Q: Unknown data usage early morning

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 damned 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.

That's how you close a running app?  No way in heck my mom would be able to figure that out.  Guess her next phone WON'T be a iPhone.  Probably a Windows Phone 7 which is what I have now.

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...

It isn't just iOS 4.1 though, there are plenty of people in this thread complaining from many different versions of iOS.

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.

Sorry but the email address only propagates the myth that someone cares and is actually doing something to resolve the numerous issues associated with users getting pinned down by technology sold to them and used as tar babies or cash cows instead.

After so many posts, complaints to the FCC, media exposure and Capital Hill attention, the message is clear.

IDIOCY reigns.  No one seems to get that USERS aka CUSTOMERS are getting stuck paying for technology designed to pick our pockets.  The privacy issues are secondary and only mask the top concern, MONEY.

After bleeding everyone and convincing them that these apps and smartphone capabilities are critical--- do you really think your iPhone is different or your carrier is flagging your account for some special billing aside from everyone else?

The rules of basic accounting/accountability don't even pass the sniff test on these issues.

This workaround is an UNREASONABLE expectation and it doesn't work.

You don't know that many apps will continue to run, regardless of what you do?

Alas BackPacker57 et al, the aforementioned workaround is exactly what I've been doing for some time now, along with only enabling 3G / Mobile Data when needed. Needless to say, an expensive phone (as that's all it currently is) to carry around, My (UK-based Tesco) contract's up in a couple of months' time, so I shall rethink at that time.

Many should rethink because no one has 100% control over their data usage.

The apps continue to run in the background, the "work around" does not work, you have no control over carrier "billing practices," privacy leaks may contribute to some data usage, reliability of transmission is a big factor in data--- RE-TRANSMITS which how often does your iPhone re-transmit the request(s) and how many re-transmits from your webpage, email server, etc... are incurred because of the medium itself being a radio suceptible to the numerous impairments? Then, there remains the issue of security-- iPhones can be spoofed.

RE-THINK is spot on.  The Smartphone label is passe' and does little to stop the drain of our money going to the carriers unwilling and unmotivated.  Why would they?  They're fat cats.

Well said BackPacker, that's a good summary.

Well after visiting Apple and again discussing with my carrier Optus, I've now made a formal submission to the TIO (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman) here in Australia. We'll see what happens.

As the problem seems to be squarely with the phone, and not the carrier, I've said that Apple should take responsibility for the excess usage charges and be made to ensure it can't happen again (to anyone).

OK so you're all laughing by now, but it has to be escalated. If this doesn't do anything, then perhaps my next stop will need to be the media?

Bottom line is you can't trust your phone to be not using data (receiving or sending, in my case the latter), when no apps are running (yes, I mean after double-clicking home and seeing the running apps, and shutting all that are visible). Things are still running that aren't visible or controllable by the user. Data movements can still occur and YOU WILL BE BILLED for them. * BUYER BEWARE *

Oh - on another note. My carrier just informed me that there is a bug that Apple has advised them of, whereby when you upgrade to iOS 5, the phone sends 2 SMS messages to numbers in the UK. These messages do not appear in your phone's message logs - but they do appear on your bill!

The numbers it sent the messages to are 0011447860015021 and 0011447860015022.

My carrier said "don't worry this will only happen once or twice, it won't continue". They are going to remove them from my bill. I wonder if they then bill all this activity (i.e from everyone who's noticed this) to Apple?

Thanks again must go to Apple for using my phone for their purposes, and leaving me with the bill to dispute.