Unknown data usage early morning

I live in Kenya and am using an iPhone 4 16Gb on Pay As You Go. Only business users can apply for Pay Monthly plans here. This has actually been beneficial to me given that, over the last week or so, I've noticed my airtime bleeding off gradually by itself. No open apps, no push notifications, 1 mail account fetching manually, location services off etc etc etc.

I've taken to switching my handset to Airplane Mode overnight just to stop this gradual erosion of my credit but am using both the DataMan and Data Usage apps and, so far today since switching off Airplane Mode, have apparently used 1Mb without surfing, checking emails or running any apps.

This is pretty infuriating!

"I finally got to a tech who gave me the work-around tip of turning off cellular data, unless I wanted to connect to the internet through 3g. That did the trick."

Please elaborate with details---- what "work-around tip of turning off cellular data" did you use?

thank you

I can't speak for mikalm but I go to: Settings >> General >> Network >> Cellular Data and toggle it to the "Off" position.

That has worked for me in preventing the gradual erosion of my airtime.

It reads (exactly as follows):

Settings >> General >> Network >> Cellular Data

When the "Cellular Data" toggle is in the "On" position, another menu appears beneath it on the same screen, giving me the option of toggling "Data Roaming" to the "On/Off" position. When "Cellular Data" is off, this menu disappears.

Thank you -- and this is only on newer iPhone models.

My model is 2G and does not have this setting.

So in going back to "mikalm" post--- if there is a "work-around" I'd love to hear about it.

I just noticed that Apple no longer shows our profiles beneath our posts as to our hardware. Too bad.

Thanks again for clarifying.

I just want to add to this whole scenario. My provider is Telstra here in Australia, who provide the majority of telecommunications services here. I have noticed the entire 5 months I have had my I4 there has been consistent small amounts of cellular data usage but since it never approached my subscribed amount of 3gb I ignored it as normal, even though the majority of the time it is connected to WIFI. On June 30 however there were 6 massive data transfers totalling over 1gb in the early hours of the morning. I only got the bill today and have just phoned Telstra's dedicated IPhone support division. They didn't even bother to ask my phone number and immediately gave the following explanation.

1. Yes it is happening with a lot of, but not all, IPhone 4.

2. They cannot explain what is happening or why it is happening, other than to say, and I quote, "it is a glitch with the IPhone".

3. They immediately offered to credit me any cost overrun, without prompting.

4. The consultant seemed to think upgrading to the latest IOS would remedy the situation. When I told him that i had already done this he had no more answers.

My phone habits are very consistent, I don't play games or use any apps that need continuous data access. Even my nav system works completely offline. I regularly turn off all apps.

So, the phantom data is very real. Telstra are known for being hard to deal with and for them to even admit a problem is huge, let alone admitting they were very aware of it.

Where does this leave us all. I never had these issues with my Blackberry, maybe I should change back.

There really isn't much that can use that much data except streaming content such as Pandora. The other possibility is an app that is stuck in a loop resending data. Email cannot account for that much.

Does the usage reported on your phone match Vodafone's numbers? If it doesn't this could be a billing system error.

Also, you may want to get an app like DataMan that records your data traffic in near real time and can tell you when each transfer occurred and where you were at the time. DataMan puts a noticeable drain on the battery, but can provide valuable information and optionally alerts when you approach preset limits.

DataMan has shown that my iPhone4 constantly sends small amounts of data (.2 KB to 30 KB) at about 10 minute intervals. The latest version of DataMan Pro shows both 3G and WiFi. I have 3G turned off because I goofed and did app updates via 3G, so I used far more than intended. When 3G was on, those sends were via 3G, even though I was home and charging overnight, with WiFi on and connected. Now that 3G is off, I see the same pattern via WiFi. Of course, this is small potatoes, but what the heck is it??? If you're close to your data limit, this could put you over.

Sk8Dreams wrote:

DataMan has shown that my iPhone4 constantly sends small amounts of data (.2 KB to 30 KB) at about 10 minute intervals. The latest version of DataMan Pro shows both 3G and WiFi. I have 3G turned off because I goofed and did app updates via 3G, so I used far more than intended. When 3G was on, those sends were via 3G, even though I was home and charging overnight, with WiFi on and connected. Now that 3G is off, I see the same pattern via WiFi. Of course, this is small potatoes, but what the heck is it??? If you're close to your data limit, this could put you over.

When the phone is asleep Wifi is turned off. So any data transfers when the phone is asleep go over the cellular data channel. Turning off 3G does not stop cellular data; you need to turn off cellular data to accomplish that.

If you turn off Cellular Data AND keep the phone plugged in it will use WiFi and keep it alive. But not if it is not plugged in; this is bacause WiFi must continuously exchange a "handshake" with the router, and if WiFi were on all the time your battery would run down in about 7 hours.

As to small data transfers, that has always been a "feature" of the phone. It includes updating the built in apps like Weather and Stocks, checking for notifications, checking for email, etc.

My iphone4 used my Cellular Data Plan of 500MB within approx. 18 hours. I downloaded an app in the evening using WiFi on the phone. The installation got stuck and I had to repeat it. The app seemed to work without problems after that. The next morning I got a message from my provider that I just crossed my 500MB free data limit. Normally I don't use more than 150-200MB per month.
I downloaded DataMan to find out more about the data usage of the phone. I switched off Cellular Data in the Settings, deleted the app I downloaded before the problem started, but even being on WiFi, I think the phone is sending and receiving more data than it did before the app installation or the iOS4.3.5 update.
I guess I'll have to set it up as new device and start from the scratch, to be sure that my latest backup does not bring back the problem again.

Well, duh! I meant turn off cellular data. Is there even any way to turn off 3G by itself? And why would anyone do that? I KNOW that charging the phone keeps the WiFi connection live, and now you have explained those constant sends - it's the handshake with the router.

Ok, I logged a complaint to FCC and they called me. Then a few days later anATT rep called me and tried to explain.

According to that person, if you open something in the browser which does anautomatic refresh (like cnn.com does) and close the phone, the page willcontinue refreshing itself over the 3G network. At the end of the day, all thedata that page has used will be accumulatively logged/billed right aftermidnight (or sometime thereafter).

According to the rep, we need to close all the tabs in the browser (Safariin my case) to make sure there are no pages open which will continue data usagewhen the phone is in sleep mode.

I am going to give it a try and see if that changes anything.

Here's my test.

Reset Statistics - shut off phone - charged to 97% - turned phone back on and confirmed stats are 0.

All apps are closed, Locations Svc, Wi-Fi, Notifications, Mail Fetch New Data, New Invitation Alerts and Bluetooth are OFF.

Opened Mail app, made one phone call then checked stats:

9:53 am 1KB sent - I did not send anything

9:54 am 9.0KB rec'd - email received is 6.9KB in size

9:55 am made one 55 second phone call

9:57 am 11.0KB sent - I did not send anything

9:57 am 34.0KB rec'd - email received is 3.3KB in size

10;21 AM STATS show Cellular Network Data sent=14.0KB and received 45.0KB (Between 9:57 and 10:21 an increase in data sent and received is shown, I did not send or receive ANY data during that time.)

Results: I sent no emails, made one 55 second phone call, and received 2 emails size 6.9 KB and 3.3 KB. Opened two apps; mail and phone. STATS show sent 14.0KB and received 45.0 KB - fuzzy math?

When you open the email app it SENDS a request to the server(s) asking if there is any email. There is a multistep handshake where the server responds that there is, the iPhone asks for it, the server sends it in 1 Kb blocks, the iPhone acknowledges receipt of each block, the server says BYE and the iPhone says BYE. So your stats seem about right. BTW, this is the way the POP3 and IMAP protocols work with ANY mail client; it is not unique to the iPhone.

REMEMBER--- AT&T's responses and there have been several published, each different.

Per AT&T respondant to FCC complaints:

Sept, 2010

Note two key reasons that AT&T states to the customer as contributing to phantom data usage: "Overhead data" and "Many devices including iPhone transmit and receive data without user intervention"

Feb, 2011

"Many smart phones including (iPhones) are "always on" data devices. They establish a data connection with the AT&T network and keep it open even if there is no data being transmitted."

"Data usage is recorded once a data session is ended on the device (phone is powered off, the customer manually ends the data session, or lost network connection)"

"To capture ongoing data consumption records, the AT&T systems are designed to send all accumulated data after a predetermined time each night. If a customer's device is connected to WiFi when the accumulated data is sent, the usage would not be billed as data."

What's fuzzy is the methodology that the iPhones and smartphones use and what the carriers don't tell.

The last note from AT&T above--- so--- "If a customer's device is connected to WiFi when the accumulated data is sent, the usage would not be billed as data" THEN if a customer's device is not connected to WiFi when the accumulated data is sent, the usage to send the billing data is billable?

Just one example.