Unexplained constant data usage on iPhone 5

I simply took my iphone 5 back and got my money. I'm back on the 4 and no problems, using the new iOS 6.0.1 and works like a treat, have all my data buttons on and icloud and sync and all those things that actually make it a smart phone. I was using my 5 as a dumb phone turning off absolutely everything so as to stop the data leakage. All up I lost close to 3Gb of data with the 5 over 6 weeks. Telstra were good enough to replace it. Just checked my 4 and my data for 2 days is only at 60mb unlike the 5 where I was using 80mb a day.

Keep hasseling Apple and your provider something has to give...............

APPLE is you read these notes................ start taking NOTE!!!!!

Not sure if this means anything, but...

I used my MBP to share my internet connection from the ethernet cable to the wifi on the MBP. I then connected the iPhone 5 (6.1.2) to the wifi (the iPhone is the only client connected to the wifi). I logged all network traffic on the wifi interface using Wireshark for about 5 minutes. In that time, the iPhone was constantly "talking" to servers in the 17.xxx.xxx.xxx range on TCP, SSL and TLSv1 protocols.

Querying whois.arin.net who 17.xxx.xxx.xxx was revealed Apple is the owner of the IP addresses.

The IPs accessed were specifically: 17.167.136.15, 17.167.136.17, 17.167.136.83, 17.132.73.78, 17.149.36.176.

Whatever this is, it is what my iPhone 5 is constantly making use of the internet connection for.

Any thoughts?

I just purchased an iPhone 5 today and within 3 hours it has devoured HALF of my data usage limit! This is not accepatable so I'm going to return the phone tomorrow. Back to Verizon dealer tomorrow. The sales person talked me out of a nice Android phone, too.And I gave up my unlimited data plan for this!! Grrrr.

Hi Lazykins,

I tried this but I have Verizon 13.3 so my excessive data usage should have been fixed right?

I constantly monitor my data Useage because the Telcos charge such exorbitant overage fees. This is extortion! Sometimes when I get a new iPhone (it's happened multiple times) the phone chews thru data at an insane rate. The motto is: if you are not using data on a new phone or a new software rev, turn cellular data off (like you are overseas)! Only turn it on when you need it. I am pretty sure that even when I told Downcast to only download on wifi, it ignored my instructions and downloaded podcasts on 3G. Make sure you kill GPS apps while driving - these can run continuously in background forever! Down loading precious data. Vector maps have improved the situation but always be away of GPS apps running and downloading (as they are supposed to!) data in the background.

Apple should make it MUCH easier to switch off cellular data! At the moment it is buried about 3 levels down. This is unacceptable.

I am convinced that it is rogue apps like Downcast bugs, that cause most of these problems. It is certainly one of the worst aspects of owning a smart phone. I don't imagine these problems are confined to Apple. If anything they would likely be worse on Android.

Thank you for your help! What are you using to monitor your usage?

I use two programs: "Data Usage" and "DataUsagePro". These enable you to reset your useage to zero at the beginning of your particular accounting period. You don't have to remember to reset your usage each month - something you always forget to do, until it is too late. These two programs have nice graphical indicators of your useage as the days progress through the month. This makes it easy to manage your data useage and increase it towards the end of the month if you have unused capacity (that you have of course already paid for!). I highly recommend both programs.

I'll add a new wrinkle to the mystery. My wife and I have had our iPhone 5's since January, and each IOS version worked flawlessly at least for us. She updated to 6.1.3 a few days ago, and everything looks fine. I updated on 3/31, and have experienced unexplained and constant data usage since. NO OTHER CHANGES WERE MADE to the phone other than the IOS update.

I have since done a factory reset and restore with no change, deleted iCloud, deleted email accounts in case the old Exchange email server bug has reappeared, and deleted every 3rd party app from the phone just in case. Tonight, I'll put the phone in DFU mode (again), reload the IOS again, and set it up as a new phone without iCloud or email accounts. If in factory fresh state it still chews up my data plan with nothing running, I'll be on the phone with Apple. If we can't solve the problem, perhaps I can smooth talk AT&T into working with me on replacing a 2 month old phone.

Anyone else had 0 problems until IOS 6.1.3? The frustrating part is, my wife's phone is still perfect, and we have nearly the same apps on our phones.

Exactly same problems. I cancelled my iCloud account. No excess data usage since. I am at 78% of my data with 12 days to go. Fingers crossed.

My husband received an alert yesterday that he was approaching the upper end of his data allowance. He knows almost nothing about his iPhone 5 with latest update, owned since January 2013. He rarely uses the phone for anything but the occasional text to me (iMessage), to call a few friends or me, and to send an occasional email. In short, he isn't a heavy data user....rarely approaches even 1/2 GB of his 2 GB allowance.

Looking at the VERIZON data usage chart on our account, we noticed a funny thing with MASSIVE amounts of data -- close to 300 MB of data - being used at approximately 12 hour intervals. This happened at least 7 times over the course of 2 1/2 days, before I showed him how to turn off the cellular reception/usage. Neither the Verizon CSR nor the Verizon technical person could figure out what was going on. They kept thinking he had some app open, but he didn't and none of his apps would generate that kind of data, even if they WERE open. He doesn't even know what a hotspot is, as far as using your phone for that.

The Tech people at the University coudn't figure it out either but they've reset the phone and taken it off the Cloud sync (I think). I am monitoring like a hawk. But what an absolute pain!!!! At this point he is OVER his allowance due to these 'unauthorized' data usages.

The Verizon people did say they wouldn't charge him for these strange data usages, but this is REALLY puzzling. Is this the kind of thing other people are seeing, or are your strange quantities of data usage more random?

Are you all thinking this is some kind of Apple bug or what, exactly?

Knock on wood, I also have an iPhone (4S) and use my phone much more, but never approach my own 2 GB allowance either. Hopefully I won't see this phenomenon, either.

Load the apps that I suggested previously. Turn "cellular data" off when u don't need it. The real problem is the extortionate rate the telcos charge for overage.

Mizoo,

Look under cellular data usage in settings and check it multiple times in a row with cellular data turned off and wifi on. If you go in and out of the usage screen and you have the data leak you will see your data usage increase by about 2kb each time. This would be about once per second, and can really add up over a month. For me it was about 1.5gb a month! I had all cell data turned off with no location data of any kind, and still leaking data.

I had icloud turned off, still data leaking.

Deleted icloud account from phone and no more leak.

Turned all cell data on, wifi off, location services on for all apps, and kept icloud deleted off phone. 3 days later, no data leak. Datawhiz app confirmed all data used during 3 day period as being correct (roughly) with what phones cellular data showed. No leak anymore. I should have known when I setup my phone originally over wifi from icloud (had an iPad 2) that even though it was synced over wifi, cellular data usage showed 1.2gb used in 1 day.

Just signing out of icloud has no effect, removing icloud completely cleared up the issue. Now, I leave iTunes running on laptop and when I charge phone at night it syncs over wifi to iTunes. Only real drawback is I can't use findmyiphone app. So be careful!

$$$$$$$$ DATA SCAM $$$$$$$$$ DATA SCAM $$$$$$$$ DATA SCAM $$$$$$$$$ DATA SCAM $$$$$$$

Im really ****** off the way the new I phone works? when you think your phone is turned off there are hidden apps still running in the background chewing up your data.

I rang Telstra and Apple to see if there is an auto turn off setting or an app that turns off dorment apps but the only solution they gave me was that I had to manualy turn off the MOBILE DATA in the settings every time I finished using the internet which I found to be a really big chor as I may use the internet 30 to 40 times a day. Also they said I had to manually turn off the apps by double pressing the funtion button because these app may use up my data allowance without my knowledge! so basically every time I forget to turn off anything its eating my data allowence without my say so! imagion how many people dont know about this DATA SCAM and if you do know imagion how many people forget the process of turning off each app every time they open one!!!

THIS IS A DATA SCAM!!!!!!!!!!...............

I think its totally ridiculas the way we are being ripped off and im taking my caes one step further to the TELECOMMUNICATION OMBUDSMAN because I did not sign up for this in my phone contract!!!

So when I updated to IOS 7.0.4 the data leak started to happen to my phone. I have a family plan with my family and none of our phones had any problem for a whole year. This just happened when we updated. I went to AT&T and they said I would have to buy out my old contract that still had a year left and pay for a new one for a new phone. So I went to apple and my warranty for the phone was up but they gave me the same iPhone 5 for $250. I also got a new SIM card and the leakage stopped. A month later it has now started again. Everything possible has been replaced. Apple really needs to figure this problem out because this really is a scam. I'm really disappointed as I like my iPhone but I don't think I can ever go back to one after this. Our family is severely frustrated and apple needs to fix this thing or else their customers will keep being taken advantage of and they will lose business.

I started seeing my data usage increase sometime in Jan/Feb 2014. I finally phoned Apple and they gave me a great suggestion. In the IOS upgrades to 7.0.5 (or 7.0.6 - can't remember what the agent said) the way background App refreshes work is that they can use cellular. Background App Refreshes are different than regular upgrades; they come from the App and app maker. However, the good news is that you can control that - you can turn it off. Go to Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh. You'll see text that describes that this "allows aps to refresh their content when on Wi-Fi or cellular, or use Location Services, in background." So simply turn off the Background App Refresh there. For apps that probably do background refreshes but that you don't use that often, it's probably good to turn them off after using them.

This has lowered my data usage, but I'm still not sure I've understood all the recent excess usage. So I'm now checking my balance with my carrier and comparing it to statistics of cellular usage on my phone (via Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Usage). If I learn more about what's consuming data, I'll append this posting.