iPhone 5c is using an excessive amount of data even when connected to wi-fi

I've taken my phone into Verizon to get fixed and they say there is not a problem. I've also called Apple tech people but everyone says this is not a problem and to just turn off the data. (Which I did but now I have a "dumb" phone.) I would love to go to an Apple store but it is 3 hours away.

If you go to a hospital, you're going to see a lot of sick people.

If you go to a forum where people congregate to report problems with a device, you're going to see a lot of devices with problems.

But a hospital doesn't represent the entire city. Just because you see a lot of patients doesn't mean there's an epidemic.

If you go looking for a place where people are complaining about a product, you can find it on the internet. You can find anything on the internet.

There is not an epidemic of iPhone 5Cs with this problem. Troubleshoot your issue, and replace your device under warranty if it has a fault.

Use the steps that I suggested. If you shut off cellular data for 24-48 hours, and your cellular data continues to increase, then there is a problem, and no one at the Verizon store could dispute that. Document your steps. Call Apple Support. Get your device replaced under warranty.

You listen about as well as Apple and Verizon. I have tried every step you have said and called Apple Techs, went into Verizon store and called their Techs numerous times. They don't listen, just like you and won't fix the problem. A little hard to fix the problem when no one thinks it is an issue. Yes it is under warranty but nobody will do anything about it.

Take the device to the nearest Apple Store after making an appointment at the Genius Bar to have them examine the hardware. That is your best option at this point.

1. My wife and I are having the very same problem with her Apple iPhone 5c 8GB. We both got our two smartphones at the same time. She got the iPhone 5c 8GB, and I got the Droid MAXX 16GB. At last count her smartphone has used over 880% more data usage than mine in the first two week period. I am the one that set-up both smartphones to the similar settings. Therefore it should not be that much difference between the two in regard to data usage.

2. We both got our smartphones on 17 Oct, 2014. However, it took until 26 Oct, 2014, to learn that I was not accessing our Home Network Wi-Fi. This was because I did not know that I had to enter a password to access our Wi-Fi with my phone. Since that time, I have not had any data usage via my smartphone. So I double and triple check my wife smartphone to make sure it was accessing our Home Network Wi-Fi. And her smartphone was set-up correctly to access our Wi-Fi, the same way as our iPad and MacBook were. Therefore, I had her to double check the Wi-Fi connection at her job. And she told me that it seems okay, and she had her smartphone set-up just like her co-workers did theirs.

3. Yes, I got the data usage turn off on my smartphone full time. And I made sure that my wife knew how to do the same with her smartphone. So she just turn it on mostly while she is driving to and from work. She is working at a computer all day, so if the Wi-Fi at her job quit working, it would cause a major work stoppage. In which case, I would understand some data usage during that time where she is going to or coming from work. But not the amount that show up on our usage charts.

4. For the whole period between 17 Oct to 26 Oct, I used 129.02 MB of data all combine together. Yet the data usage record for my wife's smartphone for example show usage at difference periods of the day and night of like: 167.14 MB, 272.47 MB, 160.92 MB, and 293.99 MB. And my wife does not use Facebook, Twitter, Facetime, and so forth, and I have these apps disabled or turned off. The only other thing that she has used is Skype two times during her lunch break. But her family all live in Ukraine. So this is why she gets up two hours a head of time each morning just to call her family and friends via Skype on our MacBook computer. In which case, this does not explain the reason for those big chunks of data usage being used, while she has access to a good strong Wi-Fi network.

5. Another issue we are having with my wife's iPhone 5c is not being able to send MMS message or Picture Text iMessages. Both of us has tried while she was at home with the data usage setting off on her smartphone. We can access the internet, via our Home Network Wi-Fi with her smartphone, but we can not send a MMS message. Yet after researching the issue or topic here, I found that there a lot of other people having the very same problem. And the one solution is to turn the data usage setting on, on her smartphone. And after trying this, I almost was able to send a MMS message. It was sending the MMS message until it got to the 75% point, then it stopped trying to send the message.

6. I have tried talking with Verizon until I am blue in the face, about this issue. But I have nothing to show from doing so. And the only results I have had with their Community Support Forums is finding a huge amount of other users, having the very same issue as myself. Sure there were postings saying adjust this setting or two, But these are at best just a small band-aide over the wound. Besides, I have already done those settings adjustments, before reading about them there. In which case, like other users has said, what the use of having an iPhone 5c phone if you have to turn it from being a smartphone, into a dumb phone. Meaning that the only way we know to stop these excessive data usage is to turn off her phone full time. This is what we had to do for a couple of days, in order to prevent us going over our Data Usage Allowance, before the new billing period started.

7. The service plan we have with Verizon works like they said it should with my phone. However, it is a totally difference issue with my wife's iPhone. And neither one of us knows why. Moreover, I have had all of the pending updates from Apple installed upon her phone. And I do not know of any more, which I can download and install.

8. All in all I am overjoyed that I choose a Droid MAXX 16GB smartphone, and not an Apple iPhone 5c 8GB smartphone like my wife did.

1. I do not know if this will help you or not. In researching this issue with my wife's iPhone 5c 8GB, the most common answer you will get is to adjust this or that setting, and disable this or that App. These at best are only a band-aide solution at all. The best reply I got was from a Verizon Rep that stated "By design, iPhones do turn off WiFi when they go dormant. So if a download is in progress, or information is being back-up wirelessly and the phone goes dormant, it will switch to use cellular data if it is left on". Afterwards, I discovered the exact same information here on the Apple Support Forum to support this statement.

2. Later onward, I read that if you keep your iPhone connected to a power source, it will prevent it from going dormant. In which case, this will prevent the iPhone from turning off the WiFi, and keep it connected to the WiFi. So far, this has help the most in controlling the amount of data usage being used, by my wife's iPhone.

3. Now about looking at the detailed usage summary online, you can not go by it to see the exalt date/time stamp of the data usage. Because, by design the cell towers will collect and store certain data usage for up to a six-hours period. After the six-hour period, then the cell towers will release the stored data usage to the company's servers. And at that time, the collected data usage will be recorded on your detailed usage summary online. For a long time, I brainwork that I had caught Verizon with their hand in the cookie jar for say. Because I knew that we were not using data usage at these odd-ball hours of the night or day. Yet, now I have learn that this is just not the case.

4. Here is a web site that may help you at http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/09/fix-ios-8-wifi-problems.html .....

To the apple apologists on this and all the other threads concerning this issue: "Disable all you apps and shut off data" is not a solution. Who would buy a Cadillac and expect to get two blocks per gallon? "Hey, just park it on the side of the road and take the bus"

It seems pretty clear that when you haven't changed your apps or phone behavior and your data usage increases 3-400% then there is an issue beyond "it's just your particular phone"

Turning off data access for apps doesn't work when it looks like the 'system' wakes up in the middle of the night and downloads 100Mb.

So far I'm really disgusted with the way AT&T and Apple have behaved.

We have visited the apple store 3 times. First time they reset the network settings, the second time they swapped the actual phone, the third time they wiped the phone, then the AT&T reps told me some story about the phone choosing the best path on the network and because my wifi was crappy I put a router in my son's bedroom. Then AT&T told me some new story about the sleep mode turning off wifi, so that if you're streaming data like music it will use the data plan. I've repeated to them it's attributed to the 'system' as in Operating System. My son doesn't wake up in the middle of the night to stream 100Mb of music on his phone over the data plan when there is a router in his bedroom, especially when the statistics show it's coming from the Operating System.

From what I can tell this has been going on with other people for at least a year.

Don't you have enough geniuses to figure this out ?

You can be indignant about her lack of knowledge on the control for data usage but you are missing the point here! These people are saying they are seeing a change in the amount of data used upon switching to a different phone but their patterns of use haven't changed. I too am seeing that with my daughter's 5c. Two others in household have 5s's without seeing this problem. My daughter with the 5c is suddenly using more data than in previous months. Her data has restriction in place and yet we still see heavy draws of data while in wifi and at set intervals through the night also while under wifi. we shouldn't have to remember to periodically turn the data off at random times especially when we are in wifi! I don't think this is a Verizon issue. We are ATT users. I think it is unique to the iPhone.

I found that when on wifi and cellular data at the same time, the phone selected cellular and I believe after researching this further, that the iphone 5 selects the strongest signal available. In my home, I have a strong cellular signal and not always a strong wifi signal. So in most cases, with both settings on, my phone is choosing cellular services and using unnecessary data when even a below average wi-fi signal would be fine. This explains why it happens to some users and not others on this thread. I don't personally believe it's a bug, because it's working as designed I suspect. Rather, this is a design flaw. All phones should have a setting that 'always chooses wi-fi over cellular'. I think this is why both Apple and the carriers are not suggesting there's anything wrong, because on some level - that's true. I do believe that Apple should be more sympathetic with the average data plans and install more built-in features to control this. The suggested solution of turning on and off cellular data anytime you are in wi-fi range is not a great solution, but the best way to overcome this.

I had increasing amounts of data on my iPhone 5s with iOS 7.1.2. It got up to over 1GB when I wasn't even using the phone. This may have happened because of an inadvertent reset or adding Notes to my apps. Runaway data never occurred before that, despite having several apps operating on cellular 24/7.

After reading over 13 threads on this subject and looking at the iOS 7 manual, I decided on the following plan when my service is restored in September..

Double-click the home button, swipe up on the screen, and then slide through all the open apps. I can close an app by sliding its image up. This doesn’t remove the app from my iPhone, it just stops it from doing any harm.

I’ll start with only keeping the supposedly harmless apps open: Weather, Mail, Calendar, and a few other standards. Then I’ll have to wait until all the data is in for that six-hour period. If usage seems normal, I’ll keep a few more apps open. Either I’ll eventually find the run-away app or that the conditions are such that the app is now behaving.

I wrote about my experience in the Reader Weekly of 2015-08-20 and have submitted a follow-up for the 2015-08-27 issue. See www.duluthreader.com or my blog magree.blogspot.com.

On reflection I think the problem is push downloads from Apple.

We each had downloads of over 1,000 MB which may have been downloading iOS 9. I also had a number of "smaller" downloads, probably from Apple.

Most of our previous downloads had been on our DSL landline. Once we cut the cord, we never thought about turning off push data.

We have had no budget busting cellular-downloads since. However, we are visiting coffee shops a lot more to download stuff and otherwise keep our cellular usage down.

I've read most of this thread, and didn't see the answer that was given to me by a Verizon tech (perhaps I missed it, I'm taking a break from cleaning the turtle's tank). When iOS 8 (I believe) was introduced, it came with a feature to boost weak wifi by using cellular data. When I called Verizon after jumping from using less than 2GB a month to over 4, I knew there was a problem.

I was told to go into SETTINGS>>>CELLULAR>>>>scroll all the way to the bottom and turn off Wi-Fi Assist. I did that, but I'm still experiencing larger data usage than before I upgraded my software. When I told the Verizon tech that if it continued, I would have to switch carriers, he informed me that it's an iPHONE issue, not a Verizon one. Based on what i'm reading, he's correct.

It seems that upgrade did nothing for the customer, but created plenty of revenue for all of the cell phone carriers. I upgraded to 12 gb per month, and just received notification that we've used 80% already. I gave up cable due to issues with the quality of cable I received, I'm considering giving up my smart phone too and going back to a basic flip phone.

One thing I didn’t mention in any of my previous posts was to turn off automatic downloads.

Settings>iTunes and App Stores

Scroll down to “AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS”

Turn off one or both of Updates and Use Cellular Data.

I think our problem in mid-August was the automatic download of iOS 9 and a few other smaller updates.

Our cellular usage is now way down, partly because of this and partly because we spend more time at coffee shops.