DJPlayedYA

Q: 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

Close

Q: The iPhone 5 uses Cellular Data over WiFi?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 9 of 81 last Next
  • by Jamie Rasmussen,

    Jamie Rasmussen Jamie Rasmussen Oct 1, 2012 12:43 PM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 12:43 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

    I seem to be having the same issue on iPhone 4S, with iOS 5.1.1 on AT&T.   My data usage spiked duing my August billing cycle (forcing me to go to the 5 GB plan from the 4GB in an effort to avoid an overage—to no avail, I wound up using nearly 7 GB of data).  I managed to burn through my entire 5 GB plan within four days of my Sept. billing cycle (which ends this Friday).  I've had the phone in airplane mode as much as possbile, but have already incurred three overages this month.  I'm on Wifi at work and at home...I knew there was no way I was burning through that much data on my 25 minute commute.  I guess I'd better start calling AT&T.

     

    I saw above that someone had AT&T v. 13.0.  I'm on 12.0.  How does one force a Carrier Settings update?

     

    Cheers!

  • by brandonjones1980,

    brandonjones1980 brandonjones1980 Oct 1, 2012 12:47 PM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 12:47 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

    I know that Verizion has corrected this issue on the Iphone5.  go to settings, General, About.  Wait for a window to appear that says something to the effect of your carrier has  an update, and accept it.  You will need to restart your phone.

  • by NicJD1111,

    NicJD1111 NicJD1111 Oct 1, 2012 1:38 PM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 1:38 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

    I am having the same issues. I'm on att (iphone 5 32gb) and they started my data plan over on 9/21 and they say I have used 1.9gb in 10 days. I had the 4s and rarely got to 1.9gb in a month. The wifi doesnt work very well if at all when I have the cellular data on but when I have the cellular data off the wifi works fine. It's like when it was working it was using the cell network even tho I was connected to wifi. There is no way I have used that much data in such a short amount of time. I talked to apple and they recognize there is an issue and they are trying to fix it but they said they are not responsible for refunding or adjusting the bill thru att. Att doesnt really have anything to say besides they know there's something going on. I really hope they adjust the bill when the problem is fixed.

  • by J. Exby,

    J. Exby J. Exby Oct 1, 2012 2:05 PM in response to NicJD1111
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 2:05 PM in response to NicJD1111

    All iPhone folks,

     

    regardless of AT&T or Verizon:

     

    there's a superb new and FREE app called

    DataWiz

    that easily tracks hour by hour results of 3G vs. wifi data on your iPhone.

     

    I'm seeing overnight (12midnight to 5am) transfers of approx:

      wifi   527kB

        3G  28.8kB

    each hour while I sleep.

     

    I'd encourage all users to run this App and fuel a fix by Apple for all carrier phones.

  • by ksmolka,

    ksmolka ksmolka Oct 1, 2012 2:16 PM in response to NicJD1111
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 2:16 PM in response to NicJD1111

    Same thing here!

  • by Maui Todd,

    Maui Todd Maui Todd Oct 1, 2012 2:46 PM in response to Jamie Rasmussen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 2:46 PM in response to Jamie Rasmussen

    Holy COW am I glad I found this thread....I thought I was losing my mind. I'm from the US in Canada for two weeks of business using an iPhone 4S on iOS6. Knew data could be consumed fast here and knew about roaming charges, so called AT&T and bumped plan to "International," paid for extra data and texts and off I went. Landed at airport, arrived at building I'm supposed to work at for the next two weeks and IMMEDIATELY connected to their wifi. Wifi shows as connected, all is well, and I began my first week of work. Began noticing that my MacBook Pro connected to wifi could send anything...even large files, but my iPhone was struggling to send even a simple text via iMessage from one iPhone to another....it would just hang. Sometimes it wouldn't send...other times the "bloop" sound of a sent text would happen so long after hitting send I couldn't remember what I'd texted. When I leave the building I turn off all cell data, just to make sure I'm not pulling emails and the like from cellular data. Basically using my iPhone like an iPod touch these two weeks to make sure I don't use more data than the extra I purchased. AT&T sends me a text telling me I'm "over" 4 days into my trip....$700 worth of over!!!  More data than I've EVER used.....even on road trips where I don't have wifi available! How in the world could I rack up an overage like that with cell data and roaming turned off the vast majority of the day and using the iPhone only when I'm on wifi? So glad to see I'm not losing my mind....appears this is happening to many, many.  Calling AT&T tonight....will update with their response....

  • by Lessandro,

    Lessandro Lessandro Oct 1, 2012 3:41 PM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apple Watch
    Oct 1, 2012 3:41 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

    My wife and I are facing the same issue on AT&T. We both have the latest version of the operating system. My wife has the new iPhone five and I have the iPhone 4S. The phones have used an exorbitant amount of data so far. Usually we don't use this much during the whole billing cycle. It's only been about a week and a half. Please fix!

  • by grumit,

    grumit grumit Oct 1, 2012 6:15 PM in response to Lessandro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 6:15 PM in response to Lessandro

    I've faced the same issue with iPhone 4 on ATT for some time.  Even though I'm connected to Wifi almost all the time, once in a while I'd see usage spiked up for no reason.  I called ATT & they suggested to call Apple support.  I called Apple and they wanted to charge me first for the support before they talk to me!  I'm paying for data overage every now and them while I'm absolutely sure it's due to a bug in their software.

  • by djfj,

    djfj djfj Oct 1, 2012 7:20 PM in response to grumit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 7:20 PM in response to grumit

    so i have been following this thread because i was thinking about getting an iphone 5 and was curious about all the issues people have been having.

     

    so on side note, i was having connectivity issues between my laptop and wifi but none with my iphone 3G and wifi.  so anyways i had my router replaced and set it up again to see if it fixed the laptop connecting issue.  Now everything connects fine and my iphone 3G did as well initially but it keeps dropping connectivity back to 3G cellular.  usually when the screen goes to sleep i turn it on, and its on 3G again instead of wifi.  this didnt happen with my old router, so does anyone know if its just the settings on the router that need to be configured correctly?  i do realize it shouldnt be this difficult to connect your phone to wifi, but it must be the router and not the phone right? or am i totally off here?

  • by sclodeca,

    sclodeca sclodeca Oct 1, 2012 10:14 PM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2012 10:14 PM in response to DJPlayedYA

    AT&T iPhone 5 activated on Saturday.  I was on home WiFi and began getting data usage alerts from AT&T after about 1 hour.  I have never exceeded my data plan.  I called AT&T and they had no explanation other than my WiFi might be broken.  After being at work all day on their WiFi, I came to discover I had exceeded my allotment and was 153MB into overage in one day.

     

    I called Apple Support and they deny that there's a problem with AT&T phones - only Verizon.  The "fix" was to turn off Cellular data whenever on WiFi!  There is definitely a problem here.  Hopefully, they will acknowledge it soon.

  • by Shawn Ulibarri,

    Shawn Ulibarri Shawn Ulibarri Oct 2, 2012 12:10 AM in response to sclodeca
    Level 1 (39 points)
    Safari
    Oct 2, 2012 12:10 AM in response to sclodeca

    I have an iPhone 5, with AT&T 13.0 carrier software (Settings>General>About).

     

    No issues with cellular data useage, while a WiFi connection is available.

     

    I am in the Los Angeles area and have had the phone for about a week.

  • by mhollis,

    mhollis mhollis Oct 2, 2012 5:12 AM in response to DJPlayedYA
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2012 5:12 AM in response to DJPlayedYA

    I noticed this with my iPad (the New iPad). I had the iPad 1, which was limited to 3G. I bought the same data plan for my new iPad with 4G-LTE. Carrier is the same (AT&T). I blew through most of my data plan in two weeks.

     

    Now, what I do is I only activate cellular data when I have no WiFi. Of course, that works for my iPad. It would not work for a cellular telephone where one might expect a phone call.

     

    I think the problem is in the 4G-LTE radio. If it has a strong signal, the phone (iPad) will get data from there (or get data from both sources), instead of WiFi. A software upgrade would turn off the 4G data stream when WiFi is present. The problem occurs when you're preferring data speed (and data downloads can be faster over 4G-LTE than WiFi) over cost-saving.

  • by Lazykins,

    Lazykins Lazykins Oct 2, 2012 5:13 AM in response to Shawn Ulibarri
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 5:13 AM in response to Shawn Ulibarri

    Somewhere, maybe on here, I read that the issue is with the phone's inability to negotiate a connection due to the router's security method. Have you tried switching to an unsecured network? I don't suggest keeping it that way, just as a test. That doesn't fix it, either, but you might be able to get a little relief.

  • by Lazykins,

    Lazykins Lazykins Oct 2, 2012 5:20 AM in response to mhollis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 5:20 AM in response to mhollis

    That's a good guess. Better than the security theory. Does this only affect people who have really strong LTE signals that rival with their wifi? Our signal is very weak here in our house but when i go upstairs to bed my wifi signal is even weaker. And thats where the phone did its overnight downloading via cell data. On another side note, why would I get 'more bars' when I switch off LTE?

  • by Lazykins,

    Lazykins Lazykins Oct 2, 2012 5:21 AM in response to mhollis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 5:21 AM in response to mhollis

    You can still get calls while cell data is off. You can even get SMS.  But no pic messages.

first Previous Page 9 of 81 last Next