Q: Unknown data usage early morning

A lot of people are still missing the big point. What is being UPLOADED? How would one verfiy it?

brm123 wrote:
A lot of people are still missing the big point. What is being UPLOADED? How would one verfiy it?

Forget that the bill says 'Sent', it's an unfortunate misnomer that I believe caused most of the confusion here. It means 'transferred', in either direction (to or from your phone.)

I've only had my iPhone for about 4 days now. I went with the 200mb plan, since I'm almost always on wifi. Anyway, within the first 3 days, I had almost hit my limit. (I got a lovely little text message alert at 5am that I was at 65% of my limit, and then about 10 seconds later, another one, saying that I was at 90% of my limit.) I immediately upgraded to the 2gig plan, so that I wouldn't go over. Then, I checked my data usage- Check this out:

06/29 03:51 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 21678KB
06/29 12:35 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1540KB
06/29 11:06 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 58KB
06/29 02:23 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 522KB
06/28 04:41 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9349KB
06/28 11:51 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2248KB
06/28 02:42 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1909KB
06/28 12:42 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9KB
06/27 02:34 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 157138KB
06/26 11:34 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 24KB
06/26 10:39 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 10KB
06/26 10:21 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 73KB
06/26 10:07 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9KB
06/26 10:03 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 40KB
06/26 10:02 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 8KB
06/26 09:58 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 99KB
Total this page 194714KB
TOTAL 194714KB

The 6/27 entry is especially disturbing- 157138KB at 2am?!?! The large transfer on the 29th is no ray of sunshine either.

The AT&T rep said he had no clue what it could be- and just suggested that I monitor it. (Gee, thanks- never would have thought of that.)

So if any of you guys have any clue how I could possibly have managed to amass such a ridiculous amount of data usage in 3 short days, please please throw me a bone.

Thanks!

well if my push is off, fetch is off, and so is notifications are off, why is it logging in and checking for something then? I could understand your logic if i had some sort of push on, but i dont and no open windows in Safari either.

Also, i really dont care about my data usage as T-Mobile is amazing when it comes to data usage and the lack of caring as i used over 10gb last month tethering with my plan (they have free tethering on Smartphone plans) and they dont even care..

I had the exact same thing happen. You know how AT&T made a stink about how 3G data on a microcell counts against your usage and that it shouldn't matter because you have WiFi... They forget the iPhone turns off wifi while locked thus falling back to 3G. Yesterday at 1:03AM I see 22KB post online for billing. Then at 4:19AM I see 104 MB post. That is IMPOSSIBLE. The sting of it all is if you're on a 200MB plan you're screwed by this over and over again. So what exactly was this phone doing while it was sitting on the knight stand charging. Btw the data went over my 3G microcell. This is the case in point as to why the Microcell data shouldn't count.

/b

My wife is having a similar issue. She is asleep by 9:00. This usage is extreme:

06/28 01:37 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 23KB
06/28 01:30 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 8151KB
06/28 10:13 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2329857KB
06/28 08:00 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 31KB
06/27 11:36 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1283301KB
06/27 11:37 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 622KB
06/27 10:39 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 18KB

Similar usage has been on our last three bills. It's not every night, just once a month. There has to be a corrupted setting or app.

No.

You are sending data in small bits during the day. ATT keeps track of this through the day, and only reports an aggregated row summarizing the days usage on your bill, so that the bill is physically shorter. Nothing is being sent over the air at night -- ATT is just displaying usage spread out through the day AS IF it had been sent in one burst at night.

Spidey!!!

All internet access via ATT is billed as "Sent", regardless of whether you are uploading or downloading data.

Note that almost all internet communication is bidirectional -- requests are sent and responses received. Not to mention the underlying flow control handshaking and 3G session maintenance stuff. This makes applying a "Sent" or "Received" to an IP session a sort of difficult...

It is my belief, as I mentioned earlier, that this is an aggregation FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY of data which actually was transmitted/received earlier in the day.

Spidey!!!

Then why doesn't it appear if the phone is off at the time it is usually "sent", but appears when the phone is turned back on? If it is merely the billing system aggregating it and posting it at one time it should be able to do that whether the phone is off or on.

You are incorrect sir. The data usage meter on the phone reflects exactly the data usage on the bill.

Well for anyone tethering... WATCH OUT!!

6 days into my bill cycle and I'm already at 750MB (771,520kB = 750MB (1028kB=1MB)


I'm still blown away that tethering is sucking up SO much data... not even streaming vid or anything... just mindless surfing... I guess I'll stop otherwise I'll paying the $10 overage per GB many times over...

(what IS odd is that no data is showing as received... ALL my data is labeled as "SENT" so I have no way of knowing which data was U/L or D/L...

I might actually need to return my iP4 within the 30days... this data cap is BS when there's so much 'unaccounted for' and 'unexplained' data...

DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
07/07 10:58 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 47KB
07/07 02:21 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2789KB
07/06 06:54 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 30890KB
07/06 05:53 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 154KB
07/06 04:25 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 192KB
07/06 01:34 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 260KB
07/06 12:59 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 47KB
07/06 12:29 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 317KB
07/06 12:20 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 822KB
07/06 11:37 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 7985KB
07/06 09:55 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1696KB
07/06 08:51 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 65KB
07/06 02:00 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9000KB
07/05 02:36 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 62762KB
07/04 05:53 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 4802KB
07/04 05:39 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 30KB
07/04 05:27 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 117KB
07/04 01:57 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 123514KB
07/03 10:16 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 160271KB
07/03 09:54 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 58411KB
07/03 03:56 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 35445KB
07/03 02:47 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 90791KB
07/02 10:45 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 110815KB
07/02 10:44 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 69KB
07/02 09:36 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1642KB
07/02 05:38 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 2007KB
07/02 05:22 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 55KB
07/02 04:57 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 74KB
07/02 04:17 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 20KB
07/02 03:58 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 17KB
07/02 01:22 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 316KB
07/02 11:18 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 954KB
07/02 10:40 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 85KB
07/02 10:15 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 21KB
07/02 02:54 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 30982KB
07/02 12:54 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 490KB
07/02 12:08 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 33566KB
Total this page 771520KB
TOTAL 771520KB

I just got the iphone 4 on 6/25. My data plan is 200Mb/month. After getting the phone I kept a close eye on my data so I wouldn't go over. Up until 7/3 I was well under (25Mb). I received an email from ATT on 7/5 saying I went over my 200Mb. I checked my bill and found that on 7/4 @ 1:26 am it sent 205Mb. This is over my monthly data. I called ATT and they didn't have an answer.



After I talked to ATT with no results I turned off Cellular Data on the iphone. It's been off since 7/5 (7/5-7/7). Today I noticed on my phone the data usage had increased by 30Mb. I don't understand how it can go up when I have the data off. I called ATT again and they said that that is the total data usage for the phone including wifi. It clearly says "Cellular Network Data". Since I checked this morning it has gone up 20Mb more. (all on wifi with data off) My fear is that I will turn on data and it will sync with att servers and increase my data by 50Mb and I haven't even been using 3G.



Someone from ATT and/or Apple needs to figure out what is going on because this is clearly a problem. No one seems to have an answer. This is going to be an issue with the new data plans. I only have the 200Mb/month but when it charges 205Mb at a shot it wouldn't matter if it was 2Gb, you will still go over.
.

When you look at 'previous data usage' on your bill you see a bar graph of the last 6 months or so. I looked at mine yesterday. I know my usage is consistent as I only use the phone on 3G at the same times each day. The graph for the last 3 months, since April shows much higher usage than the three months before that. This is just wrong!

So, after spending a month consciously monitoring my data usage, I watched my April-June spike drop back to the usage I had previously been seeing. Prior to April my usage was in the 150-200MB range, from April to June it was 315-350MB, yet my usage patterns were the same as they had always been.

I have all Push/Fetch turned off, and since switching to my iPhone 4 I now have the ability to turn off cellular data so I switched to the 200MB plan; I might regret this...

I still see the 2AM cellular transfers, but am planning on turning cellular data off and force them to wifi to cut the usage down.

ATT and Apple have still given no unified answer to this issue. I do think this needs to be investigated further, but in the meantime I'll be doing my data avoiding rituals to keep them from charging me for ghosts.

what good is a smartphone if you're having to "watch" your usage like a hawk? i'm terribly unimpressed with this... and while it's been about 6 months since my last iphone (3GS) before I went to T-Mo for a bit, the latest trends in my data usage just don't match one bit what I remember it being back at the end of 2009 with my 3GS...

i'm REALLY considering returning my iP4 and canceling my at&t plan before the 30 day period runs out... There is something way too fishy going on here... and the fact that Apple nor AT&T have an answer, blaming each other as they always, does not sit well with me. :-S