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IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

Upgraded my wife's iPhone 5 32GB to IOS 8 yesterday. About an hour after I upgraded she got an SMS from her provider saying she only had 100MB left of her data package. About a minute later she got another SMS to say it ran out. I reset Cellular Usage Statistics and bought another 250MB data bundle.

About 2 hours later she got another SMS saying she had again used up all data and that out of bundle rates apply, when I checked Data Usage it had used 297MB. She did not use the phone at all during this time.


I have disabled everything under Use Cellular Data For: long ago, except Contacts, Find iPhone, Maps, IMDB, Mail, Settings, Weather and WhatsApp.

None of these Apps had excessive usage under them, some a few KB. System Services had used 404KB.


Personal Hotspot was Off.


Everything in iCloud except for Find My iPhone is off. iCloud is signed in.


Use Cellular Data is off under iTunes & App Store


I have gone through all the Apps at the bottom of Settings and none of them have Cellular Data active.


iTunes Radio under Music is not set to use Cellular.


Is there anywhere else I can check what would be using so much data, have turned Cellular Data off for now?

I am at a loss, I upgraded my iPhone 5 16GB the same way as my wife's and I have not used any extra data, sitting at 247MB since September 1st.

My wife's phone has not changed since before the upgrade, so all settings were the same and it has never used this much data.


Any help would be appreciated.

iPhone 5, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 19, 2014 12:39 AM

Reply
283 replies

Mar 19, 2015 9:52 AM in response to alig31

My issue with the Apple mail App was not that it was using excessive data usage but the fact that the high data usage (with Documents & Sync) would only occur AFTER I configured an email account in iOS via Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars! For whatever reason the mail app appears to be the trigger for Documents & Sync to go haywire! (And just to be clear the default iCloud email account IS setup its only when using Add Account that the issue occurs).


However for me this was a 2-step process.

1. Whilst not adding an email account to the mail app quietened down the data usage it was not completely eradicated until...

2. I switched off iCloud Drive completely (even though it was setup not to use cell data)!


So both the mail app and iCloud Drive, for me, are the conduits to high cell data use (via Documents & Sync).


We await iOS 8.3 (or perhaps 9) to resolve this issue once and for all.

I am though surprised that this problem has not gathered any media attention never mind the disappointing lack of acknowledgment from Apple to address the issue.


regards

AndyG

Mar 19, 2015 10:00 AM in response to webdevandy

Does that mean your Find my iphone is not switched on?


Also can I ask how you found out it was, was it trial and error.


AFTER I configured an email account in iOS via Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars! For whatever reason the mail app appears to be the trigger for Documents & Sync to go haywire!

I might switch to gmail as all my e-mail accounts are in there but need to see if there is a 'teak' for this to use as default.

Kind Regards

Al

Mar 19, 2015 2:50 PM in response to alig31

Find My iPhone is switched ON as is everything else in iCloud settings except for iCloud Drive which is OFF.


Yes it was somewhat trial and error by constantly reseting and setting up the iPhone as New. It was one of these last attempts that I noticed that the problem only manifested itself after setting up an outlook.com email account. I subsequently did another reset/new and this time did not setup outlook.com but another imap account but as soon as this was added to the mail app the high data usage for Documents & Sync immediately started.


Again another reset/new and no email account added and everything was stabilsed as long as I was connected to wifi (whereas previously even with wifi connected mysteriously cell data usage would still grow). However once I left a wifi connection the cell data usage would still grow for Documents & Sync and it was not until I switched off iCloud Drive that everything was completely fixed.


So for me having no email accounts setup in Apple's mail app AND iCloud Drive switched off was the fix to stop high cell data usage in Documents & Sync.


regards

AndyG

Mar 20, 2015 1:53 PM in response to Mitton79

hi I had same problem in uk with Vodafone £50 in the red but they told me not to pay until I phone apple so I did at first they said its not a problem so I said I like to talk to some one higher so a lady came on from the usa talked to her she sent me a email with a link to my phone I clicked on the link she checked it on her side said problem so stayed on the phone she phoned Vodafone they need to confem with apple then she said wait I can not send any apple data to Vodafone but what I can do is give you a new iphone 4s the same one I have so good result for me very helpful the lady in the usa so good luck to you all ,,,ps sorry I will not be answering any questions to busy but good luck

Mar 23, 2015 6:22 AM in response to alig31

Had the exact same problem with my iPhone 5s, resulting to a phone bill 3 times higher than usual... Extremely frustrated, and was only getting worst cause everything I tried from the suggested solutions wouldn't work, not to mention that apple's help was non existent... It all came down to resetting my phone as new, which I wanted to avoid.

So I tried -once again- restoring my phone form a previous back, but this time I turned off Data Roaming!!!

2nd day now and Documents & Synch behave like they should have been doing all month now, NOT abusing my data plan! Of course I keep checking my phone every hour or so, in case it goes crazy again, but for now I want to believe that problem is solved... fingers crossed.

Apr 6, 2015 1:33 PM in response to Mitton79

This is unacceptable. This has happened to me too. Att said they'll give a one time courtesy $25 to counter the $20 extra for the extra data. And of course they'll offer to upgrade to more GB for more MONEY (and they keep offering me the 15 GB shared plan, which would kill my grandfathered unlimited data on my other line). i will be readjusting my settings on the iphone 5 on iOS 8.2 so hopefully this will help. Only started after iOS 8 came into play.

Apr 13, 2015 9:09 AM in response to Mitton79

My wife is an iPhone user and she's had them all but never had problems with draining data since we moved her up to the iPhone 6. She has been using iOS 8 since it has come out and never went over the 5GB mark (10GB shared plan). Last week, we received several messages that her line went had used over 11GB of the shared data (including the data rollover from last month which totalled 13GB). I called AT&T this morning and they told me we used %99.9 of the data (lucky for us, our cycle zeros out on the 13th of every month otherwise, I would be paying for overage as of today). I am not a big fan of Apple and never will be since everything goes bad every time an upgrade comes out (this includes my iPad which has gone nuts since all these updates). My Android phone is being used on daily basis on mobile data and I play "Clash of Clans" on it (without WiFi) with 5 different email accounts all on "push notifications" and still doesn't use more than 2GB of data. This is ridiculous guys. This better get fixed or I will have the phone returned at any cost.

Apr 20, 2015 4:40 PM in response to Mitton79

I am SO angry. I have been a loyal Apple and AT&T customer. Apple customer since college in 90's and ATT since my first cell phone years ago! I have had every version of iPhone. I have never had a problem with data. I started on the unlimited plan but moved to a 3GB plan after I switched phones many years ago. I usually get a text saying I have used 75% with a week left in the month. I average 2.5-2.8 GB a month. Last month, I got two days into the month and got the text that I had used 90%. I am extra careful about data and always have been. I do not use Pandora, Youtube, Netflix, Whats App, FaceTime etc. I use my phone to call, text, Google, calendar, Twitter, reading news articles (never videos), listening to music from my phone (never streaming anything). I never update apps on cellular. Everything is wifi. I click to wifi when I can. I have all things turned off. Itunes do not download automatically, Location services are off, Background App Refresh is off, no Diagnostics are sent. I close apps every day multiple times a day by double clicking the home button. I spent 2.5 hours in ATT last month and they started with the usual questions. Once they looked at my phone and realized that NOTHING was turned on to eat up data, they were stumped. They even said, "I have never seen a phone this locked down". It came down to my word against theirs. They said I used the data, I had to pay extra to get more GB for the month. Now, I kept the extra data for this month. I reset statistics under my Cellular Data on the day my plan changed over. Now, ATT is saying I have used 3.1 GB this month, but my phone says 1.7. Can anyone tell me why this might be? The System Services says 181 MB and 317 MB in uninstalled apps. I don't know if this is Apple or ATT, but it is ridiculous! What is the point of having the phone if all I can really do is call and text. Maybe Samsung doesn't have this issue.

Apr 20, 2015 6:56 PM in response to mirensmom

I Have had the same problem June, July and August of last year. I was 1 day I to my billing cycle and I used over 125% of my data. I was like you I have been with AT&T for almost 20 years and I was ****** at the extra charges when my phone was turned off and this happened every month! I did however get AT&T to credit me all the overages every month. I got a new 5S and I did everything that was suggested but I alaso had AT&T issue a new Sim Card on 5S and had my account reprevisioned and I haven't had the problem since. I have since upgraded to the iPhone 6 Plus and (knock on wood) everything has been fine! once that new Sim Card was issued at the AT&T Store and it reprevisioned my account and it has been fine. We Never knew what was causing my data to send like that and since I upgraded to the 6 Plus I have lucky not and ANY kind of problems SO FAR! LOL!!!! . My personal conclusion was my phone was hit with a power surge even thou it was plugged into a surge protector Cuz the back of my phone was so hot when I took the lifeproof case off it actually burned and blistered my finger. The battery was over heating and the heat damaged the SIM Card. I have had no problems with IOS 8.3 YET! My 6Plus has worked perfectly since I got it in October. I hope this helps you out!

IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

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