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

Jul 18, 2010 10:58 AM in response to jinx.pt

Hey Jinx,

Google maps works by downloading images, depending on your zoom. What that means, is that whenever you zoom out/in, it consumes more data, because it's a new image. And images take bandwidth.

I starting to believe that most of these 'problems' are from people that don't realize just how much applications need of bandwidth nowadays.

I'd agree with you on the second item, but I've been in high tech since the early 80's. I did find that my email was one source of a problem and fixed it myself as I mentioned in 2 earlier posts. What I'm seeing is that I used my blackberry in very similar ways and am using as much data in a couple of days as I use in a day or two with the iphone. This is in spite of the fact that the blackberry did not have wifi at all.

It doesn't take 4 MB of data to show a screen of google maps with 2 zoom in actions. If it did, I'd have seen huge amounts of data usage on my blackberry as well.

On my blackberry, I'd check traffic every day in the parking lot and it was over the ATT network. I check traffic in the parking lot now, but on wi-fi.

Now blackberry does use their optimized servers, so that could account for some of it, and I figured it would make a difference but...

I went back over 6 months of usage on my blackberry which ATT graphs very nicely for us. Usage was 13mb to 45mb with an average of roughly 28mb. I can do that in a day on my iphone. Awfully big disparity when you consider they are being used in such a similar way.

I realized that the apps on the iphone are much more robust, and more of them use data, so I expected to use a lot more data on my iphone, but it's clear to me something is not right here and I don't appreciate the ATT solution which is "quit being cheap and spend more money." 😉

Jul 21, 2010 5:47 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

I used my phone as if I were away from home last night - using the maps application for navigation, reading email etc - for about an hour. Used 15mb of data according to the ATT site this morning.

At that rate, I'll be insanely over the 200mb limit.

I don't understand how I'd be able to stay under the limit when away from home.

And I still don't understand how there is ANY 3g usage when I'm sitting at home with 100% wi-fi coverage. My current usage (with 3 days left in my billing period) when sitting 95% at home with my wi-fi is 174mb!!!! This is just wrong!

Oh, and I have reset my Apple info as suggested by several others here and there is some reduction in daily weird uploads... but it isn't gone completely and in my case, when sitting in my house 24 hours a day I believe there should be ZERO 3g usage.

Jul 21, 2010 6:46 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

Mitch Aunger wrote:
Oh, and I have reset my Apple info as suggested by several others here and there is some reduction in daily weird uploads... but it isn't gone completely and in my case, when sitting in my house 24 hours a day I believe there should be ZERO 3g usage.

If the phone is on standby WiFi is turned off to save battery. So if you have either Fetch or Push enabled to receive email, or Safari has a page open that refreshes automatically, you will use 3G to get the data.

Jul 21, 2010 6:49 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I have a hard time believing that is true...

the iPad I have is wi-fi only - the email fetches when the iPad is in standby - all sorts of things happen in standby - notifications, calendar alerts (which I know don't involve the network)... I don't believe the iPhone switches to 3g when in standby.

Is there any online proof?

Jul 21, 2010 7:01 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

I haven't seen any official documentation on it, but an Apple tech support person did tell me the iPhone shuts off the wifi radio and switches to cellular data when in standby/sleep mode. (I never noticed this behavior with my original iPhone, but it's happened frequently on my iPhone 4. I skipped the 3G and 3GS, so I don't know if those behave the same way.)

I personally think wifi should always take precedence over the cellular network, especially with the current limited data plans. I hope Apple addresses this in a firmware update at some point in the future.

hoonu

Level 1

0 points

Jul 21, 2010 11:34 AM in response to cnpeyton

This is truly bizarre. I averaged around 300-400MBs amonth prior to getting the iPhone 4 and now I'm over 1GB already. What's weird is that I have these 50MB+ transfers all over the place. Some of them while I'm sleeping.

Something is definitely going on here and someone isn't speaking up. Too bad some news sites can't get on this.

corygkb1

Level 1

4 points

Jul 21, 2010 5:15 PM in response to cnpeyton

I have in one night 15506KB and if you total the amount at 1:30 it is 52% of my usage since 15th of JUly when the phone arrived. Called At&t said" to turn it off at night" -from a floor manager on the technical support. Apple is sending me in a circle explaining it is At&t that controls data.

ed2020

Level 1

69 points

Jul 21, 2010 5:27 PM in response to corygkb1

corygkb1 wrote:
Apple is sending me in a circle explaining it is At&t that controls data.

Apple should be told that, whilst AT&T control the data, what's relevant is who initiates the data transfer. As Apple are the only people with the ability to inspect the source code of iOS and App Store apps then they are responsible for addressing this issue.

Jul 21, 2010 8:49 PM in response to BigBash57

Well, I happened to go into the Apple store today - asked them a couple of questions. (Not that I think every data point that comes out of Apple store employees - they are human after all).

One gentleman confirmed that the iPhone does switch off wi-fi when put to sleep "to save battery" (tho he was surprised when I said that the wi-fi only iPad still gets incoming mail etc - so I'm still not totally convinced here).

Their suggestion was to turn off as many notification applications in the settings as possible (he said facebook was notorious for example in trolling for data).

There was also a suggestion to turn OFF the 3g setting. Granted this sets up your phone to use Edge for calls, but even with wi-fi turned off, 3g turned off, and cellular data turned on, I can make phone calls and get visual voice mail (had someone call me to test it).

Now the only question is whether the data usage is coming thru the 3g setting or the 'cellular data' setting

Jul 22, 2010 8:10 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

Geez, my experience is getting worse not better

last night after writing the previous post, I rebooted my iPhone 4. I shut off '3g' - I shut off 'cellular data' and had it set for wi-fi as the only access. I went thru all of my application settings and turned notifications off on every one.

guess what? some kind of 6mb transfer over night - and right around the time I reset everything, 4mp came thru at 10:48

07/22 01:48 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 6454KB
07/21 10:48 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 3991KB

how is this possible?

This morning, someone sent me a 3mb email attachment, but I haven't opened that email on my phone.

I'm at 191mb and my account resets in 2 days - will I get charged another $15?

I'm leaving data off and 3g off... there's no way anything should be coming over 3g

Do we get charged if data comes over edge too?

qb84

Level 1

5 points

Jul 22, 2010 8:40 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

To me it makes sense. This is a typical day for me. I use it a lot during the day and I don't see any charges that reflect this usage. They are just adding all the data together and probably the phone is not sending anything. AT&T probably calculates the data you used at that specific time, 2:44 AM in this case.

06/26/2010 10:54AM Data Transfer Data 3,519 KB Out 0.00
06/26/2010 4:30PM Data Transfer Data 112 KB Out 0.00
06/26/2010 5:53PM Data Transfer Data 12 KB Out 0.00
06/26/2010 5:58PM Data Transfer Data 6,628 KB Out 0.00
06/27/2010 2:44AM Data Transfer Data 90,539 KB Out 0.00

EDGE is data too.

Jul 22, 2010 8:48 AM in response to qb84

well it doesn't make any sense to me... my phone is sitting at my house, unused for the vast majority of the day right next to my wi-fi router.

I don't make that many phone calls

I don't use the voice mail very often

I don't use the phone to read emails etc during the day as I'm sitting by my computer most of the time.

Why is there any "data" usage on the phone at all during the middle of the night?

at this point, I'm turning off email and everything else I can find.

Jul 22, 2010 8:53 AM in response to qb84

qb84 wrote:
To me it makes sense. This is a typical day for me. I use it a lot during the day and I don't see any charges that reflect this usage. They are just adding all the data together and probably the phone is not sending anything. AT&T probably calculates the data you used at that specific time, 2:44 AM in this case.

That's an interesting hypothesis, but if it's true and it is an artifact of how they bill then it should appear at the same time whether the phone is on or off. But if I turn my phone off it does not appear between 2 & 3 AM; instead I see a large data transfer a minute or so after I turn the phone back on.

I'm not saying you are wrong, and I can think of an explanation for my observation that would fit with your hypothesis, but if there is a simple answer why hasn't AT&T or Apple offered it? This has been discussed for several months, and many people have called Apple and AT&T, and no one has gotten a coherent answer. It would be so easy if AT&T just said what you said, but they don't!

Message was edited by: Lawrence Finch

Jul 22, 2010 8:52 AM in response to Mitch Aunger

What doesn't make sense is that this thread is 22 pages and was started on June 5. And still there is no explanation that any of us understand coming from either company - even if the data is completely correct.

Can ATT be laughing all the way to the bank?

Jul 22, 2010 9:00 AM in response to qb84

And by the way, here's my history of the last 6 months of data usage:

Jan 104mb
Feb 133mb
Mar 376mb (I was on a business trip)
Apr 218mb (again, another business trip month)
May 57mb
June 84mb

so you see there was only 2 months where I even was close to the 200mb limit (I was on the unlimited plan and came down to the 200mb plan to save money)

95% of my time is sitting at home in close proximity to my wi-fi router. I made the assumption (apparently wrong) that the phone was using the wi-fi 95% of the time and the only time I'd really use the data access was when I was away from my wi-fi router.

My wife by the way so far has used 10mb with her iPhone 3gs. Granted, I do a lot more with my phone, but again 95% of my usage is while I'm in my own home with wi-fi access.

I just don't understand what the heck the phone is using any 3g data access while I'm here in the house.

If what the Apple store guy told me yesterday is true (that the phone switches off the wireless to save battery), then I think Apple needs to change this somehow because there's way too much data going down the pipe to my phone for my liking...

I'm also wondering if there isn't something different with iOS 4 than previous because my usage habits since buying the phone 3 weeks ago aren't that much different than the iPhone 3g that I had before and as you can see, my usage was much lower.

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Unknown data usage early morning