The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

OK seems to make sense

but data use seems higher than email

Ok, so I read through some of the older posts and some of the newer posts. Seems this is still a major issue and Apple still hasn't fixed it. I've just been forced into this unfortunate club. I just upgraded to iPhone 5 yesterday and as of 1.5 hrs ago, I had used up 100% of my 2GB data plan.

Here's my question, (and this may have been answered already in previous posts, but honestly after spending an hour talking to AT&T about it, I'm am exhausted and don't want to read through 44 pages of posts.)

For those that had grossly exceeded by the time they realized what was going on, did they actually bill you for it? And if so, did they reverse the charges?

Thanks!

jason33ou wrote:

Ok, so I read through some of the older posts and some of the newer posts. Seems this is still a major issue and Apple still hasn't fixed it. I've just been forced into this unfortunate club. I just upgraded to iPhone 5 yesterday and as of 1.5 hrs ago, I had used up 100% of my 2GB data plan.

For those that had grossly exceeded by the time they realized what was going on, did they actually bill you for it? And if so, did they reverse the charges?

Welcome to the club, jason33ou! It's probably a good thing that this happened so quickly, because you've got a convincing and coherent story. You never exceeded your plan before; you got the iPhone 5; you instantly went over your plan. This is just the sort of thing that you need to tell AT&T and that they will presumably then tell Apple. The whole idea here is for enough people to complain, with clearly coherent stories, so that Apple feels the heat from the carriers.

When you talk to AT&T, I find, if you're innocent-sounding and polite, they will reverse the charges. I never let on that I think I'm a "power user"; I act a little helpless and sorry, and they've always taken pity on me.

As for what you'll do to prevent this in future, until Apple provides a fix, all I can suggest is what's been suggested here. Walk carefully through all Settings looking for anything that grants permission to use cell data or push and turn it off. Turn off cell data completely whenever you don't actively need it, or plug the phone into the charger (esp. at night) so that it uses Wi-Fi instead of cell. Yes, it's a pain in the butt and you shouldn't have to do it (as proven by the fact that you didn't have to do it before), but it's what we're all living with while we wait for something to come from Apple.

Also, please feel free to contact Apple directly. There's no need to rant; just be another data point. This will keep them aware of the issue. I have the feeling they're working on a fix, and that this may be the reason why iOS 6.1 is taking so long to ship. I sure hope so, anyway.

My experience with Verizon was that they doubled my data allocation for the month. Addeded charge to the bill and simultaneously issued a credit to the bill.

For us, iOS 6.02 made a big difference in data usage--before that we ran through 4 gig in 3 days with minimal use.

I still think there is a problem with excess data usage and leakage but it is manageable.

Mattn give great advice above. See the post in this thread by Robert J McInnes, provides instructions on what to shut off.

Finally, just a comment I am not yet should on the issue of plugging phone in, I am keep an opening mind--but it appears to continue to use cellular as first choice rather than wifi even when plugged in--at least that is what appears when I wake the phone.

Deggie above is more technically skilled than me and does advocate plugging in.

It seems cellular data is constantly "stealed" by iphone5.

1M* in 7 hours--> 3.4M in 1 day-->100M in 1 month.

What's the ......

PLEASE, solve this problem!!!!!!

*data collected by DataWiz, I have good Wi-Fi signal coverage at home.

Jason,

If you have not already done so, install DataWiz.

Leave it running [preferably the only one] in the background.

Quit all other Apps that you do not need running in the background.

Hello,

I just had a bad news of an almost USD 500 charge for data usage on new iPad. Contract with UK Vodaphone.

While in Switzerland connected to my brother's Wifi i initiated the download of a large file. Throughout the wifi icon was on. The download was a bit slow considering he has a very fast connection, but I though the server on the other end was slow.

I can see two options:

1. I downloaded through wifi and the network incorrectly attributed this to data roaming usage.

2. I downloaded through cellular data even though the iPad showed the wifi icon.

If case 1, i think i have a reasonable hope to recover the charge. But in case of 2, this would be an Apple bug, and i don't see how the carrier would be in error.

Anyone experienced this? I saw lots lots of talk about data leakage, but not on wrong attribution of connection type.

I'll post a feedback here when i get news from customer services.

xutian wrote:

It seems cellular data is constantly "stealed" by iphone5.

1M* in 7 hours--> 3.4M in 1 day-->100M in 1 month.

What's the ......

PLEASE, solve this problem!!!!!!

*data collected by DataWiz, I have good Wi-Fi signal coverage at home.

You're right, there are circumstances under which iOS 6.0.2 will always use cellular data, despite there being a solid Wi-fi connection. I had exactly the same problem myself and, after a weekend's worth of investigation, pinned it down to push email.

In summary:

- even with a good Wi-fi connection, and while charging, my iPhone 5 would leak cellular data at a rate of approximately 420k per hour

- switching off notifications, location services, iCloud features etc. made no difference to this baseline rate

- a colleague's iPhone 4 running iOS 6.0.1 did not exhibit this problem

- disabling email push for all of my 3 GMail accounts (configured via the Exchange Activesync method for GMail) brought that unwanted cellular data usage back down to zero

I posted something over at the iMore forums yesterday evening:

http://forums.imore.com/ios-6/248893-locating-my-3g-data-leak-iphone-5-6-0-2-a.h tml

This is almost certainly an iOS 6.0.2 bug

I have now set all my native Mail fetch schedules to "Manual", moved the native Mail app off the dock and replaced it with the GMail app instead. Even with GMail push notifications enabled, I now have no more 3G leakage!

Ian.

I have an iPhone 5 with service from AT&T. When I am at home, connected to Wi-Fi, if I set down my phone and quit using it, when I come back later and unlock it, it always says LTE for a few seconds. If I close all apps so that nothing is running, it uses about 1GB per day. The only way I can stop it from using up my dataplan in 4 days is by disabling cellular data altogether. My iPhone 4 did not and does not do this. 4 days after the start of any new pay period, if we look at our shared data plan, it says Wife's iPhone 4 used 0%, Son's 3GS used 0%, other Son's iPhone 4 0% and my iPhone 5 96%. This is a bug, I keep cellular data turned off all the time now except when I need it for something specific, which means I have no voice mail when I'm away from Wi-Fi. Everyone else in my family has Cellular Data turned on and they spend more time each day away from Wi-Fi than me.

A side effect of turning the Cellular Data off while at home on wifi or at work on wifi is that I get no push notifications of any kind when the iPhone is locked, and I get them all at once once it re-connects to wifi after unlocking. I think Apple and AT&T could figure out how to do Voice Mail and Notifications over Wi-Fi even when the screen is locked.

iOS 6.1 update still did not fix this bug.

Just tested it right after the software update. Reset usage count statistics. Turn on Cellular data. Then go to Mail and update my mail fetches. Go back to usage count. 30kB sent and 30 kB received after accessing mailbox.

Do Apple engineers work at all?

Yes they do work. I don't have this issue (and never did). Still don't.

I am assuming in your "test" you meant that you were connected to WiFi and updated your mail and you think that it did so through cell data and not through your WiFi.

But did you also happen to send mail that was exactly the size of the mail you downloaded? Neither which is very large.

I think what you are actually seeing is a pinged file from your cell provider resulting from you disconnecting from cellular data. When you turned it back on it sent the file in question and then returned it. These do show as cell data usage on your phone but if you check your bill you are never charged for them.

If you want further tests:

1. Leave your cell data off, check your mail. If you are able to fetch it everything is working. If you cannot there is a problem with your WiFi connection.

2. Stream a YouTube video with cell data on while connected to your WiFi. Check the size of the file if available, but if it is 5 to 6 minutes you can guess about 20 - 40 MB. After you are done see if you have used that much cell data.

Believe me, they eat up my cellular plan data usage, I checked my T-Mobile account. As most has reported, part of the problem lies with MS Exchange push mail, but that is not the only cause. The cellular data usage accumulates in the middle of the night when the phone was idle.

There are actually multiple causes, as reported when wifi is on. Push mail causes it to use cell data. MS Exchange causes it to use cell data. Location service turned on caused it to use cell data. It could also be caused by software conflicts, when restoring from backup sometime cleared the issue.

I ain't gonna stream YouTube video to eat up my cell data plan and pay overage charges. This is a known problem for everyone, maybe not for you.

The only way to avoid using cell data is to turn it off manually whenever there is wifi access. It's a pain in the butt, but that's the only way to avoid paying an arm and a leg for the overage cellular charge.

Apple should be liable to pay for the overage charge when the device does not work as they advertised.

If you are referring to T-Moblie USA they are not a supported iPhone carrier yet anyway and the may be a big part of the problem you are experiencing.

The cellular usage in the middle of the night is showing on your iPhone or your bill?

If your iPhone goes into sleep mode and is not connected to power it will indeed received push mails using cell data. This is not a bug.

I know many people with iPhone 5s. None of them are having this problem, so your statement that everyone but me is having it is untrue. If a 20MB YouTube video as a test is going to eat up your data plan it must be an awfully small data plan so perhaps you should rethink having a smartphone. You iPhone, as well as other smartphones, will use cell data to do updates in the background for location services, weather, etc.

And is this occurring at all WiFi locations?

Those who are saying that the iPhone is wrongly using cellular data while connected to Wi-fi are correct. Refer to my previous post.

I've since done further tests where, with push enabled on Exchange ActiveSync accounts, while charging and while connected to Wi-fi, my iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1) is consistently using cellular data at a rate of around 450k per hour. Tests conducted at 2 different Wi-fi locations. Location services, notifications and all iCloud features were disabled.

Switching the schedules of the mail accounts from "Push" to "Manual" and running the same tests again, the cellular usage was exactly ZERO per hour. During one of these tests, I enabled push notifications for the Gmail app (and even received a couple of notifications and the associated emails). Guess what? Zero cellular data usage.

It's clearly a bug. I've performed lots of testing on this because, basically, I'm obsessive like that :-)

It might well not be affecting all users, but it's certainly affecting me. Saying "it's never happened to me or others that I know" is no evidence that the bug does not exist.

Ian