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Apple Music Using Too Much Cellular Data

Good day all


The last few months, I've noticed that my cellular data usage has gone up, probably 4-5 times as much as I normally use monthly. I had a feeling it was the Music app responsible so i counter-checked my music settings and nothing had changed. To verify this, I reset my data statistics 3 days ago. When I checked the statistics today, the Music app used about 2.7GB in 3 days which is abnormal. I listen to music about an hour a day ( 40 mins in the gym and about 20 mins when driving to work and back home) so clearly there's something wrong.


on my iPhone and these were/are the settings:


Cellular Data - On

Dolby Atmos - Automatic

Optimise Storage - Off

Download over Cellular Data - Off

Download in Dolby Atmos - Off

Automatic Downloads - Off

Animated Art Cover - On

Use Listening History - On


Also, please note that this problem began a month or so before Apple even introduced Dolby Atmos, so I don't think this is what is causing the problem. Your assistance will be highly appreciated.


Jason

Posted on Jun 28, 2021 2:19 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 7, 2021 1:26 AM

Bahbahbah....

I converted my Apple Services to a One Family subscription yesterday, which gave me Apple Music in addition for a few euros. I had twice in the past taken out a trial subscription to AM and invariably AM consumes mobile data in the background. This night it did so again. When I picked up my iPhone 11 Pro Max this morning, it was already warm, warm from having been busy with something and my remaining battery had dropped to almost 10 where it had been at almost 100 going into the night. Because I already had a strong suspicion I checked my mobile data usage. Yes, despite excellent WiFi coverage, last night AM used 1.7GB. I have a large data bundle, so I can suffer this, but I don't want this to happen every night, because then I'll soon have a problem.


I have now switched off mobile data use, just to be sure. But what could this be? AM hasn't downloaded anything, but has been busy with something. But with what? This is not an isolated case, but happens time and again under exactly the same conditions.


To say that I am desperate is going a bit too far, but this is so incredibly irritating. Google Searches have not yielded me anything in the past. I will do so again soon, because there may have been more cases like this in the past few months.


Does anyone recognise this? Who can help me on my way?


Edit: found several similar hits. Lots of data use while on WiFi. But unfortunately no solutions.



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30 replies

Aug 29, 2021 9:34 AM in response to Stephane Gimenez

Hi, Thanks for adding your note to this problem. I have been in the process of talking with an Apple support person about this problem since I posted over a week ago. I am supposed to have a follow up chat with him today and I will copy and paste your note to send to him in an email. I previously sent them a link to this discussion. So hopefully they will see your note. But I will point this out to him.



Sep 1, 2021 2:44 PM in response to jlogo

Hi, so as my Apple rep told me that unless others here formally call Apple and open a ticket fir this problem, they don’t count this discussion forum as reporting any problem. And they need to run diagnosis tests on each person’s phone. So folks here, can you all please call Apple support and report this problem? I can’t do this alone. They keep implying that I have changed my settings in June when this started on my phone. Abs all I can tell them is that I don’t even know where to change any settings nor would I care to bother. I told them that I was using Apple Music in the same way for the first 5 months this year when I started subscribing to Apple Music - and then suddenly saw my data being eaten up by music in June. I told them that I googled and learned to change the “high quality” setting in Music settings to “high efficiency” when I noticed this problem when it had defaulted to high quality since I started subscribing. But changing this setting made no difference.


So please call Apple support and open a ticket. This way they will know it’s not just me and my phone or my service provider.



Sep 1, 2021 2:57 PM in response to Soaring-Eagle

Sure, that will save data. But Then you can’t use music without wifi of which that’s when I listen to it in the car.


I don’t know about you, but for me, the whole point of listening to steaming music is when I’m not home. And I used to do this with no data issues for several years with Serius XM until I switched to Apple Music. And Apple music data usage was fine until June of this year. I told Apple if they don’t tell me that they are investigating into this problem beyond my one phone, even though others like you folks have reported this same recent problem here on this forum, I’ll gladly cancel my subscription and listen to some other app that doesn’t eat up my data.


This is so not worth my time on calls with my dedicated support person or my data being sucked up my Apple Music suddenly.







Sep 10, 2021 3:29 AM in response to Stephane Gimenez

Good day to you all


Kindly ensure these are your settings:


Cellular Data - On

Dolby Atmos - Off

Optimise Storage - Off

Download over Cellular Data - Off

Download in Dolby Atmos - Off

Automatic Downloads - Off

Animated Art Cover - On

Use Listening History - On

Mobile Data Streaming - High Efficiency


These settings seemed to have sorted out my problem, particularly turning off Dolby Atmos. Hope this helps you all too.


Regards


Jason

Sep 18, 2021 6:39 AM in response to JCW-1

I’ve had this exact same issue. On a two hour drive yesterday my phone used 1.8Gb of data. Pretty much what you’d expect streaming lossless format. But my phone was set to high quality AAC. I’ve now set it down to efficient-AAC.

This seems like a bad bug because I’ve had to top up my allowance this month £5 and also my wife’s for same amount.

Sep 18, 2021 7:45 AM in response to technogogo

I’ve been working with a dedicated Apple support person who has taken multiple diagnosis off of my phone and they say my settings are right and they can see that it’s happening when we test 1/2 I reset my cellular data and stream music that in 30 minutes it eats up 50-80mb.


The rep also told me that even though I provided him the link to this forum discussion, all of the reports here are not documented as reporting a true problem in their database unless you folks call them and also report this. Right now it seems mine is the only one reported.


so folks here, please call Apple and open a ticket so they can run diagnostics on your phones too snd test it. Otherwise, this might never get fixed. And the rep says the tech team may not perceive this as a general bug if I’m the only one reporting this.


i also made it clear that I have no reason to continue subscribing to Apple Music if it’s costing me data when there are plenty of other apps I can use even free.



Sep 18, 2021 8:43 AM in response to Stephane Gimenez

Unbelievable! That Apple claims to be customer-centred and they put us through this! With me (in Canada) but my support rep is in the U.S.), they acknowledge the excess data usage and they told me my setting are correct. So they are basically saying they see the problem but they don’t know what’s causing it.


I have spent at least 3-4 hours on 3-4 separate days over 3 weeks chatting with the rep and testing.


He did say that their logs are sorted by categories of issues and it could be the labels being used are not consistent or the techs aren’t searching for the correct label. How can Apple of all companies not have a logical logging labelling protocol?


I’m glad to hear that you called them. Did they open a ticket for you? When I initially called, I got a front line call centre person that I can’t remember now wasn’t very helpful so I asked to speak to someone with authority to look into this. Within a minute or so she transferred me to the technical rep that had been assigned to me and opened a ticket.


If they don’t open a ticket, it won’t get further investigated. To their credit, my designated rep is very punctual with follow ups and is excellent with providing me with instructions on what I needed to do forward info to their tech team…easily with email links with my case number.


So in that way, their customer service has been good.



Apple Music Using Too Much Cellular Data

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