iTunes/Apple Music took 15GB of my cellular data in a single day

Question

iTunes/Apple Music took 15GB of my cellular data in a single day

Hi,

I am so desperate today because my iPhone 6s Apple Music almost utilise my entire 1 month cellular data 15GB in just a single day, actually in few hours I would say. I didn't notified and I had no clue that this could happen. I verified in my settings about the data refresh where there is no option for Apple Music to stop background refresh. Now I am totally blocked to use my cellular data and I am forced to disable my cellular data in order to avoid unnecessary extra usage charges from AT&T. I don't know why Apple Music didn't use WiFi to do all these downloads (if that was the root cause), because for the last 24hrs I was in active WiFi. And I could see this data stealing happened all of a sudden when I moved from WiFi to cellular data. Please do something to help me out of this.

iPhone 6s, iOS 12

Posted on May 24, 2019 11:50 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Urquhart1244

Community+ 2024

Level 10

139,710 points

May 25, 2019 2:41 AM in response to anoopkollengot

There must be something else going on. Regular streaming music is about 100 MB/h, so 15 GB is worth about 150 hours of streaming. You would need at least a week for that, at 24h/day.

Settings﹥Cellular﹥(scroll down)﹥Cellular Data per App﹥Music app, since last (manual) statistics reset. You’d see the cellular MBs for each app there. The on|off switches per app make it easy to disallow cellular use for that app. [I have a calendar reminder each month, to help me remind to reset these statistics when my mobile plan also resets.]

Do check Settings﹥Cellular﹥Cellular Data per app﹥App Store, as app updates have cost me dearly, when I allowed that on cellular.

Do check Settings﹥Cellular﹥Wi-Fi assist (all the way down), as that may invoke cellular use when you didn’t mean to.

Do check if you have automatic downloads on, as that may download a whole saved playlist/album, even if you listen to a single song from it.

Reply

Answer 2

Vancouver22

Level 8

36,264 points

May 24, 2019 5:17 PM in response to anoopkollengot

There is a setting to turn off data beforehand. This is the case with all apps you might want to disable data on.

(also in settings - Cellular- scroll down to see a list of Apps using cell data)

If you can't connect to a Wi-Fi network on your iOS device, it will try using cellular data:, unless you turn this off.

Go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store.
Turn off Use Cellular Data.

You might have to pay a fee to download over a cellular network. Contact your wireless carrier for details, and learn about cellular data settings and usage.

Reply

Answer 3

May 28, 2019 1:56 PM in response to Urquhart1244

I checked my Settings﹥Cellular﹥Cellular Data per app and Apple Music is on top with 15.8GB during the current period and my App Store is just 390MB. The problem is not even here, my already downloaded songs are again showing 'download in progress icon/spinner' while I switch from WiFi to Cellular Data and most surprisingly it is not happening when I am in WiFi (while in WiFi, I could see the "Downloaded" message at the top of my each playlist).

And also I cross verified my Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store > Use Cellular Data, which is still OFF. I know the regular streaming music will be about 100 MB/hr, but then how come my 15GB data lost in few hours. I got 2 flash message with in 10mins interval from my cellular carrier (AT&T) warning me about the low data availability, and there was almost 400MB data loss difference I could see in between the 1st and 2nd flash messages.

Reply

Answer 4

Vancouver22

Level 8

36,264 points

May 28, 2019 7:32 PM in response to anoopkollengot

All I can say is you should have the data turned off for apps you don’t want it used on. Then it can’t use any until you’re near wifi.

Mine is turned off on pretty much everything and when I try to use an app (when I have no wifi) a message pops up alerting me I will need to turn data on in settings. It should work that way.

... and yes music downloads will top the list if it’s not been turned off for that

Reply

Answer 5

May 29, 2019 4:32 PM in response to Vancouver22

Thank you for the response and you are right. I still wonder why Music is trying to download songs which are already downloaded. I tracked my last week daily data usage through the carrier portal and I could see around 950MB x 2 times data used every consecutive days during the morning time (specifically which is the time when I come out of my home WiFi to start to my office), which is strange. And if the Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store > Use Cellular Data is OFF, then none of the apps should use cellular data while I am not in WiFi right? and that also failed. I'll connect with my cellular to get more evidence about this unusual data usage.

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 9, 2019 2:02 PM in response to Vancouver22

This is happening again. Yesterday my Apple Music took more than 5GB of my data even after my Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store > Use Cellular Data is OFF. Also my Settings > Cellular > CELLULAR DATA is OFF for Apple Music, but still when ever I come out of my WiFi, I could see Apple Music is trying to download all the songs in my playlist, which are already downloaded in to my phone while I was in WiFi. This is getting very very serious, because of this problem I am not able to use my cellular data while travelling and this brings lots of troubles.

Reply

Answer 7

Vancouver22

Level 8

36,264 points

Jun 9, 2019 3:40 PM in response to anoopkollengot

Make sure it’s turned off in a few places in settings

settings- iTunes & App Store, Use Cellular Data- disable

settings - Cellular, Scroll down to find Music and iTunes Store- make sure both are disabled

also settings - Cellular, Scroll down to almost the bottom to turn wifi assist off

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 10, 2019 10:06 AM in response to Vancouver22

Yes it is off/disabled. Only thing I was not able to find is "iTunes Store" inside Settings > Cellular, but my "Music" here is off/disabled. Even though, if Settings > iTunes & App Store > Use Cellular Data is OFF, that means, before accessing the cellular data, my phone must ask my permission while there is no WiFi. I doubt there is something wrong either with the settings or with Music, which Apple need to investigate and fix immediately.

Reply

Answer 9

Jun 10, 2019 10:34 AM in response to Vancouver22

Oh this one is in disabled way long before. Thank you so much for the prompt response. Unfortunately none of these options helped me and I end up with disabling my Cellular Data itself, which at least guaranteed stopped Music to do the unusual downloads.

Reply