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
    2023-03-08T13:53:00+00:00

    Good to know but, given that this disables the notifications, it sort of defeats the main point of having Phone link in the first place :-(

    As I mentioned above, since discovering that phone link doesn't transfer pictures properly, I'm looking for an alternative anyway. So far, MyPhoneExplorer seems the best for me (others will have different requirements) but it's far from ideal.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-08T00:26:33+00:00

    Ok the above didn't work but I did find a solution. I tried several things but nothing worked until this...

    In Setting->System->Notifications->Notifications from apps and other senders. Here you will see several notification for PhoneLink. Turn off any that look like Slack (via PhoneLink) or Calendar (via PhoneLink), Messages (via PhoneLink), etc. I had several of these and turned them all off.

    I did leave the default PhoneLink notification on. There was only one that didn't have the (via PhoneLink) appended to it.

    After monitoring my laptop going idle and screen turning off several times, the CPU now stays low and doesn't cause the fan to run while idle.

    Hope this helps.

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  3. 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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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-07T12:49:44+00:00

    It will only install from the MS Store and appears to only work on Win 11 - Fails on both counts :-(.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-06T14:48:10+00:00

    I use it with core i5 13600kf Gygabyte Aorus Elite z790 and OnePlus 10 Pro Android 13. Everything works fine: calls, gallery copy, notifications.

    Many people report that works with different Intel cpus and phones.

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