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Q: Disable cellular data for specific apps on iOS 7

I'm running iOS 7 on an iPhone 4S. In the Cellular menu under Settings, I can supposedly turn off the use of cellular data for specific apps. I tried turning off a number of them, however, when I exit and re-enter the Cellular menu, all apps are turned back on to "enable". Why is this happening? I've tried turning off my phone, turning it back on and I have tried doing a hard reset (power and home button).

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Oct 9, 2013 9:08 PM

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Q: Disable cellular data for specific apps on iOS 7

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  • by annexit,

    annexit annexit Feb 2, 2014 3:27 PM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 3:27 PM in response to yabayab

    Yep, just found out I had this problem, too. I share a mifi hot spot and throughout the day (and night) have a variety of wireless options and for this reason have a cell phone plan with modest data usage. When I don't have access to any wireless (which is not often) I only turn on  the cellular  for a few moments. I was going to need it over the course of a day, so tried to turn off the apps I didn't need at all (all but maps and safari) but couldn't. So, of course I forgot to turn the cellular off (stressful day) and she kept running over night. My cell company (can you guess which one???) sends courtesy messages when you are say over 65% 3 hrs AFTER you've actually blown all your MB's. And they say the app on the phone  is not accurate (still saying I have a few extra MB before extra charges). So, I have 2 questions:

     

    1. I want to test the strategies suggested here, but don't know whether or not my iPhone 4 actually is functioning correctly or not - I have tried the Restrictions strategy and the options to selectively turn off certain apps from using cellular data are slightly greyed out. Do I have to have cellular data on in order to turn off certain apps?  I can't turn cellular on since I am in a dispute with the phone company So I can't turn it on until Feb 8 when I start my next billing cycle. So IF cellular data has to be turned on to selectively turn off certain apps, I'll just have to wait to see if it works.

     

    2. If anyone has gone over the limit, has any phone company reversed charges because the APPLE app is not working correctly? Any ideas about that? It seems kind of creepy that one half of a partnership can have problems with its apps that actually enriches the other half. How can we as consumers monitor or control our cell data usage if we have the impression that our apps work only to find out they don't? $20 for 1 MB may not seem like a lot but if the counter app on the phone (that came with it) and the capacity to turn off certain apps to reduce useless data usage for the consumer DON"T work and a 100,000 of us don't know it, thats 2 million dollars. Maybe that's peanuts to ATT. Any thoughts?

     

    Thanks

  • by Tetido,

    Tetido Tetido Feb 2, 2014 6:05 PM in response to annexit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 6:05 PM in response to annexit

    Yes, sadly if you want to edit those toggles you have to on the cellular toggle first. I hope Apple will make us the option to edit those settings without turning on cellular first though.

     

    Or at least they could've put the option to manually cap our data according to our own setting. Just for this problem I envy android for having that data capping option.

  • by annexit,

    annexit annexit Feb 2, 2014 7:22 PM in response to Tetido
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 7:22 PM in response to Tetido

    Thanks, Tetido, guess I'll have to wait until the 8th, I know it did not work before I tried accessing Restrictions, but as I said I can't tell now (unless I break my contract and get a new cell phone provider!). Appreciate your answer.

  • by pointaken92,

    pointaken92 pointaken92 Feb 4, 2014 4:23 AM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 4:23 AM in response to yabayab

    Grrrr this is so annoying.

     

    I'm being punished by  Apple because I don't want to spend an absolute fortune on the 5 or 5S which are too big for my hands and too expensive for my bank account.

     

    I've reset my phone once already when this happened two months ago, and now I have to do it again. I'm resigned to this, but not happy about it in the least.

     

    At least this time I've learnt my lesson and now I'm using iTools to back up my Whatsapp chats and contacts instead of using iTunes. If you restore from your iTunes or iCloud backup, the problem comes right back.

  • by AjinkyaD93,

    AjinkyaD93 AjinkyaD93 Feb 8, 2014 2:15 PM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 2:15 PM in response to yabayab

    i am facing the same problem with my iPhone 5S since yesterday. It problem started randomly. I turn off cellular data usage for certain apps. But once i reopen the same option, the cellular data usage is switched back on for the same app. This issue is with all the apps except a certain few. Please help. i have iOS 7.0.5

  • by ckuan,

    ckuan ckuan Feb 8, 2014 3:50 PM in response to AjinkyaD93
    Level 7 (34,301 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 3:50 PM in response to AjinkyaD93

    I have tested on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. The options stayed OFF as configured.

    have you tried the basic 4Rs troubleshooting steps:

    Restart:

    1. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.

    2. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.

     

    Reset: Hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears. Note: You will not lose any data

     

    Restore from backup

    Restore as new

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

  • by Tetido,

    Tetido Tetido Feb 8, 2014 6:09 PM in response to ckuan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 6:09 PM in response to ckuan

    Lol, i wouldn't argue that restoring as new solved some of many problems. :)

     

    We just want some workaround by not having to restore (and it's a pain to resettings back everything) because of just some bugs.

     

    And some people have reported that the problem randomly came back even after restoring as new though.

  • by ckuan,

    ckuan ckuan Feb 8, 2014 6:52 PM in response to Tetido
    Level 7 (34,301 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 6:52 PM in response to Tetido

    As I've said it's working with the devices I listed, so it cannot be a bug otherwise there will be more (millions) users affected. So either you do the basic troubleshooting or leave it, it up to you.

  • by Tetido,

    Tetido Tetido Feb 8, 2014 8:45 PM in response to ckuan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 8:45 PM in response to ckuan

    Okay. Have a nice day.

  • by Wilson0028,

    Wilson0028 Wilson0028 Feb 9, 2014 7:58 PM in response to Tetido
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2014 7:58 PM in response to Tetido

    According to the Jan 28th post found in the link below, the problem sound be fixed in the next update. (https://discussions.apple.com/message/23667731#23667731).

  • by savagesultin,

    savagesultin savagesultin Feb 14, 2014 8:26 AM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 14, 2014 8:26 AM in response to yabayab

    Well this happened to me, I could not get any reset to work. I tried everything but finally i did it, reset your phone under general>reset>erase all content. then when the phone starts back up again set up as new phone. You have to backup everything before hand to the cloud. but once you set up as a new phone with your current apple id and it will active your settings, ie contacts and photos. it worked for me and i just have to install the apps again but it all works great now. hope it works for you

  • by fenpatel,

    fenpatel fenpatel Feb 20, 2014 1:50 PM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2014 1:50 PM in response to yabayab

    I have same problem.

  • by thebluenuntoo,

    thebluenuntoo thebluenuntoo Mar 14, 2014 6:42 PM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2014 6:42 PM in response to yabayab

    Looks like this is still a problem, even with the new software update....frustrating. thanks apple.

  • by NPD6812,

    NPD6812 NPD6812 Mar 15, 2014 8:45 AM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2014 8:45 AM in response to yabayab

    The problem is with the ICloud.  When you are logged into the iCloud, it puts a "Settings" option in the cellular data setting.  This messes up some of the other options, meaning the cellular data toggle doesn't stick or is false for some apps.  I know this because I have 3 iphones.  One iphone, I never logged into the iCloud and NEVER had the problem.  The second iphone, the iCloud was not turned on and the problem never happened and then the ICloud was turned on and within 1 day the problem showed up.  The 3rd phone (all iPHone 4s) had iCloud turned on and is now eating up data all the time on IOS 7.1, even when on wifi.     The solution is tough, you have to rebuild the phone as new but DO NOT put you apple ID and password in when you set up the phone and DO NOT restore your phone.  If you restore, the settings will come back and the problem will come back.  Yes, I know this is difficult, but it was the only solution I found that worked permanently.  Once it it set up, do not EVER log into the iCloud or the problem will come back.  Use your PC to back up your phone.  Until Apple decides to fix this bug, that's the only solution I found that works.   Most people will not want to do this, I know, but once you start going over your data plan and feeding AT&T money for free, you might change your mind.  My 3rd phone that has the problem used 500 MB of data in the last 3 days since upgrading to 7.1.

  • by nuno.bett,

    nuno.bett nuno.bett Apr 3, 2014 6:24 AM in response to yabayab
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 3, 2014 6:24 AM in response to yabayab

    Hi,

     

    I just wrote a workaround for this problem that does not require jailbreaking or resetting any settings on your device.

     

    You can check it out here.

     

    Feel free to post any opinions, questions and if it worked for you.

     

    Best regards,

    Nuno Bettencourt

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