Insane data usage with the new iPhone 4s

[beef dip]

Im having the same problem. My 4s sent out over 1gb the other night as I was sleeping. If you find a solution please let me know. Im at 4GB in the 10 days I have the phone!

[Kajphotos]

You have to get on the phone with AT&T and don't take no fo a answer ..they will try to tell you that your using the data ask for a superviseer and get on the phone with apple . Stay on top of it their is really nothing you can do on yourend but just make sure you have all of the apps and notifications shut off and push email shut off to manual and Diable icloud keep us posted and don't let anyone on this forum talk to you like your dumb because you will get those who think they are wizards and know it all ...

[aymee]

http://forums.att.com/t5/Apple-iPhone/iPhone-4s-excessive-cellular-data-usage/m-p/2960357#M182582

Yes, there's really an issue but no one has taken ownership.  I called AT&T billing after chatting twice with Tech support who didn't acknowledge that there's a problem.  They credited my account for the additional data charge since I went over my 200MB; however, until they fixed the problem, we'll keep on getting these "insane data usage" that we never used.  I turned off cellular data and I'll wait for my next bill cycle date before I turn it on again (AND monitor usage multiple times a day).  I don't feel the effect of not having cell data since I always use Wi-Fi.  It's another proof that I am consistent with the way I use my phone.  I didn't make any changes but upgraded to iOS 5 -- and problem started!

[Kajphotos]

what ever you do stay ontop of it ..because no one want to own this problem ..apple says its att ..i spoke with like 10 differnt att techs some said that thats the first time that they here of it and the outhers say your not the only one this is happing too .. and apple told me straight att is haveing a problem with ios5 and the way it is reporting data .. and the sad thing is att looks at these fourms ant wont do much about it ....time for me to switch to sprint or verizion after 9 yrs with att ... also call apple and tell them

[coolguy2860]

ATTENTION PLEASE READ:

INSANE DATA USAGE PROBLEMS FIX

DELETE / SIGN OFF from iCLOUD on your iPhones. Seems there is a bug in the iCloud which keeps sending and receiving data on the 3G cellular connection. Also follow these steps as well it has worked for me and I just recieved my iPhone.

Disable Siri, All notifications, Location Services and while on location services disable system services...Turn off fetch new data... in mail, contacts, calendar section, turn off iMessage, Turn off store <- MAKE SURE YOU DO ALL OF THESE TO MAKE IT WORK AND ALSO DELETE RUNNING APPS WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING THEM. KEEP THIS UP UNTIL THERE IS AN UPDATE!

[CornFed07]

how do i monitor my data usage

[coolguy2860]

Settings -> General -> Usage -> Cellular Usage

[dwill05]

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coolguy2860 wrote:

ATTENTION PLEASE READ:

INSANE DATA USAGE PROBLEMS FIX

DELETE / SIGN OFF from iCLOUD on your iPhones. Seems there is a bug in the iCloud which keeps sending and receiving data on the 3G cellular connection. Also follow these steps as well it has worked for me and I just recieved my iPhone.

Disable Siri, All notifications, Location Services and while on location services disable system services...Turn off fetch new data... in mail, contacts, calendar section, turn off iMessage, Turn off store <- MAKE SURE YOU DO ALL OF THESE TO MAKE IT WORK AND ALSO DELETE RUNNING APPS WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING THEM. KEEP THIS UP UNTIL THERE IS AN UPDATE!

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I reset my cell data usage counter on the phone last night and used 15KB sent and 21KB (yes, kilobytes) received.  I have iCloud on, although only a few features like Find My iPhone, and iCloud Backup is off.  Siri is on, but hold to face is off.  Location services are on, including system services.  Fetch mail is set to manual.  wifi and BT are set on, and I always make sure to turn off running apps when I'm done.

I'm on Day 4 of my billing cycle and have used a total of just over 100MB, which puts me on track for ~1GB for the month, which is similar to my iPhone 4 usage.

[brum]

iPhone 4 with os5.01

everything possible turned off including icloud except find my phone which only works now via icloud.  

 wifi only at night, no 3g, yet 8MB and more data gets charged  after midnight  .ATT credited my account this month but said I would have to call again if it continued. It is continuing and I dont understand what to do to stop it.

[Ryan_ATL]

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brum wrote:

iPhone 4 with os5.01

 wifi only at night, no 3g

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Unless Cellular Data is turned off in Settings > General > Network it's impossible to say "no cellular data".  When the device goes to sleep, Wi-Fi is turned off.

Another point, 3G is NOT data... it is simply the network the device is connected to.  The device is perfectly capable of and will use data on the EDGE and GPRS networks.

[sandblaster]

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brum wrote:

iPhone 4 with os5.01

everything possible turned off including icloud except find my phone which only works now via icloud.  

 wifi only at night, no 3g, yet 8MB and more data gets charged  after midnight  .ATT credited my account this month but said I would have to call again if it continued. It is continuing and I dont understand what to do to stop it.

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The times on your bill do not necessarily equate to when the data was actually used on your phone. Those data charges you see after midnight could be an aggregation of many separate data transfers done at various times.

[brainwaver]

I upgraded from the 4 to the 4s and I have NOT had any unusual spike in data. My current full monthly bill (without any pro-rated costs) showed I used maybe 75mb more of data than before. But I was out of town one weekend with no free wifi at the hotel and I've played with Siri quite a lot. What some people are seeing has to be individualized and not across the board with the phone.  

[mal12561]

Interesting you say the times on the AT&T web site for usage are not when the data was actually transferred. That's not what the answer was I was just given 10 minutes ago from the AT&T corporate Help Desk. She also said she's not heard of this other than folks having apps still running on their iPhone. I said even so my son's attached to the WiFi at midnight and in the morning hours why am I being charged...

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[brum]

I understand that you say that the times are not actual use times yet I get multiple times listed on each date. Nevertheless I am not using that data.

[brum]

this is a new problem since i upgraded to os5.

[brum]

I didnt have the problem until recently so do be too smug

[21stNow]

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brum wrote:

I didnt have the problem until recently so do be too smug

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FYI, unless you quote the post that you are replying to in your response, the other forum members don't know who you are responding to. 

Is it possible that your settings changed when you updated to iOS5, and your mobile network is enabled?  A previous poster was correct in that the iPhone will revert back to the cellular network after the iPhone is in the sleep state for a short period of time.

[mal12561]

21stNow wrote

Re:  ...A previous poster was correct in that the iPhone will revert back to the cellular network after the iPhone is in the sleep state for a short period of time.

So the iPhone will revert back to the cellular network if it is in sleep mode? Where might this be documented. Certainly seems like a "feature" to force users off their WiFi connections at night and use up their data plans... I mean how many people come home from work, then the phone connects to their home's WiFi, do nothing on the phone, pick it up in the morning and go off to work? If the iPhone jumps off the WiFi connection and starts burning up their data plan that's just not right...  

[dwill05]

The phone shuts off the WiFi radio when it goes to sleep to save battery life, not to rack up data charges. It's been going on for quite a while, maybe always, and definitely even during the time of unlimited data. If you want to stop if from dropping the Wifi, leave it on a charger. As long as it's getting external power, it will stay on WiFi, even when asleep.

Unfortunately, it's not really documented anywhere that I know of.

[21stNow]

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mal12561 wrote:

21stNow wrote

Re:  ...A previous poster was correct in that the iPhone will revert back to the cellular network after the iPhone is in the sleep state for a short period of time.

So the iPhone will revert back to the cellular network if it is in sleep mode? Where might this be documented. Certainly seems like a "feature" to force users off their WiFi connections at night and use up their data plans... I mean how many people come home from work, then the phone connects to their home's WiFi, do nothing on the phone, pick it up in the morning and go off to work? If the iPhone jumps off the WiFi connection and starts burning up their data plan that's just not right...  

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I don't know of anywhere that this is documented; I've heard it from other users and have noticed it myself.  Put your iPhone to sleep.  Wait for at least 15 minutes and press the sleep/wake button while looking at the notification area of your screen.  You will notice that the 3G icon is there for some milliseconds before the Wi-fi icon comes back.

[Kajphotos]

listen to what your saying ??? we never had this problem untill ios 5 came along ... if we have to shut the whole phone off then we shuld all walk around with ipod touch's..i have delt with this for some time now ..and yes att will say they havent heard of this but its a bunch of bull ...as i spoke with aplle they told me that att is haveing a problem with ios5 and the way it was reporting data ...

[dwill05]

If this is a problem with iOS 5, then why doesn't everyone have it? I got my 4S on 11/10 about the time my billing cycle started. So far I've used a little over 200 MB in 8 days, which is quite normal. Before that, I was using my 4, and I upgraded it's iOS to 5.0 as soon as it came out, around 10/13 I think. So, almost all of my last billing cycle was on a phone using iOS 5, and my data was again normal and in line with what I had been getting with my 4 in the 15+ months that I had it.

Who's to say Apple isn't just passing the buck when they say it's AT&T's problem? They are loath to admit there is anything wrong with any of their stuff. I doubt AT&T did anything to change their servers from what they were before iOS 5 came out, so if it's a problem with iOS5 and AT&T's servers, it's that a problem for Apple? Apple changed their software, AT&T didn't change their servers, so why should AT&T be expected to change their servers just for one phone's particular operating system. Seems like the phone makers should make their software compatible with the carrier's equipment, not he other way around.

[brainwaver]

We have two iPhones (4 & 4s) running iOS5 and there has been absolutely NO change in our data usages!! If it was a problem in iOS5 then it would affect everyone using the new software. Not happening!

[tonester]

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dwill05 wrote:
The phone shuts off the WiFi radio when it goes to sleep to save battery life, not to rack up data charges. It's been going on for quite a while, maybe always, and definitely even during the time of unlimited data. If you want to stop if from dropping the Wifi, leave it on a charger. As long as it's getting external power, it will stay on WiFi, even when asleep.

Unfortunately, it's not really documented anywhere that I know of.

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Slightly off-topic on my part, but...is power consumption of data being streamed over 3G significantly greater than over WiFi?  I would venture to guess that 3G uses quite a bit of power consumption as well--otherwise there wouldn't be an iOS option that allows you to turn on/off 3G--heck, there is a disclaimer right below the setting that pretty much implies that enabling 3G may decrease battery life...thus implying that power consumption over 3G isn't insignificant by any means.

I reckon there must be some valid reason why Apple decided to make the WiFi radio go to sleep if inactive and the device is not connected to an external power source, but at the same time I would think that it may not be too much to consider providing an option setting to allow users to override it; I mean, the option to enable 3G is already (and still) there...and quite frankly, how many of you folks even use that option (to turn off 3G) at all?

[Ryan_ATL]

The issue is not that the device uses more power sending/receiving data over Wi-FI compaired to 3G or the cellular network in general.  iOS is designed to power down the Wi-Fi radio when it goes to sleep to simply save power.  If there is something using Wi-Fi, like a streaming audio app (Pandora for instance) then Wi-Fi stays active... otherwise it shuts down.

Having the cellular radio and Wi-Fi will certainly shorten battery life, Apple is simply trying to squeeze every possible minute of battery life out of the device they can.

[brum]

more investigation on the ATT website shows that in my cas the mystery data I'm being charged for is all sent data, not recieved. Now way in the world I could send 17MB of data in one day since I rarely send pix.

[tonester]

You folks who keep parrotting about how it's probably not the iOS because it hasn't affected everybody (or alternately, the "It can't/must not be an issue because I'm not seeing it on my end" analysis) crack me up--I can't wait for you guys to have some sort of problem that you are certain is not an end-user issue, so that when everybody else says that they're not having that same problem, you'll have to admit that it must be something you're doing wrong.

Heck--remember Antennagate?  I sure many of you had offered that you couldn't understand why people were making a big deal over it because your iPhone 4 reception was perfectly fine--thus implying that no problem specific to the iPhone 4 had existed at all...yet you probably had no problem taking advantage of the free bumpers Apple was giving away solely in order to placate iPhone 4 customers.  I'd be willing to bet that there are more than a few folks out there--including some here in this forum--who announced that they had no reception problems with their iPhone 4, yet took Apple up on their free bumper offer; I'd love to hear how those folks could justify asking for a free bumper which was being offered solely because of the Antennagate issue.

[tonester]

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Ryan_ATL wrote:

The issue is not that the device uses more power sending/receiving data over Wi-FI compaired to 3G or the cellular network in general.  iOS is designed to power down the Wi-Fi radio when it goes to sleep to simply save power.  If there is something using Wi-Fi, like a streaming audio app (Pandora for instance) then Wi-Fi stays active... otherwise it shuts down.

Having the cellular radio and Wi-Fi will certainly shorten battery life, Apple is simply trying to squeeze every possible minute of battery life out of the device they can.

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Strictly speaking from a logical standpoint--given the stuff you said (that I highlighted in bold), wouldn't it make sense to power down the 3G radio in order to save even more battery life?  I mean, if you're gonna offer that Apple is simply "trying to squeeze every possible minute of battery life out of the device they can"...then why just stop at making the WiFi radio go to sleep?  I can't think of any reason why the 3G radio needs to remain on if there's no data going through it either...no?  I mean, 3G is not necessary for making/receiving voice calls or SMS--and technically, it's even not absolutely necessary for data in general since data can be streamed over EDGE--so what's the point of not allowing the 3G radio to power down and go to sleep when it's not in use as well (if the device isn't connected to an external power source)?

[dwill05]

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brum wrote:

more investigation on the ATT website shows that in my cas the mystery data I'm being charged for is all sent data, not recieved. Now way in the world I could send 17MB of data in one day since I rarely send pix.

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I don't think I've ever seen "received" listed for data (only for texts).  I think AT&T simply lists all data used as "sent" whether it's up or down.

Also, I suspect that the 3G radio in the phone is always on, unless you specifically turn off 3G data.  When it goes to sleep, it turns off the WiFi radio so you don't have both radios running, not because the WiFi radio uses more power than the 3G radio.

[lettersoup]

Are people in the Verizon universe reporting these problems?  If not, it would point to an AT&T issue... rather than to an iPhone one.  Also, why is that the cellular usage on the phones themslves reveal no problems, ie. no unusual data usage. That is my case anyway...