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iPhone 5 confusing Wi-Fi data with Cellular?

I bought my iPhone 5 just a few hours ago. When it was set-up, naturally it used 4G to access the Internet. Once I got home, I connected to my home Wi-Fi.

It is my understanding that the iPhone will always prefer Wi-Fi to 3G or 4G. Plus, the entire night while I used it, I never saw anything other than the WiFi symbol in the corner.

I got a text message from Verizon saying that I had used 75% of my allowed data. (2GB on the plan, but it is prorated) I checked MyVerizon, and it said I had used 427 MB of Cellular Data!! I clicked a link to open a detailed chart, which informed me of only four instances of Cellular data, which totaled up at 1.8 MB. This is a number that makes sense.

So I turned off Cell Data entirely, but left the Wi-Fi on, and continued to download videos from YouTube. Moments later, I got another text from Verizon saying I had used all my prorated data! I checked and Cellular Data was still off! The note even said "With this turned off, all data will be restricted to Wi-Fi"! So I clearly didn't use Cell data, but Verizon thought that I did! Now I'm over my limit and possibly in huge trouble.

The figures given seem consistent with my overall usage, though 99% of this usage was on Wi-Fi. I would stake my life on that fact. No joke. Is it possible that my Wi-Fi data is somehow being confused with Cell Data, even though it's turned off?

In the morning, I'm going to visit the store that I bought it from. However, any info that you guys can give me would really help.

Thanks.

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 9:07 PM

31 replies

Sep 22, 2012 9:44 AM in response to TechnoSam

Same thing happening to me. I just got off the phone with Apple and Verizon. Apple sent me to over to Verizon, even though it is clearly an iphone glitch. They can't have us reverting to cellular for everything when we want to use wifi. Or if they do want us to revert back to cellular, we need to be able to cap speeds or something. It's a shady deal.

brian84

Level 1

0 points

Sep 22, 2012 10:32 AM in response to TechnoSam

Also having this issue. Even when on WiFi (all last night), my data usage keeps going up. Have used 300MB in one day even though I've visited only a couple mobile friendly sites in this time, and I've been on WiFi 80% of the time.

Sep 23, 2012 5:43 AM in response to TechnoSam

Update: Since I called Verizon and Apple I have not had my phone use data while connected to wifi. I did a test also by unplugging my data connection to my router. My phone still connected to my wifi in my house but there was no feed from the internet. My phone never grabbed LTE and linked to the internet. It informed me that the connection was lost. This allowed me to find out if the phone would automatically grab LTE and it didn't. Up to this point the problem has not occurred again. Have no clue why but I am glad....🙂

TechnoSam Author

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0 points

Sep 23, 2012 11:51 AM in response to TechnoSam

So I went to the Verizon store and I called Apple. Apple said it was a Verizon problem and Verizon said it was Apple. Last night, I did a little test. I put the phone in Airplane Mode and turned on the Wi-Fi. After this, my data didn't go up, the phone was actually using Wi-Fi and being charged ($0) for WiFi. However, this means I can't call or text, so it's no good as a permenant solution. I can use the phone while having both WiFi and Cellular Data turned off, but this means no internet at all. If I keep Data off and just use WiFi, though, I get charged as if I was using data.

So I have no idea what is wrong. Everyone who is having this issue needs to call both Apple and Verizon. If enough people report this issue, they may start to see that we have a significant problem here.

I'm calling Apple back today to report the results of my experiment.

Gregord

Level 1

4 points

Sep 24, 2012 6:51 AM in response to Juice Searls

Juice, I have indeed done a test similar to the one you describe. My router fimware (tomato) has an option to block access to a given IP address. I just set a temporary block on my phone's IP. It resulted in the following:

wifi and cellular lte turned ON. status bar indicated wifi for data. Visit webpage (youtube) spinning icon in status bar for a second, then page loads. Checked the usage page in settings. Sent and Received had increased.

Clearly the Wifi Plus Cellular option is ON all the time now. My hunch is that there is a bug in the gracefully fallback to cellular mode or perhaps Apple is making some assumptions (such as latency or switching over too quickly) that result in falling back to cellular even when a wifi connection exists and could service the traffic, albeit perhaps a bit slower.

This is concerning to me as I have only 1gb allotted on my verizon shared data plan. For now I am turning off cellular data unless I am away from wifi, and have turned off most icloud features.

I suspect Apple will make some improvements to this soon, perhaps re-add the manual wifi plus cellular option. The carriers may have pressured Apple to remove the manual option, as it allows users to believe they are using wifi when in fact they are using their precious cellular megabytes. If that is the case, I am very disappointed in Verizon. Profit trumps customer experience yet again.

My preference: re-add the wifi plus cellular option. That way we can explicitly turn it off. Also, there absolutely needs to be a statusbar indication that the phone is falling back to cellular when wifi is active and connected. In my tests the phone was using cellular data but the statusbar had the wifi icon.

2eUser

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2012 6:52 AM in response to TechnoSam

I'm having similar issues, 500MB used in 2 days. That was more than I used in an average month on my 4. I haven't changed any of my habits, I have wifi at home and work. The weird thing is it is only happening to 1 of the three iphone 5s in our household. I turned off cell data last night and my usage counter hasn't gone up since. Oddly enough the verizon web sute only shows 256MB of usage this morning. Hopefully they get this ironed out.

Sep 24, 2012 7:10 AM in response to pwdougherty

pwdougherty wrote:

My iOS build is 10A405 so I know it's not a beta version... GM was 10A403

Mine is still the 10A403. How did you update to the 405 build? Is there a big difference?

Sep 24, 2012 9:58 AM in response to scoooby-doo

@scooby

My phone came out of the box with 10A405 I haven't updated it. Could it be slight differences based on carrier I am on Verizon.

Sep 24, 2012 10:03 AM in response to Gregord

Greg I tried the same test and until I plugged WAN port back into my modem I could not load a safari page. I will try with YouTube tonight tho. As soon as my airports light went green though (plugged WAN port back in) the safari page loaded. I wonder if this is based on per app coding aka YouTube used wifi plus cellular API but apple corrected in its coding before releasing GM??

N64BOY39

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2012 11:31 AM in response to TechnoSam

I'm seeing a similar problem. I've used 2.4 GB in 3 days, and looking at my Verizon usage, a lot of it is coming at times like 4:34am, or in the evening when I know I was at home on WiFI. I've never used more than 3.5 a month while traveling and using my iPhone 4/4S to tether, but am on pace for 25GB this month. I even noticed the problem yesterday when at 1.1 GB and was mindful not to use the device when not on WiFi, and still jumped up to 2.4GB somehow.

TechnoSam Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2012 12:57 PM in response to TechnoSam

I talked to Apple again, and I spoke with someone higher up. I have no idea why, but it seems like it's fixed now. I restored the back-up (from where I recently reset it) and I reset my Data Usage Stats. He said to leave Cellular off, but use Wi-Fi like normal. So far, my usage is at 0, and I've done quite a bit on the Internet. Also, so far, Verizon's servers agree.

It's working properly now. (The Cellular is still turned off, but previously, I was still being charged even then. Now I'm not.)

I really have no idea what was up with that.

If anyone wants to replicate what I did to see if it fixes their problem, here are the steps:

1) Create a back-up

2) Restore and set up as a new phone

3) Use it for a little bit and see if your data goes up any. (Make sure you're connected to the wi-fi of course.)

4) Restore from you back-up without resetting the phone. Just right click it in iTunes and choose "Restore from back-up."

After this, I have been able to use it normally. (Though I don't know what happens if Cellular is turned on and I'm in Wi-Fi...)

Anyway, the guy scheduled me to call back at 8:15 tonight, EST. I'll report these results to him, and I'll see what he says.

RAFREEB

Level 1

1 points

Oct 4, 2012 11:36 AM in response to TechnoSam

I am having this issue of wifi being on but the phone is reverting to 3g. LTE is turned off due to a battery issue and I am not on Verizon. I am on Virgin Mobile Canada.

TechnoSam Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 4, 2012 2:00 PM in response to TechnoSam

Apple released an update that fixed the problem. Go to Settings -> General -> About and wait for a pop-up to tell you about the update. Once it does, hit OK and restart your phone. When it restarts, you'll have to restart AGAIN. Check the carrier under About to make sure that it says Verizon 13.1.

This fixed the problem for me.

RAFREEB

Level 1

1 points

Oct 4, 2012 4:32 PM in response to TechnoSam

I'm on Virgin Mobile Canada and my iphone 5 is having this issue. I'm not on Verizon.

TechnoSam Author

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0 points

Oct 4, 2012 5:13 PM in response to RAFREEB

I don't know how to answer your question. All I can say is to call Apple.

iPhone 5 confusing Wi-Fi data with Cellular?