iPhone x Data usage

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Level 1

110 points

iPhone x Data usage

Hello all, I'm hoping someone can help me with an issue that just popped up.

My iPhone all of a sudden is using an insane amount of data. I got a text from AT&T yesterday that I was at 75% usage for the cycle. I'm only 5 days into the new period.

I have 20GB per month and generally use 10 or less.

Looking through my previous statement usage numbers, It looks like end of last cycle large amounts of usage started occurring.

I haven't been doing anything different with my phone. I've had this phone for 3+ years. Same plan for years. My parents are on my plan, but they literally use nothing. It's all my phone. I don't ever stream movies/music. I use wifi most places I'm at. I get no signal in my house.

I'm at a loss what to look at. I called AT&T but they weren't really helpful.

Any idea what to look at? AT&T's suggestion was just to turn data off, but I'd like to know what's going on and why this is happening all of a sudden. This is happening when I'm not even using my phone. Like when I'm driving to work, or home from work(phone is not being used by me). It's happening when it's just sitting on my desk while I'm working.

The weird thing is, when I look at the data logs on AT&T's website it'll be several instances of like 450mb over an hour, or 350mb over an hour. All at times that I know I am not even using my phone.

Any ideas?

Thank you,

Marc

iPhone X

Posted on Jul 31, 2021 8:19 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,285 points

Jul 31, 2021 8:39 AM in response to Marc Eaton

If you go to Settings>Cellular, scroll down to the section Cellular Data. This is a list of apps on the iPhone that are using cellular data and how much data. All the way at the bottom is a command, Reset Statistics. You can reset that and then use it to find out what is using the greatest amount of data. That statistic does not reset automatically, you have to do it manually. This should help you determine what is causing the data usage. Check after 24 hours and see what you can figure out.

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Answer 2

Aug 6, 2021 7:05 AM in response to Marc Eaton

Your welcome! From my testing it seems like it's trying to download music that you have queued up next. So in other words it just keeps downloading music instead of streaming the single song your listening to. Only walk around is to download the music you want over wifi and to turn off cellular data for Apple Music in setting otherwise it still tries downloading music even if those songs are already downloaded. If that makes any sense. It's pretty broken right now.

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Answer 3

plimagt3

Level 1

23 points

Aug 16, 2021 8:21 AM in response to Marc Eaton

I received the same txt from AT&T yesterday (15aug21). Our monthly usage for all devices is under 6 GB. AT&T reported 17.8 GB in August. I traced it to 16 GB for the "Books" app on my wife's iPad mini. Many entries for 400 MB or more in the middle of the night. I've turned off cellular data for "books" but something is really broken all of a sudden and I'd like to know what it is!

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Answer 4

plimagt3

Level 1

23 points

Aug 23, 2021 4:21 PM in response to plimagt3

Update to my previous post. On 4 Aug, total data usage was 193 MB. On 17 Aug, it was 18 GB. Over 16 GB of that data was from the Books App. In 14 years with AT&T and Apple iPhone, we've never gone over 6 GB for the month. Something is broken; Apple, please help!

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Answer 5

Marc Eaton Author

Level 1

110 points

Aug 5, 2021 7:16 PM in response to vipindustrypeg

Yes, since monday, music has used 7.3GB. I have no idea why or how. I have not used it in awhile. It blew my mind.

I called at&t and they couldn’t really give me a good answer, except turn off cellular data. The person I talked to last told me I could get unlimited data and it would be slightly cheaper. I ended up just doing that, hopefully it is actually cheaper or at least the same.

I’d still like to understand why music is using so much while not being used. There’s a few others that have used more data than I thought they would since Monday too, but maybe they just need an update to fix something.

thanks for the comments,

Marc

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Answer 6

plimagt3

Level 1

23 points

Aug 24, 2021 12:18 PM in response to Marc Eaton

It seems to me highly unlikely that this problem has anything to do with AT&T or cellular in general. In my case the iPad is telling me that the app Books is using huge amounts of data. AT&T's role is only to report that phenomenon.

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Answer 7

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,285 points

Jul 31, 2021 8:54 AM in response to Marc Eaton

That is probably true. Most people are not aware of that feature because they can read all of their info from their carrier. The issue with the carrier's website is they charge data in blocks, not based on the actual usage time. But this setting on the phone should help some. Good luck.

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Answer 8

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,285 points

Aug 23, 2021 4:27 PM in response to plimagt3

You are not addressing Apple here. This is a user to user support forum and Apple does not participate here. If you wish to speak to Apple Support, you need to use the Get Support link at the top of the page here.

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Answer 9

Marc Eaton Author

Level 1

110 points

Aug 23, 2021 7:32 PM in response to vipindustrypeg

It’s crazy, there’s clearly something wrong. The “fix” I’ve settled on was unlimited data. I’ve turned off data on the music app. In a week it used 16gb. Nothing about how I use my phone has changed. For several years I’ve used between 7-10gb a month. At most. All of a sudden my projected usage was 80gb+.

seems like a problem more and more people are having. Even though I have unlimited data and don’t need to worry, it still doesn’t solve the actual problem.

Marc

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