Q: Unknown data usage early morning

iPhone 3GS 32GB iOS 4.3.3

iPhone 3GS 8GB iOS 4.3.3

I too tried to lower my bill by switching to the 200MB plan. We decided to do all app installs and updates at home over wi-fi. We don't stream video or audio. We both still went over.

Most in this thread report data transfers in the middle of the night. While I also see these, my biggest issue is data transfers when I leave my house. I started noting the time I left my house (that is, when I left my wi-fi and the phone switched to 3G) and compared that to my billed data transfer times. Some days in the month showed nothing special, BUT 50-75% of the days showed huge data transfers at the exact times I left my house (2-10 MB nomally, one at 61 MB). For me, it appears something on the app should use wi-fi but doesn't. It buffers it's data until 3G is once again available by me leaving my wi-fi.

I tried to get AT&T to log my data transfers with more detail than simply data transfer start time and amount. They said they can't, citing privacy concerns. I told them "I don't care - log it", but they refused. They have also suggested turning off data. What a dumba$$ suggestion! I'm not going to pay this much for a phone and monthly data plans and then cripple it. They have also suggested blanking the phone and reinstalling the apps one by one and watch the data transfers. With over 100 apps, that could take a year!

I have just updated to iOS5. We'll see what happens.

Lee

lee - Close all apps that connect to the internet, such as mail, safari, facebook, etc., immediately after using. You need to do this even while at home, because when your phone sleeps, it will switch back to 3G. 

To close an app (if you don't already know this), double click the home button.  Open apps will appear across the bottom of your display.  Press and hold any of them until a red circle with an "x" appears at the left of each app. To close, click the "x".  Remember not to close DataMan, if you have it (I got a little close crazy when I first learned this.)

If you have any ATT apps, they will always use 3G, even if you are on wifi.  MyATT is a great example of one of their data hogs, and I still think it was the source of my own problem with them.

Sk8Dreams - I have killed the apps that way many times. It does not seem to matter.

Even if the phone switches to 3G when it sleeps, that does not explain why the huge transfers occur right when I leave my house each morning. The phone is awake for about 1.5 hours before I leave, but it waits until I leave my wi-fi.

I do have the myAT&T app, but I use it very rarely. I have not used it at all in the 2 months I've been watching this.

We'll see if iOS5 fixes this - I doubt it. The upgrade process irritated me because I could not choose to start fresh or restore from backup. Actually, it did show the choice, but I couldn't choose fresh - it auto-selected restore. Tonight, I'll redo it and make sure it does NOT restore. Then I'll put the apps back very slowly and see if it's a rogue app or 2 causing this.

lee - Try deleting the MyAT&T app.  If that's not the problem you can always reinstall it. Have you seen the problems reported with iOS5?  I'm holding off on it a while till the dust settles.

Because the big transfer isn't EVERY day, I'll wait 3-4 days to delete it. I want to make sure iOS5 doesn't fix it. It seems nuts an app like that that does so little could be responsible for so much traffic.

Aside (not to hijack thread):

The only issue I've had with iOS5 was the inability to start with a clean phone, rather than a restore from backup (mentioned above). Actually, some apps seem a little sluggish, especially Words With Friends; but it is a 3GS. Other than that, all good.

Just as was the case when I reported two previous mystery data downloads to my wife's phone to AT&T, after contacting the National Urgent Care Center, the downloads stopped and no charges were levied against my account.  No one has been able to provide any reason for it to begin or end but it stopped the night of my last entry here on the 6th coincidentally the same date I sent another nasty-gram off to the address I provided on the 6th.  This instance was the third time it has happened to us, almost 6 months to the day elapsing between occurrences.  Will be keeping an eye on it come the middle of next March!!

What is the National Urgent Care Center - ATT or Apple?  How does one contact them?

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

Thanks!

Did anyone ever figure out what this sending data usage is?  I have just noticed the same issue - while trying to figure out battery drain on an iphone 4s, it seems that every hour somewhere between 250-4000kb are being sent.

Its amazing isn't it. There is no doubt about the data traffic when we are not using our phones, but we are being treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed a load of b*.*.hit. Also a common story for a long time now is that wifi goes to sleep when the phones are not used. Well, yesterday morning both my partners and my I4's with IOS5 were dead flat - never happened before and they were both fully charged when we went to bed. Guess what else happened!!! Our home wifi system had "partially" died, so obviously the phones spent the whole night trying to make a connection. So much for no wifi when the phones are asleep. More ********.

I think the IMAP issue in the Mail app sounds like the most plausible reason. Unfortunately, that makes it not an AT&T problem, but rather an issue for Apple and/or the mail hosts. Switching mail hosts isn't a practical solution for us, so I think what we will do is keep her data turned off until our contract runs out, then switch to Sprint and get new phones.

::SIGH:: People, THE DATA TRANSFER DOES NOT OCCUR AT THE TIME SHOWN ON THE BILL. That is the time it is reported to the billing system, and it is an accumulation from most of the day. This has been pointed out time and time again in this thread, and most people ignore it. It is also not all "sent". If you look at the bill you will see no "received" data, because the billing system combines sent and received and labels it all "sent".

The reason it's important to understand this is because if you don't you will be trying to solve the wrong problem.

I just got the 4S the day of release,  I have been monitoring data usage very closely. No unusual data activity detected until last night when my data plan rolled over. This morning I find. 11.9 MB of data transferred - No reason. I had nothing in iCloud and no uploads to be updated. This is really disappointing. Calling ATT this morning.

Let us know how your call to ATT works out.  I, personally, feel that all this excess data usage is the phone calling home - i.e. to Apple.

I have a Blackberry and my daughter has an HTC - both on ATT.  Neither phone generates the data flows like my wife's iPhone 4.