Tutor
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3 Messages
iPhone 5S uses cellular data even when connected to WiFi
Hi,
I switched to AT&T Mobile Share plan on 10/19/2013 with 3 lines on my account (2 iPhone 5S and 1 iPhone 5).
I've never been more concerned about my cellular data usage until I gave up my Sprint unlimited data plan. I have reason to believe that I there are cellular data usage on my iPhone 5S during the block of hours that I am definitely certain that my phone is connected to home wifi.
Below are some of the "weird" Internet/mobile web usage:
This is an 8-hour block of time when the phone was technically sleeping BUT most definitely connected to wifi
10/21/2013 08:48AM Internet/mobile web 15.0 KBs
10/21/2013 07:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 06:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 05:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 04:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 03:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 02:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/21/2013 01:48AM Internet/mobile web 2.0 KBs
10/21/2013 12:48AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
This is again a huge block of time that I am sleeping and my phone doesn't have any push notifications activated. Most definitely, the phone is connected over wifi as we never switch off our home wifi
10/22/2013 09:03AM Internet/mobile web 118.0 KBs
10/22/2013 07:03AM Internet/mobile web 2.0 KBs
10/22/2013 06:03AM Internet/mobile web 8.0 KBs
10/22/2013 05:03AM Internet/mobile web 2.0 KBs
10/22/2013 03:03AM Internet/mobile web 3.0 KBs
10/22/2013 02:03AM Internet/mobile web 2.0 KBs
10/22/2013 01:03AM Internet/mobile web 2.0 KBs
10/22/2013 12:03AM Internet/mobile web 4.0 KBs
10/22/2013 12:03AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
Last night, I was at home at 7:00PM and connected to wifi immediately. But then there are still cellular data usage:
10/22/2013 10:39PM Internet/mobile web 5.0 KBs
10/22/2013 08:39PM Internet/mobile web 3.0 KBs
10/22/2013 07:39PM Internet/mobile web 12.0 KBs
I switched my phone off on 10/23/2013 between 12midnight and 7:00AM to see if there would be any difference on the data usage. Notice that there were no usage for 7 hours.
This is just several hours ago while I am at home and connected to wifi.
10/23/2013 09:34AM Internet/mobile web 15.0 KBs
10/23/2013 08:34AM Internet/mobile web 1.0 KBs
10/23/2013 07:34AM Internet/mobile web 10.0 KBs
Below is an excerpt from my online chat with AT&T representative today when I inquired about these usage
Jen: It is not always recorded in "real time"; that is, our system does a sweep at certain times of the day/evening, so that is why you may see times when you know you did not use data, but it was recorded by the system at that time. Generally it is about a 24-hour delay, but can take up to 2-5 days as well.
Me: these are all the times that the phone is at home connected to wifi... and i am sleeping
Jen: These are just the times of the day/evening that the usage charges are actually being recorded by our system, not the actual time that you used the data. Because it is delayed usage, it will/may not show the real time usage.
Me: how do you explain that today 10/23/2013 i have not left the house.. and connected to wifi. but there are still cellular data usage? what i'm saying is: i am being charge for cellular usage when my phone is connected to wifi
Jen: Well, because the system does not record in real time, so that is past usage.
Unfortunately, I do not have any way to see which data session this was for as well. You can always turn off your cellular data when you are connected to wifi just to make sure. You will still be able to make/receive calls and send/receive texts.
I am posting the issue in this forum because I'm very concerned with these small KBs of cellular data usage. These could add up every day and eventually cause overage. Again, I have 3 iPhones in my account which I haven't reviewed thoroughly yet but have the same issues.
The solution (switch off cellular when you are connected to wifi) doesn't seem to be a solid fix. I am hoping there's a better fix.
is it IOS 7 that is causing these data usage or is this an AT&T billing error?
what if I'm streaming music via iTunes Radio over wifi then suddenly the phone decides to use Cellular Data instead?
TomW001
Contributor
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2 Messages
10 years ago
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TomW001
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2 Messages
10 years ago
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LouiseNJ
Contributor
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3 Messages
10 years ago
Just Discover this has been happening to our 4 -IPhones for years
We just took our son's phone off our family plan and he started his own plan with the purchase of the Iphone 6. Already up to his 1 g of data in 11 days!
That is when I started to look at his usage and discovered when he was home on our Wifi he was being charged usage by ATT.
Then I looked at our family plan (we have 10g so never an issue) and the three remaining Iphones all were charged when I know for sure we were home using Wifi.
The only phone NEVER using data (was the family joke every month) was my husbands blackberry!
Went to ATT - no resolve. SO I was starting a log with my phone to fight the big corp world of ATT and I found this forum.
I know (as my husband told the ATT guy) I could not be the only one having this issue.
But where do we go from here???? Reading on this forum it seems that neither Apple or Att will take responiblity.
Any ideas out there?
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jane697
Scholar
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397 Messages
10 years ago
I'm not 100% sure if the following is an iOS 8-only feature but since your son is using an iPhone 6 it's sort of a moot point--anyways you may be able to see which app(s) or feature on his phone are consuming all that data by going into Settings -> Cellular, then scroll down to the "Use Cellular Data" section to see how much cellular data any of the apps listed for which the toggle is turned on "green" have consumed; you can also tap "System Services" near the bottom of that screen to see if the data hog may show up in there as well. If you believe the issue is still occurring, you should first reset the statistics ("Reset Statistics" at the bottom of the "Cellular" settings screen) so that you'll have a fresh start as to what apps/features may be the culprit.
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LouiseNJ
Contributor
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3 Messages
10 years ago
Will do as you suggested! How about my Iphone 4?
I was home all day yesterday using my wifi but still have charges against my data. I just turned off cellular to see if today will be different.
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jane697
Scholar
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397 Messages
10 years ago
Assuming that the the steps I mentioned in my previous post are iOS 8-specific, it won't work for an iPhone 4 since it cannot be updated to iOS 8.x; I think there are a few iTunes Store apps out there that can keep track of how much cellular data is being used and by what--I can't remember the name though...sorry!
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mig828
Contributor
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3 Messages
10 years ago
I am having the same problem and none of this starting happening until I switched from unlimited data to a a 2g plan.
So what is being done to solve the problem. I can't afford this!
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cathyfitzgerald
Tutor
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6 Messages
10 years ago
We are having the same problems with our iphone 5 phones....if AT&T wants to continue to say it's NOT their problem, then maybe we all switch to one of their competitors! Then we will see who's problem is is. It's their service interacting with the iphones that is causing these extreme data charges, so it is their problem whether they want to admit it or not! We are now looking into other plans with other carriers for the same reasons -- no one knows why this is happening or how to fix it!
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GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
10 years ago
These problems are not happening for all customers, so it is something that appears to be phone specific. I have had iPhones on the AT&T network for many years, and I moved from unlimited to metered data some time ago. I did not see any change in my data usage patterns when I made the switch, and the only changes I've seen in my data usage patterns can be traced to specific app updates which changed the way those apps used data, or changed the way I use the apps causing them to use more data.
Many customers who moved from unlimited data to metered data also replaced their at the same time, and they post in these forums "nothing's changed". Well, I hate to say it, but getting a new phone does change things. Even just updating the iOS on your existing phone changes the way it acts. We aren't even touching on the fact that many apps updated in the past several months which caused them to start sucking down more data on your cell phone. One of the biggest offenders of iPhone data "bloat" is Facebook. They made changes to their app to download more data in the background, they started automaticly playing videos when you scrolled over them, which would suck up lots of your data plan, they did all of this in order to make their app seem "better" to you, all at a hidden cost to you that they would also silently us your cellular data plan, and maybe cost you more money.
If you have "proof" that AT&T is doing all of this intentionally, I bet there are many people who would love to talk to you, and you could make a decent profit from that "proof". For some reason, I suspect that you only suspect this, because the changes happened about the same time that you switched from unlimited to metered data. If you look closely enough, I bet you can find the causes of your change in data consumption, and you will probably also find that they are not due to AT&T "cheating you".
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dsyonan
Contributor
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1 Message
9 years ago
I have just discovered this same problem with one of my phones. It is a Galaxy Mega. The same type of charges are appearing al through Oct.. AT&T is no help for this. They say they can't tell me even what the int/MD means due to privacy issues. That's very frustrating when we are getting charged for data usage and we don't know what it is from. One person at AT&T suggested I download an app called onavo and that it would tell me exactly what was causing the charges. I have not done this yet but am going to very soon. I am on the mobile share plan and we are sharing 1 GB of data.
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