Email & Cellular Data

Question

Email & Cellular Data

I have a new iPhone 5s and I am wondering how to force my email/calendars to use wifi data and not cellular data when connected.

I can be connected to wifi and send and receive email and check my calendar and notice that the cellular usage keeps going up for Exchange Services. One email account is a company account setup as 'Exchange' the other is my person email setup using the 'Outlook.com' option.

If I turn cellular data off they both continue to work just fine. However when I turn cellular back on they use that instead of wifi for their data. How do I fix this?

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Jan 21, 2014 8:47 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 21, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I did attempt to turn off mail under cellular. Still cellular data was used. So I turned off cellular completely and I get my emails in real time - normally hear my phone before I even see my outlook notify me.

So I am just curious as to how I make sure I can have cellular on and my email continue to go through wifi.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 21, 2014 10:01 AM in response to GhostRunner521

If you keep the phone connected to power WiFi will stay on. That is the only way. And even then it may use some cellular data for Notifications. Have you checked Settings/Cellular to see how much data it has used for mail? I have 5 email accounts that get a total of several hundred messages a day, and it uses less than 50 MB/month.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 22, 2014 4:36 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I plugged the phone in at 8PM last night and did not touch it until 7am this mroning. It used 277kb in Exchange services on cellular data. It had WiFi all night long. Is my phone faulty? Do I need to get a replacement from AT&T? I just purchased this three days ago.

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 21, 2014 8:54 AM in response to GhostRunner521

Settings/Cellular. Turn off Mail. This screen will also tell you how much data was used over the cellular network for each app since the last usage reset.

Exchange uses cellular data to notify the phone that there is new mail to download. The notification goes over cellular, the download will go over WiFi if it is available and the phone is not asleep. If you turn off cellular completely you probably will not get your mail in real time.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 21, 2014 10:48 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

If I monitor the usage statistics I see that email/calendar are using cellular data even when connected to WiFi. It was using about 20kb per minute. I notice that if I turn cellular off my personal email an @outlook.com email will receive a notification even when I've locked the phone. The exchange account does not do anything until something else wakes up the phone.

Maybe calendar is using most of the data - with your 5 accounts do you have calendar and contacts syncing?

Reply

Answer 6

Jan 22, 2014 5:26 AM in response to GhostRunner521

WHY are you concerned about a couple of hundred KB in a day? And I told you why; Exchange Push users cellular data only. If cellular is off the phone must poll for email updates, thus using more power and introducing delays in updates.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 22, 2014 5:44 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I am concerned because that is about 1MB per day I am wasting when on WiFi. I only wanted to pay for 1024MB/month because I work out of my home office and knew I would be on WiFi all day long. I understand that over a billing cycle this would only be about 31MB used out of my total allotment - it just seems like a huge waste to me. My previous phone did not have this limitation and I recieved all my emails in real time.

I have also noticed that this doesn't just apply to my exchange email. But I setup a personal one using the Outlook.com selection and it is just ticking away at my allotment as well.

This really is the only thing I am not liking about the iPhone.

Reply

Answer 8

pdroth

Level 5

5,171 points

Jan 22, 2014 9:13 AM in response to GhostRunner521

Turn off Push on your mail accounts and it won't use data until you actually open the Mail app to check for mail. That's a workaround.

Also, if you're in a home office most of the time, why don't you have something setup to notify you on your desktop of incoming mail to reduce the cellular usage on your phone?

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 22, 2014 9:27 AM in response to pdroth

I'm not always working at a computer where notifications will come through. So I like the phone to notify me. I just can't believe there has to be 'workarounds'. I would think if my former Android phone could keep my email synced using WiFi this new iPhone should do the same.

Reply

Answer 10

pdroth

Level 5

5,171 points

Jan 22, 2014 9:29 AM in response to GhostRunner521

Leave your phone plugged in while at home on wifi. If you don't keep it plugged in the device will fall off wifi to conserve battery and that would be compounding your problem of using too much cellular data.

To up your plan from 1GB to 2GB isn't that much, and maybe something you would consider to avoid workarounds.

Reply

Answer 11

Jan 22, 2014 10:52 AM in response to pdroth

A phone I need to leave plugged in when the point of it is to have it on me at all times so I can get an important email or phone call is not something I wish to pay monthly for.

Upping my data plan is a workaround. It appears Apple has a flaw in their product as I should not be using cellular data when on my WiFi. This isn't just using cellular data when in 'sleep' mode. It uses it if I simply open my inbox and open a message - or if I look at my calendar.

Reply

Answer 12

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,910 points

Jan 22, 2014 11:11 AM in response to GhostRunner521

GhostRunner521 wrote:

I am concerned because that is about 1MB per day I am wasting when on WiFi. I only wanted to pay for 1024MB/month because I work out of my home office and knew I would be on WiFi all day long.

That's less than one tenth of one percent of your monthly data allowance. If you're not using streaming audio/video when on cellular data, and you don't spend hours each day on facebook while on cellular data, you're not even going to come close. Don't worry about it unless it actually becomes a problem.

It's not like your carrier is going to give you money back for every MB of your monthly allowance you didn't use.

Reply

Answer 13

Jan 22, 2014 11:37 AM in response to KiltedTim

I undestand it currently is adding up to be a small amount of my 1GB each month. But what happens when the phone has another failure which causes something else to use cellular data even when it's not suppose to? Should I be checking what my usage is every four hours even when I'm not using the phone?

Reply

Answer 14

Jan 22, 2014 11:40 AM in response to KiltedTim

I wouldn't say I'm paranoid - but if my exchange and outlook accounts use cellular data when they shouldn't - what's to say that I might pick up my phone while on WiFi and look up something on Safari and find out it's not been using WiFi either.

Reply

Answer 15

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,910 points

Jan 22, 2014 11:45 AM in response to GhostRunner521

There is more to Exchange than email. The same can be said for Outlook.com. You can sync contacts, calendars, notes and reminders. Turning off cellular data for mail does not turn off cellular data for any of the other things you may be syncing with those accounts. You have to turn them all off. Why don't you wait till you've gone through a billing cycle or two to see what your usage is going to be like before you start getting all uptight about it.

Reply