You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

cnpeyton Author

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

Top-ranking reply

choroid

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Sep 5, 2011 4:43 AM

this is from data manager application between 7am and 8am, I was at bath had breakfast and drive. look at the data downloads both from 3g and wifi. It can be some application but after 8 am ıt just stops without any intervention. Any ideas ? (iphone 4)

View in context

2,094 replies

Jul 28, 2010 12:01 PM in response to Cory Bauer

Insane. Then why would Apple and ATT insist over and over that they have no idea what it is or what is going on. In all this time after all the calls about it that we know if you would think they would write some kind of program for themselves so they could monitor even one person to see what the charges could be.

Insane.

kaluzu

Level 1

55 points

Jul 28, 2010 1:01 PM in response to Eddie Strauss

Eddie Strauss wrote:
Insane. Then why would Apple and ATT insist over and over that they have no idea what it is or what is going on. In all this time after all the calls about it that we know if you would think they would write some kind of program for themselves so they could monitor even one person to see what the charges could be.

Insane.

why would they do that, so they can loose money? anyone going over, has now to pay for their usage. it's like shooting themselves in the foot.I would not do that.

Jul 28, 2010 1:22 PM in response to kaluzu

Ok, I tried an experiment where I reset the phone and then tracked usage. The ATT usage showed a couple of large transfers and now is ahead of my phone 8 MB! My phone shows cellular usage of 6.5MB while ATT shows a usage of over 14MB! So its not the phone.

Calling ATT now.

kaluzu

Level 1

55 points

Jul 28, 2010 1:28 PM in response to Edmund Pirali

Edmund Pirali wrote:
Ok, I tried an experiment where I reset the phone and then tracked usage. The ATT usage showed a couple of large transfers and now is ahead of my phone 8 MB! My phone shows cellular usage of 6.5MB while ATT shows a usage of over 14MB! So its not the phone.

Calling ATT now.

which apps did you run? maybe not ALL apps are recording the usage properly, so it might be phone after all...who knows? guess nobody...

Jul 28, 2010 1:33 PM in response to kaluzu

kaluzu wrote:

Edmund Pirali wrote:
Ok, I tried an experiment where I reset the phone and then tracked usage. The ATT usage showed a couple of large transfers and now is ahead of my phone 8 MB! My phone shows cellular usage of 6.5MB while ATT shows a usage of over 14MB! So its not the phone.

Calling ATT now.

which apps did you run? maybe not ALL apps are recording the usage properly, so it might be phone after all...who knows? guess nobody...

It doesn't matter what app is running the OS is recording the cellular data transmitted and received. No app can go around the OS for data access.

Its funny I was convinced this was a software issue with Apple, but I guess it is ATT after all.

kaluzu

Level 1

55 points

Jul 28, 2010 1:49 PM in response to Edmund Pirali

Edmund Pirali wrote:

kaluzu wrote:

Edmund Pirali wrote:
Ok, I tried an experiment where I reset the phone and then tracked usage. The ATT usage showed a couple of large transfers and now is ahead of my phone 8 MB! My phone shows cellular usage of 6.5MB while ATT shows a usage of over 14MB! So its not the phone.

Calling ATT now.

which apps did you run? maybe not ALL apps are recording the usage properly, so it might be phone after all...who knows? guess nobody...

It doesn't matter what app is running the OS is recording the cellular data transmitted and received. No app can go around the OS for data access.

Its funny I was convinced this was a software issue with Apple, but I guess it is ATT after all.

accessing the data and recording it at the same time in the usage might be two separate things. I would not eliminate this (conspiracy) theory.

Jul 28, 2010 1:55 PM in response to kaluzu

kaluzu wrote:

Edmund Pirali wrote:

kaluzu wrote:

Edmund Pirali wrote:
Ok, I tried an experiment where I reset the phone and then tracked usage. The ATT usage showed a couple of large transfers and now is ahead of my phone 8 MB! My phone shows cellular usage of 6.5MB while ATT shows a usage of over 14MB! So its not the phone.

Calling ATT now.

which apps did you run? maybe not ALL apps are recording the usage properly, so it might be phone after all...who knows? guess nobody...

It doesn't matter what app is running the OS is recording the cellular data transmitted and received. No app can go around the OS for data access.

Its funny I was convinced this was a software issue with Apple, but I guess it is ATT after all.

accessing the data and recording it at the same time in the usage might be two separate things. I would not eliminate this (conspiracy) theory.

Ok let me try this again: the OS performs the cellular data usage and TRACKS it. No app can get around this. There MAY be a bug in the reporting of the usage by the phone, but your theory does not make sense. Why would the operating system perform data transfers for apps and NOT calculate the data usage?

Jul 28, 2010 2:16 PM in response to BulaRae

BulaRae wrote:
To the last poster questioning accuracy of usage... in my case my data usage tracker on the phone shows 28 MB and AT&T is showing over 400 MB!!!!!

<Edited by Host>

Wow I just had a completely surreal experience with ATT. I have logged the usage, talked to one customer service rep who didn't answer my question and just transferred me to Apple support. They transferred me back and both the service rep and supervisor kept saying that the data usage on their system must be correct. I tried explaining that I am happy to provide information about usage, but apparently it is impossible (according to them) for there to be any data usage reporting errors.

The supervisor was very nice, but she seemed out of options about what to do, so she just took me back to the unlimited plan.

Fascinating, my call to Apple about this was MUCH MORE productive. The support rep for Apple registered that I was a tech person and actually explored possibilities and made notes. ATT just said "it can't happen, so its not happening."

Kafkaesque.

brm123

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2010 3:14 PM in response to cnpeyton

This is not a new problem. I came across similar unexplained data usage several years ago with AT&T. Well before the iPhone. It amounted to over $300.00. It was all upload. They cleared the charges but no explanation was evert given and no proof was ever provided.

There are two responsible parties: Apple and AT&T. It may be true that they do not know what the data is "at the support level". But both Apple and AT&T do, or can, know what the data is. AT&T is using or allowing the problem to continue to generate tremendous unearned revenue.

< Edited by Host >

adala

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2010 7:07 PM in response to cnpeyton

This still does not explain why the data transmission happens around 2-3am early in the morning and via cell tower network (edge/3g) as suppose to Wifi.... I wish someone develops a packet sniffing app to see what exactly is being sent but I'm sure Apple won't approve that!

Jul 28, 2010 7:25 PM in response to adala

How many hours does the iPhone 4 have to sit idle before it goes into "sleep" mode and disconnects from wi-fi? There could be more mysterious data transfers occurring then we realize because we can't see them on wi-fi. Someone with the knowhow to view data transmissions by device on their home wi-fi network should disable cellular data on their iPhone so it must use wi-fi, and see if 1.) the data transfers still occur and 2.) if there are more than just the 1-3AM transfers.

kaluzu

Level 1

55 points

Jul 28, 2010 7:38 PM in response to adala

adala wrote:
This still does not explain why the data transmission happens around 2-3am early in the morning and via cell tower network (edge/3g) as suppose to Wifi.... I wish someone develops a packet sniffing app to see what exactly is being sent but I'm sure Apple won't approve that!

At least somebody un biased is looking into this and guy have the tools and knowldege

Jul 28, 2010 8:12 PM in response to cnpeyton

Jeez, it makes me wonder if there's a new wave of cell cloning for data use going on out there... If "my phone" used data when it seems highly unlikely, then could it be that someone else is using their device cloned as mine or something... I know, too paranoid... still.......

Jul 28, 2010 8:40 PM in response to cnpeyton

I have the same issue. I have the iPhone 4 and every night between 1 and 2 AM I have data transmission on my bill. Anywhere between 20k and 20mb. I also have regular hours data on my bill when I know I was using 3g and some apps so I don't think that it is billing for the entire day just at night. Over 90% of my monthly data usage is from this. I have called/emailed ATT 3 times and they don't know and called Apple and they don't know. Maybe a virus with some of the apps?

knania

Level 1

0 points

Jul 29, 2010 5:37 AM in response to Sugarrayleonard

it's definitely not caused by apps - I have the same issue, started on my phone (not even iphone! palm pixi!) on day one before I even had a chance to download apps. 90% of my "usage" is this issue as well.

Unknown data usage early morning