The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

Egodspeed, AT&T explained to me that the iPhone is programmed to turn off the WiFi when it goes to sleep (screen goes dark) as a power saving measure. Thus, if you do something like stream music from the Internet, when your screen goes dark it will switch from WiFi to your data network. If you don't want that to happen it was recommended to me that I keep the phone plugged in to an external power source.

Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to me because I don't stream music while my phone goes to sleep unless its local from my iTunes playlists. My issue has been using data when my phone isn't doing anything (apps off) or when I'm actively doing something on the Internet but my screen is active even though I can see the WiFi symbol in the left-hand corner.

Apple has said they know about the issue and are working on a fix. Hopefully, it will come soon!

The underlying Web Site design seems to have changed since my last post:

So, here is an update: to include the full text of the iPhone iOS 6.0 Setup Guide…

This guide has worked for me, and many other iPhone (5, 4S, 4, etc) Users on iOS X 6.0.

iOS 6: Setup to Optimise Cellular Data Usage…

Many of the iPhone 5 iOS default network Settings are intended to create best user experience and performance, by utilising available WiFi and high speed LTE and/or 4G Cellular Data networks.

If your cellular data plan is limited, less than a One GB per month, it would be wise to work through the defaults, and turn off those services that are not important to you.

Here is a guide, courtesy David and Olli, contributors to the Apple Support Community...

Network Reset: reset the network connection…

Make sure you know [or have saved] your various wifi passwords so you can quickly set them up again.

Settings, General, Reset, Reset Network Settings.

Cellular Data: turn it Off when you don't need it…

This may sound messy, but it is really no more so than turning off WiFi, or Bluetooth, when you know you will not be using it. Maybe Apple will move this setting to the front page of Settings, as they have done with Bluetooth in iOS 6

Settings, General, Cellular, Cellular Data, Off.

iCloud Backup: Turn it Off except when you need to do a Backup to iCloud…

Otherwise iPhone will automatically do a Backup over WiFi and/or Cellular Network, while it is on Power, and sleeping.

Settings, iCloud, Storage and Backup, iCloud Backup, Off.

iCloud Documents & Data: turn off the use of the Cellular Data connection, until you need it…

Settings, iCloud, Documents & Data, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Location Services: make sure only the apps you consider critical are switched on…

These are new Settings in iOS 6.

Settings, Privacy, Location Services, and turn Off each Application that is not important to you.

Obviously you would tend to leave On Maps, Photo, Find Friends, Find My iPhone, Weather and Siri.

System Services: apparently, some of these can be demanding on Cellular Network usage...

Settings, Privacy, Location Services, and scroll down past the notes at the bottom of the list of Applications, and select System Services, and turn them all Off except Cell Network Search.

If the Maps Traffic service is important to you, turn it On, but be warned it may be a bit of a hog.

Notification Centre: work through each Application carefully, to determine what you really do need real time?

Settings, Notifications, select each Application, and turn Notification Centre, Off, if you do not need Notification in real time…

Siri: every iPhone User now understand how to use Siri…

However you should be aware that Siri support has been expanded significantly in iOS 6, to include operation of your iPhone, to send text, make appointments, find restaurants, make bookings, and handle your dictation. The catch is that Siri services contacts the Apple Server via the network to translate your voice, do the searches, and return your results. You can leave Siri On but be aware of using Siri, when you are only connected via Cellular Data, and low on Data Usage remaining…

Settings, General, Siri, Siri, On. by default,...

There is also a new setting included in several Applications which allow you to turn off the Cellular Data Connection while they are active...

Music: Settings, Music, Use Cellular Data, Off.

iTunes and App Store: Settings, iTunes and App Store, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Podcasts: Settings, Podcasts, Auto-Downloads, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Mail: you can set up mail to better manage Cellular Data Usage, if it suits your operation…

Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Fetch New Data, Push, Off, and set Fetch to Manually.

And select, Advanced, and for each Mail Account, Select Schedule, Manually.

And finally, here are a few more services you can probably do without, to further reduce Cellular Data usage…

Advertising: Settings, General, About, scroll down to Advertising, Limit Ad Tracking, On.

Diagnostics and Usage: Settings, General, About, scroll down to Diagnostics & Usage, Don't Send, On.

Some more tips…

For heavy data transmissions sessions on WiFi, switch to Airplane Mode, then switch WiFi back on again while your session is in progress. This mode will prevent iOS 6 from switching the Cellular Data midway through the session, should WiFi stumble….

One user reported: Turn turn off all aspects of iCloud: Safari, Contacts, Documents and Data, etc.

Do not remove the iCloud account, just turn off each service, then turn them all back on again…

Another user found that the Google Account was failing to connect, using up 4 to 5 MB every time the connection failed. Remove the Google account from iPhone, monitor for a while, then add it back again, an see if the problem is resolved.

Also check your other applications; for example, BBC News may have a Share Statistics switch set to On.

Revision: 121009 00

Notes:

a) You can copy and paste the text to any Editor on your PC or Mac, to create a neat printout...

b) Previously, as outlined my post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4348072?start=390&tstart=0,

it was a simple matter to down load a high resolution version of the Guide.

This does not seemed to work anymore,

but I found that I can now load an rtf version of the text directly to the Forum.

c) Original post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4348072?start=285&tstart=0

Date: Robert J McInnes on Oct 9, 2012 1:41 AM

Enjoy...

iPhone is programmed to turn off the WiFi when it goes to sleep (screen goes dark) as a power saving measure. Thus, if you do something like stream music from the Internet, when your screen goes dark it will switch from WiFi to your data network

That's nonsense. Merely locking the screen does NOT switch you from WiFi to cellular; that would be ridiculous. If that were true, then e.g. while listening to music via iTunes Match, switching off the screen would cause cellular to be used - and if you've turned off cellular, it would stop the music. But it is easy to demonstrate that no such thing is the case.

I was told the same thing by an AT&T representative when I called. He suggested turning off cellular data at night because he said when the phone goes into sleep mode, it switches off wifi and uses cell data for automatic overnight updates. This is why I have so much data usage on my bill from the middle of the night while I'm asleep and clearly not using my phone.

I think it's ridiculous that you have to turn off your cellular data, and from the looks of the list in the post above basically anything and everything that might use data, in order to keep from being charged overage prices. What is the point of having the phone then?? I might as well go back to having a cheap non-smart phone and using my ipod touch for portable wifi data use. At least then I couldn't be charged for everything I do! If this is the future of the iphone, i may need to rethink renewing my contract.

Robert J McInnes wrote:

The underlying Web Site design seems to have changed since my last post:

So, here is an update: to include the full text of the iPhone iOS 6.0 Setup Guide…

This guide has worked for me, and many other iPhone (5, 4S, 4, etc) Users on iOS X 6.0.

iOS 6: Setup to Optimise Cellular Data Usage…

Many of the iPhone 5 iOS default network Settings are intended to create best user experience and performance, by utilising available WiFi and high speed LTE and/or 4G Cellular Data networks.

If your cellular data plan is limited, less than a One GB per month, it would be wise to work through the defaults, and turn off those services that are not important to you.

Here is a guide, courtesy David and Olli, contributors to the Apple Support Community...

Network Reset: reset the network connection…

Make sure you know [or have saved] your various wifi passwords so you can quickly set them up again.

Settings, General, Reset, Reset Network Settings.

Cellular Data: turn it Off when you don't need it…

This may sound messy, but it is really no more so than turning off WiFi, or Bluetooth, when you know you will not be using it. Maybe Apple will move this setting to the front page of Settings, as they have done with Bluetooth in iOS 6

Settings, General, Cellular, Cellular Data, Off.

iCloud Backup: Turn it Off except when you need to do a Backup to iCloud…

Otherwise iPhone will automatically do a Backup over WiFi and/or Cellular Network, while it is on Power, and sleeping.

Settings, iCloud, Storage and Backup, iCloud Backup, Off.

iCloud Documents & Data: turn off the use of the Cellular Data connection, until you need it…

Settings, iCloud, Documents & Data, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Location Services: make sure only the apps you consider critical are switched on…

These are new Settings in iOS 6.

Settings, Privacy, Location Services, and turn Off each Application that is not important to you.

Obviously you would tend to leave On Maps, Photo, Find Friends, Find My iPhone, Weather and Siri.

System Services: apparently, some of these can be demanding on Cellular Network usage...

Settings, Privacy, Location Services, and scroll down past the notes at the bottom of the list of Applications, and select System Services, and turn them all Off except Cell Network Search.

If the Maps Traffic service is important to you, turn it On, but be warned it may be a bit of a hog.

Notification Centre: work through each Application carefully, to determine what you really do need real time?

Settings, Notifications, select each Application, and turn Notification Centre, Off, if you do not need Notification in real time…

Siri: every iPhone User now understand how to use Siri…

However you should be aware that Siri support has been expanded significantly in iOS 6, to include operation of your iPhone, to send text, make appointments, find restaurants, make bookings, and handle your dictation. The catch is that Siri services contacts the Apple Server via the network to translate your voice, do the searches, and return your results. You can leave Siri On but be aware of using Siri, when you are only connected via Cellular Data, and low on Data Usage remaining…

Settings, General, Siri, Siri, On. by default,...

There is also a new setting included in several Applications which allow you to turn off the Cellular Data Connection while they are active...

Music: Settings, Music, Use Cellular Data, Off.

iTunes and App Store: Settings, iTunes and App Store, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Podcasts: Settings, Podcasts, Auto-Downloads, Use Cellular Data, Off.

Mail: you can set up mail to better manage Cellular Data Usage, if it suits your operation…

Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Fetch New Data, Push, Off, and set Fetch to Manually.

And select, Advanced, and for each Mail Account, Select Schedule, Manually.

And finally, here are a few more services you can probably do without, to further reduce Cellular Data usage…

Advertising: Settings, General, About, scroll down to Advertising, Limit Ad Tracking, On.

Diagnostics and Usage: Settings, General, About, scroll down to Diagnostics & Usage, Don't Send, On.

Some more tips…

For heavy data transmissions sessions on WiFi, switch to Airplane Mode, then switch WiFi back on again while your session is in progress. This mode will prevent iOS 6 from switching the Cellular Data midway through the session, should WiFi stumble….

One user reported: Turn turn off all aspects of iCloud: Safari, Contacts, Documents and Data, etc.

Do not remove the iCloud account, just turn off each service, then turn them all back on again…

Another user found that the Google Account was failing to connect, using up 4 to 5 MB every time the connection failed. Remove the Google account from iPhone, monitor for a while, then add it back again, an see if the problem is resolved.

Also check your other applications; for example, BBC News may have a Share Statistics switch set to On.

Revision: 121009 00

Notes:

a) You can copy and paste the text to any Editor on your PC or Mac, to create a neat printout...

b) Previously, as outlined my post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4348072?start=390&tstart=0,

it was a simple matter to down load a high resolution version of the Guide.

This does not seemed to work anymore,

but I found that I can now load an rtf version of the text directly to the Forum.

c) Original post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4348072?start=285&tstart=0

Date: Robert J McInnes on Oct 9, 2012 1:41 AM

Enjoy...

After I went through this operation to restrict my cellular data use, I was no longer able to receive emails through microsoft outlook on my desktop mac. This was immediately following checking mail with cellular data off on iphone 5, and following the "manual" option in the mail settings as suggested above. Any suggestions to prevent this? The message from outlook (which was working prior to resetting these data restriction options on my iphone) is "invalid username or password. Do you wish to re-enter your password?" and upon re-entering password, is stil not able to receive email.

additionally, using these settings has reverted my phone back to not remembering the wifi password on my network. This is my first iphone, hard to understand how changing cellular data usage settings on the phone can potentially affect functionality of my router and/or email security settings. Oh well, time for the genius bar.

NasoTang,

Did you get sorted out?

Just in case, here are a few thoughts on your posts...

a) The very first step included a warning to save WiFi password...

Network Reset: reset the network connection…

Make sure you know [or have saved] your various wifi passwords so you can quickly set them up again.

There is certainly no way iPhone will have changed your router settings,

But the WiFi password on your iPhone will have been cleared, just re-enter it...

You certainly jumped right in there, for your first iPhone.

You may already be aware of this tip: but as a first time User you may not, so...

It is important to be aware that Apps [including Apple built in Apps] will continue to run in the background, unitl you shut them down.

To see what is running, double click on the home button. Shut down any you do not intent to have running all the time, especially when not in WiFi range.

b) Outlook: I am not configured for an Outlook account, on my iMac or iPhone, at present.

I suggest you check the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar Account Settings on both your PC and iPhone.

Look for any anomolies in the Settings. If you are not sure, do not change anything.

It again sounds like it might just be a matter of re-entering the password in iPhone.

You will get to really enjoy your iPhone, so much to discover, and explore.

Check out the Online User Guide, on your iPhone [and you can down load a .pdf version to your PC].

Robert

Thanks Robert, I know reset network settings requires re-entry of password, but for whatever reason IOS6 seems to require this to remember it

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4400479?start=0&tstart=0

I did get my email config problem worked out. I don't know why my microsoft outlook required re-authentication as a direct result of whatever settings were changed on the iphone (likely an issue with my email server?), I was apparently using the wrong password on the desktop email.

Thx again!

My wife updated to 6.0.1 and is having the same data leak issues----150MB, or half her plan, in one night at 4 AM. AT&T upgraded the data plan and backdated it so we don't have the overage penalty but that's another $120 per year that we shouldn't need to be paying since her actual data use was way below that. My cynical side suggests this is a conspiracy between Apple and the phone carriers, since Apple seems to show no interest in fixing this PoS iOS.

She doesn't have many apps, so I suspect the principal culprit in her case is iCloud and we've turned that off altogether; we'll see whether that does the job. It's a shame that so many of the controls under iOS5 that allowed you to prevent use of cellular data were deleted with iOS6 (including the iCloud one). But that's just another instance of Apple insisting that they're smarter than their users. Guess what? They're wrong.

We are not having that problem with Verizon. Data is on all the time and we have used 51mb in 7 days. Not a problem.

I am having the same kind of issues with my 4s. I got it around the time when the 5 came out, so it came with iOS 6 on it. I called AT&T and they said there was nothing they could do about it. This happened overnight. I have none to spotty cellular coverage and am always connected to cable wifi while at home. So while sleeping my 4s used 26MB of cellular data and barely any wifi data. AT&T's answer was that when the phone "goes to sleep" it disconnects from wifi and relies solely on cellular data. I don't know what the issue truly is but now I am burdened by having to make sure my cellular data is turned off when I get home and then turn it on when I leave for work in the mornings. I guess it is not a big deal but still not something I think we should all be having to deal with on devices that are otherwise good devices.

Is it only iphone 5 ? Anybody having wifi issue with iphone4 6.0.1 ? My iphone 5 consumes cellular data over wifi ( ios 6.0.1 ) Please help. So that I can be clear wether its a hardware issue or software issue.

Is it only iphone 5 ? Anybody having wifi issue with iphone4 6.0.1 ? My iphone 5 consumes cellular data over wifi ( ios 6.0.1 ) Please help. So that I can be clear wether its a hardware issue or software issue.

From what I read, the issue is with the OS and not particularly the iPhone 5. People in this thread have reported having issues with iOS6 on iPhone 4.

We are still not having any problem with iphone 5 on Verizon. Is it just related to ATT?