Level 1

2 points

Unknown data usage early morning

With the changes to the data plans, i decided to look at my wifes data usage on her iphone. What i have found is odd and a bit concerning. Overall her data usage is pretty much nothing, except for something that occurs every morning around 1 or 2 am. I have included data usage on the AT&T account below. As you can see, something happens around 1 or 2 am every morning, i just dont know what it is. The amount of data being transferred is REALLY high if you ask me, as high as 75336KB back on the 17th. I called AT&T support and they said it was the phone updating or mail being downloaded, basically they have no idea. I have the mail set to fetch manually already. Anyway to determine what is going on???

06/04 01:22 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 3368KB
06/03 01:45 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 18906KB
06/02 01:45 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 6878KB
06/01 01:45 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9460KB
05/31 07:45 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1918KB
05/31 01:27 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 7551KB
05/30 02:27 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1224KB
05/30 01:17 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2685KB
05/29 01:39 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 8120KB
05/28 01:39 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 5410KB
05/28 01:07 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 5068KB
05/27 10:42 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 21778KB
05/27 01:06 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 10419KB
05/26 09:26 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 20657KB
05/26 01:50 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 8467KB
05/25 02:21 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 18086KB
05/25 01:25 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 5249KB
05/24 01:25 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1012KB
05/23 01:25 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 12978KB
05/22 01:25 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9749KB
05/21 01:41 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 19166KB
05/20 01:17 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 23860KB
05/18 11:56 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 15440KB
05/18 01:06 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 29900KB
05/17 01:12 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 75336KB

Posted on Jun 5, 2010 4:56 AM

2,094 replies

grotien

Level 1

0 points

Jul 8, 2010 5:19 AM in response to cnpeyton

I just got the iphone 4 on 6/25. My data plan is 200Mb/month. After getting the phone I kept a close eye on my data so I wouldn't go over. Up until 7/3 I was well under (25Mb). I received an email from ATT on 7/5 saying I went over my 200Mb. I checked my bill and found that on 7/4 @ 1:26 am it sent 205Mb. This is over my monthly data. I called ATT and they didn't have an answer.

After I talked to ATT with no results I turned off Cellular Data on the iphone. It's been off since 7/5 (7/5-7/7). Today I noticed on my phone the data usage had increased by 30Mb. I don't understand how it can go up when I have the data off. I called ATT again and they said that that is the total data usage for the phone including wifi. It clearly says "Cellular Network Data". Since I checked this morning it has gone up 20Mb more. (all on wifi with data off) My fear is that I will turn on data and it will sync with att servers and increase my data by 50Mb and I haven't even been using 3G.

Someone from ATT and/or Apple needs to figure out what is going on because this is clearly a problem. No one seems to have an answer. This is going to be an issue with the new data plans. I only have the 200Mb/month but when it charges 205Mb at a shot it wouldn't matter if it was 2Gb, you will still go over.
.

Jul 8, 2010 5:41 AM in response to grotien

When you look at 'previous data usage' on your bill you see a bar graph of the last 6 months or so. I looked at mine yesterday. I know my usage is consistent as I only use the phone on 3G at the same times each day. The graph for the last 3 months, since April shows much higher usage than the three months before that. This is just wrong!

Jul 8, 2010 7:56 AM in response to OneThumbWilly

So, after spending a month consciously monitoring my data usage, I watched my April-June spike drop back to the usage I had previously been seeing. Prior to April my usage was in the 150-200MB range, from April to June it was 315-350MB, yet my usage patterns were the same as they had always been.

I have all Push/Fetch turned off, and since switching to my iPhone 4 I now have the ability to turn off cellular data so I switched to the 200MB plan; I might regret this...

I still see the 2AM cellular transfers, but am planning on turning cellular data off and force them to wifi to cut the usage down.

ATT and Apple have still given no unified answer to this issue. I do think this needs to be investigated further, but in the meantime I'll be doing my data avoiding rituals to keep them from charging me for ghosts.

Jul 8, 2010 10:11 AM in response to noghbaudie

what good is a smartphone if you're having to "watch" your usage like a hawk? i'm terribly unimpressed with this... and while it's been about 6 months since my last iphone (3GS) before I went to T-Mo for a bit, the latest trends in my data usage just don't match one bit what I remember it being back at the end of 2009 with my 3GS...

i'm REALLY considering returning my iP4 and canceling my at&t plan before the 30 day period runs out... There is something way too fishy going on here... and the fact that Apple nor AT&T have an answer, blaming each other as they always, does not sit well with me. :-S

Jul 8, 2010 10:12 AM in response to noghbaudie

I noted on another thread that someone had a data usage number of 19858 I found this interesting as I have several usage posts on my acccount that are virtually the same, often at the same time. Although I have several 4mb and 9 mb, I have several 19648k that happened at the same time on different days a couple of times and at different times other days. There is another one at the same time at 19536.

It appears that all this data is being pushed to my phone. When I checked the Settings/general/usage data on the iphone it showed the cellular network data as 13.1mb sent and 210mb received (Actual usages is almost 400 but I think this was reset when I had them reinstall the OS at the apple store as I tried to fix this problem.) I've also had data usage posts on my account for 30 and 50mb. One day I ran up a total of 100mb. This is not possible as it is light use.

soyner

Level 1

0 points

Jul 8, 2010 10:49 AM in response to Stephend7

I just called AT&T about some recent big sent things (each over 2 mbs) that my wife and I cannot recall ever sending anything or using a 3G connected app. Plus much of our 'sent' data is happening while on our WiFi connection. I checked with our IT guy here at work and he looked at his data usage and had the same thing (with sent data happening while at home on his WiFi).

The AT&T rep didn't have a clue what they could be either. ***** trying to be Sherlock Holmes and trying to piece out this mystery without ever getting an answer.

Jul 8, 2010 11:11 AM in response to soyner

I've been watching this thread for the past month or so and tracking my cellular data usage. I haven't spent much time turning things off because that's just not the way I want to use my iPhone. On 6/24 I got my new iPhone4 and handed off my 3GS to my wife, replacing her 3G. My billing cycle starts on the 5th of the month. There was some level of turmoil on both our usages at phone swap time, so I let it settle a bit. Today I looked at our cellular data use since 7/5 and find that my usage, which was over 700MB last month is only 7MB so far, while my wife's is already up to 32MB.

I don't think our apps or our usage patterns have changed significantly, so I'm concluding that a significant factor in this problem is the phone itself. My old 3GS continues to rack up the data while the iPhone 4 has it back to a more reasonable level.

Jul 8, 2010 3:34 PM in response to Edward Evans1

just got off phone with AT&T... i'm at 850MB with like 6 days in and i'm not streaming music or video 24/7, nor have i tethered in the past 3 days. Not using it any differently than I normally would. Something is just not right, yet AT&T can't tell me what the issue is or could be. They have given me a $30 credit, which I guess is nice of them. But ultimately, at this rate, there is no way I can keep the phone. I'll easily hit 4-5GB by the end of the month. That's up to $30 extra, on top of the already high price. No thanks. Glad I'm within my 30 day trial window. Most likely gonna go back.

had unlimited not been lifted (and I asked if they can retroactively give me unlimited - I was given a "sir, that's not possible" line of BS... ) I wouldn't be having this problem...

soyner

Level 1

0 points

Jul 9, 2010 7:38 AM in response to MI_canuck

Just checked our usage again and am getting really frustrated. More sent data that we have no clue what it could be. (We were on a wireless connection all day. And my wife doesn't even have her email account entered into her phone so it's not from anything like that) If AT&T is going to charge per MB/GBs then they better do a good job of explaining how the data usage is figured.

And tell the customer that a certain predetermined amount of data may be used no matter what (for updates and visual voice messaging) so in actuality the customer doesn't get their full 200mb or 2gb.

I hope some attention falls on this matter soon.

Message was edited by: soyner

Jul 9, 2010 7:52 AM in response to soyner

Someone started a new thread with this exact subject. I saw two pages and eventually someone linked this thread from that one. Seems the number of people flummoxed by this is growing. And yet there is no understandable answer.

Jul 9, 2010 9:23 AM in response to soyner

Does anyone know of how I can disable the crash reports? I believe I said "agree" to it when I registered my iP4 with itunes the first time... Any way to undo this? Would a factory restore do it? I think that might be part of the cause of my data hemorrhaging overnight... But not sure until I can eliminate that out of the equation...

cheers

klwzscale

Level 2

219 points

Jul 9, 2010 12:11 PM in response to cnpeyton

Just went to my local AT&T store to talk with them about my 25.5MB of data usage on the first day of my billing cycle - and minimal use of the phone during the day. Weather radar, news, tech site push notifications, 1 phone call for 1 minute, email, no videos.

The gentleman was very nice and understanding. We went through my phone and all the settings etc. Long story short he really did not know what was going on and why all the high data use. I told him about both AT&T's and Apple's web forums and everyone online talking about the way high data usage.

We kept talking for a few minutes and he then ushered me over to one of the computers in the store and said I am not supposed to be doing this but since you have two phones on the account and the other one is a 3GS with the iphone unlimited data plan and will put you on this plan for your new iphone 4. I could not be happier. Yes the cost is a little higher but the need to worry about going over my 200MB is over.

All the talk about shutting programs down and turning push off and minimizing the number of email accounts etc. is only a side issue as the phone is designed to run all this at once and operate with push etc. Therefore there should be no need to turn them off. I have now turned all my location and push items back on.

Now to see how much data I really use this month. Day 1 is the 8th of the month.

If you are not on the unlimited data plan because you purchased a new phone - I would still try and visit your local AT&T store and see what one of the Managers can do you for - one other manager will need to enter a passcode too to allow this change. Be polite and do not make demands and you never know what someone trained in customer service will do for you.

Best of luck.

Jul 9, 2010 12:44 PM in response to klwzscale

That's great for you. You didn't say specifically but I'm assuming they are letting you maintain your account with 'unlimited data' as it was. That's all well and good but really explains nothing about this situation. I too am keeping my plan and feel lucky to have it. But I don't believe for a minute that I am suddenly using all this data. The more time passes the more I am in Wi-Fi zones and am using 3G more rarely than ever before. You wouldn't know it by my daily usage tallies.

The promise of lower monthly rates for the under 200MB that 'most people use' seems like a bait and switch of its own. (The other one is the iPad promise of unlimited data and cancel one month later).

klwzscale

Level 2

219 points

Jul 9, 2010 12:57 PM in response to Eddie Strauss

My wife had an existing 3GS account with AT&T. I purchased my 1st iphone 4 the day it came out and added a line to my wife's account.

I only had the choice of 200 megs or 2 gb of data. I selected 200 megs as the advertising indicated the majority of users use less than this (I am around wifi most of the time myself). In two weeks I used just under 200 megs of data. On day 1 of my billing cycle (the 8th of July) I used just over 25megs on very light use with no explanation.

What the AT&T Manager did was put me on the "original" AT&T iphone unlimited data plan that is no longer being offered but remains available to those with pre-iphone 4s and also to those same users when they upgrade their phones to 4s if they so desire to keep it.

So now, my wife an I are both on unlimited data plans and all other plans (minutes and text) stay the same. Hope this clears up what they did for me.

And no it does not explain the large jump in data use.

Jul 9, 2010 10:12 PM in response to RG1000

Hey everyone. It looks to me like we are getting data from the wrong place. Data usage being shown to us online at ATT.com is subject to posting vs. actual use and is kind of a mystery. However, the phone has the ability to track sending and receiving by going to Settings/General/Usage then look at cellular network data. There is shows how much was Sent and Received and it is real time.

Here is what I've found out. First, it is not what I am sending, I am receiving huge amounts of data. I've had my phone for 2 weeks and I think usage data might have been reset when I had them reload the OS while trying to figure out the problem on July 2. Since then I've sent 14MB and received 249MB.

I closed email and set it to only check manually. After several hours I checked the usage data and put it in a note. Then I opened email and had it check email. Then I checked usage again.

Email received 4 messages, without attachments, and the phone received 3MB of data. No attachments but I do have it downloading html (Load remote images).

If the problem is that it is loading a all these images (Hard to believe that it is loading that much data from 3 messages) I can turn that off. However, is there a way to load the images from within the mail application one email at a time? I'm jumping to conclusions here, but am curious.

Perhaps this will give the search a new direction because we are going nowhere fast.

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Unknown data usage early morning