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cschmid10's profile

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Sunday, May 4th, 2014 3:32 AM

iPhone 5s using large amounts of data

So, I am new to at&t and ahve the iphone 5s.  I checked my data usuage and noticed some pretty large chunks of data being used at once. Even at times where I have been connected to wifi.  Below is one example. 55,077 KBs is an extremely large amount of data to have been used.  I have no idea were all my data is going.  Anyone have any solutions?

 

04/29/2014 12:00PM
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Internet/mobile data55077.0 KBs

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Master

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4.1K Messages

10 years ago


@cschmid10 wrote:

So, I am new to at&t and ahve the iphone 5s.  I checked my data usuage and noticed some pretty large chunks of data being used at once. Even at times where I have been connected to wifi.  Below is one example. 55,077 KBs is an extremely large amount of data to have been used.  I have no idea were all my data is going.  Anyone have any solutions?

 

04/29/2014 12:00PM
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Internet/mobile data55077.0 KBs

There are several things you need to make sure you understand here.  First off, just because you are in an area that has wifi doesn't mean that you iPhone will always use it.  Apple has configured the iOS (OS running on the iPhone) to turn off teh wifi radio if the device reaches a certain stage in the "sleep process".  The iPhone could still be transferring data (like streaming audio) but the OS running on it decides that it is time to turn off the wifi radio to save some battery life.

 

Next up is the way the data is reported to you from AT&T.  Since some data usage isn't "real time" (it can be delayed up to 3 days for domestic data, and longer for international).  Often when you see a large number like that on your statement/usage, what you are seeing is a roll-up of billing data from a couple sources (and time spans) all rolled into one billing line on your billing detail.

 

The last thing I will mention is that there are some services (Visual Voice Mail is one example) that require cellular data to work properly.  They will not work properly over wifi only, so even under "normal" circumstances, you might have some cellular data usage when you are on wifi. For this, it doesn't tend to be major amounts of data used, so this isn't likely the culprit in your situation, but it is worth mentioning.

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1 Message

10 years ago

I can hardly believe this issue has been marked "Closed" at that GeekBoy's post is labelled a "Solution". It's anything but, it's just a list of unhelpful excuses.

 

My son has had an iPhone 5 for a year now, and until this month it chugged along using an acceptable amount of data. This month, I bought an iPhone 5c for another son, adding a fifth line to our four line share plan. Previously we were always edging our 10G data plan limit and quite often going over (I use my BlackBerry Z10 - *awesome, underrated, problem-free phone* - everyday at work as a mobile hotspot, so I expect high data use). To support the new line, I upped our data plan to 20G just to be sure.

 

Then my first son's iPhone 5 went crazy. It was downloading 500MB per day all of a sudden, unbeknownst to anyone until shocking notifications came in that we're 75% into our data plan way, way ahead of expectations. This is quite unexpected since it's summer, he's out of school, and he's always home. He's the teenager you can't get to come out of his room! So our home WiFi is always available, and we made sure his phone was on that network. The phone says it is, but it seems to never use it.

 

We couldn't figure out what app (if any, could be a carrier update or an iOS update) was the culprit, so we took the phone into the Apple Store where they wiped it, reinstalled the OS, and we set it up with a fresh iTunes account. No dice. Last night it downloaded 500MB again.

 

I've found that Apple points the finger at AT&T on this one, and AT&T points the finger back at Apple. The recommended solution from both parties is this, "Time to upgrade that phone!" which is a non-solution.

 

By the way, this is the second time we've dealt with this problem. My wife's old iPhone 4 never, ever used a WiFi network as far as we could tell. Never once, despite multiple trips to the Apple Store and to AT&T. Her data use wasn't too bad however, so we just lived with it for two years until she became eligible for the iPhone 5s upgrade.

 

But seriously, half a gig per day? And both Apple and AT&T are unconcerned about understanding why? Offering only perfunctory customer support and making down issues as "Closed" and "Solved"?

 

Well whatever. But tonight I'm sure my son's phone will eat up another 500MB.

Tutor

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7 Messages

10 years ago

My son's iPhone 5s has been using over 1GB per day of cellular data while connected to Wifi the entire time. I've had no choice but to completely turn off cellular data on his phone. I've applied all the fixes recommended by people on all the forums, to no avail.

Tutor

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7 Messages

10 years ago

I have an appointment at the Genius bar in 20 minutes. We'll see what Apple has to say about it. I'll post here with the outcome.

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

Davidr1 - Did you ever get this problem taken care of?

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

7 years ago

@aromkee You responded to a post almost 3 years old. Unlikely the OP is around or has the same phone.

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