iOS5 data usage

I have installed IOS 5 on my Iphone 4s as well as my mom's Iphone 4. I have tons of apps and am connected to wifi. My data usage was and continues to remain minimal.

However, on my mom's phone, she has one weather app and that's it. Yet, after installing IOS 5, her data usage went from a pace of 200MB a month to 3gb used in one week!!

She does have about 4gb worth of pictures and videos in her camera roll. This is the only possible reason for her extreme data use. I had iCloud backup enabled, including her camera roll. iCloud specifically claims it only uses wifi. There is a glitch in the system because it used her cellular connection instead.

I would expect a refund from Apple, but I doubt it. My mom's phone was connected to wifi the whole time this happened. I actually think it might be part of the problem. The phone goes into standby (which I've heard then disables the wifi connection) thinking it still has wifi, but somehow data transmission gets switched to cell phone transmission while it's trying to backup her photos and videos to iCloud.

I had "use cellular data" in the Documents and Data section of iCloud off the entire time. I also had "send usage statistics" off the entire time. I believe the only common denominator between everyone with this problem is that they have large amounts of data in their camera roll, they were connected to a wifi network, and they were using iCloud.

I've deleted and disabled iCloud for now until Apple releases a fix for this glitch. APPLE... PLEASE REFUND OUR MONEY!! Obviously this is not AT&T's (my carrier) fault, so I definitely am not going to bother them. I just don't know how to get my money back from apple. I have no official money connection, so I guess I would be demanding a refund check in the mail... my address on my apple id account is correct. PLEASE SEND IT THERE!!

Hi there,

I'm sydneysteve, the guy who posted the message before yours. It's a good point you make about the 'common factors'.

In my case, I have no photos or videos on the phone but I do have 25GB of music. Also, I'm never connected to wi-fi. GIven my own experience and after reading your posting, I can only conclude that Apple's iCloud or diagnostics program has somehow gone rogue and cannot be swiiched off by the user. Either that or Homeland Security or the CIA has a deal going with Apple!

I'm just a business user (there is no Apple juice in my veins and I expect things to work without me having to goof around with them) so if the problem doesn't get fixed in a couple of days it'll be back to Samsung or Motorola for me.

I'm in Australia (the worst Apple market for service and any kind of knowledge from Apple staff). If anything breaks down here about a fix then I'll post it here.

Hey steve,

I doubt your data usage was due to having 25gb of music, because the free iCloud service does not back up your music library (only purchased music through iTunes which I have none of and assume most people have very little of). I did just read somewhere else online that somebody thought it was email attachments being automatically downloaded after upgrading to ios5.

This could possibly be true in my case as well. My mom's phone (the one with the excessive data use problem) has a hotmail account with tons of e-mails with attachments. In ios5, setting up a hotmail account now is very similar to a microsoft exchange account. I have her hotmail account set to "Push" with everything syncing immediately and automatically.

If I go to an e-mail with an attachment, it appears that the attachment is not automatically being downloaded. I have to tap on the attachment to tell it to download. It is possible there is a glitch here and they are downloading automatically without showing it.

Considering the phone has been on wifi the whole time, neither explanation explains the cellular data use. Either way, there is some crazy glitch either in iCloud or push e-mail that deserves a fix and reimbursement.

Hi there again,

Didn't I read somewhere that Apple was declaring an amnesty on pirated music and would swop unlicnesed copies for an iTunes copy via iCloud for a while? Maybe it was just 'sales talk'. Certainly, my music library has not been 'cleansed' by the Apple fairy!

On e-mail, I use Yahoo and manual pull (no push).

Despite having Diagnosis and Usage Data set to 'Don't Send' (both in About and Location Services), there have been three messages sent to Apple yesterday alone. The only way I can stop this seeming automatic connection is by turning 'Celluar Data' off.

Interstingly, in all three messages it notes the 'Hardware' as "iPhone3.1"; this, despite my phone being an iPhone4. I wonder if this is a goof or else iPhone3.1 is Appletalk for the model 4.

Last thing last night, I reset the factory settings both via iTunes and on the phone itself.

Now at 63% of my 4GB allowance, I await the dawn and more drama caused by Apple.

Turns out my problem seems SOLVED !!!

For 5 days since data usage reset, only 30Mb used, with same usage and locations as before ( with 3G soundcloud connection so I fully accept my 30Mb usage !)

I just erased and restore my iPhone in iTunes, and DIDN'T restore from an old back-up.

Then I made a set up directly on the phone for everything, mail, iCloud...

I also cleaned up some contacts (read somewhere it could cause trouble with a "loop" from a contact)

note I was a MobileMe user.

In my case RESTORE IPHONE not from a backup. INSTALL ICloud directly from the iPhone ...

And then reinstall apps one by one !!

"Didn't I read somewhere that Apple was declaring an amnesty on pirated music and would swop unlicnesed copies for an iTunes copy via iCloud for a while?"

Don't hold your breath. I mean, really, can you even imagine the copyright holders/publishers allowing such a thing?

Hello,

As we are affraid to be potentially impacted in the company, I've called Apple, however they are not aware of this issue, though I've mentionned their forums talk a lot about this.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that people with this issue call apple care to mention this problem and open a case, provide print screens, etc.

Thanks,

Florent

Those with a similar issue, can report it directly to Apple at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

For what it's worth, I'll share what I finally determined to be the data hog culprit in my particular case, in case it helps anyone else out.

I'll usually open up Conan O'Brien's "Team Coco" app during breakfast and catch up on the previous night's show. I'm at my house and connected to Wifi during this time and can confirm this was the case when I started watching this morning. Well, the video stream hiccupped a bit after about 10 or 15 minutes of watching, which does occur somewhat often with this app. After waiting a few minutes through choppy video I noticed, to my surprise, the 3G icon in place of the Wifi icon in the Status Bar. I immediatly quite the app and checked my data usage via the "DataMan" and sure enough, it had pulled down about 50 MB of my 200MB monthly allowance. I'm sure this surge in 3G activity began at the video hiccup point because a single sitting of Team Coco videos typically pulls down, from past observations, maybe 500 MB or more of data with my Wifi, far more than the reported 50MB chunk from 3G activity.

So for whatever reason the Team Coco app failed to stream via my router and started pulling the rest of the video through 3G. My home network has not changed for some time, so I'm hesitant to blame my own equipment. Team Coco's last update was on June 23rd of this year, so nothing changed there. The fact is this problem started occuring immediately after upgrading to iOS5 (and yes, this is occuring with iOS 5.0.1 as well...I upgraded to this yesterday). So I wonder if iOS5 somehow subtly changed the way video fetching works when the stream hiccups, given the fact I've been watching video with this app for quite some time with no issues till the last couple weeks.

Whether iOS5 or Team Coco is to blame, I don't know. I'd be interested in knowing whether other people experience this particular problem, either with Team Coco or with other video streaming apps. For now, at least I know what's happening and will now pay much closer attention to those Status Bar icons when streaming video.

Worth reporting to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Just sent them a message. Guess we'll see what happens and how common this problem is over time.

I am having the same problem 4GB spent in 10 days is impossible. The phone is barely used and on wifi most of the time! Apple reset the phone for me, i reset the phone also and still the same problem. I just sent apple a report we will see what happens.

Sunday 13 November and I have just downloaded and installed the iOS5 'fix' from Apple. Have reset everything and switched ON 'Cellular Data'. I have taken the precaustion of buying an extra 5GB ahead of the wave should it come. After an hour I can see that, despite my setting being NOT to send Diagnostioc & Usage Data to Apple, the iPhone is now transmitting a message entitled OTAUpfate-2011-11-13-10-48 to Apple Central. I wonder how many gigs that transmission alone is costing me?

If this excess data usage continues then I'll just walk away from Apple. Period. I guess that I won't be alone.

Following was sent in hard copy to Apple CEO at their HQ.

Dear Apple,

The attached postings of mine on Apple bulletin boards are self-explanatory. I am not your quality controller. I am a consumer who pays money and expects things to work. If something works then I stay with it. If something doesn't work then I throw it away and buy something else that does work from someone else (Apple customers, by definition, are not poor).

Let me say again: it is YOUR JOB to make sure things work. It is NOT MY JOB to tell you when they don’t.

When you've lost sufficient customers then you might wake up from your hubris. Remember, Steve Jobs is no longer around and so the charisma and innovation talent are gone. Time to wake up and shape up before Apple gets bought up or goes belly up.

I think we are missing the point on some of this. We keep emphasizing that we all have "Use Cellular" in "Documents and Data" switched off on iCloud as well as having selected "Don't send" on the Diagnostics and Usage page. The reality is, these two categories use virtually no data at all. "Document and Data" basically are text files on some apps storing very small amounts of data. That's why they have the "Use Cellular" option available... they knew it's barely anything in there. I think some people are confused when they hear "Data" and think it's actual apps or their music or something.

Diagnostics and Usage is also very tiny amounts of data. Whether you have it switched on or off is basically irrelevant.

The problem here is iCloud. It is designed to only use wifi, and through some glitch it is using cellular data instead. We need to focus on this as it is the actual thing causing the outrageous data usage.

I haven't tried IOS 5.0.1 update yet, but can anyone verify if it has fixed the iCloud problem? Has anyone had huge data transfer problems over their cellular network after the 5.0.1 update? I get that Diagnostics and Usage is tramsmitting when it shouldn't, but we're talking about a couple of kilobytes of data for that, definitely not gigs!

Nice post, jsvw007.

So refreshing to see a civilized report around here.