IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

That's possible. I listen to Tune In radio on Wifi and after one massive data surge i noticed that my router sometimes drops the Internet connection. I theorised that this was causing the phone to flip over to mobile data. Lots of stuff goes on in the background these days as well. It's an eyeopener when you install a network monitor like little snitch on a Mac and see how many obscure system services are nonchalantly chatting to remote servers. Some of these may be essential but judging by the number I've blocked without even remotely affecting system performance i suspect few of them are

I might have to reinstall little snitch on my mac - was very useful

I installed that data monitor service you suggested and after listening to 5mins of Tune In radio - coincidentally - its used 10mb.

Would be good to find a monitor that gives app by app data usage though - to see who the hogs are

I'm telling you all that you need to turn off the LTE radio. It is the cause of the data leak. Once I turned it off (and left it off) last month all usage has been back to normal and using the data expected. Turn it off especially if you are connected to wifi. Report back if that worked for you.

By LTE radio i presume you mean what we in the UK call 4G.

I haven't disabled mine and my data usage is back to normal.

I've had this phone a year now, on 4G, and the problem only started for me in earnest in September, about the same time as the Yosemite beta programme ended and i enabled iCloud Drive on my iMac. J'accuse iCloud Drive!

i've noticed that people with iPhones but with Windows PCs - so no iCloud Drive - don't appear to be jinxed by this problem as much as Mac Users.

Turning off 4G will probably reduce the data leakage in the same way that reducing blood flow to a punctured artery will stop catastrophic bleeding because it physically can't handle the same data throughput but that doesn't mean you've found the source of the problem nor is it necessarily a viable fix. If you are paying for 4G you should be able to take advantage of the speed offered without worrying about it using vast amounts of excess data.

It seems that prior to iPhone 6 and iOS 8, the phones would automatically use wifi preferentially over cellular data. Now with the 6 phones and iOS 8, the phone will look for the fastest connection and connect to that. Cellular data, especially using LTE and if the available wifi is an older or outdated, is often faster than wifi, thus that is what the phone connects to. This is so stupid - what dopey Apple engineer didn't think this one through. Apple, you must change this so that a 6 phone will use wifi first, and only if no wifi available will it then use cellular data. I have done all the usual things to reduce data usage. Am experimenting now with keeping cellular data on but disabling LTE. I am hoping this will mean that most times the wifi is faster and thus will force the phone to choose that. However, the solution is an update from Apple fixing this.

Apple, please just acknowledge the problem and let us know you are working on a fix.

Been following this thread today for the first time since I just ordered a new iPhone that will come with latest ios 8. I'm currently on 7.1.2 on my older phone. It sounds like I should be thankful that I do not have LTE coverage in my house - perhaps I will not run into this issue if my Wifi is stronger than my verizon carrier signal.

I will keep you all updated as I find out.

thanks for that info.

Suddenly my data usage has also gone through the roof! I have a 1GB cap which is normally half used at most and now within 2 weeks of my last bill payment i have maxed out and gone over.

I did a complete reset and setup as new iPhone and monitored and sure enough within another day I had burned through about 120MB.

I also tried switching off such things as Automatic App updates. iCloud settings all off etc but still no joy.

Finally another reset and setup as new and switching off Handoff & Suggested App in Settings > General seems to have solved the issue.

AndyG.

I tell a lie. The problem is NOT resolved.

Within a few hours of leaving the house and therefore out-with wifi connection the cell data usage had shot up to nearly 30MB without any interaction on my behalf with only mail setup and twitter installed but importantly no checking of either on my part!

Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with iOS 8.1.3

Apple need to give this MAJOR and URGENT priority and fix this.

For now overnight I am running a completely clean, fresh reset on my iPhone 6 with no icloud enabled or login to my apple account.

Wifi is disable, forcing 3G/LTE to be in use.

So far over the last two hours this has shown only 5.1KB of activity.

Tomorrow I will setup iCloud and fully expect the problem to manifest itself.

as they say, to be continued...

AndyG

well some good news

overnight with wifi switched off the iPhone 6 plus has used up only 204KB of data on cell connection.

so far, so good.

now to turn on iCloud and see what the results are in doing so.

watch this space.

AndyG

Here is a link listing all the ways to keep your cellular data usage to a minimum. But still, Apple needs to remedy this problem. All iPhones should preferentially use wifi, and only use cellular when wifi is unavailable. Some one mentioned turning off Hand Off. I think this is how Macs, iPhones, iPads communicate with each other so that the same info is on each device. This is a feature I really like, so for now I have not turned this one off. I also did not turn off cellular for apps that need location info, such as Maps and Google maps, and I left cellular on for email apps. Usage is down considerably.

http://appletoolbox.com/2014/10/control-limit-cellular-data-use-iphone-ipad/

Question - My iPad does not use cellular. However, the iPad and iPhone 6 Plus can be linked (is this Hand Off? not sure of the technical terms to use). When the two devices are are linked, and my iPhone has decided to use cellular data even though wife is available, I wonder are the apps on the iPad then accessing the cellular date through the iPhone?? If so this may be another reason for burning through cellular data at a huge rate. I will go through all the iPad apps and turn off cellular just in case.

ok so here's the skinny.

a complete reset and setup as new iPhone 6 plus.

no App store login, no iCloud login.

everything worked fine.

logged into app store and everything still good

setup my email using Outlook service in this case and still good.

last night logged into iCloud

a minor bump up after a couple of hours but nothing to be concerned about although it still gave me a hmmmmm moment!

switched off iPhone overnight.

this morning headed out for an hour and when I arrived back in my office the phone had gobbled up 60+ MB of data!!

remember...absolutely no interaction on my part...no checking email, nothing.

the culprit...everything points to iCloud.

iCloud is now logged out and will monitor the iPhone when I again head out of office (and therefore away from wifi). I could of course just switch off wifi but I want to monitor this in real-world enviornment.

Fully expecting no issues with data usage and laying the blame at the door of iCloud.

AndyG

I have paid almost a $1000 in overages and have gone every route I can think of to get Apple to admit there is an issue. Just talked to apple customer service yesterday and lady said that Apple in not willing to admit there is an issue with iphones and the use of extreme amounts of data. I finally had to get off verizon and go to an unlimited data carrier.

APPLE ADMIT THERE IS AN ISSUE AND QUIT RIPPING PEOPLE OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe this could cost them a chunk of money as it has been going on as far as i can tell since 2012.

Since my last post Ive ran my iPhone 6+ with no iCloud enabled across 2 days.

Minimal increments in cell data usage. All good.

This evening I finally switched on iCloud before heading out (but not iCloud Drive).

Within an hour I had used 16MB of data!

The culprit (for me anyway) is DEFINETLY iCloud.

I should also point out that there was no interaction on my part. I did nothing to engage iCloud.

No checking email. No taking photos. Nothing. iPhone was simply in my pocket doing what it had done the previous 2 days when iCloud was not switched on.

So the next question is which part of iCloud is at fault?

Along with iCloud Drive switched off I have now disabled Photos. Everything else is switched on.

I will now monitor tomorrow and see if this resolves the data issue.

AndyG.

ok have finally admitted defeat on this ongoing saga and am now having my iPhone 6+ replaced under warranty.

Needless to say will be watching data usage like a hawk once I have the new phone.

Will report back whether this did or did not solve the issues.

cheers

AndyG.