The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

Hey gang... Well, you ain't heard it αℓℓ yet!! How about my iPhone 5 has used *MobileHotspot* αℓℓ by itself!! For Real! Jis so happened I was "having a problem" (w/Hotspot) and I knew when I used it -AND- was at the *end* of billing cycle. I called T-Mobile (re: can’t remember but sumtin "related") and is wen she said "x" amt of Hotspot (now a seperate billing charge!) data wαṡ *used* I thought again & told her ђ؏ *last* date I used it wαs FEB 28th. THE USAGE occurred MARCH 1st or 2nd (date spoke w/her=March 3rd) SO W T F ?? . . . How is THIS happening ? (No wonder I had to CALL THEM ev month to ask wat the problem is! "You're OUT OF DATA" ℏαℏ ! F●InG right ! No way! No possible way! Silly me fell for IT & upgraded my hotspot data in December ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ guess WHO I'm calling wen I get home!

Bottom Line—I, too, have yo say it's NOT an  apple  issue! ITS OUR CARRIERS RIPPING (& ROBBING) us (off)! Sick of IT! About ready to go back to LAND-LINE! (I also believe IT BROKE MY COMPUTER!? (I am the *only* one using the computer!!) . . . But ~ ever since after FEB 28th ~ wen I turn it on to login -get-message- "The user profile service failed. You cannot logon" Great! Anyone got any ideas? Fone and/or computer? >4 now I did wat you guys did! ("TURN-OFF" the "MobileHotSpot" which is no big deal compares to your settings not to mention: WHY the ℏℰℓℓ should you? [have-2-do-that??] B.S.!!) anyway, after reading your posts --- it really got me thinkin bout my GHOST USER! There's NO WAY I'v؏ used up αℓℓ that Hotspot Data (wen half the time it didn't even f•ℹNg connect??!! Seriously. We Αℓℓ NEED TO DO SOMETHING TOGETHER ... Some how, um thinking that THEY are thinking THEY got a bum deal sun where along the lines ~ and now SUMONE MUST PAY!

What can we do? Count me in!! . . . Tween αℓℓ of us—Sumone's got 2 have the slightest idea/suggestion??!!

Good Luck yinz guys! ꓄M0 IS MY NETWORK! Anyone else see this? Check it if you even suspect... Seriously!

Cya 〜

Hey —

ps ~ could it 'possibly' be since "iOS 6" was released? Seriously~ THINK ABOUT THIS!! (Which could then, potentially lay blame on  apple  for sure! I'v؏ bin having many many "connection" issues & bin back-ℕ-forth with both Apple Support *and* ꓄M0 and they BOTH told me w/that update, the iPhone changes the way it pulls the signal out of the air-- where pre-6 the go fone would start at the >BoTt0m... and work it's way uP (2G >3G >4G >LTE) and with 6 (pretty sure it was 6-- if um wrong, sorry, then it'd be 7.0.2 (7.0.4 being most recent) and w/the upgrade (5 to 6; or 6 to 7 so sorry, I do 4get which it was) but, the "new" way ~ >it now searches FIRST for the "strongest" signal! (& again I apologize, they DID NOT mention WiFi or Cellular Data but, clearly, you guys should be able to know immediately if *this* upgrade could be THE reason for data leakage! [& w/many of you saying 'in x-years', I never had THIS problem' well, now you DO (have THIS problem~ many many MANY people seem to!!) and it just might be >bc of the iOS update and HOW it >desperately searches and >pulls the signal---who knows? How OFTEN does it search (for that "strongest signal"? And, I guess (it kind of) well, it makes some sense (αs much αs it can, anyway!) esρ. if it's ONLY "searching" for a "data" signal, right ~ call your carrier, have them Xplain how it works to you (see IF the update date matches wen you noticed the big surge —AND ask them if it searches only for "data" signal well, it might tell you why the surge— (gonna doubt it searches for WiFi ~ or you wouldn't have the leakage, right? Hmmm curious! But, unfortunately, it doesn't Xplain my MobileHotspot Ghost!! …& here's another way a ꓄M0 tech support person splained it 2 me-see if THIS helps anyone make sense of maybe WHY it's suddenly happening: "if your phone would have 4 bars (of 5) on EDGE (2G); and if were to have 1 bar on 4G . . . The iPhone wίℓℓ choose EDGE (2G)"

Hmmm well, that *** ! and maybe  apple was (going out on a limb here)--- to quick to push out the update that it really still has bugs! (Blackberry was, I swear, Famous for doing that !) . . .

Did that make any sense to anyone? I kηo, it still doesn't ӿplain for the "leakage" but I'll bet the'yre related??!!

Wat ƴα think ?? And I hope ev-1 updated to 7.0.4 bc it apparently was a major "security issue" ~ enuf of one that my mobile banking app was the *first* I heard of it— from THEM ~ saying it's VERY IMPORTANT TO UPDATE iOS ASAP! That was even b4 the notice appeared under my settings that there even was an update! So, please, either update -or- speak w/sumone if you have concerns about it/updating, etc.

Good Luck (I kηℴ I need IT! Αs of now, I blame ꓄M0 (?) . . .

CrazyJaney,

First... congratulations for using the most windings in an Apple post... ever.

It looks like you have figured out the situation on your own. I've seen Personal Hotspot hang and use enormous amounts of cell-data. You are correct, the best thing to do is turn Hotspot off in settings when you are not using it. Likewise I've seen other apps hang and use large amounts of cell-data for hours. I think its a good idea to close all your apps on your iPhone occasionally.

In regard to the general issue of run-away data usage that occasionally blind-sides iPhone users... I think the only solution is for Apple to develop a more sophisticated cell-data tracking tool for iOS. I have seen cell-data tracking tools on non-Apple smart phones that are much better at assisting users in keeping on top of it. Most people just need to know if they are ahead of their month-to-date cell-data allocation on an hourly basis so they can take care of a problem before it runs amuck. This is not hard to do. A good programmer could bang out the app in a couple of days.

iOS 7 uses cell-data (if it is turned on) even when wi-fi is connected to you iPhone. How and why it does this is sometimes unpredictable. The only solution is to turn off cell-data - but, of course that is a little inconvenient in iOS 7. Perhaps Apple will move that switch to the "Control Screen" so it is easy to do.

Obviously the cell carriers are on to their latest moronic game of "gotcha" with cell data usage. Thank goodness the days of voice and text message overages are a thing of the past for most people. Hopefully cell data overages will be less of an issue in the not too distant future. It's a stupid business tactic that stupid people employ to take advantage of people by tricking them into extra charges. Airlines use pricing scams, banks use pricing scams. Pricing scams are everywhere... not just cell carriers. The world is filled with unethical people and you just do your best to avoid them as much as you can.

I used to have all those problems discussed in this forum on my 5 under iOS6. For me killing iCloud and podcast apps fixed it then, but obviously that didn't work for others. I can't comment on apps hanging in the background chewing data, or the hotspot going greedy (or being hacked by someone else???), as I've always killed unused apps, and never have the hotspot on unless I need it.

When I got iOS7 the first thing I did was to go through the "Use Cellular for:" setting and turned off every app that I know I will not use on cellular, only on WiFi. This includes iCloud and Podcast which are now back on my phone. Of course as you get new Apps you may need to turn those off as well.

I always have 4G/LTE enabled and in use. It's available at home during wifi coverage and I haven't seen a problem, II do have a fast WiFi though, so maybe it isn't tempted to auto-switch. At night I have the phone on power, and hence the wifi stays on too. My private and corporate (MS Exchange) emails are always on, wifi & cell, and either check every 15min, or get push updates. I also have various other push notifications always on, eg facebook, twitter....

I hardly ever go over 500MB (out of 1G) unless I deliberately stream something over cellular.

I'm in Australia and on Telstra, so I can't comment on wether there are any problems caused by other cell carriers that might push their own carrier-config info to handsets.

MissMichel,

One question...

When you say you turn off iCloud in "Use Cellular for:" I'm not seeing that as an option.

Do I misunderstand what you wrote?

Add us to the list - my daughter's phone has been using 5X her normal data rate - there are huge data dumps being sent out consistantly at ~ 1:00 in the morning while she's asleep and the phone is hooked up to wifi. Costing us a ton of money - AT&T can't/won't help...ridiculous to have to turn off data while in my home with wifi to "fix" it (of course a better solution than paying for it). She needs to be on cellular data while at school so we can reach her, and sometimes forgets to shut it off before bed - this sounds like a class action case waiting to happen...

Again, it is not a "data dump" being sent at 1:00am, that is the time the billing for the entire day was recorded.

That's not entirely accurate, because in looking at my bill, data usage is reported thoughtout the day. I do understand the concept of AT&T report registering a time lag for actual data usage, but if your scenario was correct, there would be no recorded usage throughout the day and then one large entry for the whole day, which isn't the case. An AT&T rep told us that with the new ios all the app updates are done automatically (which we have noticed) and the majority are done overnight and that is probably what it is. Assuming that's correct, they shouldn't be updating over cellular. Another contributor keeps writing that when an iphone is "asleep" (screen off) and not plugged in, that it automatically shuts of wifi to save battery life...which is all fine and good, except if my phone is looking to do app updates a 1:00 over cellular when wifi is avail - and I get charged for it. Or when my phone is in my pocketbook in sleep mode and "decides" to use cellular. Seems an issue Apple needs to address and fix - expecting the consumer to combat the way they choose to NOT use wifi is ludicrous

My reported usage is pretty consistent and I bill a large amount at night.

You can disable to the abililty to update over cell data, turn off the ability to autoupdate, or plug your iPhone in at night and it will stay connected to WiFi.

Data reported during the day comes from each network switch as you leave it's territory. The large data report around midnight PST summarizes data from the last switch you were connected to at that time. Also, you are NOT connected to WiFi when the phone is asleep, unless it is plugged in.

dstrzelczyk,

I'll have to respectfully disagree with deggie and Lawrence Finch. I have tested my iPhone that uses ATT in Houston.

My cell-data usage is reported each hour from ATT at its web-site when I use cell-data. The report is consistently in exactly 1 hour increments. The data is no older than 5 minutes out of date.

I have tested my iPhone with wifi only, cell-data only and with both turned on at the same time. I've done this while the phone is sleeping and while it is awake. Both wifi and cell-data function while the iPhone is sleeping or awake regardless of whether it is plugged in.

All of this is easily testable by sending emails from my PC to my iPhone.

I have seen apps get stuck on cell-data even while the iPhone is on wifi. You have to shut the apps down to un-stick them.

Well said dstrzelczk, ludicrous is the right word here. We have 4 iphones, 3 5's and 1 iphone 4. The iphone 4 has no trouble one of the 5's blows through data like crazy (replaced two times so far). One of them has always had a grandious data plan so we have never paid attention to the data usage and we had to increase the data plan on the other 5 not because it is used a lot, it is mine, but because in spite of not being used much I regularlly went over my plan limit.

As my dear old daddy use to say, 'makes me wanna spit'.

Here is a copy of my cell-data report from ATT's web site. Notice how data is reported on the hour. The 364kb of data at 12:43PM was me testing to see how long it took a group of test emails to show up on my cell-data usage report (less than 10 minutes).

Not that it is particularly relevant, but... This test was done with wifi turned off, cell-data turned on, the iPhone was not plugged in and the iPhone was in sleep mode.

My iPhone can receive emails while in sleep-mode with cell-data turned off and wifi turned on while the iPhone is not plugged in.

I have two iPhone 5s' (My wife and I) and our carrier is Verizon. When we first got the phones we were blowing through data like it was nothing. When we turned off the LTE our usage went back to normal like it was when we had the iPhone 4. I have already helped someone else in this discussion thread solve their crazy usage problem by simply turning off the LTE so maybe it will work for you. Yeah, your phone won't be quite as fast, but it doesn't bother me.

Here's my FULL story, for comparision. I bought an iphone 3G when it first came out with the unlimited data plan. When they introduced the 4, my husband bought one, and I upgraded and gave my daughter my 3G. Both of them got a 200MB plan as the unlimited was gone by then. All is good, everyone under usage. I and my daughter update the phones to ios6 - my husband declines due to all the complaints, so he is still (to this day) on ios5. My daughter starts going over her plan...not a tremendous amount, between 50-100 MB - just enough that they are charging us another $20 for the additional 200MB. We start admonishing her for using the phone so much off of wifi, and don't believe her account of usage. This Dec, we bought her a new 5C for Christmas. Since she will be going away to college, she decided to set it up as an entirely new phone with it's on itunes account. Jan she went over 3X her data amt - we yelled at her (assuming she got out of hand with the new shiney phone). Last month (Feb) her usage was 6X over - even though we had her shutting off the cellualr data when not at home & to turn on only when needed. A couple of days ago (the day I wrote my original post) she was sitting next to me on the couch, a few feet from the router, and says she just got a message that 65% of her data has been used. We have 10 more days on our billing cycle (we start a new cycle the 28th of each mo). 10 min later she says "now it said I've reached 100%! I didn't do anything, what's going on!" Which prompted me to come here, an lo and behold, 70 pages of complaints going back to 2012 on just this one thread - there are others on the same topic. My husband's phone (on ios5) has no issues, and I honestly haven't checked mine, as with unlimited data it hasn't become a problem with billing, although I'm curious now. She does have it plugged in to charge over night. We have followed all the suggestions here as far as shutting off features and installing Datawiz and Onavo Extend, and have given our daughter our sincere agologies, as apparently is was not her fault at all. I am crossing my fingers that it is at least under control, even if the issue isn't actually "fixed". And although Lawrence and deggie keep writing every 5 posts or so that if the phone is plugged in it will use wifi and that the 1:00am transfers are a conglomerate reporting from the whole day, I think enough people have shown that not to be true in many cases (my bill also shows data usage consistent with actual usage reported by the phone), so even though the phone is plugged in overnight, it was receiving huge qtys of data over cellular. And, even if the statement is true that it needs to be plugged in to use the wifi (not that I'm disputing it), I still find it ludicrous that the phone would be inherently set up to use cellular data under those circumstances since that is the main portion of many people's bills.