My iPhone is hot, slow or draining. Is that spyware?
Battery draining faster. Running hot. Using more data than it used to. Restarting on its own. Slow to open things.
You will find all of these on every list of signs your phone is hacked. Here is the part those lists leave out.
These signs are weak evidence
Every one of them has ordinary explanations that are far more likely.
Batteries wear out. A phone more than two years old holds noticeably less charge than it did, and that alone explains most battery worry. Phone updates make older phones slower and hotter. Apps update themselves and change how much data they use. Poor mobile reception makes a phone work harder and run hot, because it keeps hunting for signal.
Monitoring software can cause these things. So can a tired battery. The symptom does not tell you which, and a website that treats it as proof is not being straight with you.
That is not us telling you to ignore your instinct. It is us telling you that this particular evidence cannot carry the weight people put on it, so you do not have to lie awake reading symptom lists.
What is worth more than any of these signs
One question. Has someone had your phone in their hands, while knowing your passcode?
Hidden monitoring software nearly always needs both. If nobody has had both, this is unlikely. If someone has, that matters far more than how warm your phone gets.
Using Android instead? Read the Android version of this page.
Before you change anything, please read this
If someone is monitoring you, the moment they lose that access is often the moment things get more dangerous. Family violence services see this pattern often enough that it shapes all of their advice.
So, three things before you touch a setting:
- Do not uninstall an app you suspect, and do not factory reset your phone, as your first move. It can tell the other person that you know.
- Removing it also removes the proof. If you might ever want to go to the police, that proof matters.
- Talk to someone first. 1800RESPECT is free, confidential and open 24 hours, on 1800 737 732. Call from a phone you trust, not from the one you are worried about.
None of this means you have to keep a phone you do not trust. It means the order matters, and the safest order starts with a plan and a person, not with a delete button.
One more thing worth knowing now. Talking about this near the phone can be enough. If monitoring software is running, it may be able to hear the room. Have this conversation somewhere else, or on another device.
Worth checking on your iPhone anyway
Check your battery health first, because it is usually the answer. Settings, Battery, then Battery Health (called Battery Health and Charging on older iPhones). If Maximum Capacity is well below 100 percent, you have probably found your explanation, and it is a cheap one.
Check which apps use the battery. Same Battery screen, scroll down. An app you do not recognise sitting near the top is more interesting than the phone being warm.
Check your data use. Settings, then Mobile Service (Mobile Data on older iPhones), and scroll to the app list. Look for anything unfamiliar using data in the background.
Watch the dots. iPhone shows a small orange dot at the top of the screen when the microphone is in use, and a green dot for the camera. If you see one appear when you are not using anything, note when it happened.
Look for a management profile. Settings, General, then VPN & Device Management. On a normal personal iPhone there is usually nothing here. A profile you did not add is far more meaningful than a hot battery.
Update your iPhone. Settings, General, Software Update. It closes real security holes, and the update itself notifies nobody. Be aware that an update can sometimes stop a monitoring app working, and the person watching may notice that.
The good news on iPhone is that there is much less room for something to hide than on other phones. Profiles are the thing worth looking for, more than apps.
What not to do yet
Do not factory reset because of a warm phone. It is a big step, it can alert the person you are worried about, and it destroys anything that could later be used as proof. Please read the warning above.
If the real pattern is not about the phone at all, and it is that someone knows things about you that they should not, our page on how they might be seeing your messages and accounts is likely to be more useful than this one.
What this page will not do
We will not tell you your phone is clean. Nobody honest can.
Monitoring software that is any good is built to hide, and the reliable way to find it is a forensic examination of the phone, usually done by police. Any website or app promising to scan your phone and give you a yes or no answer is overselling what it can do, and most of them are selling something. We are a not-for-profit and there is nothing to buy at the end of this.
Next: what to do, in a safe order
Where to get real help
- In immediate danger: call 000.
- 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732. Free, confidential, 24 hours, by phone or online chat. For anyone affected by domestic, family or sexual violence.
- Police assistance line: 131 444, for threats to your safety that are not an emergency.
- WESNET Safety Net Australia: techsafety.org.au. Specialists in technology and family violence. If you use an Android phone and you think spyware may be on it, they ask people to contact them from a safe device.
- eSafety Commissioner: esafety.gov.au. The national regulator. It has legal powers to help with serious online abuse, including image-based abuse.