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Ios6 causing excessive data usage?

Since downloading iOS 6 I'm having major issues with my cellular data usage going through the roof! I used 1.5g yesterday and that was after going into every available setting and turning them off! Ie location services/icloud and all others! The only setting which uses data I have left on was literally the cellular data setting! I don't know why this is happening as I've never had an issue before since owning the very first iPhone! Is anyone having the same problem or know a fix? Any help would be much appreciated!

iPhone 4S, iOS 6, iOS 6 using excessive data

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 11:13 AM

Reply
373 replies

Oct 18, 2012 5:16 AM in response to Christopher Parrott

Apple should really pull thier fingers out & get this sorted, this is the second month in a row which i have exceeded my data allowance which never happened before the ios6 upgrade. I need data on the move for my Job so i have had no choice but to purchase extra data bolt ons.


Im seriously thinking about trading the iphone in for another phone, wish i didnt as i really like the phone & have had iphone since the 1st one but they seem to make things worse everytime they upgrade the OS especially this recent upgrade.


Has there been any word from apple of a ETA on the fix, If there is any?

Oct 18, 2012 9:53 AM in response to Christopher Parrott

I spoke with Verizon yesterday. They are aware of the iOS bug and are crediting accounts for data overages this month. I would give them a call to confirm this is the case with your account.


In my case, removing the podcast app did seem to resolve the issue. I reported about 2.3GB of data downloads in one day. I was in the car listening to about 2 hours worth of podcasts that day.

Oct 18, 2012 4:08 PM in response to Christopher Parrott

I have an iPad third gen and recently bought a sim from O2 in the UK to give me access on my commute.

I am on a 1 Gig data plan and struggled to use 500mb on the first month. I upgraded to IOS6 and used 1 Gig in 2 days!!!

Spoke to O2 and they deny they have heard of any problems with the IOS6 upgrade causing problems, I suggested they google it, come on apple release a patch for this.

Is Apple loosing its grip? Maps? Siri? And now dodgy software releases....someone's not watching their game....

Oct 19, 2012 2:28 PM in response to adamw75

Im having the dame problem on my iphone 4 ever since coming to ios 6. in the day that i upgraded i used up all of my 200 MB and another 100MB after the plan was reset. i downloaded the update through my computer 2 so i dont know hat it could have been. then later some how im managing 12-40 MB a day by just using facebook or nothing at all. ive blocked everything that uses cellular data and it still does

Oct 20, 2012 10:58 AM in response to Christopher Parrott

The problem seems to be linked to the iCloud account. I did an experiment with iPhone 4 on iOS 5 & iPhone 5:


Reset the data usage statistics at the same time on both phones. Did not touch either phone for an hour. During that time the iPhone 4 used 9KB, while the iPhone 5 used 400KB. Both phones have the same iCloud and gmail accounts.


I then deleted all the email / contacts / calendar accounts on the iPhone 5, reset the data usage statistics again, and rebooted. After 20min, the phone did not use any data. (0Kb)


Added the iCloud account back in to sync email / contacts / calendar, etc. waited for the phone to download the initial sync data, then reset the statistics again. The excessive data usage behavior comes back. (Reads 1KB every few seconds, so it accumulates quite fast).


Deleted iCloud, added gmail back on as an exchange service, so it'll also sync contacts and calendars. Rebooted and reset the data statistics. No mysterious data usage seen from the gmail account.


So it would seem the culprit is iCloud in combination with iOS 6 (at least in my case). By deleting the iCloud account you lose the iCloud backup, find my iPhone, etc. I think it's still a good trade off to be able to use cellular data without constantly checking the usage. Waiting for apple to fix this in an upcoming iOS update....

Oct 20, 2012 11:10 AM in response to bluefox987

I'll give my details. I bought the iphone when it first came out 5 years ago and now have the 4s with a 2g ATT plan. I've never in 5 years gone over 200mb in a month. I don't download anything over cell. Everything is wifi. I don't icloud or music match. All apps set to wifi only. AFter ios6 exceeded my 2g limit less than 10 days into my billing cycle. All large data is showing on ATT website as 'sent' data and 80% of the time is at about 2am. Some nights the phone is on wifi on my home network and sometimes I'm at work on cellular data. I can feel the phone at about 2am getting hot in my pocket so I know something is happening. It usually sends between 200mb and 400mb every night although every once in a while it's during the day. THe funny thing is my phone only shows 2mb of sent data when I check cell data usage on it. I deleted all my photos and music and podcasts thinking it won't have anything to send but it still happens. Who knows what it is. I'm at 4g for the month now and I don't download or send anything. My contract is up in December so I think I'm done with Apple.

Oct 21, 2012 5:46 AM in response to didieUK

I have a very similar issue to didieUK's where my bill has increased from it's usual monthly charge of £35 to over £450 due to excess data usage!

I've raised concerns with my service provider who, like Orange, are refusing to acknowledge there is a problem. Their customer services team also seem incapable of rational or logical thinking and when I raised my concerns to them in an email, they simply issued a reply telling me a list of facts about my bill which I already know, ignored the information I'd included from their eforum about customers with similar issues, and simply told me the charges are valid. Oh and they also added they can't tell me the content to which the data relates to! Astounding....


I am pretty sure the podcast app is the root of the problems in my case. Of course, one can argue that I should have been 'on the ball' when using this app and made sure I had switched cellular data to 'off', however I am someone who has only the basic idea about smartphones and, as I've never come close to exceeding my data allowance in the past and am connected to wifi most of the time (or so my device tells me), it never crossed my mind that this app could chew up months of data repeatedly over a few days.


Does anyone know if Apple have officially acknowledged there is a bug in the ios6? I read tlee's comment above with interest; the fact that Verizon are aware of the issues and are crediting customers is a positive step in this saga but at the moment it seems the UK service providers are all pleading ignorance.


I couldn't agree more with SomeGuyInOz's comment above. I am also not prepared to pay these extortionate charges-not only because I can't afford to but it is also a matter of principle. There are enough news articles, blogs and forum threads on this topic now to show its not an isolated issue. Why should we, as the consumers, be forced to stump up our hard earned cash for what is essentially a technical problem?!


Oh and did I mention I work for the very service provider that's trying to sting me with an extortionate phone bill? It's not an encouraging situation when, as an employee, you can't seem to get your voice heard. However, I am not giving up the fight!

Oct 21, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Christopher Parrott

I have been playing the baseball game back and forth between AT&T and Apple for weeks now. Each new person that gets online to bore me to death with questions concerning applications running, facetime, iCloud, blah blah blah, continues to lie and say "this is the first time I've heard of this issue."


Me - "Srsly? Are you kidding? It's all over the web and saturated in your forums."


Rep - "Oh really? Well, we don't listen to things that are written in forums, anyone can write anything."


Me - "Srsly? Then why do you insist we sign in with our Apple ID or AT&T mobile number? It states that you glean information and feedback from said forums."


Rep - "Oh, um, I don't go into the forums so I'm not aware of what is said in them, we don't take them seriously."


Me - "Oh, ok, so your intention is to glean information you deem both unreliable and unbelievable? Got it, so if you have web access at your fingertips to reasearch this since you've "never heard of it before" you will see this is a worldwide issue.


Rep - "I don't have access to the web on my job."


Me - "Srsly? Ok, I'm done here with the denial game. I want to know what is wrong with this phone, I am being raped for excessive data charges for the second month in a row since upgrading to iOS 6."


And so begins the mindnumbing process of my phone calls with both AT&T and Apple. Thus far I've had an AT&T supervisor accuse me of facetiming strangers (since I don't know anyone else with an iPhone who would want to look at my face or talk to me live) during the night whilst I'm apparently sleepwalking, to going through all my settings that I've already had shut off from jump, to Apple telling me to restore my phone from iTunes and that is the only way they will replace my phone if the problem continues, because they have no intention of reimbursing me for any overages with AT&T.


You see, I asked for a replacement because your OS renderes my phone "defective" as it doesn't work like it did before. I have burned through 10GB of data in only three weeks. If you have erased such files that allow me to downgrade back to OS 5, then you have essentially broken my phone with your permanent bugridden OS. Turning cellular data off makes my smartphone a stupid iPod. That is not what I purchased. I purchased a smartphone, I no longer have a smartphone to use properly in the usual and customary fashion as I did before this OS upgrade. My phone is still under warranty. I followed your numerous different instructions and nothing has resolved the issue. You essentially broke my phone.


I have an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow at 3:30pm. I plan to recite such to the "genius" over the counter. Either he will put the lid on the data pipeline that is stealing my money or he will give me a new phone. I will restore all the things I had on this phone exactly as it was, as all my iphones have been used for years, and will reset Dataman. If my phone continues to eat 120MB of data per hour, as logged previously. I will make another appointment and drive back with the phone for another replacement.


Because it is still broken. I will do this every week, until you have a box filled with returned 4s's from me.


Your permanent OS damaged my phone. It's not an iPod, and I will not use it like one.

I plan to continue to return phones as many times as I have to until this problem is fixed. I want a smartphone like I had before, that worked the way it did before, or I want replacement that does. I suggest everyone else do the same. When Apple has hundreds of thousands of returned phones that there is really nothing wrong with, the loss will surely spur them to do something.


I've been screaming CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT for two weeks now. If there be a lawyer among us, please advise, I will invest free time in helping get this rolling.

Oct 22, 2012 1:13 AM in response to Christopher Parrott

Same problem for me in Italy. After my monthly 1 GB offer was renewed on the 27th of September in about 24 hours it was all gone and after that all the credit on my phone was gone too (I have never needed more than 1 GB in a month so far).


After that, I have checked all the connections made by my iPhone in those 24 hours and noticed a huge number of wap connections of about 1.000 KB every 3-4 seconds. My carrier (Tim Italy) agreed to refund me the 21 euros I have lost. They said they are aware of the problem that happended to many of their customers after upgrading to iOS 6 but they don't know why this is happening, so it could definitely happen again 😟

Oct 22, 2012 1:17 AM in response to Christopher Parrott

I have the same issue of downloads in the night between 80 and 500 MB. When mobile data is turned off or iCloud is disabled it seems to be fine but that is not how I want to use an iPhone.


It started with upgrade to iOS 6 and continues on the iPhone 5. I tried to restore the phone, the network settings, nothing helps. Would not like to get another OS instead of iOS but this must stop.

Ios6 causing excessive data usage?

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