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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)

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2,094 replies

LaurieNY

Level 1

9 points

Jun 8, 2010 10:30 PM in response to cnpeyton

Nice to see I'm not alone. I just switched to the low-usage 200mb plan, and my new billing period started at midnight. So I reset my stats at midnight. I've been completely on wi-fi, I have nothing on push, bluetooth/location services off, 3G off. Yet data is being continually being sent and received. Every time I look, the numbers go up. It's 12kb so far in about an hour and a half, even though I haven't used the cellular network AT ALL.

Now it's at 18kb. In the time it took to type this post.

LaurieNY

Level 1

9 points

Jun 8, 2010 11:10 PM in response to LaurieNY

Actually, this could get interesting. The reason I switched to the 200mb plan is because I'd only used 360mb of a data in a YEAR. I really don't use the network all that much. So wouldn't it be funny if my data usage--which was only 30mb a month while I had unlimited data--suddenly, inexplicably jumped as soon as I signed on to a plan that charges for overages? Even though I'd obviously curtail usage even more now? Basically this plan allows for about 7 times my average usage every month. There would be no reasonable explanation for any overages. My, MY how interesting that would be!

But yeah, my phone is busily sending and receiving data as I type, even though everything is set to off. Notifications off, all apps are set to do nothing automatically (as far as I have been able to set such options). It would be nice to know just who my phone is communicating with, and why.

Jun 9, 2010 4:22 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Steck wrote:

"I have a theory about this mysterious early morning data usage. I too closely examined my past billing statements in an effort to justify adjusting my plans to 2GB/month. It is my belief that AT&T is making an effort to consolidate data usage listings (intentional ambiguity?)."

Lawrence Fish responded:

"The problem with that hypothesis is that I would expect that consolidated entry to be at the same time (approximately) every day. But it isn't. If the phone is off at the time it would normally appear it doesn't show up until the phone is turned on again. *_If it were just the billing system posting a summary it would not have to wait until the phone was on_.*"

My thoughts are:
Mr Fish is assuming that AT&T is keeping track of data usage during the day and posting it during the night. What if the phone is keeping track of data usage during the day, not AT&T, and the phone is sending out the total during the night?

Jun 9, 2010 4:48 AM in response to btcompute

Well.... I just reset my call / data statistics on my iPhone 3GS. Not sure if anyone else has yet confirmed whether the usage data reported by the iPhone matches the usage data reported by AT&T's bill. So... this at least will tell me if the two corroborate each other.

Jun 9, 2010 5:12 AM in response to btcompute

btcompute wrote:
Mr Fish is assuming that AT&T is keeping track of data usage during the day and posting it during the night. What if the phone is keeping track of data usage during the day, not AT&T, and the phone is sending out the total during the night?

I guess that's possible, but as an engineer I would never design the system that way. First, any decent hacker could find a way from keeping the phone from reporting actual data, and second, if the phone were destroyed the last day's data would never be billed. Then I've also noticed that the amount of data billed is not always the same as what the phone reports. The billed amount, especially when roaming, is higher.

Jun 9, 2010 5:48 AM in response to cnpeyton

Is it possible this usage is due to an app? I have an iphone 3Gs with only a couple of apps (Weatherbug and Star walk) and do not have any early morning data charges on the phone. I have just the small individual charges throughout the day. I am currently on the unlimited plan.

Jun 9, 2010 5:53 AM in response to jstewa348

If we were running OS 4, possibly. But OS 3.x does not allow multitasking, so unless you put the phone to sleep without going back to the home screen apps cannot run.

Safari can, so if you leave a Safari page that auto updates open it can use data. So can the Maps app and the email app. I think the built in weather and stock apps can update on their own also, but I'm not sure.

The problem here is that the 2-3AM data shows as Sent, not Received.

Jun 9, 2010 7:12 AM in response to cnpeyton

I just noticed this data transfer a couple days ago when I was thinking of switching to the 200MB plan. I looked over the past few months and saw my usage jump from 150-200MB to 300+ starting in April. Here is the mystery data for this cycle:

06/08 02:40 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2353KB
06/07 02:23 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 3333KB
06/06 02:24 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 5517KB
06/05 02:36 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 7260KB
06/04 02:47 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 5941KB
06/03 02:32 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 778KB

I was sleeping during these periods. The data for last night has yet to show up. I have turned off all automatic syncing in apps, and just killed all push for email; now they are set to manual. I will not switch plans until this is solved.

The next step is to set my phone to Airplane mode before bed, then re-enable it in the AM and see if it still 'phones home' when it comes back online. I am not paying for data that I did not use. If this is a 'consolidation transfer' then why is it one-way? And, if so, why can ATT not give a definitive answer on this mystery usage?

Jun 9, 2010 7:27 AM in response to cnpeyton

I opened a case with AT&T about this. In May this nighttime data transfer was a full 210 MBytes out of 533 MBytes. AT&T closed my case. I asked why, and I just talked to a tech support manager at AT&T who said that it is Apple doing these transfers, they will be billed to the user, and that they are working with Apple. There was an option way back when the phone was activated to allow Apple access to it and apparently there is no way to turn this off.

I suggest everyone call (800) 331-0500, first menu hit 0, second menu hit 1 to talk to an Apple rep and open a case. I just did that.

LaurieNY

Level 1

9 points

Jun 9, 2010 9:12 AM in response to Nathan Goldshlag

I'm talking about what my iPhone says... since I only reset the statistics to zero 12 hours ago (when my new billing period began), I can't yet see what AT&T says on the bill and I never had reason to look until now. And I will, as soon as it's available.

Phone is still sending and receiving data. So the mystery activity isn't limited to the overnight hours. Whatever's going on, I don't see why we should have to pay for it, especially now that some of us have capped usage. I agreed to pay for the network data I use from now on, and I haven't used the network at all since my capped-usage billing period began. Not a single kilobyte. Yet my phone shows data usage anyway. Yeah, this is a problem.

Jun 9, 2010 9:26 AM in response to cnpeyton

I have the same issue, two different calls in to AT&T. Told it was "apps doing something." Actually, that was our hypothesis, not actually something that the AT&T person suggested.

The AT&T rep said, "Only Apple can tell you what the apps are doing." Oh, and "If you turn off data roaming you won't get updates and the apps will freeze up."

I don't have regular cell coverage at home (and not much 3G within a 2 hour drive, mostly Edge). Last month, I got a 3G Microcell - one of those things that plugs into the router to provide cell service. It works.

But now, my cell usage went from literally nothing (5 mb tops per month) to 50 mb, 8mb of which are these late night charges.

At Apple, I found two great reps, neither of whom had run across this yet. The second level one is sending in an engineering report. And I passed on the info from this thread to him.

When the phone is set up like this:

Airplane mode ON
WiFi ON
Location services OFF
Fetch Hourly

I don't get the late night charge. I haven't been able to tell if I get one when the phone first wakes up.

Today I'm trying this:

Airplane Mode OFF
WiFi ON
Data Roaming OFF
Call Forwarding ON
3G ON
Location Services OFF
Fetch Manually

I'm going to reset the cellular data usage, too and see if any data gets sent.

I notice that when I wake the phone from sleep, the phone first finds the micro cell (the bars appear), then finds the WiFi (the icon is added). So, tomorrow, I'm going to turn 3G off and see what changes.

Jun 9, 2010 9:29 AM in response to LaurieNY

I have been following this discussion with interest as I have been having the same 02:00 "Internet/Media sent" charges which account for the majority of my data usage. I did "open a case" with Apple as suggested in a previous post, and Apple states that it is AT&T that is reponsible. I don't have time to do this right now, but hopefully later today I will call a tech guy at Apple directly and then we will call AT&T together and hash this out. Should be interesting. I'll let you know if they figure anything out.

Jun 9, 2010 9:38 AM in response to Helen Darmara

So I just got off the phone with ATT, and the rep told me that it is Push and Fetch talking out. I told him I turned those off this AM already, but I won't see the results till I wake up tomorrow. So I'll report back tomorrow if that worked.

For those that need it, here's how to turn off ALL Push/Fetch:
Settings >
Mail, Contacts, Calendars >
Fetch New Data >
Set Push to OFF
Set Fetch to MANUALLY

Then tap Advanced (at the bottom) and individually set all accounts to MANUAL.

As a side note, I forgot that I had iCal syncing to my Google Calendar since I have been using Pocket Informant for this. I deleted the sync for that while in the settings.

Hope this does it.

LaurieNY

Level 1

9 points

Jun 9, 2010 9:52 AM in response to noghbaudie

I have had Push off for about a month, and Fetch always set to Manual. Yet since I reset my stats to zero last night, data is still continually being sent and received, with all app syncs off, notifications off, 3G off, no web pages open, etc.

In all honesty, I think that response is just in the iPhone handbook for reps to suggest to us. If you ask them about subpar battery life, they'll tell you the same thing... "it's Push and Fetch." The fact that you are using neither just frustrates them and they have no answer for that because it's not in the handbook.

Jun 9, 2010 10:17 AM in response to LaurieNY

You have not sent or received any email, used the web browser, received visual voicemail, used the Maps application, used Stocks or Weather, used the App Store or the iTunes store? Not sent or received MMS messages? Or any apps that get data from the Internet?

There are two different issues. One is the overnight data when you are not using the phone. The fact that the phone uses data throughout the day is really a separate question, and one that has been discussed back to the beginning of time (June 29, 2007), as a search will show.

Unknown data usage early morning