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Q: Unknown data usage early morning
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Aug 12, 2010 7:51 AMby rentamark,Yes, I found that same article right after I posted my question.
I am still keeping a detailed log of my cellular data usage and comparing it to the report on AT&T's web site. So far in the past week, AT&T has reported about 48MB of data that does not show up in the "Cellular Network Data" usage on my iPhone. -
Aug 12, 2010 7:52 AMby BulaRae,I'm totally lost at all this technical stuff and what you are attempting to show. However, if I do think back to it, my unexplained large data transfers happened during or right after I had used WiFi at a hotel and then hit the road and was back on 3G. I had been on 3G pretty much the whole time but had just stayed at a hotel in Spain for 3 days where they had free WiFi.
So now it's got me wondering if somehow there is a bug in the programming of the data tracking or something and maybe it's not transitioning between WiFi and 3G and is recording usage while under WiFi? It would actually explain my sudden large transfers those two days as I was on WiFi and trying to watch video on the Tour de France app I had downloaded from Versus. I am 100% positive I had the WiFi symbol on my phone and not 3G. I am too savvy of a user to have "accidentally" been on 3G. -
Aug 12, 2010 8:16 AMby Lawrence T.,Joo Chung wrote:
Perhaps someone could use the Firewall-IP application to log and analyze their traffic....
That app requires a jailbroken iPhone. If your phone is jailbroken, you can do that using tcpdump for free.
Also, after I ran my experiment overnight, which showed my WiFi connection definitely active and responding the entire time, both my iPhone counter and AT&T's billing records show several hundreds of KB of data being sent. While this is no where near the tens of MB some people are seeing, your phone is definitely sending something over the cellular network even when there's an active WiFi connection. And no, I don't have visual voicemail active. I also don't think there's a way for apps to force the use of the cellular connection. -
Aug 12, 2010 8:53 AMby Mitch Aunger,I don't believe there's an effort to "divert" the discussion... there are many topics in this thread and have been since day 1.
As a part of the discussion about this unknown data usage, there have been claims posted that wifi gets shut off during sleep and then the 3g cellular data kicks in. Which is where the 'unknown data usage' comes in. So this is directly tied to the topic.
I too want to know exactly the parameters of the data usage and when I'm within wifi range whether the iPhone is switching over to 3g cellular data without me knowing - which would increase my usage without me knowing.
For example... yesterday - at this time, I was sitting in my house with wifi available and working... why did 1+MB go thru cellular data? I wasn't even using my phone
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
08/11 04:15 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1221KB -
Aug 12, 2010 8:57 AMby Lawrence T.,Mitch Aunger wrote:
For example... yesterday - at this time, I was sitting in my house with wifi available and working... why did 1+MB go thru cellular data? I wasn't even using my phone
DATE TIME TO/FROM TYPE DIRECTION MSG/KB/MIN
08/11 04:15 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1221KB
I've been hesitant to weigh in on this because I have been unable to think of a good way to prove any theories yet, but here goes. My take is that you should read that number as the sum of activity between the previous record and this time. That is, that line says you sent/received 1221KB of data between the timestamp on the previous line and 4:15pm. I'm not sure how this will fit in with what everyone has been experiencing, so feel free to chime in. -
Aug 12, 2010 10:21 AMby Luecke,Actually I like what Lawrence.T did. His experiment clarified some confusion regarding the way phantom data transmitted. Yes we are still looking for the explanation of "What is in the large data transfers, where is it going and to whom?" But we are, at least me, also interested in not being stay only on the surface of the problem.
Experiment and report are strongly encouraged while waiting for AT&T and/or Apple's official explanation. -
Aug 12, 2010 8:17 PMby Cory Bauer,Lawrence T., thank you for proving this in a manner more scientific than my own.
Regarding Apple's claim that the iPhone releases wi-fi to conserve battery life: I charged my iPhone 4 entirely the other evening before bed, then left it unplugged with cellular data disabled. In the morning there were four unread emails waiting for me that came during the night (my less scientific method of proving the iPhone maintains a wi-fi connection when cellular data is unavailable), and the battery life had dropped to...100%.
So the idea that wi-fi's dropped to conserve battery is either outdated information or a bold-faced lie by Apple. The cynic in me believes that Apple is intentionally hopping on 3G and sending diagnostic data during off-peak hours to help us all get over those data limits and spend more money per month. -
Aug 13, 2010 7:53 AMby lightsp33d,Cory Bauer wrote:
Regarding Apple's claim that the iPhone releases wi-fi to conserve battery life: I charged my iPhone 4 entirely the other evening before bed, then left it unplugged with cellular data disabled. In the morning there were four unread emails waiting for me that came during the night (my less scientific method of proving the iPhone maintains a wi-fi connection when cellular data is unavailable), and the battery life had dropped to...100%.
That still *does not prove* that the iPhone's WiFi radio is constantly on while the phone is locked and off the charger. For example, if you're on a Fetch schedule, your mail will be retrieved as per the Fetch schedule, and the OS wouldn't need to turn on the WiFi radio at least as often as that, or as it sees fit for its needs.
Having WiFi constantly on while the phone is locked and off the charger and there is no network traffic is wasteful in terms of the battery. -
Aug 13, 2010 7:55 AMby ravens515,Jumping in here late. My cycle just started. My wife has a limited plan, and was socked with 47mb on the first day. Have no idea how she could have used that much.
Mine is unlimited, and I had a 150mb send at 5:22am on a day after I never left the house. Phone would have been on Wifi all day. -
Aug 13, 2010 8:04 AMby lightsp33d,Lawrence T. wrote:
I've been hesitant to weigh in on this because I have been unable to think of a good way to prove any theories yet, but here goes. My take is that you should read that number as the sum of activity between the previous record and this time. That is, that line says you sent/received 1221KB of data between the timestamp on the previous line and 4:15pm. I'm not sure how this will fit in with what everyone has been experiencing, so feel free to chime in.
That begs the question, what is then the period time, and data size heuristic for deciding when to charge? (Either the time period would be no less than a constant period of time, or the data accumulated would be at least a constant, and I haven't seen this looking at my bill.)
As I'm looking at my bill, I can see various sizes of cellular data transfers charged at various intervals of time, including the infamous 2:40-ish in the morning transfer of various sizes. -
Aug 13, 2010 8:12 AMby BulaRae,I do think it has something to do with the system aggregating, but I'm not sure I can back up your theory. In my case I had over 140MB at 4:31 and then over 14MB at 4:41. I don't see how the phone/internet could have physically transferred that much data in 10 minutes.
And the time stamps on mine are very often at :21 :31 :41 :51. It's simply not possibly that I am/was coincidentally using 3G on my phone at exactly those times after the hour. -
Aug 13, 2010 8:16 AMby BulaRae,I am really just stunned and amazed that nobody from Apple and/or AT&T has at least come and made a statement on this thread yet. It's pathetic, really.
I visit a travel website where representatives of major hotel chains and airlines will weigh in on threads of issues and complaints and at least provide a response that says "you are heard".
This is a really big deal and a huge mess/hole they are going to have to climb out of if they have been inaccurately charging millions of customers for who knows how long and they can't or won't prove to us what the data transfers are for, and remaining silent about it only makes it an even bigger deal. -
Aug 13, 2010 8:28 AMby chcn,I don't think the two records in 10 min necessarily disproves the aggregation theory. There could be multiple aggregation processes running in parallel. Perhaps some data from some towers and some from others, for example.
I carefully compare my data from the phone's meter with my bill at the end of the month. In the long term they agree within about 5% or so (using Rogers, not AT&T).
Without going back and reading every post, I'll ask if those who are having this problem have done such a comparison. (Although I'm not exactly what that would show, on second thought. If the numbers agree, that might just mean that the phone is counting the mystery transfers. I guess the best test would be to leave data on but use no data for a whole day or three.)
