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Q: Unknown data usage early morning
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Aug 5, 2010 5:19 AMby smacryan,Here is another interesting piece of data, I have three iphones in my family. The phones of my wife and me are experiencing this mysterious 2am transfer problem. My son's iphone is not. He is 11, and he is registered with that age at AT&T, so AT&T is not allowed to collect information on him for advertising or other reasons.
When I registered his phone with Apple, I also told them his age. His iphone, though, uses my Apple ID. I have no idea which age record takes precedent - iphone registration or Apple ID, so it's possible that Apple considers his iphone off-limits too.
Net: His iphone has no mysterious 2am uploads and the only difference in his config over mine or my wife's is his age.
Message was edited by: smacryan -
Aug 6, 2010 12:26 AMby Disco Sauce,You know, I think the plain and simple fact that both AT&T and Apple have neglected to comment on or even acknowledge the existence of this issue is enough to imply that they know something they don't want us to know. If they're using the data that customers pay for for their own benefit, and without our permission, that's solid grounds for a law suit. Would not be surprised if we saw one pop up rather quickly. -
Aug 6, 2010 4:51 AMby Mitch Aunger,Boy, lesson learned... navigation is a killer on 3g
yesterday, I had to go pick up a daughter from a location I'm not that familiar with and got stuck by a passing train. Used the default maps app to find my way around the train to get to my daughter still a few minutes late.
here's the hit:
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
08/05 02:09 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 12357KB
12.35 MB of data in about 10 minutes of travel! Yikes
I'm not using any other features while away from my wifi - nothing, no email (unless I have a while to sit) etc.
I really didn't think I'd have to manage my phone so carefully when switching to the 200mb plan. Almost makes me wish I'd never cancelled the unlimited. -
Aug 6, 2010 5:37 AMby knania,So I've had the same issues discussed in this thread: mysterious huge overnight transfers, huge data usage during the day even when in wifi, general data usage off the charts. I am very upset that I switched to att because it feels like bait and switch - they said this plan would be right for me and it's completely wrong. Well, I got rid of my phone and switched to blackberry since I was still within the 30 days. The results?
In the first 15 days, my data was outrageous even though I barely used the phone and had no push/apps: 191 MB.
The next 7 days with blackberry? .63MB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have used the phone consistently over the 22 days, so:
It may be the case that certain phones (iphone, pixi, other models stated previously) use a huge amount of data. For many, this will be worth it. But to say that most users find that 200MB of data is sufficient - well that's the bait and switch. If I was told up front that my phone was a data suck, I would have made my decision accordingly.
Another note: I still have late night data transfers. But now? 4-12kb. I'm fine with that! It's not suspicious, and some of the previous suggestions for what it could be now make sense.
Thoughts? -
Aug 6, 2010 7:28 AMby rpg51,This might be a bit off topic - but in response - I use an iPhone 3gs. I use it a fair amount. I pull down my e mail perhaps 5 times a day. I get and send maybe 2-3 texts a day. I occasionally use maps or a gps program. Maybe 2-3 times a week. I check accounts and pay bills - maybe twice a week. I use it as a phone and part of the time I use a SIP application to make calls - but mostly only when on wifi. I have wifi at home and the office. I basically pay little attention to my personal habits as far as data use. I just use the phone whenever I feel the need which is a fair amount. I use less than 100mb a month typically. Never come close to 200mb - at least since I learned to turn off gps apps and maps when I am done.
It is hard for me to relate to the kind of data use some report. Perhaps if I did not have wifi at home and work it would be different??? Or maybe something odd is going on with some folks and they are being charge for an inordinate amount of data use. But the bottom line really is not how much data you use - its how much does it cost. For me the $15 data plan is way more than I need. How much does your data plan cost? -
Aug 6, 2010 7:40 AMby Lawrence Finch,I don't think you are off topic. What has happened in this thread is identification of several questions/issues that kind of get mushed together.
1. Data transfers in the middle of the night when the phone isn't in use. What is the content of these transfers? Is it usage data collected by the carrier, or aggregate data from the previous day? Or an app that is exchanging data with a server? Or tracking data on what you did with your phone?
2. Much larger data transfers over the course of a month than expected. This wasn't an issue with unlimited data; no one actually checked their usage. Now with a tiered plan suddenly everyone is concerned about it (with good reason).
3. Why is there cellular usage within a WiFi zone? Possibly because WiFi is off when the phone is asleep, but is this so?
4. Why is the data usage that appears on the bill greater than the data usage tracked by the phone, frequently by a huge amount?
5. Why doesn't AT&T, Apple, or other carriers offer a reasonable explanation of the data usage in 1.? Do they have something to hide, or perhaps they just don't know? Or is it an error in their billing system?
6. If the nightly data transfers are Apple or the carrier collecting data for their own use why are we billed for it? Or are we? They DO appear on the printed bill, so it is reasonable to assume it goes against quotas. -
Aug 6, 2010 8:09 AMby lyricon,Just did a Google search on this subject;
http://www.topiphoneresource.info/att-late-night-iphone-data-usage-reason/
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/another-iphone-mystery-explained/
So......?
I would think if this were true then the Billed Data ( NOT the added up amounts from the detailed reports) would be consistent with your usage. Does ATT bill you for an overage?
I don't see these transfers on my billing reports. Seems if the above links are true then I should.
I am wondering if it is location sensitive. I live in Vermont. May be the billing collection systems differ depending on the towers you are connecting to. It could have to do with the data volumes these various towers and systems have to deal with.
I just switched from the unlimited plan because I wanted tethering. My usage has hovered just over 200meg/month. I will see if it changes. -
Aug 6, 2010 8:54 AMby Lawrence Finch,I am still on unlimited. My bill shows data transfers of varying sizes between 2 and 3 AM ET EVERY day, some very large. These data transfers are included in the data total on my electronic and paper bills. I would assume that if I were on a tiered plan and the total exceeded my allowance I would be billed for the overage. -
Aug 6, 2010 4:33 PMby rpg51,I checked over the data use information on my att account. There is a data transfer that appears every single day at around 2:30 or so. The ones I checked were fairly small. I called ATT customer support. After a run around and a long hold time I was told that there is a transfer that happens every day in the wee hours when the iPhone syncs up with the ATT data service. I was told that this happens automatically and there is nothing I can do to stop it from happening. I was told that it happens even when I am on wifi. I was told it will not happen if the phone is off - otherwise it will happen automatically. -
Aug 6, 2010 7:53 PMby BulaRae,Hi all:
I'm the one who got stuck with $3000 roaming data charges. The 2nd supervisor I spent well over an hour on the phone with at AT&T on July 26th had promised me she would call me by August 3rd with results of the investigation, as my bill from last month for $817 is due Monday the 9th.
And Roberta didn't call. I have to say I'm not surprised. AT&T is clearly dodging things here.
I forgot about the dates and everything as I'm still traveling and have a LOT going on in my life right now. So now I will have to proceed with chasing down Roberta on Monday and see if there's any official info from AT&T on the investigation. I can't tell you how infuriating it is to have to go through this, as based on the last 2.5 hours of calls with Supervisors I'm leery now that I may have the same result as before, where Roberta didn't actually document anything and I have to start at square one yet again.
Meanwhile I do at least have the Apple genius guy in Boulder who used to work for AT&T and promised me he'd hook me up with his old manager there if Roberta didn't get things resolved for me. So I guess I'll be calling him too on Monday.
