Q: Unknown data usage early morning

ST. LOUIS -- July 29, 2010 — News Release *Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced it has completed its acquisition of Narus*, a leading provider of real-time network traffic and analytics software used to protect against cyber attacks and persistent threats aimed at large Internet Protocol networks

jltal2600 wrote:
Had the same issue with data showing up when i am using wifi network at home. Called att and of course no help.

I didn't bother to read 28 pages of replies so excuse me if this has already been posted.

[snip...]
So your choices are keep your phone plugged in while you sleep or at work, or turn cellular data off.

If you had read just a few of the recent pages, you would have read that iPhones do NOT hold on to the wi-fi network while asleep, *even if they are left plugged in to power*... My experience is consistent with this assertion, and aside from non-cellular devices like iPad wifi, I have not seen anyone indicating they have found otherwise....

If you don't want cellular data transmitting while the phone is asleep then you need to turn off cellular data, period.

That does beg the question of whether or not all the transfers listed for the middle of the night are itemized or not (vs. some/many/all being aggregated use from earlier in the day). That's another one you would have read about.

I'm actually wondering if usage patterns dictate whether ATT reports atomized or aggregated transfers... They could well be itemizing unless/until it makes the bill too many pages, then aggregating such bills. More speculation, I know, but the fact that some users have reported family plans where one user shows aggregated use and the other shows atomized DOES make me wonder what's going on with that... and that of course would make posting transfer "records" for comparison problematic, at best............

toadarama wrote:
I'm actually wondering if usage patterns dictate whether ATT reports atomized or aggregated transfers... They could well be itemizing unless/until it makes the bill too many pages, then aggregating such bills...

It is also possible that large transfers are reported as they occur (with time of day matching the time-point of the actual transfer), but small ones are aggregated and reported overnight (perhaps with the time-point of the last transfer). Only AT&T can tell us the exact criteria used to determine which transfers are reported as they occur vs. which are reported in aggregate, and the time-point at which aggregated usage is recorded...

I've been having this problem also.

I spoke to ATT & was transferred to an Apple support person. He thought it might have to do with Location Services and various free 3rd party apps.

We started running some tests - I turned off ALL Location Services for a few days - THE 3G TRANSFERS STOPPED!!!

Then I turned on Compass, Camera & Maps (all non-Apple apps were left OFF) - There were some relatively small data transfers on 3G about midnight - about 1 MB.

Last night I turned off the Compass & Camera apps - no midnight data transfer.

I'll keep this configuration for a couple more days and then check some of the free GPS apps, etc.

Maybe we're on to something?

Nope, this isn't it. I have absolutely no apps installed and no location tracking, yet still have huge data use at night.

knania wrote:
Nope, this isn't it. I have absolutely no apps installed and no location tracking, yet still have huge data use at night.

did you opt out? and what apps do you use?

knania wrote:
Nope, this isn't it. I have absolutely no apps installed and no location tracking, yet still have huge data use at night.

Do you use maps, camera or compass? All three are standard apps that come with the phone and use location services. Also some web apps (in Safari) use location services.

could this usage be due to the use of genius? for apps, for songs?

Like everyone else here I have had unexplained data usage in the 1-3 am range with a few others early morning 6-7am or evening 7-7:30 pm.
I RARELY am not in a wi-fi environment.
I have called AT&T and gotten different responses, but they usually try to pin the blame on Facebook (which I don't use) or some other application, or they blame my ISP, email push (which is off) or Apple's IOS4 multi-tasking.

I dropped to the 200mb plan at the beginning of the month as I have never gone over 100mb. This month I am at 145, so I should be OK.

The problem is with my son's 3Gs, which was my phone before I got iPhone 4

He received notification AFTER THE FACT that he had gone over his 200mb and would be charged a second $15 for 200 more.
I called AT&T to request that he be put on the 2GB plan instead so it would at least save me the $5
After a long conversation discussing the rogue data usage and explaining that I received no advance notice of the overage, she agreed to roll back the starting date to the beginning of this billing cycle and put him on the $25 plan and removing the two $15 fees for the 200mb plus overage.

STRANGE, now that he is on the higher cost data plan, the data usage now shows 180mb used instead of the 203mb that was reported when I called.

Something is up folks.....someone knows something and they ain't talkin'...
this is bigger than the overblown antenna issue, why isn't it being reported???

I'm wondering that if I turn off 3g over night, whether I'll just get a big data transfer in the morning.

At least then I'll definitely have wifi on.

Is it confirmed that when the iPhone goes to sleep or is locked, that wifi is turned off and 3G is still active?

So… since we're all very confused and nobody seems to know the answers yet, I thought I'd try a little experiment.

On Wednesday, while on a vacation, I took my 3 iPhones and used them at the exact same time doing the exact same thing… running the maps application. I wasn't sure if it would be a good test, but I was convinced I'd see a difference in the phones data usage. Unfortunately, we were in an area with only Edge ATT service - there weren't any 3g areas for 10s of miles. Each of the phones is different so I thought it might help diagnose the issues.

#1 - iPhone 4 with iOS 4
#2 - iPhone 3gs with OS 3.1.2
#3 - iPhone 3g with iOS 4

We started the maps application with the location service turned on at exactly the same time (10:22 AM CDT) and ran them all for 10 minutes - obviously tracking the same movement of the boat. There was no wi-fi signal anywhere near by.

Here are the data reports:

#1
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
07/28 11:23 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 993KB

#2 (note! There isn't any data reported after 07/28 at 01:53 AM -- the ATT site shows no usage at the time of the other 2 phones - showing other data to just show that there's no reported usage during the time of the experiment)
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
07/28 01:53 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 198KB
07/27 09:53 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 41KB

#3
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
07/28 10:35 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1017KB

Note that the phone #1 and phone #3 are showing an hour difference in the report but that the amount of data is approximately the same.

I completely expected that the OS 3 phone would show a difference from the iOS 4 phone. I was wrong.

I'm also surprised by the lack of data showing for the #2 phone! After all, it is more than 48 hours after the experiment. Maybe data will eventually show up?

I'll be happy to try another experiment since I have 3 different iPhones at my disposal. Any suggestions of good tests? (email won't count as I don't want to set each up with the same email addresses)

I would happily use the phone with the Cellular Data turned off while at home on Wi-fi if it didn't mean the loss of visual voice mail features.

By the way, on the same trip, we used the iPad to do much of the mapping and all of my email processing. In 5 days, I used 235mb of data out of a 2gb data plan.

chbphoto wrote:
I'm wondering that if I turn off 3g over night, whether I'll just get a big data transfer in the morning.

At least then I'll definitely have wifi on.

Is it confirmed that when the iPhone goes to sleep or is locked, that wifi is turned off and 3G is still active?

It's not 3G that you would turn off, but "Cellular Data"... they are different settings.

All I can tell you for sure is that FOR ME, wifi disconnects when the phone goes to sleep or is locked... if I hear an alert of some kind, and wake it up, it shows 3G connected, then after a few moments it kicks into wifi. It really seems rather clear to me, and there are reports in this thread that folks from Apple have explicitly said this is how it works. I don't think there is much doubt about it.

What I'm wondering is why it should drop wifi "to save energy" if it is plugged in to power! There is no need to drop wifi even if I put it to sleep _if it is plugged in_! I hope this is something they can and will fix via an update... *APPLE, ARE YOU LISTENING*?

spidey3 wrote:

toadarama wrote:
I'm actually wondering if usage patterns dictate whether ATT reports atomized or aggregated transfers... They could well be itemizing unless/until it makes the bill too many pages, then aggregating such bills...

It is also possible that large transfers are reported as they occur (with time of day matching the time-point of the actual transfer), but small ones are aggregated and reported overnight (perhaps with the time-point of the last transfer). Only AT&T can tell us the exact criteria used to determine which transfers are reported as they occur vs. which are reported in aggregate, and the time-point at which aggregated usage is recorded...

Indeed... ATT is holding all the cards on actual usage info, and they are not showing their hand. And given the nice comparative post by Mitch Aunger (good one, Mitch!), it does not seem like you can count on those usage reports to accurately reflect when data was used. I think we already knew this, but it's nice seeing it clearly demonstrated.

So the "early morning data usage" part is shaky, but the total volume of use over time does appear to remain an issue. Especially since the cumulative figures ATT gives do not appear to match what the phone reports! I wonder if there is some sort of connection problem, and ATT is tracking all transmissions (failed or succeeded) while the phone only reports successful transmission. I don't know, just grasping at straws!

WHY IS THIS THREAD STILL GOING?

We have known for months and there has been press on this issue already. It is evident that ATT runs maintenance and billing updates during these wee hours where most folks arent using their iPhones.

Its already been said that one isnt billed for the data. The only time you should be concern is if your paranoid or think your being billed for the data in which you probably arent.

Here's more press from Gizmodo themselves also:
http://gizmodo.com/5599621/those-nighttime-iphone-downloads-are-actually-not-dow nloads

Its time to let these types of thread and put up more concerning threads that are actually related to iPhone issues.

What??? The thread is going because our usage is incorrectly being tracked, reported and billed.

The Gizmodo article doesn't explain anything. ATT says I'm not being billed yet my usage on the iPhone 4 is grossly higher than previous months on the iPhone 3. I'm sitting at home 95% of the time and there should be little to no cellular data traffic (if you ask me) when my wi-fi is sitting right here.

Until either Apple or ATT can show me exactly why I racked up 194mb of data traffic last month when I was next to a wi-fi signal more than 95% of the time I had my phone, then I'm going to be unhappy.

Why can't either vendor tell us what application is sending 6+ MB of data daily when wi-fi is here?

This is a huge issue for me and should very well stay open.