The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

I'm having the same issue, had an Iphone 4S with the old operating sysatem and I would only be reaching my data limit in the last few datys of teh month. On my new iphone 5 we are 4 days into the month and I get a warning saying I've used 80% of my data. Spoke with apple support and they are denying any issue. However, it seems to be a global issue:

http://www.billingworld.com/news/2013/03/iphone-data-glitch-in-australia-causes- bill-shock.aspx

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/10/02/iphone5-data-glitch.html

Apple needs to fix this, because if they don't I will move to another manufcaturer. Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave.

I wonder if iOS APIs allow an app to prioritize mobile data over Wi-Fi. Any iOS developers out there know? Anyone ask Apple? Certainly there are Android apps, such as Verizon Navigator that require a data connection and won't work without one.

One way to see if the iPhone Wi-Fi connection is reliable is to have a computer on Wi-Fi continuously ping both the router and the phone for a while. (Or some similar configuration that shows the reliability of two Wi-Fi connections.) A while back, I noticed and was amazed by a Wi-Fi connection from a Mac to an Airport Extreme that had exactly 100% reliability over a week of pings every several seconds, in an urban office environment.

There are definitely some apps that always use cellular data. For AT&T phones, any app supplied by AT&T, for example, My AT&T, will use their data even when on wifi. I deleted it when I found out.

I have the myATT app. When I am on WiFi it does not use cellular data.

AT&T told me it does use cellular, but that was 2 years ago. I called because I had a sudden surge in data usage that did not make sense. Maybe it changed since then.

I've had it since it was first available and never had it happen. Given what the app does there could be very little data sent or received.

I agree, except that it's clear something is doing what it should not do, and no one seems to know what it is. I was simply saying that there are apps that use cellular even when the phone is connected to wifi, and using MyAT&T as an example. I have not ever had the problem again, but I also became hyper protective of my cellular data, shutting it off whenever possible, as I only had 200 MB/month. However, I've seen here that even shutting cellular off does not work for some with the problem.

I think you are combining multiple issues, runaway data issues and data when connected to WiFi.

As I said earlier I never had the MyAT&T app ever select cell data over a WiFi connection. I have been contacted by some friends who did complain of cell data usage while connected to WiFi and went to their house with their router to look closer. On all of those occassions the device was showing the WiFi antenna but was not actually connected to the the internet. Once that problem was resolved the data issue disappeared.

I've never seen any cell device that uses cell data when cell data is turned off. One of the things that misleads people is the way AT&T bills for data usage which cannot be correlated to the actual time (and sometimes date) when the cell data usage was incurred.

There is one case where an app is written to use cell data while connected to WiFi. That is when sending/receiving an MMS.

Yes I have exactly the same problem.. It is worrying as, although I have a 1gb limit, I shouldn't have to worry about this. I am on O2 in the uk... Not sure whether it is network dependent though

In desperation, I have tried resetting my phone as a brand new device and not restored apps or settings at all and it still uses data across the cellular network whilst on Wifi. Looks like a call to Apple I suppose and wait for the brush off!

This is what you need to do to fix the problem:

1. Update your iPhone to the latest version iOS 6.1.3
2. You will need to BACKUP everything in your iPhone using iTunes to your computer.
3. Then RESTORE everything from your computer back to the iPhone.
4. (Resetting without backup/restore won't do the trick.)

The bug is caused by the conflicts in the apps. RESTORE from BACKUP will load the apps in the proper place. If you don't RESTORE it from backup, the conflicts persist.

Resetting the iPhone merely resets the phone settings and parameters, but does not reload any of your apps or put them in proper order.

iOS 6.1.3 fixed the bug. It will always force your phone to use wifi first, even if you are not connected to wifi, it will ask you to select an available wifi if any wifi signal is in range.

The wifi dialog to select a wifi will pop up whenever it tries to access the internet in iOS 6.1.3.

You have to manually dismiss the dialog if you don't want to use wifi. It does this everytime internet usage is requested (unless it is background internet access, such as notification alerts, pre-fetching mail message).

Any other manual internet usages, such as web browser, facebook, YouTube, will use wifi if you are connected, and will trigger wifi dialog popup to ask you if you want to select an available wifi if you are not connected to a wifi.

It won't use your cellular data, unless you dismiss the wifi selection request.

This ensures you will use wifi even if you are not connected to any wifi, and detected other wifi signals in range.

Nicoladie -

I appreciate the professional tone, and clarity of your post. It almost sounds like you KNOW that the bug is fixed. Which made me check to see if you work for Apple, but you don't.

Unfortunatly, while the fix you list above may have worked for you - it didn't work for me. I've wiped and upgraded twice. A time consuming process.

In my home, 15 feet away from my wifi connection - my phone is showing almost 100mb of celular data use in the past 15 minutes.

Until Apple acknowledges the bug, and reports that they've released a fix, all of us with this issue will keep offering each other work arounds, fixes, and other guesses about what is wrong, and how to fix it.

Unfortunatly - Apple has abandoned it's customers facing this expensive, time consuming, and significant problem. Oddly, they didn't do that with Verizon, which they acknowledged and patched.

But AT&T customers are being left to swing in the breeze.

StevenRnyc wrote:

Nicoladie -

I appreciate the professional tone, and clarity of your post. It almost sounds like you KNOW that the bug is fixed. Which made me check to see if you work for Apple, but you don't.

Unfortunatly, while the fix you list above may have worked for you - it didn't work for me. I've wiped and upgraded twice. A time consuming process.

In my home, 15 feet away from my wifi connection - my phone is showing almost 100mb of celular data use in the past 15 minutes.

Until Apple acknowledges the bug, and reports that they've released a fix, all of us with this issue will keep offering each other work arounds, fixes, and other guesses about what is wrong, and how to fix it.

Unfortunatly - Apple has abandoned it's customers facing this expensive, time consuming, and significant problem. Oddly, they didn't do that with Verizon, which they acknowledged and patched.

But AT&T customers are being left to swing in the breeze.

There is no fix for use of Cellular data over WiFi in iOS 6.1.3.

The content of iOS 6.1.3 is as follows:

• Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the passcode and access the Phone app.
• Improvements to Maps in Japan.
• Security fixes.
• Patches the jailbreak exploit used by evasi0n.

This Cellular over WiFi problem was only experience with Verizon and the problem was corrected without the release of an iOS level. I've seen no excessive use of cellular over WiFi on my ATT iPhone 5 with iOS 6, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2 or 6.1.3.

It sounds like what you are experiencing is a problem with your WiFi which is causing your iPhone to switch to cellular.

There could be a hardware problem with your iPhone or a problem with your network.

If you are having WiFi problems it is necessary to isolate whether the problem is with your network or your iPhone. Note: Do NOT consider your network to be blameless if some other devices can connect to it.

First, test your iPhone on some other networks: a friends, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, etc.

If it works well there then the problem is probably with your network. Try restarting your WiFi router by removing power for 30 seconds. If that does not help check for a firmware update for your router. If none exists which corrects the problem consider replacing the router.

If your iPhone does not function well on other networks it possibly has a hardware problem. You could try Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings to see if that corrects the problem. If not, contact Apple Support or visit an Apple store for evaluation. They can provide a replacement if your iPhone is bad.

If you need more help please give the make, model, and version of your WiFi router and how you have it configured.

Jim,

This isn't a device or a WiFi router problem. It happens preciesly the same way at my office as it does at home - and, as the iPhone is sucking down at some points 1 Gig a day (!!!) without any streaming video or any streaming music - this is a bug.

Secondly, I've replaced the handset.

Third, AT&T says it's a known Apple issue.

And finally - if you compair my usage before iOS6 and after, I have a 4 GB plan i haven't ever gone over (in 4 years) and now my monthly data is routinely 2x that (or more) with no change in behavior, routers, or location. The problem is the iOS. period.

This is an overall problem with the iPhone 4, 4s, and 5 problem. What's happing is that when the user uses the apps that connect to cell data and stop using using those apps. The apps , if not killed by double clicking the home button and killing the apps, will stay active and connected to cell data until they time out. Even if the device is connected to wifi, the apps that are still active and were connected to cell data earlier will stay in that state until the apps are turned off. The best solution is to simply kill the app after you finish using it. It seems to resolve the problem for me and many others.