The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

At least in my case, it is not just a matter of being in cellular instead of Wifi. The fact of the matter is, I'm using more cellular data than the Wifi data I would be using if I had cellular data off. To put it another way - if I only use Wifi, my wifi data useage is quite a bit less than the cellular data I use for doing the same stuff. I get NO additional benefit of having cellular data on - every thing works over wifi that I use. Yet with cellular on, I use much more total data than on Wifi. If I were always in WiFi range, I could do everything I needed without using a bit of cellular. But alas, I sometimes go out to the wilds.

Dear all

While watching youtube videos over wifi, my provider (sunrise, Switzerland) informed me with sms, that I exeeded my limited data plan. I now have to pay a lot of time to justify this soft bug and at the end I have to pay a lot of money for the extra MB the videos sought over cellular instead of wifi.

info: the wifi symbol has never changed to a 3g symbol

measure: turn off cellular traffic at home

Happy holidays.

YES--It is a huge problem on ATT!

Apple acknowledges issue and sends a fix to Verizon users phones!

New Knowledge Base for this.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5526

We've got several iPhones / iPads that were connecting to Microsoft Exchange every two to three seconds, continuously, twenty-four hours a day. My iPhone was definitely connecting over both cellular and Wi-Fi, simultaneously, every two to three seconds (as indicated by source IPs in our Exchange server logs.) Full story here... http://snnyc.com/2012/12/iphone-data-leak/

@r.a.parks

Please keep us posted on the result. Thanks for the great write-up. I don't know if that's the entire issue that we're all experiencing... but both of my phones are using exchange! I will go days with normal usage, then be hit with a single 120mb dump that makes no sense. Crazy.

I have had my new I phone 5 for 2 weeks now with in the first night og having the phone i used 50% of my data but didnt think much of it being i was playing on it all day because of it being new and the billing ended the next day, yesterday i got a text that i had used 25% of my data then to day i got a text saying that i have used 75% of it this text came around 10:00 i found this odd because i have not been on my phone at all to so i looked at my data usage and its 1.500 gb out of 2.00gb. so after seeing all the post and web pages on this topic what is the fix and how do you get you data back or keep from paying for the overage?

My phones battery life ***** too

We have had multiple problems on the Iphone 4S, ever since upgrade to iOS6...so we got an iPhone 5, tired of fighting with ATT and Apple...lo and behold, iphone 5 is just as bad. EVERY midnight and random times during the day, large KB of data being consumed, even if in the house in wifi...this is a serious Apple defect. They need to fix it. People have been complaining for a long time about this. All over the world.

my iphone 4 and wifes 4s have this problem and we are with virgin and was told the same thing that the only way to prevent it is to turn cellular off.

Yes, same problem here. I'm on EE (4G) in the UK. I only noticed this was happening when I tried to update an app while on Wifi. I got the message "Update is too large to be downloaded. Must be downloaded over WiFi."

With the draconian limits on data usage on EE, and the cost of going over, it's a worry. And it's not much of a "fix" to switch into Airplane mode. What happens if I want to make/receive calls?

Apple really should have sorted this out by now.

Same here. 480 Euro extra charges for data usage this month on Vodafone. Iphone 4 / iOs 6. Connected to wifi 90% of the time.

I had an iPhone 4 for 2 1/2 yrs and averaged only 1200 mb of data a month out of a 3 GB plan. I got my iPhone 5 on Dec 26 and use it EXACTLY the same as I did the 4. But by Jan 1 had used up the entire 3 GBs. I used up another 3 GBs in the next 3 days (while on wifi 90% of the time), called for support on Jan 3 - told to get the upgrade. I did it. Now, 3 days later (and still staying on wifi almost ALL the time), I'm down ANOTHER 3 GBs. I'm over 10 GBs in about 2 weeks of having this phone and AT&T and Apple have no idea what to do about it. GRRRRRRRR..........

WTH, Apple??? Fix this thing! I thought it was supposed to be BETTER!!

PS: oh, and my battery life is sh*t, too. I just practically KEEP it plugged in.

Same problem here. 2 iphone 5's on Verizon. Pulls data from cellular even when on wifi. Downloaded iOS 6.02 and this imporved things but did not eliminate. Still shows data usage in the middle of the night when asleep and on wifi. Data usage may be small enough to fit within our data plan but still trying to callibrate.

Bottom line is that this is a defect, should not be pulling any cellular data when on wifi (wifi network is fine).

Seriously thinking about returning the phones, wife will be disappointed.

Does this happen with Galaxy S3?

Also, very interested if anyone has solution?

One more thing, when I googled this issue I see tons of posts/articles in Sept and Oct. Apple releases iOS 6.02 and everyone assumes it is fixed. I am I missing something? Does not seemed fixed. It is at a level that I could maybe live with it but I hate to have a brand new product that is not working properly and just tolerate it. I have a week left to return the phones.

BTW, happy with everything else except the data usage. Battery for me has been fine, not heavy users.

So far no issue with my Samsung S3, only my iphone5 data usage is blown up. Android has a built in data usage monitoring, just downloaded Onavo from apps store, hope this tool is good also to tell more.

Mouro_81

Re: The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

Sep 24, 2012 2:48 PM (in response to DJPlayedYA)

I think a "finicky" wifi in IOS 6 is the culprit here!

I do not have a cell data plan (in fact, I even have it switched off from the network settings) and since upgrading to IOS6 internet over wifi has been extremelly unstable, with the connection being constantly dropped.

So I am guessing that if your wifi connection is also being intermitently dropped the phone will have to resort to the cell data to download whatever content...

That's true. Last time I was lucky enough to notice this issue before AT&T charging me "upgrade fee". But today I am not lucky enough. As long as I am going to pay "upgrade fee" very frequently in the future, maybe I'd better shut down Internet connection at home, or turn off cellular data every time I am in WiFi circumstance manually. I tried to solve this problem via changing "cellular data" settings but failed, it seems iPhone 5 is not smart enough.