The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

Yep. I'm on a shared data plan and have burned through over 5 gigs of data. I have NEVER used that much data. I am connected to my work WiFi and also WiFi at home. Only span of time I'm not on WiFi in a typical day is during my commute. This is ********. I have disabled the ability to use cellular data with iTunes Match, and the Music app. I had an iPhone 4 before this and streamed just as much music from iTunes Match... Highest I had ever hit before this was just over 3 gigs. FIX THIS APPLE.

Say, wouldn't it be nice to have a switch under settings>general>cellular that gives the option to turn off cellular data when in Wifi range? Or how about this? The device does this automatically! You know... like before.

The good news for me is that I am somehow at the stage where data is no longer leaking when I'm doing nothing with the phone (like overnight). But it still leaks when I'm actually using it on Wifi. I'll often see MORE data being tossed around on Cellular than on Wifi.

Darell,

For me, after setting up iPhone 5 as per the recommendations of this forum, operation at home and office WiFi environment with Cellular Data always on, has been "perfect behavior", only a few odd pings on Cellular Data while iPhone sleeping at night, or during the day.

However, this morning, I did see the re-emergence of an incident I have not seen for a week or more.

While browsing news.com.au via the Quota App, I noted WiFi was kicked off, and LTE used.

This happened two or three times in a matter of minutes. I noticed the LTE icon replaced the WiFi icon.

I had to manually reconnect my home WiFi [Settings, WiFi, and select my network], it simply did not "automatically join a known network".

Now if I had been using a data hungry full screen app [WiFi or LTE icon hidden] I would not have noticed, and would have chewed up lots of cellular data.

I cannot reproduce the issue consistently, but believe the behavior is related to this specific app. nothing else was running at the time.

[Note: the Quota app is no longer supported by the developer, but continues to work fine on some Providers]

Robert.

I never even thought to try and see if WiFi had gone away. As you say, many times the app won't let you see the connection status. Hmmm. Something to think about.

Darell,

As suggested by Matt, a few pages back, please make this suggestion to Apple directly,

via:http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Then you will get a pleasant surprise if it turns out to be a feature in the release of iOS 6.x

Robert.

Quote:

"Say, wouldn't it be nice to have a switch under settings>general>cellular that gives the option to turn off cellular data when in Wifi range?

Or how about this? The device does this automatically! You know... like before."

Unquote...

This is exactly what happens on the ipad now, it is sporadic and very frustrating, and seems to be app specific. Using NFL replay streaming games I "catch" it switched over to LTE on its own. The wifi icon will be gone replaced by LTE, but its not something that I am looking at so it eats up data. Unlike your experience, as soon as I pause the video feed, the wifi automatically kicks back on.

The Forum recommendation appears to be...

Turn off Cellular Data, when on WiFi at Home or in the Office, particularly if you going to do some heavy stuff, like watching a movie, backing up to iCloud, Streaming Music from iCloud, etc...

It sort of make good sense really, it is like getting into the habit of turning off Bluetooth when you do not need it...

Robert.

It boils my blood to read suggestions like this. It is utter @#$%^& to shift the responsibility for poor coding on the end user.

It's like Ford responding to reports cars running while unoccupied by telling the driver to remove the gas when exiting the car.

The iPhone did NOT behave in this way prior to IOS 6. How about announcing data overage amnesty, so we can continue to use our phones without changing our behavior for fear of being gouged?

Hi Robert -

NO worries. They have recieved several polite suggestions from me on that channel. I have 'em on speed dial!

I should also mention that when that iphone-specific feedback page is used, it asks for what OS, but not what iOS. You have a choice of Mac OS's or PC OS's. Very odd.

Are you serious? It sort of makes sense, really? Are you an Apple rep???

This problem is NEW to iOS 6. Most of us here are experienced iPhone users and have never had these problems until iPhone 5/iOS 6. I should not have to switch my iPhone's cellular data off. This problem needs to be fixed.

Apple, I'm getting ******* angry! Fix this, or at least communicate to your customers that you are aware of the ******* problem!

Holy data bug! I have done all the stuff to shut off all the data leakages I can manage and have been using a reasonable amount over the last 2 weeks since my first notice: I used 4.8G in first week of having new iPhone 5! Had never used more than 2.5G in a month before.

So I've adopted the habit that I SHOULDN'T NEED TO! I now turn cellular data off when I get home. And turn it back on when I drive to work in the morning. So this morning, I turn it on and minutes later get a DataWiz notice that I've gone over the alert levels I set FOR THE WEEK! In just a few minutes my phone sucked down 1.07GB (yes GB!) of data. I also have Onavo running, hoping that if I ever had a big leak, I might be able to see what app or process it was. Unfortunately, Onavo had crashed at some point in the last couple of days and didn't capture the data use.

Come on Apple! I know you keep track of what's going on in the forums - I'm happy to install some logger if it will help you track this problem down. There are multiple issues at work here. There are issues causing iPhone to drop WiFi connections, like the Extended Capabilities incompatibility and problems with encryption. Potentially some carrier settings issues. And possibly some apps or processes that have become data vampires with iOS6.

Turning off cellular data means you can't access voicemail. My iPhone is my business phone, and I need to listen to voicemails wherever I am.

Disgusted.

This won't work for everyone (and is no excuse - Apple needs to fix this), but for me... I use Google Voice - allows me to get all voice mails using WiFi data.

Nestofc -

I have noticed the same thing - when I have cellular off to staunch the leakage, and I finally turn it back on, the phone seems to immediately try to catch up with something I've prevented it from doing. It is not uncommon for me to see a large data spike immediately when the switch is thrown. Note that this can happen when I an in or out of WiFi coverage.