Why such excessive data consumption with iPhone 5?

I have the same issue with my new iPhone 5C. I had an iPhone 4 previously and have not changed how I use my apps whatsoever, yet I am incurring huge amounts of data.

TJBUSMC1973 :

I understand the ability to turn off data for certain apps or across the board to restrict them to wifi only, but why is it that I even have to do this with my new phone? Having to turn off the data just means I cannot use many of the apps I was always using before without having to go in and change my settings each time. I find that to be restrictive of my ability to use my device freely as I had done with my older model. I am no child or youth who needs my phone restricted to only calls or mail. I also do not even have text messaging on my account because I always use iMessage.

I respect the OPs (phospholipid77) general inquiry as to why this is as I have first hand experience of the irritatingly expensive side effect it can have as well as the inconvenience of having to constantly turn data on and off for each app I want to use. So the question remains, what changed in the models so drastically that this issue comes up?

Hello,

I know this is an old problem. I have read forum posts at Apple and Verizon. But it is a new problem for my house. We had 5 Androids. We switched two to the iphone 5s. Over the weekend one of them went nuts--11GB of data in 12 hours. I spent hours on the phone with Verizon. And hours more with Apple, hours trying to educate myself on forums, reset the phone, switched everything off. grilled the kid about what they were doing. I understand that the data isn't USED at 3 am when the phone is shut off, it is COMPILED at that time hours after it is used. I understand some things that I didn't before. Wifi was never a part of this picture.

--I am aware of the function on the phone that tells you what apps used your data since the last reset. Ours must not have been working because the reset date was over a month ago and the list only showed about 0.5 GB of data usage (not the 11.5 GB) -- Verizon could see the 11.5 GB but couldn't/wouldn't tell me where it went. Have others had problems with that data tracking function?

I truly believe the kid is innocent of anything intentional (I have other kids that I would NOT believe--I'm not a naive parent) I think the phone burped (big burp). I just want to know how to avoid it in the future and since I can't tell what used the data, I don't know what to fix. It is literally a time bomb. I am afraid to even turn it on because it can drain our data plan in a matter of hours and I don't even know it is happening until it is over.

Thanks,

Chris

how do people have all day to sit on these forums to respond to posts? they must be getting paid...or you have no job.

I notice that the people who are complaining about issues, rarely post. They seem genuinely trying to turn for help . The responses to these folks are being made by people with 40,000 points and hundreds of responses to other threads. You folks with many points seem to be defending Apple across many other boards. Are you like the apple cheerleaders? again.....suspect.

we need a real solution to the problem, not blamed.

I say I'll take this issue outside of Apple so I don't have to listen to their crony's tell me I'm stupid.

I know how to work a phone. I know how I use data, and I know that iphone 5 is not using data anywhere near near near as efficiently as a cheap android.

Sad. iphone is a phenomenal piece of equipment highly efficient. The data usage issue is doubtfully an accident.

If the people who are responding are supposed to work for Apple, I have no idea. I'm new here...they certainly seem more interested in defending them than actually helping users.

Yes. You're very new. Try looking at the date stamps on the posts you're responding to before you go shooting off your mouth.

denisewoodallksu wrote:

how do people have all day to sit on these forums to respond to posts? they must be getting paid...or you have no job.

You make "have no job" sound like a bit of an insult. You might be surprised how many volunteers here have worked forty or fifty years to be able to enjoy "having no job".

denisewoodallksu wrote:

how do people have all day to sit on these forums to respond to posts? they must be getting paid...or you have no job.

Or, we're just very, very smart people who are good at multitasking.

I think that people believe that when one says they don't have a job, you immediately find it insulting. I'm not insulting....I just find it interesting that people choose to spend their hours on these forums..."helping" people. I - and others - have not received an answer about the iphone 5 eating data. Many people are having an issue with iphone 5s devouring tons of data. My partner has iphone and more apps than I have, using 1/4 the data.

My data usage is quadruple what it was with android. Average over 4 years was less than 2 gb per month, with iphone I'm looking at nearly 8gb. I'm closing all my apps, stopped notifications, prevented apps from checking locations, all those things I've done, just like the other people who are expressing problems. Tech support at ATT& don't know. People who are having this problem are not idiots. People are coming here with legitimate problems iphone 5 has data issues. I'm considering just paying the 50$ a month to add my android and metro unlimited data plan to my 60$ att plan because this phone's data usage is not sustainable and not normal. I'll have two phones and two phone numbers - stoopid. something is wrong - a 100$ android phone cannot possibly be more efficient than a $400 iphone...and if that's the case - we've been ripped off - iphone technology impeccable - except in data usage - suspect.