Re: Phantom Data Usage? Riddle me this, AT&T....

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

swoosh7777 wrote:
Ok below are the usage for my 2 phones last night. The first one is from the time I restored it and has no apps. Second one is with apps. I did not use the phones yesterday in 3G and left them on my table overnight.

Restored & no apps:

07/10    03:03 AM    phone     Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    02:43 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    02:23 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    02:04 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    02:04 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    01:31 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    12:40 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    12:13 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    10:12 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:52 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    09:13 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    07:17 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    19KB

Restored & with apps.

07/10    03:25 AM    phone Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    03:05 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/10    02:28 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    02:08 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:58 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    01:57 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:38 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:00 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:40 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:30 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    12:30 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:10 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    11:33 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    11:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    11:03 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:42 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:23 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    10:05 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:55 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:35 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB
07/09    09:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    08:58 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    07:18 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    18KB
07/09    07:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    06:59 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB
07/09    06:24 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    06:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB

So basicly you are proving that one or more of the 3rd party apps installed is responsible for the data transfer. Which is what I am seeing on 32 gb 3GS with OS4 installed that is restored to factory defaults.

statistcis where reset on 0630/10 @ 2:32PM

Cellular data Network

Sent 172KB

Recieved 548KB

over a 10 day period. Phone has not been touched and has been sitting on the charging cable for the entire time

swoosh7777 · ‎07-09-2010

Actually these are 2 phones. So what I'm seeing is that with or without apps still transferring data.

PHONE #1 --- Restored & no apps:

07/10    03:03 AM    phone     Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    02:43 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    02:23 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    02:04 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    02:04 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    01:31 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    12:40 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/10    12:13 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    10:12 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:52 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    09:13 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    7KB
07/09    07:17 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    19KB

PHONE #2 --- Restored & with apps.

07/10    03:25 AM    phone Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    03:05 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/10    02:28 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    02:08 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:58 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    01:57 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:38 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    01:00 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:40 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:30 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    1KB
07/10    12:30 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/10    12:10 AM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    11:33 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    11:32 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    11:03 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:42 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    10:23 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    10:05 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:55 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    09:35 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB
07/09    09:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    08:58 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    07:18 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    18KB
07/09    07:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    10KB
07/09    06:59 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB
07/09    06:24 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    8KB
07/09    06:16 PM    phone    Internet/MEdia Net    Sent    9KB

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

The small chunks of data look like something updating in the background - email maybe? I thought people were more concerned with the hundreds of MB at 2-3am transfer thing.

swoosh7777 · ‎07-09-2010

Not using any email or location services, no apps running in background either. Yes, some as I have read have been seeing big chunks, mine my not be that big but it's constant throughout the day. That adds up over a bill cycle especially if we are on the 200MB plan....

mdifilm · ‎06-13-2007

so I think the data usage report isn't accurate and it combines many usage during the day into a lum sum. On July 8th, I was browsing all day and on the usage report, it only showed 4 listing, 2am, 4am, and the last one was at 5pm, there weren't anything afteward until next day at 2am, so during that time period, I knew I was checking email and browsing the net, and perhaps what it did it totaled all and display it at one time period.

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

I would agree there is some aggregation going on.

For me, so far on day 2.5 of owership. Mostly on WiFi (its there at work & home and the beautiful thing runs all day with wifi+bt+3g if it needs it on... so why not) but my normal just use it approach is burning about a MB/day. Should be fine for the 2GB total.

iFrosty · ‎07-20-2009

when you restore, does the phone have the native apps (email, phone, etc) running?
i know when i ran a restore on my friends 3gs it had the native apps running in the background automatically

Tru_Warrior · ‎09-01-2007

So people did disabling the diagnostic data to the trick for anyone?

tinagallo379 · ‎08-22-2008

nope, not for my husband. i did the disable thing and last night at 2:44am he still used about 100kbs. so i dont know.

iFrosty · ‎07-20-2009

i think the small bits of data that are being sent and recieved are from the iphone itself
meaning its sending data and recieving data to see if it CAN
kinda like a ping test
thats how the phone determines its signal and 3g/edge
I could be wrong but that might be whats going on ?

lamar5559 · ‎07-10-2010

Im also having the problem. I currently have a 3G with ios 4 [waiting on my iphone 4]

Connected to wi-fi. 3G is on. No push notifications, no apps running.

in 2 minutes. My data sent usage went from 0 to 3. Received data went from 0 to 1 kb.

No MS Exchange email.

Its not causing a HUGE problem, i have the 2GB a month data plan, and at this rate, its not gonna go over.

I just hope Apple releases a firmware update fixing this problem SOON.

mdifilm · ‎06-13-2007

regarding the phantom data usage, I just double check my usage report, it's definetely confirmed in my case, that my 2AMish is the total lum sum usage from within the past 24 hours, so instead of it's showing by the minute/hour, it is showing the total usage within the past 24 hours time slot. So I am not surprised anymore. (this is after paying attention for the past 4 days on my usage report).

suzeq71 · ‎01-15-2009

All I can say is WOW. Actually, I can say more than that:

I came across this thread while doing research about the new data plan. dh and I each have iPhones (3GS) with unlimited data. I had no idea AT&T was doing away with this plan, but had I known I would have signed up two more iPhones to be grandfathered in for my kids. So now that I want to add a data plan for my son, I'm stuck with limited data. The cheaper rate is great, but I don't want to have to keep tabs on how much data is used. I don't want to turn "cellular data off" because I want him to be able to use the data plan I'm paying for. Anyhow, in my attempt to decide what to do, I came across this thread about phantom data usage. I CANNOT believe the phantom data usage I see on my bill. Every night around 2am (when I know the entire house is asleep and no one is using my phone) I see various amounts of KB's transferred. I added up these overnight amounts from my monthly bill and they totaled about 55,000 KB. That's around 55 MB, which is 1/4 of the allowed 200 MB on the basic plan! Same goes for dh's phone. No email push, no apps running, and the month I looked at is BEFORE iOS4. So if I want a data plan for my son, not only do I have to worry about keeping track of his usage, I have to keep track of AT&T's phantom data as well? I have been with AT&T for over 10 years (pre-AT&T to Cingular back to AT&T merge) and I am officially disgusted about what they are doing here.

I read the NY Times article someone linked where AT&T claims this overnight data is random updates and such, and that customers aren't charged. Really? Says who? Why is it on my bill, then? I know I'm not charged because I'm on an unlimited data plan. What happens when I add a plan for my son that's not unlimited? How do I know what I'm being charged for or not being charged for? I don't buy it.

What happens now?

hikergirl · ‎07-09-2010

when you are at home turn off the 3G. Completely. Can you do that without a JB? I don't know b/c I have an itouch.

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

suzeq71 wrote:
All I can say is WOW. Actually, I can say more than that:

I came across this thread while doing research about the new data plan. dh and I each have iPhones (3GS) with unlimited data. I had no idea AT&T was doing away with this plan, but had I known I would have signed up two more iPhones to be grandfathered in for my kids. So now that I want to add a data plan for my son, I'm stuck with limited data. The cheaper rate is great, but I don't want to have to keep tabs on how much data is used. I don't want to turn "cellular data off" because I want him to be able to use the data plan I'm paying for. Anyhow, in my attempt to decide what to do, I came across this thread about phantom data usage. I CANNOT believe the phantom data usage I see on my bill. Every night around 2am (when I know the entire house is asleep and no one is using my phone) I see various amounts of KB's transferred. I added up these overnight amounts from my monthly bill and they totaled about 55,000 KB. That's around 55 MB, which is 1/4 of the allowed 200 MB on the basic plan! Same goes for dh's phone. No email push, no apps running, and the month I looked at is BEFORE iOS4. So if I want a data plan for my son, not only do I have to worry about keeping track of his usage, I have to keep track of AT&T's phantom data as well? I have been with AT&T for over 10 years (pre-AT&T to Cingular back to AT&T merge) and I am officially disgusted about what they are doing here.

I read the NY Times article someone linked where AT&T claims this overnight data is random updates and such, and that customers aren't charged. Really? Says who? Why is it on my bill, then? I know I'm not charged because I'm on an unlimited data plan. What happens when I add a plan for my son that's not unlimited? How do I know what I'm being charged for or not being charged for? I don't buy it.

What happens now?

Being listed on the bill and actually being charged for it are two completely different things.

Intersting on the data use, as a experiment I updated a spare 3gsto OS 4.0, absolutley no 3rd party apps and let it sit.

Last Reset 06/30/10 2:32 PM

Sent 320KB

Recieved 1.3MB

that 16 days after the phone's reset back to factory defaults. For the last few days the phone has been used for texting, and for voice calls, but still is completely factory reset, no data usage outside of texting

fabriceg · ‎06-06-2010

Does anyone with the 4.0.1 update still experience the weird data usage?

the gryphon · ‎07-06-2010

I'm sure I still do. I'm sure it's just a nightly updating of data use for some apps.

taft52 · ‎07-15-2010

It is happening on my wife's Palm Pixi as well, with no apps running that would need updates. Something fishy is going on. I had a CSR open a ticket today to see what's going on.

satchev · ‎07-31-2007

Okay, so how many of you conspiracy theorists have actually looked at your bill?

This "phantom" data usage that you're complaining about, is it the ONLY data listed for that day on your bill? If it is, then it is simply the daily total of data being used by the device tallied up at one point in the day.

If you are legitimately seeing data charges throughout the day on your bill AND a lump sum data over night when the device is not in use, then YES you have a problem.

sandblaster · ‎08-15-2006

satchev wrote:
If you are legitimately seeing data charges throughout the day on your bill AND a lump sum data over night when the device is not in use, then YES you have a problem.

I don't agree. We don't know exactly how or when AT&T's billing system calculates or compiles data usage. Looking at my own bill back several months, I've seen a mix of data charges throughout the day and lump sum data over night. However, the data totals always match what the phone reports. In my opinion, you've only got a problem if your phone totals don't match the bill.

stephend7 · ‎07-01-2010

Well, I'm bummed. I thought I had my data usage figured out as you can see in a previous post of mine a few days ago in this thread. Email was claiming to use 3mb of data instantly when it downloaded at least one message of any size. I fixed that problem and for a couple of days it used a more reasonable amount of data.

yesterday I was on the road, most of the time with poor to no service. I turned off data most of the time to save battery. As is my habit now I checked usage and found that when I fired up google maps it instantly used 4mb of data. Now I expect navigation to use some data, but I didn't use it to navigate real time, I just checked the maps and turned it off. Actually quit the program.

Since the 15th when my bill reset I've used over 44mb of data according to my iphone. ATT.com hasn't caught up yet, but I'm sure it will. At this rate the 2gb plan wouldn't be enough.

Since I used my blackberry much less carefully than I do my iPhone, and racked up all of 30mb to 40mb a month doing the same things (Email with a little navigation), I would think that at most, I'd use 2 or 3 times the data on the iphone. I love solving problems, but this is getting me frustrated.

Stephen

suzeq71 · ‎01-15-2009

satchev wrote:
Okay, so how many of you conspiracy theorists have actually looked at your bill?

This "phantom" data usage that you're complaining about, is it the ONLY data listed for that day on your bill? If it is, then it is simply the daily total of data being used by the device tallied up at one point in the day.

If you are legitimately seeing data charges throughout the day on your bill AND a lump sum data over night when the device is not in use, then YES you have a problem.

Um, I'm not a "conspiracy theorist", and I resent the implication. What I AM is someone who wants to know what I'm paying for. I want to pay for what I get, and get what I pay for. I am more than capable of reading my bill, and of understanding my bill, as I'm sure most of the people here are. So to answer your question, I HAVE actually looked at my bill--I refer to this in my post where I've said "I can't believe the phantom data usage I SEE ON MY BILL". Have you actually read the posts on this thread? And yes, my bill contains several separate line items for data charges on the same day, including a separate line item for the lump sum data overnight. So as you say, YES, I have a problem.

Don't be so quick to judge, and please read before commenting.

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

stephend7 wrote:

when I fired up google maps it instantly used 4mb of data. Now I expect navigation to use some data, but I didn't use it to navigate real time, I just checked the maps and turned it off. Actually quit the program.

Since the 15th when my bill reset I've used over 44mb of data according to my iphone. ATT.com hasn't caught up yet, but I'm sure it will. At this rate the 2gb plan wouldn't be enough.

Google Maps downloads the Maps. 4MB seems like a lot, but if you hopped around a bit and loaded say 4-5 maps (20-40 tiles depending on zoom levels), that could easily do it.

You've used 44MB in 2 days. That means 22MB/day. You get 2048MB a month, so you can USE about 68MB/day.

Sounds like the 2GB plan would be ok.

I leave wifi on all the time, and in real life I spend the bulk of my days at work (wifi) and home (wifi) so the small window of time driving between the two 5/7ths of my life burns a handful of MB a day. On the weekend I burn more, because I'm free

stephend7 · ‎07-01-2010

I'm on wi-fi at the office and home too.

dwill05 · ‎04-06-2005

Got my first bill with the iPhone 4 today. My billing cycle starts.ends on the 11th of the month. I got the 4 on June 23, so about half the month was with the 4 and the other half was on my 3G. Total data usage for the month was a bit over 700MB. Previously, I was running 500-600MB a month. I was definitely using the 4 more since I got it because it loads web pages faster, plus I was heavily following all the threads on the problems and other stuff online to keep up. All in all, the usage seems about as expected for how I was using it, and consistent with what I was doing on the 3G. I do see a few KB used overnight while I'm asleep, but it doesn't seem to be a big issue and may have been going on with the 3G for all I know since I never looked at it. For a full month on the 4, I just don't see going over 1GB.

petertarantelli · ‎07-27-2010

Have you gotten any resolution to this issue? My new Pixi is doing the same thing...large amounts of data at odd times. Yesterday it was almost 250MB of info - no wonder my battery is about dead at the end of each day.

torino · ‎07-28-2010

I did some research and read apples user agreement and noticed they securely send data, Diagnostic Data , (which requires 3G) to submit their data research on your phone and you may not remember, like me, when you downloaded 4.0 you agree to send your data to Apple. If you go into ITunes and reset all warnings and sync your phone you can select to opt out of this data harvesting and reduce your usage. I dropped all of the unknown usage and I am back to regular usage to date.

Good Luck, what worked for me might not work for you. If you would like to research it for yourself before you try it go to your ITunes under Help> ITunes Help>Search and search for Sending Diagnostic and usage information and also read your user agreement. Good Luck your on your own.

Aparecium · ‎07-21-2010

torino is right. this has the answer to your problem:

http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple/Usual-Data-Usage-Solved/td-p/1986408

crispichickn · ‎07-26-2010

Aparecium wrote:
torino is right. this has the answer to your problem:

http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple/Usual-Data-Usage-Solved/td-p/1986408

i did that whole thing (right clicked on iphone in itunes while hooked up and clicked reset warnings - clicked no) and i checked this morning and 20 MBS were added on over night again.

torino · ‎07-28-2010

May not be the resolve for you then. Good Luck hope it at least helps others. It did for me and I would like to point that opportunity out to as many people as possible to help. It is a process of elimination so start here and if it did not help you move on to the next option and eliminate them as you go. You will be able to figure it out.

crispichickn wrote:

Aparecium wrote:
torino is right. this has the answer to your problem:

http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple/Usual-Data-Usage-Solved/td-p/1986408
i did that whole thing (right clicked on iphone in itunes while hooked up and clicked reset warnings - clicked no) and i checked this morning and 20 MBS were added on over night again.