iOS5 data usage

I've never signed in to or set up iCloud and yet my data usage is excessive - see postings passim.

Well, now I'm confused. For me and I believe most others, the problem definitely is iCloud. For about 2 weeks I had it installed on my mom's phone, and it used 200-500MB per day during that time. The moment I deleted it off of the phone, it went back to her normal usage of 5-10MB per day.

If you never had iCloud set up, you have a completely different problem that I don't think there could be any explanation for. The only explanation that might be plausible is that e-mail on ios 5 is not working properly and it is automatically downloading attachments. Even if you have your phone on "fetch", the moment you tap on your Mail icon it initiates the "Check for email" sequence which may have caused it to download all attachments over your cellular connection. It could be completely coincidental that the moment I deleted iCloud off of my mom's phone was the exact moment that her e-mail finished downloading all of her attachments.

In my case, I think it would be too far-fetched to believe that I deleted iCloud the exact moment all of her e-mail attachments downloaded (which, I don't believe any of them do until you force each attachment to do so individually).

I am 99.9% sure iCloud is the problem... sydneysteve may have a much more complicated problem unique to the rest of us. This problem actually seems to be quite rare.. it's not like there are a ton of forums overloaded with people with this problem. I think we may just be the unlucky few who are going to have to bite the bullet. I am going to try 5.0.1 and hope that either it or the mere reinstalling of iCloud fixes my problem. I'll keep you all posted...

Turning off 'Cellular Data' ended the excessive data usage for me. When I turned it back on then the excessive data usage started all over again. My doctorate is not in physics but I guess you don't need one to know which variable is key. For me, it is not iCloud as I have never set it up - never signed in even. That is, unless iCloud is operating without my even setting it up!

Anyway, this is a watse of time, I am not an Apple quality controller. Their stuff doesn't work anymore so I've binned it and gone over to Samsung. Life's too short to get nurdy.

Turning off Cellular Data has nothing to do with the problem or with being a solution. The problem is that your phone is using so much data when cellular data is switched on (talk about telling you something you already know). Having cellular data off basically means your phone can only make phone calls... no e-mail, internet, etc... and who wants that?

I guarantee you if you have Cellular Data "on" and delete all of your email accounts and apps, your phone will use basically no cellular data (a minimal amount if you would browse the web).

I can understand not wanting to have to troubleshoot the problem, but someone's gotta do it to potentially spare others these annoyances

It is very easy to check how much data iCloud transmitted. Go to Preferences>iCloud>Storage & Backup>manage Storage. It lists how much you have 'in the cloud,' sorted by each app.

Can't seem to locate 'Preferences'. Is it somewhere in 'Settings'?

I've been getting text messages from A&T as well: 1st - 65% of my 200MB plan; 2nd - 90% (after 2 days); 3rd - 100% (after 2 days). My peak usage is 160MB and it was during the time that my family was on vacation; otherwise, my average is only 65MB. October was about 80MB.

I didn't make any changes to how I use my iPhone 4 but upgraded to iOS 5, and that's when the problem about excessive data usage started. I've always been a very conscientious user and use Wi-Fi most of the time (very limited data). I don't have a collection of music at all. I never set up iCloud so I'm not convinced that it's definitely the cause. I didn't make any changes to settings for auto; email and Facebook on manual. Hence, it was really surprising that my phone started using data by itself. Personally, I think it has something to do with iOS 5. I even feel that I use my phone less since I use my MB Air when I'm at school. Moreover, I use Wi-Fi at home and at school. I rarely use my phone when I drive between the two places.

Hopefully, Apple & AT&T (including other wireless providers) figure this out and resolve issues immediately. For the meantime, I have cellular data off until my next bill cycle date.

I suspect the excessive data issue will come to light bigtime when folk get their next bill from their ISP; cardiacs all round. I expect the media will take it up then and, eventually, Apple.

From your postings it is not hard to determine that you work for 'the Apple company'. I note that you have taken the time to remove my 'rants' but not had the courtesy to reply to my question about locating 'Preferences'.

Are you saying the other posts are not civilized in some way because they are critical of Apple? You need to explain your defamation.

We have 3 iPhones, (two 4S and a 4). We mainly use Wifi (except me, I have the unlimited plan), but our usage has gone way up since upgrading to the new iOS. Here is my son's usage.

Notice how he almost went over for Oct, and 14 days in, he has already used 900MB of his 2GB plan. Mainly text and some emails. We all have iCloud on (but now I am turning it off) but not the backup, just docs and data. We do have find my phone and find my friends installed. Other than that no location based reminders, no streaming music or movies, etc.

Here is my wife's usage:

Not a heavy user. We were on vacation in September, so we were a bit higher than normal. 5 days before the end of October we had to switch her 3G off to prevent going over. That was right after the upgrade and release of 4S. She already reached November's limit 14 days into the cycle.

I did find some push notifications enabled for email, but we don't have huge attachments. We're keeping one iCloud account open which is our synchornized calendar. One of the big reasons we all have iPhones...ability to tie info together and keep everyone updated. This shouldn't use this much data.

Any apps out there that can monitor phone and tell you which apps are sending data and how much? Maybe I need to develop one... 🙂

Any idea how much data location based services uses? I thought for a minute it was Siri, but the 4 doesn't have that so I am leaning towards iOS5 and iCloud. Going to try and keep an eye on running apps in the background, but we hardly ever had to close these before, why now?

1. Contrary to your paranoia, I'm just a user like everyone else;

2. I do not have authority to remove anything from here; someone must have reported them as contrary to the Terms of Use agreement, and the Host must have agreed;

3. I have a right to sleep and go to work, you know. My location is right under my name, so it shouldn't take a genius to figure out what my local time is. I volunteer here when I feel like it and have the time. It's not my job to be here 24/7.

4. Bay bad; they are called Preferences on the Mac, but Settings on iOS devices.

Generally, I never once disputed here that there is no problem regarding data usage. Since I don't experience the problem (as most users don't), and have not come upon any universal solution, my comments tend to stear people in a direction that may point to a cause or solution. It is very difficult to do that, or even respond, when so many users here just rant and vent, without providing any substantial details. Your posts seem to do both, start with information, but then descent into rants. That is not constructive.

You might have noticed that this thread is not frequented by the most experienced users around here, those with thousends of points and high Levels, who might have the most to offer. They tend to avoid threats populated by non-constructive comments. So those around here that spend their time on ranting, in addition to being against the Terms of Use, are doing it to the detriment of their own problems.

Another point to add to my previous post. I don't think it is our synched calendar unless their is a bug in iCloud. We have been synching calendars through MobileMe and have the same email accounts for the past year at least. So an IMAP problem with gmail or yahoo (I have both accounts) would be a new bug as these weren't causing problems before.

I have three iPhones with iOS 5. Att.com shows that all three phones use excessive data as soon as each of us leave the house where we have wifi. Tried everything. The only thing that stopped excessive cellular data usage was 1) setting to iphone to airplane mode with only wifi on, and 2) setting everything on iCloud to "off".

Crazy data usage, since iOS5. I took the latest upgrade but didn't help me - aybe my random configurations of cloud and so forth. I didn't know what i was configuring.

Got tired of it, didn't have the time to really learn it and debug the right way so I reset my iPhone. Wow, back to running smooth and like new. I did remove or turn off anything to do with clouc.