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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

203,366 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.

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97 replies

mailrail

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2013 6:20 AM in response to raymond73

Okay...here's an update. On 11/22, I went into Settings (on my 5S) and turned the cellular data off. I turned it back on briefly on 11/25 while I was in my car in order to get directions to an unfamiliar location. After 10 minutes or so, I turned the cellular data back off. I checked my usage last night on the Verizon website and, to my surprise, there was only one small data transmission from 11/22 to 11/26 (the short time I had it on in my car). I'm doing all the normal things I do when I'm at home on WiFi but I keep the cellular data switch set to "off". Obviously, I won't follow this pattern all the time. I bought the phone to use, after all, and I intend to take advantage of what it can do but it's nice to know that when my data starts piling up at the end of the month, I can halt the possibility of going over my limit.

Nov 28, 2013 12:39 PM in response to mtamaki

Have 3 iPhones in my family and have only had this problem on daughters iPhone 4, with hers it's been every hour on the same minute. I recentley gave her my old iPhone 5 when I got new 5s, was hoping that would solve problem but as soon as she used her iTunes to restore her account to new phone it used data hourly again. I tried deleting all her apps off phone and still did it. Finally did a complete reset and set up as a new phone and that stopped the problem. By using the cloud I was able to get her contacts and pictures on the phone. So I am very sure at least in her case it is some app she put on phone that caused the issue

Dec 9, 2013 7:02 PM in response to mtamaki

My family has 4 iPhones: 2 iPhone 5s models and 2 iPhone 5 models. All 4 iPhones are pulling data exactly every six hours, as described in this thread. The 5s iPhones have been using a lot of data at those intervals -- up to 60MB each time -- while the other two, not so much, usually well under 1MB.

Following a suggestion posted elsewhere, I turned off background app refresh (General>Background App Refresh) for a single app, Candy Crush, on one of the two 5s iPhones, making no other changes. Thereafter, the data use continued, but at levels similar to the other two iPhones. The high usage continued unabated on the unaltered iPhone 5s, with about 200MB of mysterious data usage recorded in just over two days. Incidentally, the 2 iPhone 5 phones do not have Candy Crush installed. (My phone is one of those, I hasten to add.)

In our case, at least, it would appear that turning off background app refresh for a single has reduced the problem to a mere annoyance.

Jan 3, 2014 8:37 PM in response to aztransplant

Settings > Podcast > Disable the auto download every 6 hours.

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 3, 2014 9:03 PM in response to benjaminrobie

Looks like podcast is an app that needs to be installed. I do not have podcast installed on any of the phones so do not see it in settings.

I still see the 6 hour data use pattern as described in this discussion string. Its now at least 6 months and probably longer since it may have started when I purchased the iPhone 5 back in December of 2012.

Interestingly, the amount of data being transfered in those 6 hour increments is smaller now. Verizon is also receiving more inquiries about this issue so maybe someone is listening.

Jan 4, 2014 5:04 PM in response to mtamaki

I think I have solved the problem for me, but not 100% sure. It was due to my Mail setup. I switched everything FROM "fetch" to "manual". This stopped the "every 6 hours" business. This might also explain why it was happening with my wife's iPhone 5c, but it was happening less (she has less email accounts/calendars and gets less mail).

I will come back and verify that this indeed fixed the "every 6 hours" issue.

Jan 9, 2014 8:05 AM in response to mtamaki

Just wanted to add some input here that it doesn't appear to be an iPhone-specific issue. I'm a Verizon customer with 2 5s iPhones and a Samsung Galaxy S4, and all 3 phones are showing the 6 hour interval data usage despite being on WiFi. My usage amounts per phone during these times that it's not worth me finding out (ex. 0.00001 GB), but just to help those who are troubleshooting...it does NOT seem to be an iPhone thing.

Jan 22, 2014 10:42 PM in response to mtamaki

I too have this issue with an iphone 5 having ios7. It has been happening for a long time; I am not sure if it also happened before the update from ios6 (my daughter updated the phone). The phone has been replaced by Apple and reloaded from the icloud (Apple suggested this to eliminate possible viriuses that reloading from itunes might allow through); the new phone is doing the same thing. We believe the usage to be from the system services area, specifically messaging or push notifications. What app is causing the cell data usage even though wifi is enabled and connected, is not clear. Our iphone 4's have never shown this issue.

Would it be helpful for people with this issue to compile lists of apps on the various phones to see if there is commonality? I have had Verizon technical support enter a network trouble ticket to investigate further.

Jan 23, 2014 7:28 AM in response to stevelevy

There is no issue. It is the way the phone is designed. Every iPhone model and every version of iOS has used cellular data for as long as there have been iPhones. You can confirm this by doing historical searches in the forum. Go back 6 years and you will see posts about it. Push notifications must go over cellular data; it's the way push technology works. Only cellular data CAN "push" - that is, send data to a phone without the phone specifically requesting it. If the phone is connected to WiFi and is on (not asleep) or connected to power after the push notification is received the actual data associated with the notification will go over WiFi; otherwise it will go via cellular data.

You did have this characteristic with iOS 6 and earlier; you may not have noticed it because it is only with iOS 7 that you can actually see how data transmission is allocated to apps.

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 23, 2014 8:30 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you for the reply. I really do want to believe the explanation that it is designed to do this. But isn't that even worse? The points that cannot get me to be OK with all this are:

The mysterious use of data happens exactly every 6 hours. The 6 hour spans change every few days.
It only happens on iPhone 5.
The amount of data used by these mysterious 6 hours data transfers outnumber legitimate use at least 3:1. Therefore, legitimate, customer usage of data that is paid for is reduced significantly.
What data is transfered especially when data use is in the many MB? What could the system design really need from a smart phone that involves that much data?

My family has lived with it by simply not using much data when away from wifi. If this is "behavior shaping" by the telecomm industry, then it is working. Most of us probably are at this point and are telling our families "watch your data use", but we really may not understand why we seem to run against our alloted data use ceilings every month. In fact, last month, I had to buy more data. Granted, it was only $10, but multiply that by thousands or millions of customers, and there is some money involved.

In the past year, the amount of data drained by this "issue" or "designed usage", whatever we want to call it, has a dollar cost. It really doesn't matter if it is designed to do this. Is just having the magic of a smart phone enough to turn a blind eye?

Jan 23, 2014 8:38 AM in response to mtamaki

The thing is, mtamaki, is that it's NOT an iPhone 5-specific issue. Like I stated above, it happens on all my plan's phones, including a Galaxy S4. I do think you have an issue in that it's using so much data...like I mentioned, mine is a tiny amount (not enough to worry about). I do agree you have some issue, but I think it's a Verizon issue, not a phone one. Unless you have a bunch of push notificiations turned on which can inflate the amount of data sent. I only have a few apps send me push information. Hope this helps you.

Jan 23, 2014 8:51 AM in response to mtamaki

It is not only on iPhone 5. I had it on my iPhone 4S, my iPhone 3GS and my original iPhone "classic". And I've never been with Verizon, I have always had AT&T.

As far as the 6 hours is concerned, do you see that as every 6 hours on your phone, or every 6 hours on your Verizon web usage counter or bill? If it is not on your phone that you see it then it the usage is not at the time you see it; the 6 hour usage is a rollup of the previous 6 hour's usage. AT&T does this differently; they generate a rollup entry every time you move out of one "cell" (MTSO) and into the next. They also do a rollup at midnight PST for the cell you are in at that time.

There ARE built in apps that update periodically. Weather, Stocks, Genius, Game Center, etc. do get periodic pushed updates at scheduled times. And these are always over cellular data.

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 23, 2014 8:53 AM in response to pb65stang

I did wonder if this happens on other smart phones. You are confirming this. When I first purchased an iPhone 5s, I only activated the number but left it in the box for a week. I checked the data use and the 6 hour increment of usage was there. It was the only usage recorded.

The only thing lacking from the discussion is simply - what is using the data? If that is addressed, then at least, as a customer, we can maybe make the choice to allow or dissallow that data. I don't think I'm off base saying that.

I think most users simply do not take apart and analyze their data use report so do not realize this, and may don't care. We do live with it and are desensitized, so it has become part of life owning a smart phone. Goal achieved?

mtamaki Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 23, 2014 9:38 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I see the 6 hour use through my Verizon data usage report through their website. I had asked their tech support, back in August, how each entry makes it onto that report, and they said that it records at the moment the tower gets the connection and then records the amount of data used for that session.

If it is a "roll-up" of a batch of uses, I do see legitimate data usage at the more random times interspersed between these 6 hour increments.

If one is a more frequent user, those 6 hour increments will be hard to pick out since they will be farther apart on the report.

I am very surprised that this occurs on pre iPhone 5 models. The iPhone 4 that we have showed no evidence.

If it were weather, stock, game center ... the amount of data used is in the many MB. Without getting an actual average, my guestimate on the median average amount of data used per 6 hour increment is 10 MB. The most I have seen was close to 150 MB. I don't think those apps would use that level of data.

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

Jan 23, 2014 11:43 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Very nice explanation, Lawrence. You taught me a few new things.

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