The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

Yes I'm having this same issue with my iPhone 5 I talked to my provider and they said, the phone is dropping the WIFI and using the cellular data!! The phone is still going to show that you are connected to WiFi but the phone is not!! The way to get around it, is turn off cellular data while connected to WiFi so that the phone is FORCED to use only the WiFi. Hopefully APPLE will come with an update to fix this problem with the iPhone 5!!!

I had similar issue. My iphone 5 was using around 200-300 mb data per day even after closing all the apps. One thing I noticed is that the emails updated date was one week back when all these problems started. I was able to receive emails without any problem but the the updated date still remained one week back. I did not notice any emails in my outbox that were pending. I removed all the email accounts from my iPhone and it seems like the problem is gone. Now my cellular data shows only 3-4 kb data usage in last few mins. It use to be 5-10 MB in 5 mins before this.

Guys!! Do something about it!!!! Cellphone is ment to be used out doors I cannot turn 3G / LTE on then why shoud I buy the Smart ( read Dumd) Iphone.

You really need to do something about the battery consumption on active data mode. my phone does not last me half a day!!!

Regret buying it.

Hey CVLAW: before you make assumptions about iPhone 5 performance on Verizon with 1 example (your wife) and start referring people to Verizon where you think everything is just dreamy Rainbows and Fairy dust, have you seen how many hundreds of Posts regarding this issue show up in the Verizon Wireless Forum?

Lead_Rain:

While I agree that it is not solely a carrier issue, switching to Verizon is what did the trick for my husband and I as well. There are certainly people complaining on Verizon too, but the numbers have been much much lower than with AT&T. I was also getting quite tired of AT&T not actually acknowledging the problem and blaming it on me.

"the numbers have been much much lower than with AT&T"

And what data do you have to back up your 25 minute "expert analysis" of the population of Verizon and. AT&T iPhone 5 users experiencing 'Ghost" data problems?

How about another "expert analysis": How many customers on both networks bend over and take it and pay the extra charges without question?

These companies are making millions from people that don't have the technical wherewithall to know they are being ripped off for the "privelege" of owning an iPhone 5...

Lead_Rain:

First off, I have found a lot of help, support from others and guidance on this forum over the last few months. I find your rude and accusing tone to both myself and CVLAW to be completely unneccesary, unhelpful and offputting.

That said, I did not state that I had made an "expert analysis". The majority of the comments here on this forum with over 270k views and almost 900 replies are from AT&T customers. There are also a lot more posts on AT&T's forums about this problem than on Verizon's. Lastly, I have yet to see someone post on this forum that switching from Verizon to AT&T worked while I have seen vice versa happen numerous times.

Lastly, I actually do completely agree with your final two statements. That was the reason I filed a formal complaint with the FCC in regards to this issue as I do believe a lot of people are just "taking it" and paying the overages without questioning them for the sole privelege of owning an iPhone. It has been an incredibly frustrating process for sure.

Ok great, you'll have a lot of new friends when they pay big $ to break their contracts at AT&T and sign the contract with Verizon only to end up

in the same place.

In researching the "Ghost" data problem on the Verizon forum, in short order I ran across several posts from regretful former T-Mobile customers that bailed out of their contracts early because of the aforementioned problem, paying a several hundred dollar Early Termination Fee only to contend with the same problem at Verizon.

There are probably former AT&T customers there in the same situation, that also listened to maybe well meaning but uninformed advice.

On topic: I have done multiple experiments regarding the data usage. To the best of my estimation and findings it is related to a few things. (mind you this is on my wife's phone as I will only use an Android for many reasons)

Facebook app: While connected to wifi and having all other data (background usage) apps uninstalled and all the photostream and icloud etc turned off - There were multiple "sent/received" in the range of 180kb-1250kb. I can only assume (as it was the only app running in background) that Facebook was updating and downloading image files or something that required SOME data.

Also, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that Apple is in cooperation with AT&T to keep your data usage up, and I will support this with the following:

Over a 40 day period I was insanely dilligent - as was my wife - to make sure she was constantly on wifi. At work. At hotels. At home. In airports. Panera Bread. You name it - if there was wifi available, then the phone was connected to wifi. We even purchased a Boingo account to maximize wifi usage. To the best of my estimation the phone was turned on and without wifi for a total of 38hrs in the 40 day period. Data usage according to our AT&T bill during that period: 2.1GB ***?

Here is the smoking gun for me: While staying at a hotel - and five instances while at home, the following happened.

Go to bed on wifi

Throughout the night there were hourly little ticks on the data usage that were insignificant. 10kb, 18kb, etc

Woke up at 5:30AM and wifi was still connected.

6:37AM got in the car and drove to the office which is a 20-25 minute drive.

During that 25 minute drive there were data usage/uploads of 4,358kb, 12,385kb, 8,420kb, 1,480kb, 6,530kb

WHY??????????? What in the $*%& was backing up or syncing or anything of the sort that IMMEDIATELY began when wifi was lost? Why wasn't it done during the night when on wifi? Nothing was changed on the phone. No pictures were taken. No apps were running. No texts were sent or received. No emails came in. The phone was locked and sitting on the passenger seat.

I've used 900MB of data in just 3 days... I'm completely upset with it and I'm paying ATT a huge monthly payment for using data and ATT is so happy for collecting such a big monthly bill from my pocket. I'm a victim of Iphone-5 data usage. Looks like this is a bigger issue. Apple should provide compensation.

The problem seems to be the WiFi in the iPhone 5 is rubbish! It has problems connecting and has problems staying connected. Therefore while you think you are connected to WiFi the iPhone 5 is actually defaulting at times to cellular without the user knowing.

I think this is a WiFi hardware issue, bad chip design/choice by Apple. Therefore it can't be fixed by a software update. Apple would need to recall the iPhone 5 to fix the issue, which would cost them mega $$$. Hence they don't admit it and use excuses like 'that's just the way it is'.

The WiFi on my iPhone is not "rubbish" and does get good WiFi connection and stays connected. If it is running on battery power and goes to sleep the WiFi connection disconnects (this is normal) and anything pushed to the phone will be by cell data.

There is no bad chip design, etc.

I still have an iPhone 4S and I am having the same issues. I've always overlooked it because whenever I caught a video that switched over from the Wifi to the Cellular I would just quit the video, but the other day I went from around 12% data plan used to over 104% in about an hour because the Wifi source I was sitting across the room from wasn't good enough for my 4S so it switched over to the terrible "4G" in my area...

... Needless to say and as tonge-bittingly polite as I can express, I am not happy about this. I am very, very tired of having to deal with mystery data excess on both mine and my wife's iPhones... She is so good at using her phone, she even manages to use up her data plan in her sleep. We've done uor best at closing apps after use, switching off the cellular antenna, and monitoring our data usage...

The issue(s) persists. It's either Apple or AT&T.

So off and on this happens-- lots of battery use, and lots of data use, even when connected to wi-fi.

I turned off the cellular, but also went in to the diagnostics and usage. It appears that much of the data is incoming; ie, aps that use notifications, even when you don't realize it. You have to go into them and manually turn off notifications. If you are on battery and your phone is asleep, you can be "pushed" notifications.

Recently I downloaded the CNN app, which along with Google Chrome is apparently notorious for using a lot of push notifications, thus eating up your data.

So check your phone settings, and all of your apps individually.

You can also look at diagnostics. I don't understand much of what I'm looking at, but I know that push notification hotship means that an app is pushing stuff to my phone.

My weird date usage in the last 4 days was several hundred MB, and several hours of that was spent with the phone either off or in airplane mode while on a long flight. The diagnostics indicate that the usage is incoming, not out going. So check your apps and your settings.

My iPhones have NEVER switched from cellular to WiFi and always use cellular if it is not turned off. I have to turn cellular data off, and Apple makes sure I have to go through several windows to do that, in order to discourage me from using less data. If Apple and the providers (FWIW I use T-Mobile) didn't want that, they would make it easier for me to save data usage by, at the very least, offering an App for me to turn off cellular data easily--but there is no such thing.

I have virtually everything tuned off or to manual, no fetching, notices, etc. and have done that through every iPhone I have had (this is my fifth).

In addition, this iPhone 5 signs me out of virtually every website I use, and I don't like signing in all the time--I just want to go to the pages I want.

So, I plan to return the iPhone 5 and revert to my iPhone 4.