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robocuc2's profile

Tutor

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5 Messages

Monday, June 9th, 2014 6:20 AM

data usage enquiry

I have a new iPhone S5 after i I upgraded my old Blackberry through Next. I have a Mobile Share Value Plan 300MB and since I got the new iPhone last week, on the current data usage reports it shows data usage every 3 hours, even if I hadn't used the phone at all or if it was completely turned off. I went to the ATT store and they had no clue about this, so I called ATT tech support and I was told to do an update through iTunes which I did. But the issue still remained. Why does it show that I am constantly using internet/mobile data every three hours when I am not. And why does that even when the phone is turned off? The only way to stop that was to turn off the cellular data on my iPhone, which I did and then during that time it showed no usage of course. But if I keep turned on the cellular data on the iPhone and turn off all the apps, like Facebook myAT&T Twitter etc, I will still get some usage showing on the report even if that's much less than before. Can someone here please explain?  Thanks.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

10 years ago


@robocuc2 wrote:

I have a new iPhone S5 after i I upgraded my old Blackberry through Next. I have a Mobile Share Value Plan 300MB and since I got the new iPhone last week, on the current data usage reports it shows data usage every 3 hours, even if I hadn't used the phone at all or if it was completely turned off. I went to the ATT store and they had no clue about this, so I called ATT tech support and I was told to do an update through iTunes which I did. But the issue still remained. Why does it show that I am constantly using internet/mobile data every three hours when I am not. And why does that even when the phone is turned off? The only way to stop that was to turn off the cellular data on my iPhone, which I did and then during that time it showed no usage of course. But if I keep turned on the cellular data on the iPhone and turn off all the apps, like Facebook myAT&T Twitter etc, I will still get some usage showing on the report even if that's much less than before. Can someone here please explain?  Thanks.


You definitely should not be showing data usage when the phone is turned off but you also need to realize that the time shown on the usage report does not necessarily equate to when the data was actually transferred. The data usage report may also combine several data transfers into a single transfer. As to what might be using the data, it could be any app on your phone. One particular app, Visual Voice mail only works over cellular data and your phone will check for voice mail periodically meaning it will use some data even when you are on wifi. 

Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

I agree that the date usage showing on the report may not be real time and that certain apps like Visual Voice will constantly update with or without the cellular data turned on or off. But as you can see on this report of the last two days, the data usage is every 3 hours, especially when the iPhone is turned off at night while I am sleeping. At the moment I still have the cellular data turned on but I keep turned off all non systems apps like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp, Safari, etc. So, why with my old Blackberry I didn't have this issue even if before the mobile share value plan was different, of course. And what the ATT store told me a few days ago was that no matter if the iPhone is turned off or not, there will always be data usage if I don't log off completely form the app once I'm finished. Of course I did not believe that and ATT tech support said the ATT employees were incorrect.

So, what else can be done, other than for me to cancel my contract with ATT and choose another carrier?

 

Capture data usage.PNG

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Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

And this was when the cellular data was still turned on to all apps. Before I realized all this!Capture data usage 2.PNG

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Master

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4.1K Messages

10 years ago

Since you mention an iPhone, are you aware that there are several system utilities and/or settings which could cause you to be having data usage?  You might have "Background updates" enabled.  If you do, your iPhone will attempt to download some content for you in prediction that you will ask for it shortly after you start using your device.  If it does not predict this well, it could be downloading content you never see.

 

You might have "diagnostic data" enabled.  This is something that Apple uses to see error or performance issues that many people may be having.  By having it on, you may be helping the entire iPhone community by helping Apple to detect the cause of some issues, but it will use some of your data plan to send the data to Apple.

 

Do you use iCloud sync or backup?  If you do, there goes more of your data in the background.

 

One last thing that comes to me right off the top of my mind is location services.  If you have "Frequent Locations" on, that could be sending location update information across using your cellular data, as well as "Traffic" updates, "Popular Near Me" and "Location-Based iAds".  Any of these could be sending/receiving datain the background.

 

As for the "regular" 3 hour intervals, If I'm not mistaken, the Mobile Share data plans aggregate your data into 3 hour billing increments, so you may see large amounts of data used, then nothing for 3 hours, then another large sum of data.  This would just mean that your data usage for that 3 hour period was summarized into that one total number.  I like to use "Settings->General->Usage" to see which apps are using the most data since my last counter reset.  For me, it is most often YouTube, Safari, and Email.  No big surprise there.  If you look at your usage statistics, it may help you to determine what is using all of your data...

Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

Thanks for your detailed reply, GeekBoy.

I am aware of the utilities, settings, diagnostic data, frequent locations, etc, which may increase quite a bit my data usage, so I have decided to turn off completely the cellular data and go only with the WiFi, which I have here at home and at work and they both work great. I turned off the cellular data last night at about 09.00 pm (24 hrs ago) but it still shows some data usage . Now it shows I have 285 out of 300MB mobile share data plan, but when I turned off the cellular data I had used almost 230MB. Anyway, I want to see if the data usage will stop completely now that I turned off the cellular data. If not, I will close my account with AT&T and choose another carrier. And go back to my beloved Blackberry.

Guru

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450 Messages

10 years ago

Hi Robocuc2,

 

It should be noted that Blackberry also heavily compresses it data that streams to the device. This is part of the Blackberry Internet Service. It's not uncommon to see your data use go up switching from a Blackberry to an iPhone/Android or Windows Device. 


The visual voicemail feature on the iPhone (as well as most newer Android phones) uses small amounts of data during the day to check for new voicemail so this would account for your tiny data transactions you see on your account. 

 

Data calculation is on a delay for posting in the billing system of what you see, usually 12 to 16 hours which is why you would see data usage thoughout the day and at times when you say your data is shut off. It's when the system posts it, not necessary when the data was used. 

 

Hope this helps!

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

10 years ago


@robocuc2 wrote:

Thanks for your detailed reply, GeekBoy.

I am aware of the utilities, settings, diagnostic data, frequent locations, etc, which may increase quite a bit my data usage, so I have decided to turn off completely the cellular data and go only with the WiFi, which I have here at home and at work and they both work great. I turned off the cellular data last night at about 09.00 pm (24 hrs ago) but it still shows some data usage . Now it shows I have 285 out of 300MB mobile share data plan, but when I turned off the cellular data I had used almost 230MB. Anyway, I want to see if the data usage will stop completely now that I turned off the cellular data. If not, I will close my account with AT&T and choose another carrier. And go back to my beloved Blackberry.


So in your previous post where you said data was being used when the "iPhone is turned off at night", I suspect you did not actually have the iPhone powered off but it was in sleep mode. Be advised that even when at home and on wifi, the iPhone will turn the wifi radio off when sleeping and any background data transfers will revert to cellular data. Turning cellular data off will stop this.

Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

My iPhone was completely turned off at night. Even now that the cellular data was turned off since last night I am still getting data usage. Not much but now I only have 7MB left out my 300MB and I really don't think that a few text messages (not visual voicemail, iMessage, pictures, videos, etc) I sent today could affect the internet data usage. Just now I turned off the wireless data usage from my ATT account online and next  month I'll change carrier and phone.

Contributor

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1 Message

9 years ago

I have exactly the same problem. We have 2 androids (Samsung) and 2 iPhones on our plan. All phones do this update every 3 hours. Both of the androids are set to only update apps when connected to wifi, but it still does it. I called AT&T support and they had me turn off auto-updates from the Google Play app. I did that, plus left wifi off, and it still happens!

 

This is extremely frustrating, and even fraudelant that AT&T cannot tell me what is going on.

 

Any ideas would be helpful - short of changing carriers 😕

Scholar

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151 Messages

9 years ago

Switching to a BlackBerry 10 device, either a Z30 or a Z10 which are all-touch screen devices.  When I switched from my LG Optimus Pro to (first a Blackberry Bold and later a BlackBerry Z10)  I have never seen a problem with excessive data usage.  You won't find them thru ATnT though, but they did sell the Z10 for a little while, Z30 is a little bigger but has way better battery life. 

 

The LG phone was loaded with unwanted apps that used data and updated themselves and I had no control over them.  BlackBerries now can load android apps if you want them, and you give the app the permission it asks for or the app just won't work.  But at least you get to decide and you know exactly which apps are doing what and you are the boss and can uninstall what you want to.

 

The new Blackberry Passport is supposedly going to be offered through ATnT.  It's kinda big, and has a keyboard, apple and android people may prefer to stick with the touch screen Z30 or Z10 if considering trying a BlackBerry.  

 

I am so glad I don't have these weird problems I used to have using android.  It made me hate having a cellphone.  I pay plenty for my data plan, but it's me using my data, if the phone is just sitting there being a phone, NO DATA GETS USED.  Sweet.

 

 

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