iOS5 data usage

i'm experiencing the same issue. with icloud off, i've cleared my data usage, and it seems like email is the culprit. iphone is downloading the full size emails without prompting for attachments (i get a lot of 10mb attachments - but NEVER need them on my phone) - so when i pull email connected to cellular, the data goes ballastic.

whats up with my email? can i turn off attachment download or turn on an option to download text only? help appreciated.

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 !!

iCloud is off. No FB or social updating is turned on. No Air Syncing.

Daughter #1 has iPhone 4 on iOS 5.0.1 and has used 312MB of data in past 20 days.

Daugher #2 has iPhone 4S on iOS 5.0.1 has used 2060MB data in past 20 days. (845MB in 1 sitting and 112MB in another in the same day. That's 958MB in 1 day)

This is Crazy, the 112MB was in the house while on wifi??? the 845MB in one sitting- Gimme a break. I called AT&T to dispute, but 2 operators didn't believe me. Kept saying that smart phones use alot of data. The 2nd tier tech support did believe me, but now I have turned off all cell data since it's already gone over the 2GB limit. It's not the 10$, it's the freaking principle of the matter. Now she has a dumb phone.

I use Android myself and download lots of files. I know how much downloading is needed to get 845MB and there is just no way she did that in one sitting. I tested YouTube for 3 min used about 13MB. So say 5MB per min. That would be 3 hours of continuous youtube (Was on the bus x 30min, then went with her friend shopping x 1 hour, then the movies x 2 hours --- while with her friend's mom)

What's wrong with this Phone/OS? 😠

There are so many of us having the same problem, I used up my 500MB allowance in 8 days by using email and minimal internet surfing, why hasn't anyone from Apple responded?

I suggest that everyone sends feedback to Apple, hopefully then they will take notice and fix the problem, or at least aknowledge it!

I thought I had this problem solved, and out of nowhere it is back in full force. I'm the one who is having this problem with my Mom's phone. I had the extreme data usage problem with 5.0, using iCloud. So, over Thanksgiving (Nov 24) I finally had the chance to update to 5.0.1, and also turn off iCloud and delete iCloud. The following five or six days went perfectly. Very tiny data usage.

Yesterday, she starts getting the overage charges texts. In the past five days, she used 2.5GB!! I took off most of her photos, and there is only 200MB of content stored on the phone (photos, 1 weather app). I have no idea what the glitch is. The only thing on it is "Find my iPhone" and her Hotmail account. I have it only syncing 2 weeks of e-mail, which would include at most 50MB worth of attachments... so, if it were automatically downloading them (which it doesn't until you tap it to force it to), the most that would cost is 50MB.

The most disturbing part is that the phone is on Wifi whenever she is home. So, I believe these excessive data charges are occurring when she is out of the house. Looking at the bill, she has multiple 200 to 500 MB data transfers at one time!! She normally used 200 MB a month!!

There is clearly a glitch in IOS. I am going to have to resort to a clean install, as that seems to be the only solution to others in this forum. I hate to lose all the texts and notes and settings preferences, but $20 to $30 extra per month is not acceptable... and we all know I'm not ever seeing that money again! Fix your software Apple!! This crazy glitch is all the more confusing because four others in my family have iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S with iCloud, with Find my iPhone, and not connected to wifi that don't use more than 500MB a month max.

This problem seems to be too rare to get a fix, hopefully the solution is a "Find my Iphone" glitch, but I believe others in this forum have the problem and never had that on. I believe we literally have run out of logical explanations, it can only be bad software.

jsvw007 wrote:

There is clearly a glitch in IOS.

---snip----

This problem seems to be too rare to get a fix, hopefully the solution is a "Find my Iphone" glitch, but I believe others in this forum have the problem and never had that on. I believe we literally have run out of logical explanations, it can only be bad software.

If so it has been around for at least 18 months; it isn't an iOS 5 problem specifically: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2450738. Note the 102 pages of replies.

If you are experiencing super high data usage on iOS5, just follow these steps:

1. Navigate to: Settings -> iCloud -> Documents & Data -> Use Cellular
2. Turn it OFF
3. Fight with AT&T (or other wireless carrier) about your excessive data usage charges

http://www.vancelucas.com/blog/excessive-data-usage-with-iphone-4s-ios5/

I did the same thing last month. Since then, very limited data usage. Back to normal. No iCloud for us! Next month, if everything goes back to normal, I will put iCloud back on and maybe photo stream, but use of cellular will be off on all the phones.

Two days ago I did the reset to the phone as instructed by AT&T. I turned off all cellular data so see if any usage showed up. None has so far. i will turn on the cellular data tonight and go from there.

I will test to see if I can get any data usage while on my home wifi. I had 112MB of usage while at home last friday night. (some people have reported that when the phone goes to sleep, it switches over to cellular data then takes a while to convert to wifi) If this is true, does a video stream that starts on cellular data stay on cellular data till it's completely viewed?

I will test to see how much data is used when streaming the same video on an iphone 4S, 4, and 3GS, all running 5.0.1 It seems from 1 test that 4 used less data than 4S from one test. Will retest. Or has someone already tested this?

I do have find my iphone on all these phones (i believe). Will double check later. the phone that has excessive data use has it for sure, but that can't be using 845MB of data in one sitting.

I have sent apple my same complaint as well as AT&T.

Edit: If the reset doesn't seem to do it, I will wipe the phone and start from scratch. BTW it is my daughter #2 phone.

Message was edited by: jhnstn00

I cannot comment on whether a video stream that starts on cellular stays there or switches to wifi when available. I can tell you my experience was occasional videos that started on wifi switched over to cellular at some point without ever moving outside the range of my wifi access point. This behavior began immediately after I upgraded to iOS 5 (and subsequently 5.0.1) on my iPhone 4. I confirmed this to be the case as best I could by downloading DataMan Pro, which tracks data usage at 10 minute intervals, and found the only time increased cellular data usage occurred was when watching videos (it took some time to also notice the wifi icon switching over to 3G in the taskbar, since this is typically hidden while watching videos).

I have find my iPhone as well as Find my Friends on (which I use more than find my phone). I think the biggest thing was taking the cellular off for iCloud. I plan on turning iCloud back on (but keeping the cell portion off) and see if that makes a spike.

I streamed the same 2 videos on two iphone 4S's, an iphone 4, and 3GS, all running 5.0.1

3GS -- 17.4 MB

4 --14.5 MB

4S --14.6 and 14.9 MB

The 4 and 4S comparison is insignificant. So I am still no closer to a solution. Will just keep data on and see if the reset fixed the problem.

This had driven me a bit crazy too. I managed to avoid going over my 200MB by disabling cellular data for the last few days of my billing cycle. I had noticed blocks or 20-40MB at a time before reaching 180MB in time to stop it. Since then I have been trying to determine what in the iPhone uses any cellular data at all. As a test I turned to Manual all my email accounts (one POP and two IMAP), I disabled traffic in Maps, all locations services, , Diagnostics & Usage, use of cellular data in Store's Automatic Downloads and of even iCloud Backup even though they assure it goes over WiFi. Also disabled is Find my iPhone & Docs and Data over cellular. I also turned off the syncing of Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes and Photo Stream, even though they are suppose to sync only if something changes (by presumably an input in some of the other devices). Siri is also off. In Notifications I have only Phone, Messages and WhatsApp. No applications open either. And regardless of all that after switching Cellulat Network Data back on, I still get small bursts (2 to 20KB) of data Sent and Received even while in my home and connected to the Time Capsule wireless signal. And when I went out for an hour or two, without checking any email account, receiving texts or any notifications whatsoever my usage counter went up more than 100KB each for Send and Recived. Where is all this data bleeding coming from??? I know these a peanuts compared to the big data transfers most people are talking about, but I thought that understanding how the iPhone works might be helpful in getting to the bottom of all this. BTW I did talk to Applecare about this, but they were not helpful in resolving the issue.

More than one month had been gone... still no update from apple?

There will not be an update from Apple for this problem that goes back at least 18 months, before iOS 5, before the 4S, before the 4, before iOS 4. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2450738