iPhone 5 - Excessive data usage and data "bleed"
We recently upgraded my daughter's phone from a Samsung to an iPhone 5, originally running iOS 6, now running iOS 7. The Samsung (Android) phone used less than .5 MB per month, whereas the iPhone 5 will consume that much data in one day. About 80% of the phone's usage is on WiFi, and is only actively used on the cellular network less than an hour a day. However, the phone and the Verizon data usage log show data being consumed even when connected continously to wifi.
With help from a Verizon representative, we turned off location services, closed all background apps and stopped automatic updates and refreshes, shut off icloud, email, and anything else that could possibly be running in the background or consuming data. The changes didn't do anything to slow the usage, and the Verizon reps suggested that my daughter was secretly using her phone in the middle of the night to play games and watch movies. At Verizon's recommendation, we signed up for parental controls, and set them to prevent the phone from being used during the school day, and at night. However, the phone and Verizon continue to show data use in tiny increments 24 hours per day. These post in the Verizon data usage logs about every 10 minutes, and are typically 10-20KB.
Using the parental controls, I set a hard data stop each week so that we could meter her data out over a month's time and prevent overages. It is supposed to stop all data usage on the phone once she reaches a preset limit. She would usually hit the 1GB limit in a day or two, but the phone and Verizon's data usage log show that the phone continues to bleed data 24 hours per day even after the limit is reached and she is unable to use her phone. Verizon can offer no explanation.
In addition to the data bleed, the actual data usage for virtually any activity that required data is substantially higher than what I would see for the same use on my iPhone 4s. For example, a couple of youtube videos played on her iPhone 5 resulted in 0.8GB being used in just a few minutes, vs about 50MB on my 4s for the same videos. Verizon seems to suggest that this is due to the higher resolution and speed, but it seems excessive.
Here's a Youtube video I found that seems to show our exact issue. We've done similar tests on our phone, with the same results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9AR2rEFcKk
Although it is frequently suggested that the "fix" for this problem is to turn off cellular, that hardly addresses the problem. It would also mean we have purchased a very expensive iPod.
Is there anyone who can help us address this issue? Verizon has been no help, and does not acknowledge this as an ongoing problem, despite the fact that there are countless articles, blogs, and videos online about the very same issue. We have tried a number of the "fix" recommendations we've found online, but thus far have had no success.
iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3, Verizon Wireless
