iTunes Match Gobbling Up Cellular Data (even though disabled)

Same problem here. 1GB over my plan. AT&T was good fast to work with and will refund me the overages for the month. Thanks for documenting the problem.

Same problem here (though I first discovered the same thing happening through the Podcast app). Genius Bar people didn't know what to make of my sudden spikes of data the first time around, a couple of months ago, and just replaced my iPhone 4S. More research turned up the culprit when the same data overage happened the following month. Finally got to a new billing period and thus a bit of margin in terms of my data plan in order to do an experiment with iTunes Match, but it just confirmed basically what is noted above.

One exception: if I had both the General > Cellular and the iTunes & App Store set to off for use of cellular data, then my download already in progress via wireless did halt as I walked out of range of the wireless network I was connected to, well before the track I was downloading could finish. Or at least as far as I could tell, it halted: the little dial stopped moving in its clockwise fashion and the options all went gray, such that it was impossible to try to play the song. However I only had to turn on the General > Cellular setting while still standing out of range for the download to resume, using cellular data. Data tracking confirmed that such data was used, and no other app was in use the entire time.

Thus again the only options to be sure to avoid overages appear to be, each time you go out, (1) turn off iTunes Match or (2) turn off cellular data altogether. Both very impractical, of course.

The iTunes Store help have repeatedly told me this is simpy not happening and that there is nothing wrong with iTunes Match (and that they have a no-refund policy, blah blah blah). They will not even address the specifics. Very disappointing service ("service") from Apple in that regard. Will take the phone in again to the Genius Bar soon to demonstrate to somebody there that it is in fact happening, in the (perhaps naive) hope that if enough such people witness it, they will report on it and eventually it will be taken seriously.

Just had this exact same thing happen: I was home preparing for some plane travel, so queued up a number of albums to be downloaded over my Wifi connection at home. I left to go out on some errands with my phone in my pocket and all of a sudden I got a free text from Verizon stating that I was at 90% of my data for the month! This is awful that iTunes match doesn't let you make a distinction between using data for streaming (which I want because it's controllable) versus downloading songs for offline. My only choice was to switch my phone into airplane mode until I got home. This *****!

This issue should be fixed in iOS 6.1. There are now more options in Settings. Check the iTunes and App Stores menu. There's no an option to use Mobile Data.

I don't know if it actually works or not and I'm not planning on trying. iTunes Match is still a big failure on iOS. Still no option to for instance fill 2Gb of your device.

Eh, I don't really consider that a fix. The only option is "Use celluar data for automatic downloads and itunes match". It's either on or off. I want to use cellular data for streaming because I can control what I'm consuming. But having it use my data when I accidentally leave the house was unexpected and seems like a bad design flaw. Would it be that difficult to add a second option: Use cellular data for downloading offline tracks? or something like that...

There isn't anything new in the iTunes & App Store settings in this regard in iOS 6.1. There is still just the (misleading) "Use Cellular Data" on/off switch, which fails to prevent the use of cellular data even when left off.

another variation is while I driving and listening (via bluetooth in car) to purchased songs already on my Iphone5 ALL the songs being listened to were being streamed. My own aready purchased songs. ATT said to turn off 'cellular data' in Settings. but id aready used 750 mb of my gig limit. ATT was nice enough to reimburse me for the overage. I dont know if their 'fix' will work.

First some background information; Yesterday 9/23/13 around 11am, I upgraded from an iPhone 4s running the most recent version of iOS 6 to an iPhone 5s Running iOS7. Sometime Yesterday afternoon I was prompted to upgrade to iOS 7.0.1 which I did immediately. I am an iCloud user and an iTunes Match subscriber. After upgrading to iOS 7.0.1 I began the process of restoring my new iPhone 5s from a backup. In addition to using iCloud back up, I had also created a back up on my MBP that morning. I decided to restore from the backup on my MBP as it is often faster than restoring from the cloud. After restoring all of the applications I went into my music app to begin downloading music to the phone through the iTunes Match service. I selected several playlists and began downloading all of the songs in those lists at which point I plugged my phone in to charge on the beside table and went to sleep. I have a fully functional 2.5 GHz wifi network in my house and am 99% certain I was connected to the network throughout this process (since I was asleep i cant be 100% certain). This morning I received an alert that I was approaching the limit of my 2GB cellular data plan. Upon further investigation I determined that not only was I approaching the limit, but that since my data plan had reset upon upgrading my phone, ALL OF THE DATA HAD BEEN USED LAST NIGHT! Considering I was not on my phone out of the house and I have wifi in the house, you can understand my confusion. Also any normal browsing or even video streaming would have a hard time generating the amount of data usage that I experienced last night. On top of that, when I went to look at my account details, it appears that 80% of the huge amount of data occurred from 12am to 1am this morning (9/24/13), at which time I was sound asleep with my phone charging on the beside table. When I investigated further on my phone in Settings > Cellular under "Use Cellular Data For:" I discovered that 98% of the Data usage was due to the Music App. Why did the music app deem it necessary to use cellular data to download all of the music from iTunes match when there was a perfectly good wifi network available? I have used this service before and never had any issues like this. AT&T has informed me that I must turn of "Use Cellular Data" in my settings to prevent this but I have never had this issue before. Also I would like to use iTunes Radio (as a Match subscriber I am very excited about this feature). But if I turn of cellular data it turns it off for everything and I will not be able to stream iTunes Radio in my car (which doesn't use that much data). I don't mind turning off cellular data for Automatic downloads and iTunes Match, but there is only one on/off switch. I either turn it off and can't enjoy iTunes Radio, or I leave it on and let my phone randomly decide to forego my free unlimited wifi data, for my limited cellular data plan and get slapped with huge overage fees. This is unacceptable and needs to be resolved quickly. Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding my usage, setup, hardware, or the situation in general. I would be more than happy to help in anyway that leads to a timely resolution. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAS BEEN AN ONGOING ISSUE FOR OVER A YEAR! Still not resolved despite iOS7 and iPhone 5s release. Anyone heard anything from Apple?

Seems like it would save more power to use wifi for the download instead of cellular. Regaurdless I have done some more tests and even with the "Use Cellular Data" switch in the off postion it will continue downloading on Cellular. What is the point of a switch if the phone can just decide to override it.

CptnApple wrote:

What is the point of a switch if the phone can just decide to override it.

Exactly. Or as I put it above,

RB17 wrote:

There is still just the (misleading) "Use Cellular Data" on/off switch, which fails to prevent the use of cellular data even when left off.

You might try experimenting with what I noted prior to that (post of Dec 2, 2012, 2nd paragraph) regarding the multiple settings. Haven't looked to see if those are both still present in iOS7 and don't remember if I also tested that at home at night or something, in addition to what I note there about intentionally walking out of range of my wireless network.

And yes, it is disappointing to hear of precisely the same problems still occurring under iOS7. I wouldn't know as they were so prevalent with iOS6 that I turned off iTunes Match well before my year was up. Make sure to get rid of the Apple Podcast app, as well, as that is another common culprit for such data usage. Use a 3rd party app and manually transfer podcasts to avoid that.

I believe the theory regarding the phone being asleep/off and not connected to wireless was pretty much removed from discussion as a possible explanation for the real problem here, if you read back through the various articles on it.

I'm the exact same as you I bought match but then was too scared to use it after it swallowing 2 gig cellular data in 45 mins this was because my phone lost connection to wifi in my home so continued on 3G.

Podcasts using the app would disappear only for them to redownload while I was listening to them or they would say they were downloaded but when I went out of range of my wifi with 3 g off they would say that it wasn't downloaded and again disappear from the app. I now have another problem where the music controls don't work from a locked screen :( really losin faith with apple that major flaws are passing quality checks.

Well I still dont have a good answer for the data usage but I can help you with the music controls on the lock screen. Mine weren't working this morning either. Just turn off the phone and turn it back on. Seemed to resolve the issue. However if you did not have music playing at the time you locked your screen double tapping the home button does not appear to bring up music controls like it used to. As an alternative (possibly by design) you should use the music controls in the Control Center slideup. This will allow you to start playing music from a locked screen, then you can double tap the home button to bring up the "normal" lock screen music controls. Hope that helps.

I just had a very detailed and long conversation with Apple support about this. What we were able to confirm is thatm if you turn off cellular usage for iTunes and Music, it will not let you start downloading or streaming from iCloud. It also will not play iTunes Radio. However, if you have Wifi on, start downloading music, and then lose or turn off your wifi connection, the download will continue using cellular. I tested both of the scenarios (starting on cell vs starting on wifi) multiple times and confirmed the results. The Apple tech understood and said she would submit a report about this. She said her understanding was that by design, when wifi dropped in the middle of a download, it would switch to cellular long enough to complete the download of the song in progress and then stop. It should not continue downloading.

I was encouraged by the time the tech took to understand this issue. I encourage you to contact Apple to report this. It helps to give the specific steps that will duplicate it. Maybe we can get relief soon!

I also suggested that they change the way iTunes Radio works so that you don't have to have iTunes Match active on your phone. It should be able to check your iTunes account directly.