The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

millerj826 wrote:

I just received my new iphone 5 from Verizon on Tuesday evening. As of Friday midday, I have already used over 1GB of data. On my old Droid phone, I barely used 2GB a month.

My data habits have not changed with the new phone. I spoke with Verizon this afternoon and they said that it was my fault. I checked my phone and I am on Verizon 13.1. It sounds like the majority of people with this problem are on AT&T, but is anyone with Verizon still having this problem.

I'm seeing excessive data usage, as well. I went from an AT&T iPhone 3GS to a Verizon iPhone 5, and here on day 30 of my first full billing cycle, I'm right up against my 2GB data allocation. My usage habits have not changed at all, yet I never used more than 900MB-1GB of data on my AT&T iPhone. And I've had Verizon 13.1 for nearly the entire billing cycle, so that certainly didn't help.

I wonder if there's a rogue app on there that is draining data. I am using the new Starbucks app that puts your card on the lock screen via Passbook whenever you're near a Starbucks location. I'll bet that uses a lot of data. I just disabled it, so we'll see how next month goes.

Last night I did a bit of an experiment to see how much less data I would use if I shut off all email accts and location services, my phone went from using approx 30-75kb every 10-20 minutes to using exactly 278b every 30 minutes. My phone was on a very strong and fast wifi connection all night and plugged in, so there's no reason why location and email should put data over cellular anyway. And I had the huge data problems that others are describing but never had a podcast app.

I began to have similar problems with my iPhone 4 when I switched to iOS6, but it also included extreme battery usage. The data usage is at its worst when I travel and have to depend on cellular connections.

I have twice phoned my service provider (Bell Canada) and twice been to different Apple stores. Bell gave all kinds of excuses which implied that the problem was me and my way of using the apps. Even though I pointed out that my usage spiked by hundreds of MBs at times I was either asleep or else arriving off an airplane and right into immediate cell usage, Bell really just gave me the brush-off.

The people at the Apple stores ran a series of diagnostics and told me everything was fine but suggested I needed to reset my phone. I did that both times but each time was then going back home where this is not such a problem.

In 10 days, I am off on another trip and will be watching very carefully.

Go to Settings>General>Cellular>and turn off use with Cellular Data for iCloud, iTunes, Passbook updates, Readinglist. This might make a difference in the cellular data usage.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did that a long time ago and it made no difference. It feels like the problem is greater than just a simple matter of turning off a few buttons.

This is so disappointing coming from apple. I read 3 pages of this post and there is 33 pages. We pay 700$ for a phone to get this kind of crap support you know what thank god i kept my samsung galaxy s3. Im putting my sim back in it. Good luck everyone. Enough time wasted on this forum

bimma328 wrote:

This is so disappointing coming from apple. I read 3 pages of this post and there is 33 pages. We pay 700$ for a phone to get this kind of crap support you know what thank god i kept my samsung galaxy s3. Im putting my sim back in it. Good luck everyone. Enough time wasted on this forum

Too bad no refunds eh? Or I would've threatened for a refund for my 4S.

iPhones went down the drain starting from 4. The only plus was faster speed for running games, at the expense of being total sh*t at every other aspect, starting with battery life and now ending at ridiculous data usage.

Some of you need to take a chill pill. I've been using Apple products for about a decade now and the way it works is that initial OS changes are always a bit buggy. I expect that Apple will fix the data suck problem with their next release.

I had a problem also with data suck when I purchased an iPhone 5. I did also exchange it 4 times, each with different problems. What I noticed about the data suck problem is that it's not hardware related but software so exchaning the phone will not solve it.

I think many of the apps, including Apple's, do not work correctly behind the scene right now due to a software bug. I was able to reduce my data suck down to bare levels after I turned off many of the features others recommended in this thread.

I suggest everyone do so until the new firmware is released.

I am a 26 year Apple user, and I have never had to gimp my apple product as much as I have this one,so much so that I am only enjoying a fraction of its potential. Sure I have delayed upgrading a system or two, but this one needed gimping right out of the box in a way no other apple product ever has.

True some may not know they are experiencing some form of data drain, but some have unlimited data (or a large cap)and either don't check, dont know or don't care.

We all know this is an issue with IOS 6. I don't know if I can take ONE MORE POST saying a customer service rep at Apple or a phone company saying "this is the first I have heard of this issue"

What galls me is, Apple hasn't publicly acknowledged the issue, and although I was previously convinced the issue would be fixed quickly, now I have my doubts it will be resovled to my satisfaction at all.

How many more months will I have to scrupulously check over my data usage?

Will I ever take comfort from being assured after the"fix" is in place that 40 MBs out of my 200mbs monthly of 'non-user initiated' background data drained while it is asleep is considered "normal" by both my handset maker and my service provider?

I will not "suck it up" and increase my data plan when my usage and habits HAVE NOT CHANGED since my service provider reneged on offering unlimited data. I dropped my unlimited to save myself $5 a month, knowing almost all of my usage was in WiFi. In doing so, I helped ease the burrden on the overwhelmed cellular data offered by my service provider by not being one of those alleged data hogs who supposedly ruined it for everyone.

So all of you helpful posters can stop helpfully telling us how to gimp our phones. If anyone has read this thread to this point, and there are many, We ALREADY KNOW and are a little tired of feeling patronized with those suggestions after being told by our handset maker and our service providers that this is all OUR fault.

As far as I am concerned, until a press release says differently, that is EXACTLY what these corporations believe to be the truth.

Thank you and good night.

iOS 6.0.1 should be out very soon, per reports on the web. Wifi issues are supposedly addressed. We shall see. Btw, I do not consider my iphone5 to be gimped. However I did up my data plan so I can take fuller advantage of 4g LTE. I am hoping that apps won't be sucking as much data using cellular as they do now (7mb just to load the NY Times??) but I only really use it when I travel.

Excellent post, chazcron! I also refuse to increase my data plan to compensate for a product malfunction. I'm disappointed that AT&T and Apple are insulting our intelligence by pretending to be unaware of a problem. I've been talking to both and also got the "never heard of it" response and AT&T told me to turn off cellular data. They both owe us a fix and an apology.

I'm having this problem on two iPhone 4Ss. Apple replaced them both and the problem continues.

Oh geez, my cellular data is fine, but now it is telling me that I am tethering and using data that way. I haven't tethered anything........

Errrrrr.........

Ginger

What I am *still* curious about is how did Verizon send out a "fix" to their customers when the problem is the iOS?

I worked with an Apple Senior Advisor and a Verizon Senior Advisor on a conference call.

Apple had me reset my phone, while that was happening I had to let them (A/V) when I reached a certain amount of time on the reset. I did.

Verizon then cut off my data and then when I reached another time increment on the reset I had to let them know and Verizon hooked up my data again.

What has happened is that even though my phone said 13.1 for Verizon the complete update didn't take. I was missing a component of it. With cutting off/turning on my data it resolved that issue.

Now, the tethering is something else. I haven't tethered the phone at all.

HTH,

Ginger