Q: Unknown data usage early morning

I also saw this issue in April and May. I was seeing between 8-40MB per day showing up somewhere around the 2 AM timeframe.

Adding up all of that data usage showed my total data for May period as 400+MB. When my AT&T bill came, and when I go to the past months usage ammounts now in the June period, I see the May usage was only 93MB (which is basically what it should have been without those 8-40MB transfers).

So regardless of what they are, I am not getting charged. At least in my case, it seems that the AT&T response on Pogue's blog entry was true for me. The data was listed for some reason (accounting maybe) but I was was not charged for it.

Still quite strange.

Okay, more results:

Not forcing Wifi overnight (i.e. using 3G autolocked when i am asleep) combined with no safari windows up = no 2 AM mega upload report, and instead I see on my data report a regular every 30 minute, 30 KB reported, which corresponds exactly to my fetch mail schedule.

Push still disabled for the one email account.

So Wifi or 3G at night is a non-player. As long as Safari windows are closed, and Push disabled, there is no 2 AM upload reported.


Maybe I have not been clear previously, but I believe that nothing is actually being uploaded at 2 AM, that is just when the "report" is logged on the AT&T servers for an aggregate measure of activity for the day and just because the report says "sent" doesn't mean anything (in my estimation). My actual upload data as reported by my phone is 11 MB up for the cycle and 63 MB down. These "sent" 2 AM transfers total approximately 50MB for me over the cycle. I'll do a more detailed analysis when I have the time.

But PUSH and /or Safari windows appear to be the culprit. I would bet with Safari windows it's a deal where an ad autorefreshing on a page is trickling bandwidth throughout the day, depending on how often a page autorefreshes.

And one other thing my data usage report from ATT shows nothing in the "received" category except for txt messages. Anything and everything that comes from "Internet/Medianet" shows up with the category 'sent'.

So the idea that these 2 AM transfers are uploads based on AT&T using the word 'sent' in the report is incorrect.

HEY, UPDATE: MacRumors' thread on iphone outgoing data is nonexistant at the time of this posting.. Someone say something they shouldn't? ... hmmm.. smells funny to me..

Ok, i am going to chime in on this as i have an Unlocked (not jailbroken, just unlocked) iPhone 3Gs on T-Mobile. Now since the billing system is not the same, we should all see different results, right?

Well i have noticed looking at my data usage, the data sessions during the day do show accordingly, and at night i do see small data transfers anywhere from ~20k-30mb. Now, i do get junk mail and push notifications to the phone, so that's a definite possibility, so tonight after reading over this thread i'll try just resetting the phone (to close all safari windows) and disable push and see what it does.

This will give a little more insight into if it's the billing system, or the phone.

I'd say, for a fair test, don't just do it overnight, but for 24 hours. That way, if the charges are cumulated over a day you would find out.

I haven't changed my data plan yet.

According to the quote in the David Pogue article:

“What your readers are seeing is a routine update of the daily data activity on their devices — whether the iPhone or other handsets — to ensure billing accuracy. Customers are not charged for any data usage as part of this routine update.”


How would we ever judge our data usage to assess changing our plan when it is all reported together. But not to be charged?

I have the same issue. I contacted Wisconsin Department of Ag Trade and Consumer protection to get it on record and sent them a link to this discussion.

The phone tech at AT&T told me to just turn my phone off at night. Not.

well i have to start all over, (gf got ahold of iphone and turned on WiFi, so not a fair test)

i will start in the AM with no data WiFi, Push, etc and see how my data does over a 24hr period then i'll post my log from My T-Mobile so we can compare results

Guys I suggest sending this link to reputable tech blogs as well, to shed some light on this and get others investigating and asking questions. I'm not a Apple hater, I want this phone really bad, but with all the unanswered questions from ATT, it makes me wait.

I also find it funny that ATT reps ask people to "turn off" the phone. What the h*ll is the d*mn point of having a phone if you need to keep it turned off? One thing stands for sure and that is ATT customer service s*cks, no denying that.

Turning off the phone does not fix the problem. It merely moves the time of the data access to the time you turn the phone back on.

I am experiencing this too. I just talked to ATT&T and they are opening a case. I emailed them the link to this discussion and told the rep that the problem was obviously bigger then me and her. I said "just do a google search..."

Anyhoo, I wanted my account noted because this is some crazy, unforseen side effect of limiting data. I don't want to pay for ATT&T not being able to anticipate this problem. ATT&T noted my account and that I wasn't going to pay for data I did not use.

I suggest everybody do the same, ATT&T will get the picture.

The problem is consistent and in a pattern so they can't deny it.

This is definitely ATT&T's responsibility to figure out.

I admit that I haven't read all 11 pages, but it seems that this is still an open questions.

Saw this article referenced by a similar thread on ARS:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/another-iphone-mystery-explained/

Bottom line, FTA: “What your readers are seeing is a routine update of the daily data activity on their devices — whether the iPhone or other handsets — to ensure billing accuracy. Customers are not charged for any data usage as part of this routine update.”

Ok so after two days of collective updating without push notifications, mobile me, etc.. this is what i found on T-Mobile. It's still checking in for some things overnight, but my daytime usage is showing accordingly. So it may be a glitch in at&t's system, now i'll try the test again over the next two days with push and everything on and we'll see what happens overnight.

"DATA SERVICE CHARGES"

Date,Time,Megabytes
"06/27/10","06:22 AM","0.2119"
"06/27/10","04:22 AM","0.1816"
"06/27/10","02:22 AM","0.1806"
"06/27/10","12:22 AM","3.0107"
"06/26/10","10:22 PM","2.2177"
"06/26/10","10:05 PM","0.0371"
"06/26/10","09:48 PM","0.0195"
"06/26/10","09:28 PM","3.1123"
"06/26/10","07:35 PM","0.288"
"06/26/10","05:35 PM","3.125"
"06/26/10","03:35 PM","0.2724"
"06/26/10","02:42 PM","0.3583"
"06/26/10","01:40 PM","0.206"
"06/26/10","12:49 PM","0.0703"
"06/26/10","11:25 AM","0.1425"
"06/26/10","10:56 AM","0.0644"
"06/26/10","09:18 AM","0.5869"
"06/26/10","07:37 AM","0.5341"
"06/26/10","06:41 AM","0.3906"
"06/26/10","05:59 AM","0.4687"
"06/26/10","03:59 AM","1.624"
"06/26/10","01:59 AM","1.5341"
"06/26/10","01:30 AM","0.1484"
"06/26/10","01:21 AM","0.0439"
"06/26/10","01:11 AM","0.0957"
"06/26/10","12:51 AM","0.4824"
"06/26/10","12:02 AM","0.121"
"06/25/10","10:14 PM","12.6748"
"06/25/10","08:33 PM","29.2558"
"06/25/10","08:14 PM","2.6455"
"06/25/10","07:40 PM","0.0117"
"06/25/10","07:15 PM","0.0546"
"06/25/10","06:23 PM","0.2119"
"06/25/10","05:48 PM","0.1542"
"06/25/10","05:17 PM","0.1757"
"06/25/10","04:53 PM","0.1455"
"06/25/10","03:31 PM","0.3095"
"06/25/10","02:22 PM","0.1796"
"06/25/10","01:51 PM","0.3339"
"06/25/10","11:58 AM","1.1035"
"06/25/10","11:36 AM","0.289"
"06/25/10","10:26 AM","0.1728"
"06/25/10","09:45 AM","0.1113"
"06/25/10","09:18 AM","0.0322"
"06/25/10","08:52 AM","0.0654"
"06/25/10","08:12 AM","0.0839"
"06/25/10","06:23 AM","0.2001"
"06/25/10","04:32 AM","0.2548"
"06/25/10","04:05 AM","1.1162"
"06/25/10","02:50 AM","2.373"
"06/25/10","02:17 AM","2.9628"
"06/25/10","01:56 AM","0.2109"
"TOTAL MEGABYTES",,"74.6567"
"The date and time for all data corresponds to Pacific Time (PST/PDT)."