Unexpected high data usage on the iPhone

I spoke to my mobile service provider and the person. I spoke to wasn't aware of this data chewing bug in the system. I pointed her to the forums to take a look. I was advised to switch off the 3G so only use the smart part of the phone when I switch to wifi. This is incredibly annoying and disappointing. There clearly is a problem and as usual not admitted or acknowledged by Apple. Clearly duff code within the system software. I'm surprised they acknowledged the crap maps when this is a far bigger problem as this is incurring data charges beyond the control of the user. Clearly there has been a hush hush on this. Not everyone has unlimited data plans. I don't, my cap is 500MB per month and have never exceeded it until updating to OS6 and when the 6.01 update was released I was relieved hoping it would cure this data nonsense but no it kept chewing up my plan. Utter rubbish!! Now I have to wait until this 6.1 version is real eased which according to various websites won't be until after Christmas sometime. I think that is pretty **** poor. I am paying for a data plan I am too scared to switch on because I will only end up paying far extra for someone else's incompetence. Not good.

I was thinking of buying an iPad mini but I don't think I will now because after 22 years of using Apple products both personally and professional I am starting to lose faith in the brand. Pity really. Greed before loyalty.....

Lets see how this pans out.

What can I say? Me too-me too-me too. 3 iPhones, iPod touches, iPads etc in the family. Loyal long term customers of Apple. And the iPhone users (2 on Vodafone,1 on O2) are all seeing massive increases in data usage. Big, strong WiFi signals all day but still we're all being hit with excess usage charges. Apple KNOWS this is a problem. Millions of their customers are being charged for their failure. I feel very badly treated and completely Let down. In any relationship once the trust begins to go it's very hard to get back. Come on Apple. Do the right thing before it's too late.

SOLUTION FOUND (Outbox)

I think there may be other causes for high data uses but this was how I fixed mine.

I used 1.5GB of data in the span of less than 2 days causing my out of bundle data charges to sky rocket.

The problem was that I had a mail in my "outbox" which kept failing.

I deleted the mail in your outbox and my problem was resolve.

Do this for every mail account you have.

Some background.

• I don't think this will solve everyone's problem. But what I suspect any app that has trouble finishing an operation my cause this problem.
• The problem email I send the 8MB mail on Friday, by Tuesday morning I had used my 500mb allocated data and consumed 1.5 additional. I turned my cellular data off on my iPhone
• I installed onavo, but for some reason it did not pick up the data usage of the unsuccessful sends. That whole test cost me 120mb of data an no results.
• Since yesterday when I solved the issue I have only consumed 5mb cellular data as I am in WIFI areas most of time.

How about this one. I had already experienced 1 spike this month. I'm normally on the 2 GB plan and have NEVER gone over 1.6 GB total between my wife and me. After this first spike, VZW rep helped me by putting me on 6 GB plan until new cycle.

Just yesterday in the morning, I checked my data and it showed 3.8 GB total.

Later in the afternoon, I left my home (on wifi) and went to Taco Bell drive thru, which is across the street basically. I turned on Spotify and listened to 3 songs total before getting back home. I then received a text warning that my data exceeded again. Now it shows I've used 7.9GB.

That equals 4.1GB for 3 songs! All within less than 10 mins.

Yes, 4.1 GB!!

I didn't know songs could be that large <sarcasm>.

This is the 3rd spike I've experienced (One last month). I did not have this issue with any other iphone, or android phone. It has only happened with my iPhone 5. My wife currently has iPhone 4 and she has consistently stayed well below 200 mb per month.

After calling VZW and reading others' experiences here, I feel totally helpless against this and I'm about to turn to a different phone and/or to one of the carriers that still offer unlimited data as I have no control over these spikes.

I am wondering... Is anybody at Apple actually reading these posts?? If so, they are pretty good at ignoring all of us!!

ATT useless on this, might as well have told me to reinstall Windows XP.

Apple needs to provide a log that shows details so we can manage this, or they need to provide another solution. Ridiculous to get an extra $15/mo or whatever it is tacked on by ATT when this is occasionally happening... always overnight for me, too. Or is that just how ATT rolls up and reports it?

A couple articles from last two months related to this topic:

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/10/01/apple-verizon-ios6-wifi-issue/

(though I'm having this problem on AT&T - just upgraded to 6.0.1, waiting to see if that helps)

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/11/14/bug-in-apples-ios-6-0-triggers-multiple-d ownloads-of-podcasts-causing-big-data-overages/

So annoyed. I get 500 MBs a month and my plan reset two days ago. Yesterday, the first day, I looked at the 'My Data Manager' app and it told me that OS Services had used 124 MBs. Today, I checked the app and OS Services had used 210 MBs! What makes me really angry is that I have only used my phone to send a few texts, that's all. Now I have very little data to last me 28 days thanks to OS Services. If anyone has any ideas so that this won't happen again, I would be forever grateful, thanks

I can report the same behavior here in Switzerland with Orange. Every Day at midnight I have about 80 MB 3G Traffic.

I found a solution for myself! If any of you have the app 'Data Manager', delete it from your iPhone. As soon as I removed this app, I stopped seeing high data usage. Don't know why, but it works. I suggest you give it a go

I'm in the UK and am experiencing this problem too, it seems my data spikes every time the clock strikes midnight. I didn't know this before as I had 3 months unlimited data usage but now I don't I got an alert saying I was close to my limit dispite rarely using my phone. I checked my previous bills at it seems it has done this since the day I got my phone

Anyone know if restoring to factory settings fixes it?

Don't you I think that data consuptiom has to do with the fact that every time Iphone goes asleep when connected to wifi, it turns 3G on?

I've experienced 3KB od data each time I turn my phone on (from standby to screen lit) showing 3G logo on top of screen (while I'm at home connected to wifi) than after few seconds wifi logo appears ... 3KB of data eaten just for that....

I am personally at the end of my teather with this now :(

I have and iPhone 4 had it for 18mths now never had any problems with it until October 2012, I'm on business contract with Orange who I will add have been completely as unhelpful as they old possibly be!!

My October bill came though at £228 yet I had barely used it as I also have a blackberry, the excessive bill was all data charges! I queried this extensively and requested info on where data had bee used??? I was given times it's was used, one was 2am in the morning on a Tuesday? I was at home sleeping and phone connect to wifi? Severl other times phone was also in house using wifi! I stressed this to orange but they would not budge at all. I was then told I was 5 days in o next mths bill and had already built up a bill of £75 in data charges!! I have tried everything even had my phone looked at but no seems to have any answers as to why this is happenin!?!

As for orange reeping the benefits of all these poor people getting huge bills for no reason is a disgrace!! Well I've had to pay out over £400 in phone bills in 2 mths now, as a last resort I instructed Orange to disconnect my data on my phone??

Is Apple or anyone going to pick up the bill for this or shoud we give up hope and return to the blackberry???

Has anyone else had this problem with orange?? Did anyone manage to get any money back??

What's the point of an iPhone with no data hey :(!!

Hi, I think i've solved this.

I have an iphone 4s. I've had it for two months, my data plan is only 100MB a month, having had a blackberry previously i never really went over 10MB.

Anyway in the first month of having the iphone i didn't go over 25MB, an increase on my usage as expected, but still not a massive increase.

My contract is renewed on the 25th of each month and I found by the 27th of december i had already used 20MB?! I looked into it and just having my cellular data on for a few minutes would use up 500kB of data!

I turned EVERYTHING off, location services, the lot, but still nothing.

Then i read somewhere that iCloud (something which nearly every iphone user has) is constantly refreshing, so i went to settings<icloud and turned everything off, still nothing.

So i thought seeing that i'm not using any of the back up services from icloud, i may as well delete the whole account (big red delete button 😉 )

I then rechecked my whether my data usage was still increasing (Settings<Usage<cellular usage<SENT and hey presto it wasn't increasing anymore, just to check, i left my phone on over night with wifi turned off but cellular data on, i checked it in the morning and no increase in the data usage. WIN

Overall, just delete your icloud account.

Thanks for reading, hope this helped 🙂

does that delete your icloud email also?