Q: IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

Not quite; you have to scroll down to system services to get a breakdown of data usage, but it doesn't do it by app. the figure next to the app represents the amount of data stored (or otherwise cached) on the device.  On my phone, personal hotspot is the highest user, with 46GB.

Eltham,

System Services shows the data moved by the OS that is not included in the individual application figures.  The individual application figures involve data movement, not data storage.

If you want to see the data storage by application, go to Settings / General / Usage / Manage Storage. 

Think about it this way:  A person is using the "Notes" application, is not on wifi, has it set up to use the cloud, and adds a new note.  Data storage and cell data usage go up.  The person taps "resets statistics" on the cellular data page.  Data storage stays the same, but cell data usage zeroes out.  They then add another note.  Data storage goes up, but cell data usage shows only the amount just transmitted up to the cloud, because it just shows data moved, not stored..

I got a warning about burning through all of my 2 GB of data from AT&T on my iPhone 6 with iOS 8.1.1. I really use very little data normally, so this was very odd.

I eventually got it narrowed down that merely logging into iCloud, with all items disabled, tested with two different iPhones 6’s, cause each to consume about 1MB a minute of cellular data if WiFi was turned off. All of this data was used by Settings->Cellular->System Services->Documents & Sync. Didn't matter how long it had been on WiFi beforehand, disable WiFi and cellular usage would start up at 1MB a minute or so.

Seven or eight long chats with Apple later and more than a full work day worth of time spent over a 24 hour period. BTW, One of them told me to just turn off LTE. Said if I didn’t then that was my choice and it was my problem, that this would help battery life, which was never an issue anyway. I asked to speak with someone else.

Restores, rebuild as new, reset and erase all data; nothing would stop the data burn, short of logging out of iCloud.

Eventually, I checked all devices that are connected to my iCloud account, I have several, and turned off as many iCloud services on each device that I could.

The one I suspect most. I logged-off of iCloud from an old Mac Pro, which is running Mavericks and cannot be upgraded (officially) to Yosemite. My best theory is that this computer with Mavericks was somehow writing data and confusing my iCloud account and causing my iPhone 6 to keep reattempting, and repeatedly failing, to sync some documents or data. Only a guess.

Since the last restore of this iPhone, data usage is down at 18.2 MB total with “Documents & Sync” using only 488 KB so far.

For comparison, it used “Documents & Sync” 25 MB during testing during the chat with Apple on Wednesday by turning off WiFi only a few times. It used about 500 MB in the previous 24 hours. Apparently for nothing.

This behavior, so far, has stopped after consuming 1.2 GB of my data plan in just a few days.

This cost hours and hours of my time plus loads of aggravation.

At Apple’s instance I had to go get a replacement iPhone 6, which I didn’t think would work anyway (it didn’t), from the snotty-as-all-get-out “Genius” at the Apple Store. It changed nothing. As soon as I logged into iCloud with a pristine unconfigured iPhone 6, the behavior began again. He would not even look at the phone while I was sitting there. He felt that I was given a new phone for “free” and that he therefore was done and was not interesting in anything else. He told me to call AT&T about their data.

Displeased.

Well, I'll add my 2 cents - and I may be taking this to a whole new level. I have an iPhone 6 on T-Mobile, has been pretty uneventful.

Went to look at my bill for expense-reporting purposes, and saw a notice that I was over my data limit. That NEVER has happened, so I thought it odd.

Looked through my detailed current bill, and TONS of activity that I couldn't identify. Texts and internet connections. Lots of text activity from Mauritania. And Cummings, GA, of all places. Multiple texts per minute.

However, the big moment was when I went digging through my phone (thanks to many of the tips here), and saw that for the current period, my phone says that I have used 72.9 GB of Cellular Data! ***!?!??!?! And 45 GB of that is Hotspot, according to the data in System Services. I do use my phone for Hotspot internet, but it's never been that much!

Unfortunately, T-Mobile support is closed for the holiday. But I'll be talking to them tomorrow.

Very strange!

Hi Walter

Seems like you have tried everything! Can understand your frustration.

You've described my experience exactly, even down to suspecting iCloud as the problem.

Surprised and sorry to to hear that setting up the phone as new did not help you - it's a painful last resort, but seems to have worked for most others. (My data usage is still back to normal, and a fraction of the crazy data it was using before.)

Really hope you figure it out, wanted to smash my phone to bits as some point out of frustration.

Cheers,

Flutter

I'm suspecting iCloud drive as well; this problem only occurred after activating iCloud drive in Yosemite.

What is mystifying me is that there is no trace of this data being passed through any other source; the Data Monitor app shows not only the data consumed by the phone, but also where and when it occurred, and whether it is cell or wifi. When I track back through these locations and add up the data throughput it comes nowhere close to  the data levels apparently being used by the phone.

I've done three things now.  In Settings > iCloud drive I have "use mobile data" turned off.

I have Settings > General > Background app refresh turned off

In Settings > Mobile > Use Mobile Data for I have services turned on only for apps which need it; Weather, Banking, Travel info, Google Maps etc. all media apps, iTunes store, app store and anything which could potentially push cloud data to me without my express authorisation is turned off.

I've also stopped using Mail on  my laptop while tethering. IMAP Mail with Gmail has gone from bad to worse since Lion when it became so bloated and resource hungry that I had to abandon one of my accounts because it took so long to churn through the dozens of notification emails I was getting. Accessing mail through a browser seems much more data efficient now.

I have always been a Mac evangelist and, up to a point, I still am. But it seems to me that Apple, in their determination to exert "control over the user experience" as they like to spin it, is becoming more and more like Microsoft used to be. I'm not about to jump ship but I can't rid myself of the feeling that operating systems that used to be very simple and intuitive have, in the last few years become increasingly opaque to the user.

You are correct! I could have sworn it was app size + cache...

I'm mystified though. The figures next to each app have been totally static with me for as long as I've had the phone, and some, like the Movies app, have had mobile data turned off from day one.  I've never downloaded a single movie on my iPhone, I always record them off the TV, compress them and add them to the phone using iTunes sync so I can watch stuff on the go, yet the Movies app has 1.3Gb next to it.

Furthermore, even if I total up the usage of each individual app, none comes close to the several gigabytes of data traffic reported by my carrier.

I have had this problem since the 8.1.1 update. I have found a couple other threads dealing with the same thing both specific to 8.1.1. Based on the suggestion of Walter above I have been testing and testing this. At this point I seem to have gotten the data drain under control at least for the last 40 min or so I am not seeing the drain. In my situation I had verified the problem was specific to iCloud. I had eliminated the data drain by logging out of iCloud, however that of course, wasn't a permanent solution. I started modifying settings for iCloud drive on my computers that were connected to my account. First I logged out of iCloud from a couple older Macs. I did not see any immediate change in the data drain. I then disabled iCloud Drive on my Yosemite Mac and pretty immediately the data drain stopped. I then re-enabled iCloud Drive again and the drain started right back up again. I then started looking at what items are used for iCloud Drive and manually turned off all but Text Edit. Again the drain stopped. I re-enabled only the services I actually use with iCloud Drive at this point I have Preview, TextEdit, Pages and Numbers enabled and have not had any more Documents & Sync data usage over 175 KB that it initially used when I turned Cellular data on the last time more than 40 min ago. I currently have two Macs both running Yosemite both with all of the above services enabled for iCloud Drive and no data drain. I also opened each of those apps and opened documents that are stored in the iCloud drive and no cellular data has been used for Documents & Sync. Hope maybe this can help someone else who is having this same issue. As I have been writing this Documents & Sync used a little more data went from 175 KB to 196 KB however is not continuing to climb. When I noticed the up from 175 to 196 I had accidentally opened a Safari page from Handoff. I wondered if there was anything to that so I did it again intentionally and it then went from 196 to 208. Still not a drain but interesting that Handoff would use any cellular data as I thought it was a bluetooth service.

While it lasted 24 hours the fix was temporary. This afternoon the data drain started again going from under 1MB of Documents & Sync to 5.3 in a matter of a few min. I disabled iCloud drive on my computers again however that did not have any affect on the data drain this time. This is a very annoying bug.

This is a scam Apple says know nothin heard nothing there is no way I used 2 GB in 10 days  Verizon is making lots of money and Apple is in on the scam

Am having all the same issues you all are having  6 hrs on the phone back and forth NOTHING

by by Apple am done with you

Same issue I am facing here. This is frustrating I have never exceed 1.5GB in a month. After only  week of owning the iPhone 6 it has sucked up more than 2.5GB. My Data cycle restarted today and already 800MB drained from sitting on my desk at work. AT&T offers no help and says that most of the data is being uses at 5-6AM, for goods sake no one's awake at that time.  They offer no help and is only suggesting stupid options that  I already had off.  The Phone is always connected to WiFi yet still I face issues. I am very disappointed miss my Android. Apple Needs to FIX ASAP.

Los saludo desde México.

Estoy teniendo el mismo problema en mi iPhone 5S. Desde septiembre mis datos se consumen excesivamente, en mi caso los días 10 de cada mes es cuando el móvil consume mis 3 GB de datos.

Apple debe ofrecernos una solución rápido y eficazmente.

Same problem here with iPhone 4S and iOS 8.1.2.

Documents & Snyc is permanently sending data.

Turning off all known settings will not stop the problem.

What does 'Documents & Synch' represent in terms of what apps etc are using it?  I have this problem on my wife's iPhone5 which seems to be gobbling data with very little use.  My iPhone 6 which has the same settings and IOS 8.1.2 seems to be relatively ok in terms of data usage although a little higher than my old iPhone 5.  If I want to do a factory reset on my wife's iPhone5 is there any way to back up her contacts outside of iTunes?

Documents & Synch is the cellular data usage for synchronizing everything turned "on" under Settings/ICloud to the cloud, thus making it available to any device you have that is also hooked up to the same ICloud account.

If your wife's phone is connected to the Icloud, her contacts list is also stored on the cloud.  Resetting the phone shouldn't affect the icloud copy, and reconnecting the phone to the cloud will result in a copy being downloaded to the phone's contacts list data store.

She can verify that her contacts are on the cloud by logging on at www.icloud.com and opening the contacts list found there.