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Level 1

10 points

Why do I have mysterious cellular data usage (Verizon) every 6 hours on all 3 of my iphone 5's?

I have recently uncovered mysterious cellular usage on three different iPhones. I am a Verizon customer and discovered this by examining the cellular data use logs. What I found are a long series of mysterious data usage logs. I have visited the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store 3 times now to log notes and discuss the issue. It is being escalated.

The characterstics are as follows:

All my family phones have the appropriate IOS and hardware updates (verified by the GeniusBar at my local Apple Store).
This is occuring across three phones, which happen to all be iphone 5. Two are 5 and the other a new 5s. We do have one iphone 4 in the family but the issue (so far as I can tell), is not happening on it.
One iphone 5 has IOS 7, the other IOS 6. The new 5s has of course IOS 7.
Mysterious data use happens even while connected to wifi.
Each mysterious data use log entry is exactly 6 hours apart. For example: 2:18 AM, 8:18 AM, 2:18 PM, 8:18 PM, 2:18 AM ... etc. It cycles AM and PM, same times, for a day to many days until some condition causes it to change (evolve).
The times evolve. One day it could be cycling through at one time series, then it changes to another time sequence and continues until the next condition.
The data usage is anywhere from a few K to many MB. The largest I've seen is over 100 MB.
The logs clearly show these usages are not due to human interaction. It is a program.
If cellular connection is used frequently (by the owner), the pattern is hard to pick out. Luckily, my family member is very good about only using wifi whenever possible, so these mysterious use patterns are easy to pick out.
Verizon allows access to 90 days worth of data logs, so I downloaded and analyzed them. This has been happening for at least 90 days. I have found 298 instances of mysterious use out of 500 total connections to cellular. A total of 3.5 GB of mysterious cellular data has been recorded as used in that 90 days by this phone alone. Only .6 GB of the total cellular data use is legitimate, meaning by the person.
This issue is occuring across three different phones. Two are iPhone 5, and the third is a recently purchased iPhone 5s. The 5s I have not touched beyone the basic startup. I have left it alone on a desk for 3 days, and looking at the logs, the mysterious data use in the same pattern is occuring.

So ... I am speaking to both sides, Verizon and Apple to get answers. Verizon puts their wall up at data usage. It doesn't matter how it is being used, you simply need to pay for it. Yes, the evidence I have gathered is getting closer to someting on Verizon's end.

Before pressing in that direction, I am hoping someone reading this may recognize this issue as a possible iPhone 5 issue ... OR ... you, right now, go look at your data usage logs available through your carrier's web account, and see if you can pick out a pattern of mysterious use. Look especially at the early morning instances when you are most likely sleeping.

I am hoping this is a simple issue that has a quick resolution. I'm looking for the "ooohhh, I see that now ..." But I am starting to think this might be much bigger, but the fact is, most customers rarely or never look at their data usage details, much less discover mysterious use patterns.

The final interesting (maybe frightening part) thing about all this is that I discovered while talking to Verizon ... they do not divulge which direction the data is going. This goes for any use, mysterious or legitimate. Is cellular data coming to your phone, or leaving it? Is something pulling data from your phone? We know that it is possible to build malware apps, but the catch with my issue is that it is also happening on a brand new iphone 5s with nothing downloaded to it.

Thanks for your time

iPhone 5, iphone 5 and 5c, both ios 6 and 7

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 10:20 AM

Best reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

202,546 points

Posted on Jan 23, 2014 10:59 AM

mtamaki wrote:

Other questions from a while back in the disucssion -

Which way is the data going, push or pull?

Why does it use cellular data only and not wifi when it is within a strong wifi network? The 6 hour increment of data use does stop when you turn off cellular data.

What on the iPhone, even it were service oriented, requires that much data? Ideas may include documents, email, pictures, video, application data, facetime video and sound ... etc

1. No way to know which way it is going, unless you have an app such as Onavo. However, Settings/Cellular shows cumulatively how much data was sent and how much was received.

2. Being within a WiFi field is not sufficient. WiFi goes off 30 seconds after the screen goes off to save battery, so any data transfer when the screen is off will go over cellular. WiFi, unlike cellular, uses power continuously, whether transferring data or not. This is not an iPhone characteristic; it is the nature of the WiFi standard. But it means that if WiFi stayed on all the time the battery would run down very fast. The exception is when the phone is connected to power. Then WiFi stays on.

3. Settings/Cellular will show you how much data each app uses, but not what the app is using it for. You can turn off individual apps to prevent them from using cellular data. If you take frequent screen shots of that page you can sort of graph your data usage for each app over time.

Regarding the 6 hours, it's more complicated than I implied. (I've worked on telecom billing systems). Whenever you leave one area covered by a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) that switch sends a single record to the billing system showing all of the data you used while connected to the switch. These occur at random times. (An MTSO can support many towers, so it is a larger scale than simply a tower). The systems I worked on also had a "close" function at the end of the day that sent a single billing record from the MTSO you are connected to at the close time, which is roughly midnight PST for AT&T. This is so if you stay home for several days you get a summary record each day rather that one after multiple days. Many other carriers around the world use the same billing system.

Verizon uses a different billing system. I'm guessing here, because I never worked on Verizon's system, but since the 6 hour interval is so consistent I suspect that Verizon's MTSOs send the summary record from the MTSO you have been connected to every 6 hours rather than every 24 hours. The reason you see other usage in between is due to the fact that as you travel when you leave the coverage area of an MTSO a summary is generated also. And sometimes you can even switch MTSOs without moving; for example, if your local switch is overloaded you might be transferred to another nearby switch. This is especially common in large cities, where a switch may cover only a few blocks, as opposed to a rural network when the switches can be 15 miles apart.

On a historical note, when AT&T and Apple released the first iPhone a billing record was generated for every data transfer. This resulted in users getting bills of 300 or more pages, listing every transfer. Also, since the record only reported in kilobyte chunks, a 100 byte transfer would be reported as 1 KB. As data was unlimited for the first iPhone this usage inflation on the bill was not a problem for the customer, but it did make people wonder where all that information was going.

View in context

97 replies

Nov 15, 2013 10:57 AM in response to mtamaki

No one from Apple works here... it's all volunteers

I quote myself:

Use the power of iOS 7 and see what apps are using the most data. (Settings > Cellular > *scroll down*)

I asked you to check that for a reason, help us help you identify apps that use the most data in a given time period.

Include a screenshot of the app data usage in your reply.

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 15, 2013 11:17 AM in response to chattphotos

I see.

I have spent countless hours on this during the past month, comparing logs, checking Settings>Cellular>etc ... I installed Onavo count to determine what apps are using data. Onavo and Settings>Cellular are accurate with the few times that I was on the road using data, but the amount of usage recorded on the Verizon logs does not match and is much greater than the actual use recorded on the phones.

One culprit I tried to pin it on was an app called Songja. Yes, my daughter used it and it was listed with quite a bit of data use, but nothing close to the GBs of use recorded in Verizon logs. None of the other phones has the Songja app.

I do understand where the question are leading and I really do appreciate the help and suggestions, but also know that I am pretty far down the road already. I'm not sure how much more time I want to devote to tracking this down. Maybe "going away" is the desired result ... But I am glad others have the same issue and hopefully someone out there runs into an answer.

raymond73

Level 4

1,843 points

Nov 15, 2013 11:18 AM in response to mtamaki

Reset the statistics, do not use any data yourself, then about 8 hours later look at the statistics and find out which app used data.

Nov 15, 2013 1:43 PM in response to mtamaki

In a nutshell, VZ is probably lying if you can prove something like you've used 500MB of 4GB (and they say 3.4GB of 4GB)

Nov 15, 2013 9:20 PM in response to mtamaki

Thus far I have tried the following:

1) On the 5s, I turned off the auto send for the diagnostics and usage. This disrupted the 6 hour pattern, but it seems to have resumed.

2) On one 5c, I turned off the cellular entirely. This actually did the trick. 24 hours with only a single .3KB transfer in the morning yesterday (yes, still connected to wifi).

3) On the second 5c, I am planning to leave it alone.

None of these phones have Songja. In fact, they have little in common outside of the standard apps provided by Apple and Facebook. But given the fact that mtamaki has a fresh out of the box device with only standard apps, what ever this is must come from the standard configuration in iOS7, but is not related to the diagnostics and usage updates.

Chattphotos, I have spent some time trying to look at the cellular usage to determine which one is generating the signal, unfortunately the phone had to be removed from the wifi environment to do this and expected signals obscured the unexpected. Data is logged across all, and you cannot see the "when" in this function so it is difficult to tell who the culpret is when expected data transfer is ocurring over this repeating signal. Moving forward, I will be turning all the cellular off on each app except one, and I will wait 24 hours to see if the activated one picks up the pattern. GIven what has been reported already, I will start with the OOB apps.

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 18, 2013 11:31 AM in response to mtamaki

So it appears that the 6 hour logging of mystery cellular data use is still the main mystery. I will be visiting the Genius Bar ... again. I think the key to all of this, or at least the starting point for a domino effect, is finding out what is logging every 6 hours. At this point, I don't care about the loss of data usage and the money. The answer to the 6 hour issue has not surfaced yet. It has all the factors:

1. No documentation

2. No evidence of this usage on the iPhone itself

3. No permission from the user to use up their data automatically in this way

4. Creep factor - what is using so much and why. Which direction is it going?

5. Theft - less legimitate cellular data can be used, thus customers are not getting what they pay for.

Btw, yes, turning off data on the iPhone 5 does stop this pattern. Though I would like to think someone (Verizon) is not telling the truth, for now, I want to give the companies trust.

One suggestion was to sniff the data to and from the iPhone to determine the exact time and what kind of data is being sent and received. If you are more technical and have the time and resources, is that something that you can do?

I hope everyone reading this has at least given their own cellular carrier's "detailed data log" a glance to spot the 6 hour increments of data use. I have a feeling most iPhone 5 users have this based on the Genius Bar tech's confirmation, then confirmations from a few in this discussion string.

Nov 20, 2013 5:54 AM in response to mtamaki

I don't think this is anything specific to your carrier, or your iPhone 5. We have an iPhone 4 running on Tesco Mobile UK and that also transmits data every 6 hours. It looks like it's uploading the phone's usage statistics to the carrier, dates & times of SMS, calls, numbers called, data usage etc. so that everything is nicely itemised when we look at our online bill/statement.I'm not sure if my android phone behaves the same (i.e every 6 hours) as I can't tell because i use plenty of data. The iPhone 4 is locked-down so no apps are available to use data, although the data connection is enabled. That's how we can clearly see the 6-hourly upload, i.e. 04:33, 10:33, 14:32, 20:32 etc...

So, i think the size of the uploaded data may depend on how many calls & SMS you send - if you send 100 SMS over a few hours, each SMS is logged as: DATE - TIME - NUMBER SENT TO - TYPE - CHARGE. So 100 entries like that could take 100 x 50bytes. Multiply that over the whole day and then include all of your call logs and data usage logs, depending on how well they manage the uploaded data packet explains why some people see unexpected data usage.

For me, this uploading of data shouldn't be charged to the users data allowance. Yes, it's using the data, but we're not the ones actually using it.

Take a look at your on-line usage (if you have access) - all that data has to get there somehow!

raymond73

Level 4

1,843 points

Nov 20, 2013 6:17 AM in response to Steve-Savalas

Why would the carrier need that information from your phone when the SMS or phone call went through the carrier's system? The carrier already has the information and getting such information, again, from the phone is silly.

Nov 20, 2013 9:27 AM in response to raymond73

I really don't know. I'm not saying that they are the only things that are being uploaded. Knowing Apple, there are probably other things that are being verified, such as IMEI numbers of phones that are on contract. There are also their things that may be getting 'checked' on a 6-hourly schedule - mail, App Store checking for updates, podcasts (check this one), location services updating etc. etc. I've a feeling that 6 hours is a common setting for checking mail, or syncing of some sort. Worth checking.....

mailrail

Level 1

0 points

Nov 21, 2013 6:24 AM in response to mtamaki

I have 4 iPhones on my account; 1 5S, 2 5Cs, and 1 4S. All of the 5 series phones are showing the "6-hour" data anomoly. The 4S is not. My 5S shows a lot of data usage in addition to the 6-hour thing and more of a random change in the times of the 6-hour upload. My wife's 5C on the other hand, shows almost nothing outside of the 6-hour uploads and they stay on the same schedule for three days at a time. My son's 5C, is like my usage pattern. Somebody out there (be it Apple or Verizon) knows the answer to this. We're all big boys and girls - tell us why.

raymond73

Level 4

1,843 points

Nov 21, 2013 8:14 AM in response to mailrail

Is your device set to backup to iCloud?

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 21, 2013 12:39 PM in response to raymond73

Yes. The iCloud backup feature does state clearly that it will automatically backup ONLY when the phone is connected to wifi. I have thought about this one at the beginning of this road.

If the iCloud backup feature on iPhone 5 is malfunctioning and it is actually using cellular data, then that is a gargantuan issue. This one is still on the table of remote possibilities, though the amount of cellular data used far exceeds the changes and addition of any new apps on the phone. I do have picture and music backup turned off.

But interestingly, the amound of mysterious data use increases with a phone that is in full production ... and the iCloud backup is the only up front, visible and well known feature that is clearly stated to be automatic.

mailrail

Level 1

0 points

Nov 21, 2013 5:29 PM in response to raymond73

Yep. All of the 5s on my account are set to backup to iCloud. I'm going to turn the backup OFF on my wife's phone tonight and check the usage tomorrow on the Verizon website.

raymond73

Level 4

1,843 points

Nov 22, 2013 6:56 AM in response to mailrail

Good. Let us know what the results are.

I don't seem to be having any mysterious data useage. I back up to my computer, not the cloud.

Nov 22, 2013 7:46 AM in response to raymond73

I don't think that is the issue (and it is certainly something we already thought of). Of my 3 devices, 2 were backing up to the cloud, one was not. The one that was not was actually the one that was generating the MOST data across this 6 hour cycle.

Why do I have mysterious cellular data usage (Verizon) every 6 hours on all 3 of my iphone 5's?