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Q: Unknown data usage early morning
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Aug 13, 2010 8:35 AMby BulaRae,chcn wrote:
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.)
Oh dear. Sorry, but if you haven't read at least enough of the thread to know that there is a major discrepancy between the phone reporting and the bill, then you shouldn't be weighing in.
In my case my phone showed me 27 MB and AT&T showed 148 MB, and I reviewed older bills from teh months preceding that and my phone had showed me around 50 MB and they billed me for 92 and 108 two different months. -
Aug 13, 2010 9:01 AMby chbphoto,This is another update -
I reset my preference to share data (in iTunes) - for the past 2 weeks, the late night transfers have STOPPED!
On the phone itself, I turned off location services for all apps except Maps and MotionX GPS.
Yesterday evening I used Maps for less than 5 minutes - with traffic turned on - about 5 MB of downloads - I believe map caching and traffic data - this one is a real data hog.
I used AIM Free for messaging several times last night over about an hour (Notifications ON) - results in very little data transfer (a few KB).
I checked my ATT account this morning - only about 5 MB usage yesterday - no late night transfers.
The not sharing of data with Apple preference may be the trick - or at least part of it. -
Aug 13, 2010 9:04 AMby chcn,Ah, very sorry about that. I did read quite a few posts, but I didn't remember if that was the case, over the course of a month.
Given what you say (and if I understand correctly that you're talking about comparing over the course of a month and not just points in time), it seems less likely that aggregation is the answer. Or at least that it's the whole answer. -
Aug 13, 2010 9:19 AMby Lawrence T.,BulaRae wrote:
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.
I think what you're saying does back up the system aggregation theory. From the data points you reported, that says that your phone transferred just over 14MB in 10 minutes. That sounds perfectly reasonable. Now, if you told me that before that there was another record at 4:21 - that would make the aggregation theory much less likely. -
Aug 13, 2010 9:25 AMby Lawrence T.,BulaRae wrote:
chcn wrote:
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.)
Oh dear. Sorry, but if you haven't read at least enough of the thread to know that there is a major discrepancy between the phone reporting and the bill, then you shouldn't be weighing in.
In my case my phone showed me 27 MB and AT&T showed 148 MB, and I reviewed older bills from teh months preceding that and my phone had showed me around 50 MB and they billed me for 92 and 108 two different months.
I think he is talking about a different issue - there's currently confusion about whether or not the "mystery transfers" are being charged to your account. In this case, (and in my experience), I would say that the transfers are indeed being charged to your account. (I'm referring to posts I remember from a while ago about the phone uploading diagnostic information that some official source claimed are not being billed to the user.)
In your situation, it seems like you have a different problem where AT&T is tracking your usage incorrectly. It seems trivial to take a screenshot/photo of the usage screen which says 1) when you last reset it and 2) how much data was used since then. And take that and your bill and go nuts with it. That seems like definitive proof (minus the possibility that you doctored the screenshot/photograph) that AT&T is tracking your usage wrongly. -
Aug 13, 2010 9:45 AMby chcn,I think where I was going with this (comparing the usage screen with the bill-- always over the course of an extended period, preferably a full billing month) was the possibility that either (a) the mystery transfers bypass the phone's counter or (b) aren't real at all (just a billing error). In either case you'd have a good argument with AT&T, as you say.
But if the numbers agree (say, within 10%) over the course of a month, then it doesn't really answer anything. In that case there could still be a problem, or maybe not (maybe it's just aggregation). -
Aug 13, 2010 12:10 PMby chcn,Something related to the aggregation theory:
The usage app from my carrier (not AT&T) has an info screen that says, +inter alia+, the following about the data totals it displays:
"Smart phone records can take up to 24 hours to be collected or until the phone is turned off and back on." -
Aug 14, 2010 7:31 AMby Eric Hockstad,We have 4 iphones in the family, and my daughter's is the only one that is doing this mysterious 1:30 am data usage. While she is in a wifi environment at home, it still seems to happen. She IS going to be charged this month for excess usage, even though almost all of her "use" is when the phone is not in her hands (she can't keep it in her bedroom).
Very frustrating. -
Aug 16, 2010 11:54 AMby Lawrence T.,kaluzu wrote:
I was looking for an AppStore application (kind of like a firewall) that will track any and all apps requesting internet access, and reporting their data usage.
Anybody found a reliable one?
unless i'm mistaken, such an application can only run on a jailbroken phone. just off the top of my head:
1) this app would have to run in the background all the time, which is impossible (even with iOS 4's "multitasking")
2) tcpdump and its variants require superuser privileges -
Aug 17, 2010 1:38 PMby NFH.,I have an iPhone 4 on Orange UK. I reset my usage counter at the beginning of my last billing month because I was going abroad and wanted to limit and monitor roaming charges. Since that reset, my iPhone tells me that I received 370MB and sent 34.5MB, which correlates with my typical monthly usage. However, my Orange bill shows that I have used 916MB of data in my last billing month. I queried this with Orange, who found that according to their records, I used 160MB in a specific 1½-hour period and a further 350MB in a 7-hour period the following day. Fortunately, Orange's iPhone tariffs have a fair usage policy of 1GB/month, and unless I go over this signficantly and repeatedly, there are no financial or performance consequences. However, it concerns me that either Orange's billing systems are incorrect or that my iPhone is using data invisibly. -
Aug 19, 2010 7:48 AMby doctor-mama,Was just on the phone with a helpful AT&T person this morning, asking why I have nighttime data transfers when I'm at home and on wireless. She acknowledges the problem and says it's an Apple issue: They grab diagnostic information during the night or whenever the phone is turned on. Apple has it set up to do this over 3G only, even if wireless is available. The only way around it, says the AT&T person, is to wipe out your iTunes account AND THE BACKUP on the phone and computer and establish a new account. When you do, say "no" to Apple's request to collect diagnostic info. The downside of this, of course, is that you wipe out all your data, including any purchased apps.
She said that people who have a lot of apps installed can use the better part of 200 mb/month just on this. -
Aug 19, 2010 7:55 AMby Nathan Goldshlag,Was just on the phone with a helpful AT&T person this morning, asking why I have nighttime data transfers when I'm at home and on wireless. She acknowledges the problem and says it's an Apple issue: They grab diagnostic information during the night or whenever the phone is turned on. Apple has it set up to do this over 3G only, even if wireless is available. The only way around it, says the AT&T person, is to wipe out your iTunes account AND THE BACKUP on the phone and computer and establish a new account. When you do, say "no" to Apple's request to collect diagnostic info. The downside of this, of course, is that you wipe out all your data, including any purchased apps.
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The need to create a new iTunes account is completely false. I stopped the large data transfers by hooking up the phone, right clicking on the phone device on the left, resetting warnings, and choosing not to send info to Apple. The large transfers went away.
Nate -
Aug 19, 2010 8:13 AMby John Holcomb2,I've done the same thing. The AT&T person you talked to is a clueless wonder.
I have attempted a number of items to trace out this problem. Nathan is correct on the procedure.
1) Right click on the iPhone icon on iTunes and select Reset Warnings
2) Sync your phone. You will get a dialog box asking if you want to send diagnostic info to Apple to help improve the product. Select DISAGREE.
Your problem will be solved.
I think the solution speaks for itself, the issue is one Apple's code sending a large volue of diagnostic info.
