Q: IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

To cut a very long story short, after trying many things suggested in this thread (restore from back-up, clean start, remove suspect apps, disable services selectively …), none of which stopped my iPhone 5S from racking up large transfer volumes under Documents & Sync on cellular (and having awful battery life), this is what worked for me:

1. Log out my Retina MBP from iCloud (clicking through many dire warnings).

2. Log out my iPhone from iCloud (ditto).

3. Log rMPB back into iCloud. Enable desired services.

4. Disable Handoff on rMBP. (It's "Allow Handoff between this Mac and iCloud Services" in the General System Preferences pane.)

5. Log iPhone back into iCloud. Enable desired services.

6. Disable Handoff on iPhone (Settings->General->Handoff & Suggested Apps)

I have not yet dared to turn Handoff on again. I can live without it — and I just love the battery life I'm getting: best I can remember.

Just in case you wonder, once Handoff is disabled, Bluetooth can be enabled on both devices. I'd had it turned off on the iPhone before the steps above.

My suspicion is that some Continuity-related database somewhere on my rMPB was corrupt, making it impossible for iCloud-connected devices ever to believe that they were properly synchronised. Except, if that's the case, why did I never have a problem with my iPad Air, which also has cellular data? Truth is, I don't know, and, having tried so many things, I can't even be sure if it's the steps above that fixed the problem.

The same happens here, just checked my bills, used 3.5GB within a day while I have my home wifi connected all day.

Anyone have a solution?

I just upgraded my to a new iPhone 6.

I have 4 phones on a shared AT&T 15Gb Data plan.

The iPhone used 8Gb in two weeks.

Turned off Cellular Data and the phone still used 1Gb over night while on WiFi only.

Yes Apple, please fix this massive data leak.

Hi Guys,

Exactly I faced same problem, its extremely bad news for me that my provider send a SMS to me and say your internet package ( 2 GB ) finished after 1 day! I confused and shocked!

can anyone help me that if i update my ios version from 8.0.2 to higher version this bug (!!) will be solved or not?

I appreciate any help.

I have spent an hour on 'live chat' with Verizon trying to understand why my daughter's phone uses 2gb of data in less than 3 days.  Has happened every month since she went from a Iphone 4 to a 6.  Verizon told me the Iphone 6 is 'more updated' and 'use more data'.  Really?  I would think up dated meant less data.  Funny that my husband's upgrade has not caused the same issue.  We have turned everything we can off, removed apps, etc. (everything recommended on these forums!) and even turned off phone at night but it continues to eat up data.  $100 extra last month and $150 this month.  All Verizon could offer me was to change plans and increase my data.  I'm now hoping that on the new family plan we don't go over.  I will be reviewing my options to cancel Verizon and throw out all Apple products!  Has anyone noticed how no Apple rep has responded to this complaint string but they do others?  I wonder if anyone has thought of a class action lawsuit?  It's obvious there is an issue that is not being addressed.  More money in their pockets!

We're fighting same issues with AT& with a 5S, their solution is O just upgrade his package..**** no.

With his 4 the average monthly data for 24 mnts was 1.72GB, new iphone 5s 12-15-14, on 12-18 data was over 3gb plan, cycle restarted 1-11 and on 1-19 again over the 3gb amount. I've turned everything I know to turn off and have been reading like crazy... On 12-15-14 me and wife upgraded to a 6 and 6+, my data is .9 and hers is 1.3....My next step is to do a fresh install on his..

.APPLE this is TOTALLY Unacceptable,  Please address and fix this issue. And no it is NOT an isolated incident..Use the search options like we do..

Hi

I have an iPhone 6 and 4GB data each month through Vodafone in the UK. I use Wifi at home

I don't stream TV, music or tether, yet my usage this month is about 5.5gb. This is completely out of line with my behaviour on the phone

Called Voda to discuss and the guy suggested that if the wifi signal at home was weak, the midnight iCloud backup was falling over to data and using that instead. He took at look at data peaks each night and saw 30mb here, 20meg there but nothing huge

I'm pretty tech-savvy and that explanation didnt make sense. I was under the impression that iCloud simply did not backup over data for the exact reason that it would blow up users data allowances.

I don't have background app refresh on, etc

I did notice that in the 'Mobile' section of settings, it says 'Use Mobile Data For' then lists all my apps - most of the buttons are turned to ON. Thing is, what are those usage figures below the apps? Twitter using 10.7GB??? No way! (See attached)

Anyone know of any tools that would allow me to monitor intra-day data usage, or, any suggestions as to why usage could be so mad?

Cheers, L

Data monitor on the App Store  is what I use. As well as metering your mobile and WiFi data and presenting the results separately it also shows you the locations of all the mobile cells where data was used over a 2, 14 and 30 day period.

Also see my post earlier about turning off mobile data for all services that don't require it like on demand tv streaming services. Automatic updates should also be restricted to wifi only.

FYI the 10.7 gb used by Twitter will be since you started using the phone but even if you sent a lot of tweets it seems excessive.

Many thanks. Will limit the apps that can use data

Maybe its streaming media through twitter thats inflated the figure,ie: youtube and soundcloud clips etc?

Seems excessive though

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.

Ok chief - I'll give it a go

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.