IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

I have an extended warranty with Geek Squad.

Webdevandy, i had mine replaced about a month ago (AppleCare). It did not fix the issue.

I ended my contract w/Verizon and got on straight talk couldn't afford the overage charges anymore and cannot get Apple or Verizon to help or even admit there is an issue.Even had Apple replace phone and no help. Their idea of a solution was to set a limit so couldn't use data when it reached limit nut was reaching limit two days into new cycle. Sell the phone or get an unlimited data plan

Apple in no way wants to admit failure of its iCloud drive launch but can admit failure on it's Maps launch. This issue should be priority because the cost of data overage charges is unpleasant since users are already paying a premium for the phone, contract and data services. I have been an Apple user for a while and been using iPhones since the very first iPhone. I have lately been using a Nexus 7 since i gave out my iPad2 over a year now and actually beginning to appreciate Android in a certain way. Taking that the Nexus is LTE, it allows me to control intricately data usage, monitor and also set caps on the device itself to either notify you or disable data services if you cross a threshold. I currently have an iPhone5s as it stands probably will not be getting a 6 or 6s or whatever it's called when it comes out. If things continue this way, Sony make pretty good Android devices .

Ok Apple Make it happen and stop fooling around with iWatch or AppleWatch. Remember the one thing that generated this cult, You Design and it just worked flawlessly with your ecosystem. Time to pause now that you are making so much loot, and get the ecosystem OS X, iOS, iTunes in proper interop, cause complexity creeps on you like thief in the night.

Remember you don't want to be like Samsung that release features no one ends up using cause they don't work.🙂

thanks for letting me know JaynDoe.

I too can confirm that with my replacement iPhone 6+ there is no change.

Still crazy cell data usage!

But after much twiddling Im 100% convinced its iCloud that is undoubtably the culprit (as if I surprise myself saying that)!

Switched OFF both iTunes/App Store and iCloud. No issues.

Switched ON iTunes/App Store but iCloud still OFF. No issues.

Switched ON iCloud and KABOOM. In once case over approx 5hrs I blew 100MB of data with nothing more than iCloud and Email switched on. Everything else that could use cell data was switched off! Stupid!

So iCloud turned OFF and back to normal data use of a MB here or there over the course of a day.

Am now testing with iTunes/App Store logged in (but not allowing cell data) and iCloud logged in BUT everything switched OFF other than Find My iPhone.

So far after a few hours no issues. (quelle surprise).

Over the course of the next few days will gradually switch on iCloud services one-by-one and report the culprit.

Have my suspicions (call me Sherlock) thats its Photos or iCloud Drive or both but will leave these till last.

If Apple don't fix this then quite frankly the advantage of the whole eco system having iCloud syncing between iMac, iPad, iPhone are now negated and I for one will seriously be considering other platforms once my iPhone contract is up in Oct 2016.

ho-hum!

AndyG.

ps....as a footnote...what would anyone suggest as an iCloud replacement that would have similar syncing ability for Photos/Safari/Contacts/Calendar etc?

webdevandy wrote:

thanks for letting me know JaynDoe.

I too can confirm that with my replacement iPhone 6+ there is no change.

Still crazy cell data usage!

But after much twiddling Im 100% convinced its iCloud that is undoubtably the culprit (as if I surprise myself saying that)!

Switched OFF both iTunes/App Store and iCloud. No issues.

Switched ON iTunes/App Store but iCloud still OFF. No issues.

Switched ON iCloud and KABOOM. In once case over approx 5hrs I blew 100MB of data with nothing more than iCloud and Email switched on. Everything else that could use cell data was switched off! Stupid!

So iCloud turned OFF and back to normal data use of a MB here or there over the course of a day.

Am now testing with iTunes/App Store logged in (but not allowing cell data) and iCloud logged in BUT everything switched OFF other than Find My iPhone.

So far after a few hours no issues. (quelle surprise).

Over the course of the next few days will gradually switch on iCloud services one-by-one and report the culprit.

Have my suspicions (call me Sherlock) thats its Photos or iCloud Drive or both but will leave these till last.

If Apple don't fix this then quite frankly the advantage of the whole eco system having iCloud syncing between iMac, iPad, iPhone are now negated and I for one will seriously be considering other platforms once my iPhone contract is up in Oct 2016.

ho-hum!

AndyG.

ps....as a footnote...what would anyone suggest as an iCloud replacement that would have similar syncing ability for Photos/Safari/Contacts/Calendar etc?

OK, I've got a serious question... why would anyone in their right mind sync personal info to iCloud or any other public Cloud service for that matter? I understand that there is some convenience to not having to semi-manually sync info between devices yourself, but it's fairly easy to do and you aren't exposing your info to God knows who. Do you understand that once you sync your personal stuff to a cloud service, they can do whatever they want with it and there's nothing you can do about it?

Thanks for the systematic checks, Webdevandy. I'll bee keeping a close eye on this thread to see how your testing pans out. My wife's phone is currently experiencing a similar issue. We're nearly at out 6GB limit within 3 weeks and have been unable to determine what is causing the leak.

I did a reset on my data counter and checked back 1/2 hour later. The only apps using data were the native apps which sync over iCloud (i.e. Calendar, Contacts, etc.) and they were all on the order of few KB. I did nothing to my phone over that 1/2 hour and those native apps still found a need to transfer data. However, interestingly, Photos doesn't show any data transfer. I then summed up the total data use from everything (each app registering data transfer and system services) but the sum total doesn't add up to the total reported at the top of the list. So something is eating data over cellular and not reporting on the screen...

Try checking out

Settings > Cellular > System Services > Documents and Sync

Mine was through the roof showing just over 200MB consumed out of the total 266MB of data! Why? How?

This I believe is where everything is being sucked into but what exactly is doing it is the question.

Now looking at other support forums on this issue a lot of people are seeing a coralation between high numbers in docs and sync who are also using iPhones and Macs.

My wife has an iPhone 6 but does not use any Mac computers and her usage is absolutely fine. 2 weeks of data and only 24MB used.

I on the other hand who is connected to iCloud on both iMac and iPhone are seeing this huge cell data usage.

So as unscientific as it is there is no doubt in my mind that iCloud is the problem and that it now appears that it is only a problem for those who are connected to both iPhone and Mac!!!

AndyG.

Her Documents and Sync did show a high value but I don't recall it being making up more than say 30 or 40% of her total unexplained data use. Meanwhile, we are exclusively with Windows and PC's at home and work. Our phones and Apple TV are the only Apple products we use.

From our experience, it doesn't seem to be limited to the iCloud and Mac combination.

At the moment my phone isn't experiencing a huge data leak like her phone but I do get some anomalous cell data usage (i.e. while on wifi). Next month when my wife's data plan rolls over new I'm going to try some things out with her iCloud Drive.

The only difference between our phones is that she went over to/ported/(whatever you want to call it) over to iCloud Drive, signed up for Family sharing, etc. whereas I did not touch it at all. I still have iCloud but didn't move myself over to iCloud Drive.

Looking forward to the results of your systematic iCloud checks.

The culprit may indeed be iCloud using too much data. However, the issue is that the iphone is choosing to use data even though a strong wifi network is available. I still believe that iPhone 6 default is to choose the fastest internet connection, rather than always choose wifi when it is available. These days of LTE data can very well be faster than the available wifi connection. Had my phone reset and clean version of iOS 8 installed. Plus, I turned off LTE when at home and wifi available, and left cellular data on, so I can still get iMessage and texts. As well, turned off everything that did not require cell data (apps, Facebook videos, etc). Also, updates take up huge data, make sure to turn cellular off completely for iOS 8 updates, app updates, and iTunes updates to ensure that phone uses wifi for this. The problem seems to have stopped. New billing cycle starts tomorrow and I will keep close tabs on where I am and what I am doing to make sure it is solved. But still, Apple should do an update so the phone preferentially chooses wifi, then all these problems would mostly disappear. There is the issue that iPhone 6 does use more data than iPhone 5, every generation seems to use more. But not as much as I was experiencing.

Finally. I have a solution 🙂

I spent two days trying all sorts of combinations of resetting my iPhone 6+ using Erase All Content and Settings, setting up as a new phone.

I tried not logging into iTunes and iCloud. Logging into one and not the other. Logging into both and switching off all iCloud settings and turning on one-by-one.

I tried having wifi on, wifi off (forcing cell data use) and combinations of.

Finally a Eureka moment.

I noticed that in most cases there seemed to be an initial period of calm before all **** let loose with cell data and specifically Documents & Sync.

This happened BEFORE I setup Email.

In my case I utilise outlook.com as a catch all account.

A copy of all of my personal and business emails are forwarded to the outlook.com account and therefore on the iPhone I only have one email account to setup.

So with that in mind I spent a day without email. Ta-da. No issues.

I then downloaded and installed my outlook.com email via the MailBuzzr for Hotmail App and after about 2 days I've used just 3.2MB of data. This includes some light checking of Twitter using the Echofon App and allowing images on an assortment of emails.

So for me Im now sorted. Fixed. Case closed. The culprit identified as Apple Mail on iOS (not perfect I agree)!

I have all iCloud settings switched on including iCloud Drive (but not to use cell data of course).

iTunes & App Store is also logged in (but again of course not to use cell data).

I also tested some other email Apps but these appeared to hook into the Mail, Contacts, Calendar section of iOS and of course using these Apps the cell data blew through the roof again as they were merely a conduit into iOS. So using MailBuzzr with, as far as I can tell, its own interface avoided integration with iOS and therefore no document & sync activity.

Now I digress that all of this is very unscientific and maybe there is some wild coincidence going on but the bottom line is that by not using Apple's own Email App or any other App that hooks into it I no longer have high data usuage issues.

It would be interesting to find out if any others now have success using the same methodolgy.

As a footnote, before doing all of this, I decided to logout of every device I had logged into iCloud. For me this was two iPhones, two iPods, two iPads and two Macs. I have no idea if this may have been ultimately part of the solution but you may wish to consider doing the same.

Good luck all.

AndyG.

I face the same problem with a resetted iPad just upgraded to iOS 8.1.3 from iOS 7. The iPad has been working fine.

Without logging into iCloud, location services and with only default Apple apps installed and no apps running, turning on Wi-Fi only will start to use my internet data quota. Apple has no rights to hijack my paid internet service and use a paid Apple device as it pleases. I am very displeased and sad.

This looks like the beginning of a decline just like the Mac era. A little problems here and there buried and ignored by Apple that eventually pulled down the company.

iOS 8.2 has seemed to have fixed this issue on my iPhone 4S. It was using over 300MB a day with "Documents and Sync" under "System Services". Even with iCloud Drive turned off.

iPhone used 4MB yesterday, 1.5MB today on Wifi. That's a LOT better than 300MB a day.

Has anyone seen this being resolved by IOS 8.2?

iOS 8.2 did not fix the issue for me.

My workaround has been NOT to use Apple's Mail App (in my case I am using a mail app called CloudMagic) and also switched off iCloud Drive completely.

regards,

AndyG