wifi connected but still being charged for data usage.

Question

Level 1

8 points

wifi connected but still being charged for data usage.

I believe this started happening about a month ago with the previous iphone update. I will have to turn off celluar data because of the automatic updates that are happening at 11pm every night. this also happens with my wifes phone. we will be going over our data plan because of this. with the last software update we changed the settings for the store, cellular to off which states "when not conneced to wifi use cellular to download purchases" and all of the other options are off.

we will both go past our data plan this month because of this software update.

iPhone 3GS, iOS 4.3.3

Posted on Jul 30, 2011 8:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 30, 2011 9:02 AM in response to johnmc1234

When your phone is in standby mode it tunes off the wireless radio in order to conserve battery. It leaves the cellular radio on however. So anything that accesses data (Email, visual voicemail, MMS, anything that uses push notifications) will use the cellular data. If you don't want this to happen you should go into settings and turn off data (edge and 3g) before you go to bed.

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Answer 2

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 5:14 AM in response to jayfromreno

so when I am on a charger the phone will not be using up my battery. I think this is totally stupid and it will make me get rid of an stupid product, iphone, because it downloads 640k to 8meg a night. this is something that needs to get fixed in the os because it has caused both me and my wife to go over 200m this month. especially since it was not happening at all up until last month. if battery life is so important then there should be a setting I can use to disable or enable power savings. also when the wifi is on the 3g part should not be on, period. basicly by following the rule of having to turn off data when I am in wifi and I forget to turn it back on when I am out of it I will not have any data while on the road, and basicly turning this phone into a phone not a smart phone.

apple thinks they are so smart by doing things to so call help people but it just made this phone worthless.

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,513 points

Jul 31, 2011 5:36 AM in response to johnmc1234

The defaults for the new automatic download feature in iTunes, the App store and iBooks is NOT to use the cellular network to auto-download items. If you had to turn it off because you were overrunning your data plan, it is because YOU turned it on to begin with.

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Answer 4

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 5:56 AM in response to KiltedTim

it was turned off from day one of the download. the issue is every night at 11pm when I am at home and connected to wifi it still downloads data as 3g.

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Answer 5

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jul 31, 2011 6:04 AM in response to johnmc1234

If your phone is connected to a power source, it will maintain the WiFi connection while in sleep mode. The WiFi connection only turns off in sleep mode if your phone is not connected to a power source.

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Answer 6

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 11:45 AM in response to wjosten

i saw several comments about 4 phones but not 3gs. I have 3gs do I need to keep the phone awake while plugging into itunes or to the wall.

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Answer 7

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jul 31, 2011 11:48 AM in response to johnmc1234

No, as long as your phone is connected to a power source, and WiFi is available & your phone connected to such, it will remain connected to WiFi.

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Answer 8

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2011 3:33 PM in response to wjosten

well for the last month or maybe more I have had data charges while I was in wifi at night when my phone was charging. I believe this is a serious software issue and i think having to turn off my data every time i am in wifi is stupid.

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Answer 9

Aug 1, 2011 1:20 PM in response to johnmc1234

have you tried contacting apple about the issue? having such a negative attitude will not make anyone want to help you with your problem.

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Answer 10

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 1, 2011 4:51 PM in response to jayfromreno

apple stated I need to pay for support in order for them to even look at my case. in fact this is the only forum that I can talk about the issue. att states they can not do anything until I get billed, and forwarded me to apple. the point is if this is now a standard thing or is it a problem with the software because we only had one time in the last 18 months of going over 200 meg. it is not hard to stay under 200 meg a month but when the software is not working properly then you are screwed.

this is todays usage so far, when I left my house (wifi) and turned on cellular data on the street, I got popped with 3 meg of data transfer. there is something wrong with the software that counts wifi as wifi or waits until you are in cellular data to do its updates.

08/01

06:36 AM

phone

Internet/MEdia Net

Sent

3300KB

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Answer 11

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,513 points

Aug 1, 2011 5:31 PM in response to johnmc1234

Keep in mind that the time stated on your phone bill is not necessarily the time the data was transferred. This can, in many cases, be many data transfers aggregated into one line item. Often because the equipment running the towers the data went through is not set up to, or not capable of, reporting every single transaction to the billing system.

If you're using an Exchange or IMAP mail account, it could be synchronizing much more than you realize.

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Answer 12

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 2, 2011 4:21 AM in response to KiltedTim

so this is what I gather, my phone waits until i am in 3g to report data tranfer. I use yahoo mail and had maybe got 2 emails prior to 6.36am that would not have added up to 3meg and it would have been in wifi since I have now been turning off cellular data while in wifi.

all I know is prior to the change I was able to keep data under 100 meg and now with the new wifi/cellular data reporting/battery savings I do more than double that. I have date and times for the transactions on the bill and will be calling customer support today or wed.

also what I gather is if i have to keep cellular data off i have a glorified ipod touch with phone. and that is not what I am paying for. also this happened to both my wifes phone and mine.

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Answer 13

Aug 2, 2011 5:40 AM in response to johnmc1234

No, that is not correct.

The carrier's network reports accumulated data transfers to the billing system at 3 AM (or other times, depending on your time zone). The phone does not report anything.

WiFi turning off when the phone is asleep has not changed in 4 years. It has always done it.

The dates and times on the bill are summary data, and do not represent the time the actual transfer occurred. If you want to know the time of the transfer you will have to install a monitoring app like DataMan, which tracks data usage by time and location.

Unless there is a problem in the network all data transfers actually happened. Many apps use data; if you have Facebook that is most likely the culprit. Game Center and Ping also are possibilities.

All of this is discussed ad nauesum in the year old thread Unknown data usage early morning

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Answer 14

johnmc1234 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 2, 2011 7:58 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

90% of my apps are done inside of wifi, the main apps I use outside of wifi is maps, email, bible, and text. and my normal data usage is

sep 10 -- 91

oct 10 -- 68

nov 10 -- 105.2

dec 10 -- 106.7

jan 11 -- 85.2

feb 11 -- 68.2

mar 11 -- 105

apr 11 -- 106.3

may 11 -- 101.7

jun 11 -- 138.1

jul 11 -- 121.6

and now aug 11 -- 206

so since I have disabled cellular data while in wifi so far this month the terrible data sack monster has not attacked me, .4 meg in 1 day and a half.

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Answer 15

Nov 15, 2011 8:53 PM in response to KiltedTim

I am going to have to disagree with you and wjosten. I have EVERYTHING in my phone turned off. iCloud disabled. Never used email or Safari and have deleted all apps but dataman. My phone is plugged into my USB port on my computer and literally 2 feet away from my wireless router. All apps closed.

at 8:19 tonight it was 12.6k 3G and 426K wifi. at 10:20 it was 25.2k 3G and 1.4 meg wifi.

Granted small amounts of data but over the course of 30 days that adds up. It's also supposed to use one or the other, right? Both increased even though there are no apps other than what was on the phone when I got it. I have never clicked on Game Center, Itunes, Stocks, Map, Weather, Notes, Reminders, or Newsstand because I didn't want to get into a data issue. Now I have used over 1/4 of my data plan for the month without ever really using the phone. I can empathize completely with johnmc1234 and his sentiments over the quality of this device and AT&Ts lack of support.

Their answer is call Apple. Apple (3 times) literally laughs and says I need to talk to AT&T because it's their network.

If you have a bad iPhone the whole thing is a very tragic and expensive joke.

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