PhoneExperienceHost.exe high CPU usage when pc idle

Anonymous
2022-11-12T15:18:33+00:00

Hi,

When I come back to my laptop and it's gone into idle mode (screen off) I can hear the fans running fast, but as soon as I move the mouse the fans die off. I tried to figure out for a while what was happening and eventually set up perfmon to record what processes were running. I discovered that runs at 50% CPU continuously while the machine is in idle which is ridiculous for something that shouldn't be doing anything much (I'd upload a screenshot but there doesn't seem to be an option anywhere). Looking at details in Task Manager the PhoneExperienceHost.exe process has used twice as much CPU in total than any other app, even though I haven't used it in the foreground.

I do use Phone link to connect to my phone, but it's in the background (system tray icon only) and shouldn't be doing anything most of the time.

There's nothing related in Event viewer and I can't see anything in Scheduler which might trigger it.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Phone Link software.

The machine says it is up to date for patching.

I've searched for anything related to this issue and found nothing helpful so either it's only my machine, or other people don't realise it's happening as it only happens when they can't look at it!

Any ideas on how to fix this so it stops using my power (obviously uninstalling is not an option)? (TBH though, I expect it's something built into the software and can only be fixed by MS)

Thanks,

Jon W

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Connect Phone and PC

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-07T17:38:24+00:00

    Not sure this is a fix yet but seems to be working

    In Settings->Apps->Installed Apps->Phone Link, click the menu to the right and select advanced settings. There is an option for background apps permissions. You probably have it set on power optimized which would explain why it fires up when the screen sleeps. I think changing this to never will definitely solve the problem but may not be best choice if you want the app to be active while minimized. I am also testing the always option so it does run in the background always, but not triggered by the screen sleeping. In this mode, the CPU may be lower and more consistent. Hope this helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-05T22:17:12+00:00

    I've installed MyPhoneExplorer and agree it's a bit clunky and often loses connection to my phone, so it's not great, but it does work.

    I looked at Mightytext but it (and PushBullet and Join) require using a google login rather than being internal/secure locally - so they're an immediate fail.

    I use Airdroid, but mostly for file transfers - However, the restrictions for free use make it unusable realistically.

    I looked at Pushline but it requires Chrome - another fail.

    Airmore - web app only - fail.

    Crono - can only install from Windows store - fail.

    KDE Connect - Works and has quite a lot of feature, but not user friendly and won't allow file access to whole phone (File access needs an SFTP client anyway).

    Oh, I discovered that Phone Link only transfers pictures at super low quality, so it's definitely no use anyway.

    So, can't find any workable apps so far, MyPhoneExplorer is the closest...

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-28T02:19:36+00:00

    I was a Might Text user. Got a new Samsung Phone and was just going through things in my head I might want to "improve" Tried the Windows Phone Link before a couple years ago and can't remember why I kept using Mighty Text. Maybe this was the issue and I just forgot about it? But I don't see much older threads about it.

    It's ironic it only happens when you are NOT using the computer! Completely opposite of what should happen.

    Obviously whatever dev group at Microsoft that handles Phone Link has probably been assigned to other Windows 10 app priorities.

    So back to Mighty Text (Pro paid version) IF I don't like using MyPhoneExplorer!

    https://www.fjsoft.at/en/

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-15T20:31:46+00:00

    I found that this process loads 3 cores of i5 13600KF up to 98%!

    Thanks to this thread I understand what's happening on fresh machine... Main problem is that CPU fans speed increases and that is very annoying

    Image

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-02-15T18:15:25+00:00

    I have observed the same thing, using Resource manager

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