Q: Unknown data usage early morning

Ah, sorry, didn't spot the 'plugged in' bit!

It's not going to or was a "Class Action" SCOTUS ruled on that long ago.

AT&T is smiling.

I just tested iCloud using Dataman while connected via wifi. Photo stream and calendar both log 3G usage along with wifi data. Contacts does not generate any 3G usage at all. I suspect Notes, Bookmarks, Reminders and others log plenty of 3G data usage. Now I'm after those 3-10 KB nightly, unsolicited uploads. The 200MB data plan for iPhone is a joke if you're using iCloud.

Perhaps on iPhone 3GS, 4G or 4GS it works like that.

But if you go that route on the iPhone 3G, clicking that little red circle with the minus sign in any of the apps, it shuts down those apps permanently, as in it deletes them!

Hopefully no one with the 3G iPhone went the route you prescribed to "shut down their apps".

I read all of the other discussion thread, (newer but similar in response to crazy data use) but only read a couple of the 107 pages of posts on this thread. I just spent over an hour with AT&T tech support and, needless to say since I am posting here, that they couldn't help me. I received an email this morning followed by a text message that I am in the top 5% of data users this month (apparently you don't get an award) and if I do the same next billing period they will slow down my data speeds. (I have an unlimited plan) I went to their website and it all happened in one day:

1/20 9:57pm 1513311 kb

1/20 4:44pm 258857 kb

1/20 6:57am 216485 kb

They explained about the time stamps and the data sweep and that the usage did not actually happen at that time BUT could not explain ANY possibilities that could use that much. Even if it was 2gb over the whole day it was at least 1.5 GB between 4:44pm and 9:57pm. I did not use my phone for anything except a few non-iMessage text messages. No video streaming, no music streaming, no interactive games, not even checking websites as I was in a poker tourney from 6:30pm to 12:30 am and the phone was literally in my pocket.

I DO have location services running for a few standard things. I did not backup anything to iCloud manually, nothing. I just downloaded DataMan Pro so if it happens again hopefully I can pinpoint the culprit but their suggestion of turning off all notification services (and that was from the 3rd person I talked to, tech manager apparently) AFTER resetting the phone and reinstalling All the apps does nothing to troubleshoot the actual problem.

Anybody else have this EXTREME data flow in a short (5 hour) with no apparent apps, and any causes I may have missed?

YES, you are not alone in experiencing EXTREME data flow (and the charges to go with it)! My experience was on a high-speed train in France---6 Gb in 3 hours. Obviously, the phone was sending and receiving, but because it was continuously going in and out of service areas (cell towers), we were never able to actually download any email or web pages. I also had the map function going at the same time and that probably contributed. The net result was that there was no data service (even the map function wasn't working), but the phone was certainly sending and receiving data. I wrote a letter to AT&T (the tech support people on the phone don't have the authority to do anything) and explained the situation and asked them to correct this on the bill. They did. The address given to me by the AT&T phone support (Greeley, CO) was incorrect. The correct address to send complaints to is in your service agreement. The one that worked for me was:

AT&T Bill Dispute
1025 Lenox Park
Atlanta, GA 30319

Good luck!

E-Slice, my usage was very similar from 12 midnight to almost exactly 5am in the morning (I know the time is insignificant) with 696 entries of data (totalling 694mb). 

I really could not get a straight answer from either the carrier (TestraClear via Vodafone) or Apple.  I was resigning myself to pay the additional NZ$360.00 (I usually use NZ$20.00 per month) when TestraClear phoned out of the blue and offered to waive the entire usage bill!  This is great, however if it happens again they are not prepared to do this again.  It all seems a bit suspicious so it would be good to see how many others have the same experience.

This is what I am now doing:

Have loaded Dataman Pro (this will keep track of times and amount of data used)

Reverted all aps back to factory settings (yes deleted even paid apps!)

Turn off mobile data when not using to check emails (Settings, Network, Mobile Data)

Will put on flight mode at night (when I remember!)

Since you mentioned going in and out of service. I am a teacher and the school I work at has had  intermittent service for the past couple weeks. My phone jumps back and forth betwee 3G and edge and I have had big problems getting data at all. I did a speed test the same Friday I had huge usage and the ping time was 2397 ms, 0 Mbps upload and .05 Mbps download. I asked my students who have iPhones and AT&T and the majority of them had also been noticing issues in data connection and call reception. Many of my text messages have not gone through (red !) and my calles in and out get cutoff. We have never had those issues before.

With that said, on the phone they could not clearly explain why so much data was used in a spot where I couldn't really get any data to begin with or why there would be high data use when it looks for a data signal.

Anybody else have high data use when there is a limited data signal or going back and forth between 3G and edge?

This is totally crazy - my dad has sent literally 3 test messages all month - and his 3G data usage is 180MB - and I have unlimited messaging on the plan. This is about the third month that he has come very close or gone over the 200MB plan allotment without ever sending a text or checking email when not at home or using the GPS function.

If you mean text messages, they do not use ANY data; they go over the voice side channel. What apps does he have? Many apps use background data. Some types of email accounts use background data. And, has been said perhaps 1,000 or more times in this thread, WiFi is off when the phone is asleep, so if there are any apps using data in background when the screen is not lit those data are going via cellular.

My dad has VERY few apps - and rarely uses those that he does have. It is primarily a phone - I thought he would use the camera more. I may have to find a way to check and see which if any apps are set even to have push notifications etc.

I will find out soon enough if the auto diagnostics are the issue - he turned that auto send off - and we shall see if the data useage goes down.

It does seem odd though - if it IS diag data then I would expect the size of each diag report to be roughly the same - but the size on his are rather wide.

If it was incoming emails I could see widly different sizes - but it is ALL sent data - not a single recieve in the bunch.

two other phones on the plan - which have more apps - are only using about a third of the data.

my line - which has the 4GB tethering - also has lots of the send items - but no wher near to exceeding the limit

Something else discussed in the thread multiple times - "sent" does not mean SENT. ALL data, whether sent or received, is labeled as "sent" on the bill and the online usage report. Diagnostics does not use a lot of data. The Maps application does, as do some apps such as Facebook and news apps (NY Times, AP, etc). It's not a matter of how many apps, it's which apps.

Still he is at home most of the time. I am seeing 2.2MB of 3G according to data an in the past 24 hours wen though I have had WiFi almost the entire time. And when checking email manually while on wifi the 3G use gets a small increment. Still looking for a way to see specifically what apps are sending and or receiving. For my dad I may need to reset his email and check push settings etc.

Let me try again - YOU DO NOT HAVE WIFI ALL THE TIME UNLESS THE PHONE'S SCREEN IS ON ALL THE TIME. WiFi goes off when the screen goes off, and all data then goes over 3G.

Carriers also generally do batch billing....meaning they bill in segments as opposed to realtime usage.