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The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

The first two days after I received my iPhone 5, I racked up 400MB of Cellular Data. 99% of the time I was using my phone, I was connected over WiFi. So I ran a test on my own by watching a YouTube video over WiFi and then looking at my Cellular Data under the Usage menu. Sure enough, it had went up by around 10MB. I called into Apple Support and asked them what was going on. They thought that it might have been a problem with my phone or my house's WiFi connection. After them walking me through a series of test and restores, the lady semi-acknowledged that it could be a problem with how their phone interacts with the new LTE network.


If you guys out there could keep an eye on your Cellular Usage Data, that would be great. Maybe it's a problem with my iPhone 5, or maybe it's a much larger problem. Seeing as I used to have unlimited data with Verizon, being charged with everything above 2GB would be very costly for me...especially when it's not even my fault.


Hopefully we can get this issue sorted out.


Here's how to enter the Cellular Usage menu: Settings->General->Usage->Cellular Usage

iPhone 5

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 1:47 PM

Reply
1,208 replies

Sep 28, 2012 9:24 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

I have a verizon Iphone 5 with this problem. So I talked to verizon level 2 tech support and while they wont admit that this is a widespread problem, they did bump me up to a higher data plan for the month for free, so I am no longer over. So now that I have data again, I changed a butt load of settings that I wasn't even aware of when I first got the phone to see exactly what kills the data most. Here is what I did when I went to settings:


  1. settings --> general ----> cellular ---> and where it says "use cellular data for" turn all that stuff off.
  2. settings --> Icloud and turn everything off. also go into "documents & data" and where it says "use cellular data" turn it off.
  3. settings --> mail, contacts, calendar and set fetch new data to 15 min
  4. just go into every item in settings and see if it has a use cellular data option and set it to off


This may help some people if thats really the problem. Honestly, if apple or verizon wont at least mention that they're working on this, then I'm going back to Android because even with 4G LTE phones from them, I never even came close to 2gb of data usage.

Sep 29, 2012 5:41 AM in response to tecal2002

Tecal, that's great but now you've got a disabled phone when you're not on wifi. My data explodes when i go out and have to turn cell data back on to do something like check my mail. A couple MB in minutes. Again, my husband checks his and there's only a few KB increase. Hopefully we won't have to deal with this very long, right?


What did you do to get bumped to level 2?

Sep 29, 2012 12:15 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

I am not convinced this is just an iPhone 5 issue, and not also an OS 6 issue. I have a 4 and upgraded to 6 (hate the maps) and since then my Wifi drops out for no reason when my Celullar DATA is turned on. When Cellular DATA is turned off, then it stays connected. This did not happen at all when I had OS 5.whatever.


I absolutly regret hitting the upgrade button. And now I cannot go back to see if it is a phone problem, or an OS problem.


I have been using Apple products since the late 80's and without a doubt the single biggest issue I have with Apple is their arrogance that for some reason or other, they know what is better for me than I do.

Sep 29, 2012 12:50 PM in response to Lazykins

Ilazykins Believe it or not I actually had to go into the Verizon store and they put me on the phone with tech support. When I told them that I was inside the store they bumped me up to level II real quick. I didn't have that sort of luck when I called from home before.


But to update everyone who followed my post, Data usage is down significantly but I still track data usage while I'm on Wi-Fi in front of my router. I've used 20 MB of data just being home while on wifi. Something isn't right with this phone or iOS 6.

Sep 29, 2012 8:37 PM in response to carterja

Sorry... Wow. So you have Cellular Data turned off and still using cell data?


I'm guessing you've been told to turn everything off that uses cell data, even though you turn cell data off, too. ITunes, iCloud, AppStore, diagnostics, etc.


I read someone's theory that with a hiccuping wifi connection, it will complete a task begun on wifi using cell data. That is just what I heard. I have seen my data log increase a small amount shortly after turning off data but chalked it up to slow reporting.

Sep 29, 2012 8:56 PM in response to Lazykins

Just thought of something the carrier tech guy told me. Phone can only do one thing at a time over wifi, the active process. Wonder if that's true. That would mean the next thing in line either waits for wifi or uses cell. Seems too ridiculous to be true. He also suggested there are apps that don't undertand the new OS and use cell data instead of wifi no matter what you do. They say lots of things.

The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

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