to run remote diagnostics on the device and is the one who asked me to perform this operation to begin with. I see no reason why I would bring it to the Genius Bar.

I think a lot of people are making the assumption (reasonably) that if this was an issue on every iPad, everyone would be complaining about it. I think this leads people to make suggestions that target a given user’s circumstances as though the variable exists only in a limited scope (such as the suggestion that it must be users who have some flawed data related to their Apple ID only who are experiencing the issue).

I would like to present another hypothesis for why this doesn’t seem as widely reported:

I do not believe a majority of iPad users are really extensively taking notes on their iPad. To elaborate: most people will open their notes app, jot down a few things for a lecture, and close their notes app. They likely won’t notice anything wrong because they will only use it for maybe 30 minutes to an hour or so, and they will start a new note, and any heat that is generated they won’t likely notice. The heat problem is still there, but it is not expressed due to the use case of the majority of users.

I believe most of the users who are seeing the issue expressed are those who are taking substantial notes on their devices. The heat problem in question does not occur on my iPad (the current one or the previous one) when I open a new note until I have substantially modified that new note. I believe (hypothesis) that:

If - anyone who has an iPad on iPad OS 16/iPad OS 17 were to

• turn their screen to 50% brightness
• unplug their iPad (not charging) and
• open Apple Notes
• Make sure “battery saver” is Off
• Add a 20-35MB PDF to a new note
• start and continue to rapidly draw short strokes with their Apple Pencil anywhere on the imported PDF for at least 60 seconds

Then - they will, within about 30 seconds of performing these actions, notice substantial and concerning heat build up on the right side of their iPad, which will then disappear if a new note is created, or if the “large” note is closed, or if the rapidly drawn short strokes are paused.

My theory is that any and all iPad users with a model later than 2021 can perform the procedure outlined about and find the results I have suggested above. Turning battery saver on, for whatever reason, seems to solve the issue but introduces substantial and unusable input lagging, and therefore is not a viable solution.

The Apple Senior Advisor said she had reason to believe these issues may be solved with the update being pushed out this Monday.