Ios6 causing excessive data usage?

How many of you have called Apple to report this problem? I ask because when I called they said it was the first they had heard.

They prioritize their fixes based on calls they get.

There are a bunch of things happening.

1. Usage counters on the phone are messed up and counting alot more than what the carrier reports. This is the one affecting me.

2. iTunes match and iCloud are running even when not on wifi, and they shouldn't....which is chewing lots of data.

Some people's phone counters are claiming more than the carrier, while other's carrier are claiming more than the counters. So there's two different things going on.

Call Apple at once...report this, tell them it's affecting you and they will fix it.

I called them yesterday after making my post. The initial representative forwarded me up to the next level of support after I explained my issue. We verified that cellular data was turned off in the key apps and settings, to include turning off Cellular for iCloud Documents, Passbook, iTunes Match, etc., and then did a Reset Network Settings. After that I closed out all the background apps and I've only used Settings, Messages, and Phone in order to isolate the problem. So far my data usage is minimal as I'd expect with light use of iMessages. My next step, after a day of no problems, is to use one or two of my usual apps and see what happens.

About your note 2 above: I use both iCloud and iTunes Match (and they were set to use cellular data before yesterday), but I don't see how they'd be using that much data. I don't have any iCloud documents, and iTunes Match has not downloaded any new songs to my phone. This is on an iPhone 5 that was restored from a backup last Friday, and I haven't touched the iTunes or Music apps on it.

I too am having this issue.. My normal 6GB was used up in less than a week since IOS 6 release day. I normally se 2GB if constant streaming and or netflix and podcasting. now i am hitting 6GB in a week.

I have disabled all but cellular data and based on other forums discussions deleted the Apple PODCAST app and my usage seems normal but it's almost too late for this month seems i will be going over.

so "not saying" it's the culprit but alot of users seem to be leaning this way. I had previously tried disabling cellular data only on the podcast app. no such luck.

There is a problem with Springboard after the upgrade. Due to unstable springboard, the phone is sending junk data to apple, or frequently checking for emails etc.. This internal communication is causing the abnormal data usage on phone. Reset the springboard.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7168931_reset-apple-springboard.html

I've called them

They are getting there engineering team to look into it witch takes a few days

i'm not sure what the record is but my iphone used a 1gb data bolt on in 45 minutes yesterday... what's more surprising is the fact i was on the train and normally struggle to get any kind of usage out of it on the journey! crazy.

so i've spoken to o2 over the online chat and over the phone and have been told it's a problem with my phone. it isn't- it's a problem with the ios 6 update, specifically i believe the podcast app. deleted the app last night after going through 3gb of data in 2 days and using all my monthly allowance and low and behold just now i got a notification on my screen that the app was unable to download this podcast. i don't even have the podcast app on the phone! so i'm pretty sure it's got something to do with this app, not springboard. but what do i know? i know i'm really, really annoyed. now this podcats has stopped trying to download itself without me knowing I'm hoping the situation will improve. just reset all my data counters to check. trouble is i don;t know what normal usage is - ive sent 104b and recieved 2.3mb in 30 minutes, while the phone is sitting locked on my desk. is that normal? no apps are running.

all data used up, extra bolt-on data used, no battery life. i won't be paying!

update--some of you are having problems like ours, where the data charges are all for SENT data. Others are talking about downloads and incoming data. We found out that our son had sent an email with pictures that got "stuck" in limbo trying to constantly send, for days, but was looping endlessly with incomplete attempts. This used up almost a month's data in just 5 days. It will post as one charge late at night but that's just bookkeeping purposes, it is actually constantly sending and sending and sending... The fix was: he put it into airplane mode, sent the email, deleted the sent file, and now it's not there anymore. Additionally, he now tries to plug the phone in when at home to make the phone use wifi as much as possible but not miss phone calls. Hope this helps someone.

Today at work over lunch I was on wi-fi and started to download a big playlist via iTunes Match (iPhone 5 iOS 6). It was happily downloading multiple songs in parallel. A little while later I went for a walk outside, got a couple of "error connecting to network" popups, thought that was normal. Got back inside to my desk back on wi-fi and checked on the download, but now it was only doing one song at a time. So I thought I'd pause it by turning wi-fi off, put the phone down and went to do some work for a bit. A while later I went back and noticed my phone was warm. I then noticed that it was still downloading songs! I went into settings and verified that "Use Cellular Data" was turned off for Music, iTunes and iTunes Match, and yet in front of my eyes it was happy gobbling up my data plan over LTE. A usage check showed 4.6GB out of my 4GB... :-(

I called Apple and they had never heard of this, had me reset network settings, etc, no change (still downloading), so I ended up just turning off iTunes Match. I then called AT&T and they will remove the charges (once they show up, only the first 3.something GB is in thei system yet).

I am going right over to Apple bugreports now to open a bug. It seems that only initiating a download using iTunes Math (at least) checks the settings; a transition to a different network (e.g. cellular-only) is apparently not triggering a re-check that should pause the data transfers. Meh!

Just got a text from my carrier saying I've reached 75% of my data limit. In the year plus I've had my iPhone 4 I've never gotten close to that before. Looking at my data usage online I generally used under 50mb a day. After the upgrade to ios6 I've been using 300 to 900 a day. Something is screwed up. I'm thinking it must have something to do with forcing the use of the podcast app?

Same problem here. It is insane and I don't know what is using all this data. My wife has it too with the iPhone 5, where I have it with the iPhone 4S. I created a forum here on reddit and it seems a bunch more people are having the issue. http://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/10kzul/anybody_elses_data_useage_with_io s_6_on_their/

For what it's worth, I have not observed any extra data usage since I called Apple, did the Reset Network Settings, and turned off Cellular Data for all my apps, including the options under General -> Cellular -> Use Cellular Data for:

I also do not have, nor have ever had, the Podcast app installed on my iPhone 5.

A stop gap at best. Not using at cellular data at all really isn't a "solution" apple should be providing.

I didn't say I turned off cellular data. I simply disabled access to cellular data for iTunes Match, iCloud documents, etc, and any apps I use. I still have cellular data turned on, and use it normally.

I dont have an iphone, but my son updated his ipod touch that connects into the home wi-fi. It too uses excessive data.....I am talking 78gb in three days. That is how much we normally use for the whole house in a month. Last night we even did an experiment trying to figure out what was using all our internet allowance. We had every other device apart from his ipod disconnected and turned off even changing the password for the internet just in case someone was hacking into our connection. From Midnight to 9am 18gb of data was used, now most of this time he was asleep, and supposedly his ipod was on sleep mode too.

Unless we find a solution to this problem then his ipod is history. We can not afford for this sort of usage all the time.

We need help to get this sorted...please any ideas

There is a very interesting theory on why this is happening, check out:

iOS6 Mystery Cellular Data Usage - Theory #1