Unknown data usage early morning

You just responded to a message that is 18 months old. A lot has happened since then. I suggest actually reading some of the thread you posted to as it will give you considerable insight into what is happening, why, and what you can do about it. It is not reasonable for you to expect others to spend time explaining what you can learn by just reading what has already been published.

FYI, I posted earlier (p. 99 or so) about an outrageous amount of data transfer while on a high-speed train in Europe. ATT shut off my data plan, but I wrote them a letter explaining that I did not get any service out of all of that data transfer and this was a problem with their system (and/or the iPhone as I have since learned from this thread). Lo and behold, they fixed it, and when my bill came in, I was not charged for that usage. Thank you AT&T. There is a Santa Claus.

But seriously, the cell providers, the app developers, and Apple need to get this bug worked out if they are going to charge us for data.

My mom this month used up 65% of her monthy usage within the first 10 DAYS of her billing cycle. I am sure it's a scam by the phone companies to make money but we gave up and just upped it to 2GB because she was getting all paranoid and stopped using her phone in fear of overage charges.

Stupid thing is all the data was being SENT from her phone. Very little was being recieved by her phone which is the mind boggling thing to me. Even if a apps where open they should be recieving and sending closer to equal amounts of usage. Not 99.9% uploading data and .1% recieving data.

Stoneysilence wrote:

Stupid thing is all the data was being SENT from her phone. Very little was being recieved by her phone which is the mind boggling thing to me. Even if a apps where open they should be recieving and sending closer to equal amounts of usage. Not 99.9% uploading data and .1% recieving data.

Perhaps the stupid thing is that you didn't read the thread you posted to before jumping to conclusions. A quick perusal of the messages previously posted would have revealed to you that all of the data line items on the bill are labeled as SENT, regardless of whether data were sent or received. And that they are not individual data items, but accumulated data over an extended period of time. The only items on the bill labeled as received are text messages.

Thanks for your comentaries, but again the problem is not from the custumer the problem is from Apple and the Carrier. In my case ATT. They need to offer a more detailed report. Is very easy to said that the problem is from the consumer and billing the excesive data. I dont have the time to read all the posted comentaries but one of my concern is not that the carrier agree for not to billed for the excesive data but what information is transmited or received. Finally I am not going to pay for the excesive data ( already the carrier and I agree ) until they show me what application is using the data. IS NOT WHAT WE CAN DO IS WHAT THEY NEED TO DO AND EXPLAIN.

Thanks and sorry for my English

ΤΕΛΙΚΟ

EJS

This is nasty stuff.

I've owned an iPhone 4 since they came out here in Australia. Never had this sort of problem - until my latest bill arrived from my carrier Optus. I'm on a cheap plan that includes only 250Mb data. Most months I use 40-50Mb, sometimes up to 100Mb.

Optus reckons last month I went 908Mb over my limit! I've changed nothing. No new apps, no changes in usage patterns. I haven't even updated the iOS for months (still on 4.1) On the bill the charges are described as "social networking". I don't have a Twitter or Facebook account and have no desire to. I don't access LinkedIn from my phone - ever. As far as I'm aware I don't do any social networking.

First step call Optus and dispute the data usage. They assure me their systems are reliable and that these data movements have come from my phone.

Next step, turn off all fetches, data movement apps etc.. and close all background programs. Completely shutdown the phone and restart. Check data usage on the phone - it's still sending copious amounts of data to somewhere! 9Mb in less than 30 mins. What is running? Nothing that I can see. So what is sending all this data. It's like water escaping from a sieve - I can't stop it!

Now I've read about this Carrier IQ crapware. If this is the culprit, then Carrier IQ should be paying the bill for the data they are collecting while keeping it secret from me.

Still not resolved. Waiting for a call back from Optus.

In the meantime I've turned off 3G+Cellular Data on the phone. Now it's just an expensive phone+sms brick.

For a more detailed report of your billing statement, you may visit your online account wireless.att.com and click on Data.

You can also find your data usage on your iPhone under Settings>General>Usage>Cellular Usage. These are cumulative totals so be sure to reset this for each billing cycle if you choose to make this your primary method of monitoring data usage.

Thanks, I saw that earlier and checked it. That doesn't appear in iOS 4.1

Should I upgrade to iOS 5.x? I thought some posts said it had other similar (or worse) problems?

I can also see the data being sent via WiFi when I'm connected to that. What the heck is it sending? It's more data than I thought I had stored in the ****** thing. This is diabolical !

I just got back from my visit to the "Genius Bar" at my local Apple Store. As I suspected, no help at all.

It was a calm, rational discussion, so I think if she could have helped, she would have. It was summed up though, by the last thing she said to me... "good luck with that".

Hmmm there is only one conclusion to this....

** BUYER BEWARE ** - YOUR PHONE COULD START SPEWING DATA out through your 3G/Cellular Data connection at any time with no apps running that you know of. Therefore you have no control over it - except for turning off the 3G/Cellular data - which defeats the whole purpose of having a "smartphone".

Apple and the carriers are "all care and no responsibility". They will say there's nothing they can do.

== YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN ==

So, I'm left with a bill for excess data charges that appear to be the result of a bug in Apple's iOS 4.1.

** THANKS APPLE - you might as well have given me a disease.

I think I've gotten to the bottom of it. On 26th November I uploaded a video to YouTube from the phone. It was the first time I've ever tried this. I did it while connected to my home WiFi. It seemed to finish ok and was available for playback from YouTube (on my PC). The video clip was said to be 2.5Mb (according to the phone. It's 29 seconds long).

This is the only event I can pinpoint that matches when this continous data-sending started.

I did this via the [Send to YouTube] button provided by iOS from the popup menu when viewing the video. I did not use a 3rd party application.

It seems that this kept on sending, for days, until I got the bill and started to investigate.

While I watched, it sent 9.9Mb in around half an hour. With no apps running that I could see.

This points to a bug in iOS 4.1. But try getting anyone to admit to that, or pay your bill.

The lessons I've learnt are :-

1. Never trust your phone.

2. Always use a data monitoring app that provides alerts as you get near preset amounts.

3. You can't rely on your carrier or Apple to take any responsibility - even though they're happy to take your money.

Back on Oct. 15th I provided some information that proved beneficial to me every time I have run into this problem, three times now and almost 6 months to the day apart. Read it over and should you choose to try it MIND YOUR MANNERS AND DON'T FLY OFF THE HANDLE! Not only will you get another "good luck with that" it will probably be prefaced or followed by several expletives. Here's my entry:

It is AT&T and a couple levels higher than Customer Service or Customer Care. The more I kept pestering them, the higher up the food chain they sent my problem(s). When this last incidence began, I dug out my old emails and went straight to them, I even bypassed calling it in and geting a Case ID. I did include all the pertinent information from the first two times it happened so that they would know where to start.

Here's the address I've used to get to them.

icare3@amcustomercare.att-mail.com

"The lessons I've learnt are :-

1. Never trust your phone."

What you should have added to that is "to close Apps when you are finished using them"!!

There is a procedure for manually shutting down Apps that has been outlined here several times. In case you weren't aware of it, here's what you must do:

1. Wake phone and unlock.

2. Double click the Home button. This will sorta raise and darken the screen and App icons will appear.

3. Press on the first icon on the left until you see it start wiggling and a red circle with a minus sign appears in all of them.

4. Put slight pressure on the first icon on the left until it disappears. Repeat for all icons that appear, they will move from right to left. When the last one disappears, all Apps are closed.

5. Hit the Home button to return the phone to service.

Well apparently that isn't my mom's issue because she has a iPhone 3G which I guess doesn't support multiple apps being open. I tried that double click home button thing but it just kept going to either the Search or her phone book...

So apparently all her data usage is NOT FROM APPS BEING OPEN!

You say it like you think I didn't know this already.

Of course I already did that. When I said "no apps running that you know of", I meant exactly that. They do not appear when you double-click the home button. I had nothing appearing there and it was still sending lots of data!

The [Send to YouTube] does not leave an app running that you can see.

Clearly a bug in iOS 4.1.

I've now "upgraded" to iOS 5 - maybe it's better. But you would never know if there are other gotcha's in there. Nobody will ever admit anything. All care and no responsibility.

In the words of Apple:- Good luck with that...

If you don't double click the Home button quickly, you will go to Search iPhone. Try it again in rapid succession, no delay between them.

Also, in my 9:53PM entry above providing an email address for AT&T, that address will get you into the National Urgent Care Center, a couple levels above Customer Service or Customer Care.