Ios6 causing excessive data usage?

I'm in South Africa and having similar issues - although mine was restricted to one incident.

The issue seems to be around the new iOS podcast app. on my iPhone 4 wi-fi connection I selected 5 podcasts to download, an went to bed. Woke up the next morning with an alert from my service provider that my data bundle had been depleted. Logged onto their site and was shocked to see that the phone had download 8.1 GB's of data - overnight! Am now being charged heavily (R8000 / $1000), and there is nothing I can do about it.

Hey Adam,

I was downloading one of the following Maximum Fun podcasts (just one episode each) - and ended up downloading 8.1GB overnight!

Stop Podcasting Yourself

Jordan Jesse Go

Bullseye

MBMBAM

Risk

Needless to say I have a HUGE data bill. Have since deleted that **** app.

I called AT&T to report my issue and the tech I spoke with said they're aware of the data leak problem and that IOS6 has been a huge "nightmare" for them. She said they're communicating the problems to Apple. My guess is Apple is working on a fix and that fix will be published around the time of the iPad mini launch, rumored to be happening later this month. AT&T also said they would reimburse me for the overages, so if you're having the same problem contact your provider about being reimbursed.

This is amazing - last night I noticed bandwidth issues on my home wifi and saw via comcast that I had accumulated 80 GB of data usage in less than a week (⚠). After testing every device, we have finally tracked this data hemorrhage down to my wife's iTouch - she had upgraded several days ago to ios6.

Right in front of our eyes we watched this tiny device eat an entire GB in less than an hour. We tried killing every app one by one, disabling icloud, removing the icloud account, power cycling .. the only thing that "solved" the problem was turning off the wifi or the itouch itself.

I can only be glad I didn't update my iphone .. and seen these GB on my wireless bill.

Apple you need to solve this asap - this is <way> worse than "mapgate"

I've had the same symptoms on my iPhone 4S ever since I upgraded to iOS 6. As of 2012-10-02 I had burned through 1 GB of my 2 GB allotment for the monthly billing cycle, which ends on 10/16. I usually never use more than 500 MB at the very most in a month--it's usually more like 250 MB. I only noticed the heavy cellular usage because of a text message alert from Verizon.

I've tried all the common fixes (deleting the Podcasts app, etc.) but still have to leave cellular data off most of the day to keep from going over my limit. The only thing I haven't tried is totally wiping my iPhone and starting over -- I hope to avoid that and am limping along until Apple releases a fix.

One weird thing I did notice--over this past weekend, I was sick and in bed for about two days straight and didn't leave the house (where I have wifi). During that time, I left cellular data on for most of the time, and noticed that I used less than 1.0 MB each of those two days. It seems I have the highest data usage when I'm running errands around town. Don't know if Maps is trying to do something, or if it's just the fact that there's no guaranteed wifi when I'm away from home.

Please check this out, Apple!

Looks like uninstalling the Podcast app solved the problem for me.

This is not a "normal" bug, affecting some functionality: it will affect users telephone bills heavily, just like if the phone started calling abroad without user control. It is not something we can live with.

I got rid of the podcast app too and resolved my issue. Service provider refusing to do anything about my massive data bill ($1000) for 8.1 GB downloaded in 7 hours. They've said I should take my phone to Apple for repairs!!!

Totally stuck between a rock and a hard place.

This is exactly the type of issue we are having at home. I can almost explain 100 gig of data usage in 10 days with school holidays but we are all working or at school now and although it has slowed down we have used 60 gig in 5 days and there is no logical explanation. Given the issues others are having this problem since the ios6 update must have something to do with it.

We have an Apple TV and I have been reluctant to update it given the issues we are having with our other apple devices.

Apple needs to urgently look at these problems

Adding my two (horrible) cents.

I just went on a two week vacation to Europe, right after upgrading to iOS6. As usual, as soon as I got on the plane in L.A., I turned off all cell data. However, I noticed that when we landed in France, it was showing reception from the local telco (indicated in the upper left corner, where I'd usually see 'AT&T'). I checked, and confirmed that my cell data was still turned off. In addition, as we crossed in to each country, ATT would send me a text message, indicating what the international charges would be, almost exactly at the same moment that the local telco name appeared at the top of the phone. This really began to worry me. I work in mobile products, so something as simple as turning off cell data is pretty basic for me.

My concerns were well founded when AT&T suddenly sent me a text message saying that they were turning off my data plan due to 'excessive charges' while abroad. When I returned, AT&T presented me with a $750 bill for many MBs of data usage. How is that possible with data turned off? It was as if the OS was ignoring the fact that I'd turned off cell data (and even had roaming turned off before turning off cell data).

Luckily, the ATT rep backdated a travel plan onto my account, meaning that I only had to pay $30 for that add-on instead of the $750. The rep is still trying to make that work for my account, but this is apparently a common occurrence. It'll become even more common if there's a bug in iOS6. 😠

P.S. In the last 1 Day and 2 Hours since my data plan was restored, the Cellular Network Data shows 356 MB Sent, and *2.0 GB* Received!

Something is really, really screwed up. No, I don't use the podcast app and only had a small amount of apps open - imessage, phone app, Facebook and the Gmail app. I've only received two phone calls in that time period - both less than three minutes in length.

This is unbelievably bad.

That's the thing a lot of people in the USA don't understand - while they might have charges of $30, $40 or even $100 for excess data, in many parts of the world the same excess data could be charged in the $1000s!!! In Australia, excess data is very expensive on most plans and there is no way to simply stop your data when it reaches the limit. The telcos' usage meters are usually 24 hours behind, sometimes more, so by the time you get a message that you are approaching your data limit, you may already be 2GB over (and 2GB on my plan = $2000!!!! Yes, two THOUSAND dollars!!)

Also, if you got your iPhone through an officially supported telco, they *may* waive your charges. But if you bought your phone outright or brought it over from another carrier, you are probably out of luck. I got the same line as you from my telco: "If it's a problem with the iPhone then see Apple - it's their problem, not ours!" Wow.

Edit: As a side note, I am currently writing this post from my laptop, wirelessly tethered to my new Samsung Galaxy S3, knowing that there is no fear that I will go over my data cap. Androids allow you to set a cap and if you reach that cap, then the cellular data is basically disabled. Why doesn't iOS have that feature??? In fact, I can't even do wireless tethering with my iPhone at the moment, because Apple wont let me access the APN settings. My carrier doesn't have a problem with tethering (there is no extra charge in Australia for this), but the iPhone blocks the ability to edit APNs manually, basically disabling wireless tethering, MMS and Visual Voicemail!!! That was the main reason I jailbroke my iPhone 4 - to manually edit these settings which I have every right to access. I only get access to cellular data on my phone now because of unlockit.co.nz.

You'd think if you paid $1000 for an "unlocked" phone that you'd be able to configure it how you want (like you can with any $50 Nokia!) What a joke.

My Telco ( who I bought the phone from 2 years ago) told me to speak to Apple. Contacted the Apple distributor here in South Africa who replied saying that it is a data issue and i should speak to the Telco, alternatively speak to "Apple overseas"

Don't think i've ever been this annoyed.

What makes matters even worse is that the Telco phoned me this morning saying what a loyal customer i've been over the last 2 years, and offered me a new contract! Poor guy didn't know what hit him.

Edit: just read your post about the Samsung S3... Think i'm going to be headed that way too after all this stress.

My excess data so far is 8gb of data. Since turning off the crappy podcast app and removing the iCloud backup, the issue has no longer occurred. My telco in OZ told me they will credit the data excess fees (which will be in excess of $2000) when the bill comes through as I have never gone over my 1.5gb allowance.

For any telco to advise a customer that they cannot do anything about this issue would ludricous. I'd suggest contact with ombudsmen to resolve this massive balls up from apple.

So angry with Apple on this one, they are still quiet and hoping that the problem will just go away. Good in you for getting the Galaxy. May need to check one out myself.

Only just checked my phone bill yesterday and see that I have exceeded the 2GB data allowance by a 6GB! (records show from previous use that I have never exceeded 1.5GB). I have the Iphone 5 set to wireless preference at home and do my downloading on this, so I suspect I have the same problem.

I called Optus who (after 1 hour of my explanations) have agreed to add a bolt on free of charge to eliminate the costs for this month and suggested that I turn off cellular for the remainder of the month. They referred me to Apple for technical resolution.

So I have turned off EVERYTHING (wireless, cellular, location services etc) to avoid further charges (which are hefty here in Australia) so my Iphone 5 is useless but for phone calls now. I have also deleted the podcast app which was crappy anyway, and done a reset for the sake of it. Now too scared to use it for anything but phone calls. This is a REAL problem. We need a response from Apple as this is not restricted to USA Verizon. I noticed that our largest telco, Telstra has been receiving customer complaints about the same issue. Is there a way I can revert back to iOS5? I need to use my phone as a smartphone.

Just purchased my iPhone 5 last week in Vancouver, Canada and have noticed obscenely high data usage. I usually use less than 500MB of data per month and in the first 2 days of having the iPhone 5 I went through 300MB of data. I spoke to my carrier at Bell Canada and they were not aware of the problem and recommended that I just turn off my cellular/data. Apple needs to fix this problem ASAP and the carrier, Bell Canada, needs to inform its customers of this problem.