Mitton79

Q: 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

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Q: IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

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  • by dooror,Helpful

    dooror dooror Oct 9, 2014 12:38 AM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 12:38 AM in response to Mitton79

    Hi, I've been having a similar problem since getting my iPhone 6 as well.

     

    My usage started exceeding 300MB per day, which is impossible given the amount of data that I use on a normal basis.

     

    I wound up micromanaging my data usage today and realised that the data drain is coming from "System Services" ---> "Documents & Sync".

     

    The data use appeared suddenly in between my scheduled hourly checks, as a lump sum of 277MB.

     

    I called Apple and there is nothing I can do to turn it off. The Apple service staff recommended that I back up the phone, then restore the phone again from that back up.

     

    I'm not really clear from reading the thread - will restoring from a current backup reintroduce the problem to the phone?

  • by Hamiditized,

    Hamiditized Hamiditized Oct 9, 2014 4:52 AM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 4:52 AM in response to Mitton79

    Same issue, 4.2GB of data already used, normally I use less than 1GB a month.

  • by dooror,

    dooror dooror Oct 9, 2014 5:55 AM in response to dooror
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 5:55 AM in response to dooror

    Apple was less than helpful. First, they denied that they had received any such complaints. After I pointed them to this thread, the answer changed to "the problem could be one of many things".

     

    Apple's technician tried saying that it's because of third party apps are not playing well with iOS 8.

     

    I've restored my phone from a backup but I have to wait and see if the huge chunk of data usage occurs again tomorrow. The backup was dated AFTER the problem started (1 October 2014), so I'm not sure if it will solve things?

     

    As expected, there was no solution for the problem of the data usage already incurred. I asked Apple for an email to send to my service provider verifying the problem so I could ask for a waiver, but they refused.

     

    Apple asked me to speak to my service provider to waive the charges, saying there is nothing they can do about it.

     

    My service provider refuses to waive the charges, saying I should look to Apple for this.

     

    I am completely lost as to what I should do now. In the meantime, my usage continues shooting up by 300 to 400++ MB a day.

  • by deperu,

    deperu deperu Oct 9, 2014 7:27 AM in response to Hamiditized
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 7:27 AM in response to Hamiditized

    I followed these instructions from AT&T and now my Data is under control

     

    1) Settings>General>iCloud>Documents & Data... Scroll down and have the customer turn off Use¿Cellular Data

    2) Settings>iTunes & App Store> Scroll down to AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS and have the customer turn off MUSIC, APPS, UPDATES

    3) Settings>General>Background App Refresh (turn off any apps that the customer doesn't want to automatically refresh with their information)

    4) Settings>Privacy>Location Services (the customer will see all the apps that have the GPS enabled(Everything should be turned off except Setting Time Zone)

  • by deperu,

    deperu deperu Oct 9, 2014 7:27 AM in response to dooror
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 7:27 AM in response to dooror

    As posted above, I had the same problems and followed these recommendations from AT&T, so far so good, my data now seems under control....

     

    1) Settings>General>iCloud>Documents & Data... Scroll down and have the customer turn off Use¿Cellular Data
    2) Settings>iTunes & App Store> Scroll down to AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS and have the customer turn off MUSIC, APPS, UPDATES
    3) Settings>General>Background App Refresh (turn off any apps that the customer doesn't want to automatically refresh with their information)
    4) Settings>Privacy>Location Services (the customer will see all the apps that have the GPS enabled(Everything should be turned off except Setting Time Zone)

     

    Good Luck

  • by airtas,

    airtas airtas Oct 11, 2014 10:56 AM in response to deperu
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 11, 2014 10:56 AM in response to deperu

      

      

    As posted above, I had the same problems and followed these recommendations from AT&T, so far so good, my data now seems under control....

     

    1) Settings>General>iCloud>Documents & Data... Scroll down and have the customer turn off Use¿Cellular Data
    2) Settings>iTunes & App Store> Scroll down to AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS and have the customer turn off MUSIC, APPS, UPDATES
    3) Settings>General>Background App Refresh (turn off any apps that the customer doesn't want to automatically refresh with their information)
    4) Settings>Privacy>Location Services (the customer will see all the apps that have the GPS enabled(Everything should be turned off except Setting Time Zone)

     

    Good Luck

     

     

    --------

     

     

    What does number 3 change when you put it to off?

    What setting changed since ios7?

  • by jinva2014,

    jinva2014 jinva2014 Oct 11, 2014 12:50 PM in response to airtas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 11, 2014 12:50 PM in response to airtas

    You phone will look for apps that can be updated in the background.  Like if you have a newspaper app, it looks for new news stories, or emails for an email app and so on.  Turn off cellphone use for that, and it will just use wireless.

  • by sunnysideup12,

    sunnysideup12 sunnysideup12 Oct 14, 2014 10:11 AM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2014 10:11 AM in response to Mitton79

    I have been having the same problem, ever since updating my iPhone 5S (AT&T) to iOS 8. My plan has 2GB of data and I NEVER go over! I received a text message from AT&T billing that I exceeded my data usage and they were adding an additional 1GB of data for $10, then less than 24 hours later I received another text saying that I used up that 1GB and they were adding another 1GB and charging another $10. Since then, I have received this message for a total of 6GB! I went to my settings, data roaming is off, I turned cellular data off for all my apps and am still draining data. It's unreal. I called AT&T and they confirmed that it is connected to the iOS 8 update and credited me for the overage charges. Still waiting for a solution to the problem. Why hasn't Apple issued a  software update to fix this problem?

  • by sunnysideup12,

    sunnysideup12 sunnysideup12 Oct 14, 2014 10:19 AM in response to sunnysideup12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2014 10:19 AM in response to sunnysideup12

    On the phone with Apple right now and the technician just told me that they haven't had any customers call in to report this issue! Outrageous! Does Apple even read their own support community discussion boards?????

  • by Butterfly Jak,

    Butterfly Jak Butterfly Jak Oct 14, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 14, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Mitton79

    My phone appears to be fixed now, although I did have a nightmare with it and numerous lengthy phone call with Apple.  I was told to go into General, Reset all settings, this only got to 5% and locked my phone, hard reset again got to about 10% and locked up.  Had to restore it from my itunes backup on my pc.  After my data usage was restored with my carrier (4 days later) I had to turn off background app refresh (in general) and turn off data usage for every single app, reset statistics and then monitor it and gradually turn the apps back on, I took loads of screen shots as there's so many to compare usage. 

    Seems to be under control now, I've used 113mb in a week, which I think is about average for me.  Still not turned all the apps back on, but facebook app does seem to use up quite a bit. 

  • by JDHerbst,

    JDHerbst JDHerbst Oct 15, 2014 9:37 AM in response to Butterfly Jak
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2014 9:37 AM in response to Butterfly Jak

    Hi there! We are going through the same thing right now. My wife's iPhone 6 (IOS 8.02) is using data at an unsustainable rate - even while being connected to wifi. She turned off everything cellular on her phone to the point that it's inconvenient, she connects to wifi at work and at home, and still we are seeing a very strange pattern in data usage. According to data usage analysis on the Verizon wireless website, at 3:50 and 9:50 - both AM and PM - her phone is using between 30MB and 75MB or more of plan data. At 3:50 AM she is sleeping at home with her phone connected to wifi. That appears to be a synchronizing behavior - every six hours. Does iCloud synchronize in six hour intervals? If so, can that interval be changed? Why would it choose to use cellular to synchronize when she is connected to wifi? Does wifi hibernate when the phone is not in use for a certain period of time, thereby resorting to cellular data usage?

     

    Also, regarding resetting the phone, would restoring the phone using a backup created while this issue is affecting her result in the same problem? Her backups - either to the cloud or using iTunes - are from this phone at a time she is experiencing this data issue.

     

    Is Apple acknowledging any of this? One of the people posting here mentioned that AT&T admitted there have been issues with data usage related to IOS 8. I have been Googling it, but I haven't found anything public from them, Verizon or Apple (or other carriers, I should add). I know we aren't alone. Is there any chance we are going to get a fix? This seems unreasonable, especially at a time when the carriers (at least Verizon) is concerned about overuse of their bandwidth.

     

    Thanks everyone! I appreciate anything you can suggest.

  • by colinfromnewcastle upon tyne,

    colinfromnewcastle upon tyne colinfromnewcastle upon tyne Oct 16, 2014 9:35 AM in response to JDHerbst
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2014 9:35 AM in response to JDHerbst

    Same problem here. It appears that when I updated, my personal hotspot was somehow switched on, and that is what has been eating my data.

    Have switched off to see how that goes.

  • by MelissaRz,

    MelissaRz MelissaRz Oct 16, 2014 12:41 PM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2014 12:41 PM in response to Mitton79

    I'm going through the same thing with my daughter's phone. Previously usage between THREE iPhone 4s phones COMBINED totaled 4 GB a month at our HIGHEST usage. Upgraded from 4s to iPhone 5s on 9/13/14. Billing period started on 9/15. By 9/22/14, the phone had shot through 4 GB by itself. Verizon Tech Support said to shut off Apps Updating in Background to wi-fi only. By 9/26, another text message about data usage -- another 2 GB gone. Started researching -- there are THOUSANDS of complaints on Verizon Community Boards, as well as Apple Support Boards. The next day I returned the phone to the store (it was 14th and last day to return). Ordered the iPhone 6, and re-activated the 4s in the interim.  Usage went back to normal (next to nothing).

     

    Bought and activated iPhone 6 on 9/29/14, and have been watching carefully.  Phone is still using data throughout the day, even when it's not POSSIBLE, because it's sitting in a time-out state and unused. There are data charges appearing every 6 hours to the minute, just like with the 5s. We did NOT have this with the 4s! This mysterious data usage is occurring in the middle of the night and then 6 hours later, etc. Phone shows ridiculous data usage for App Store 2.9 GB (to download ONE app?) and Instagram 2.5 GB.  The kid has only had a minute or two on Instagram!  Also showed usage on YouTube 2.5 GB but the phone was on wi-fi when that was used! Other strange things occurring.  When my husband calls that phone, MY phone rings!  Only does this when in my house.  Tried it while we're both at work, and my phone does NOT ring. A strange text showed up, looking like she had written it, but I KNOW she did not!

     

    I took possession of the phone and SHUT CELLULAR OFF COMPLETELY FOR OVER 2 DAYS.  Data charges every 6 hours still occurred during the first day the CELLULAR WAS OFF.  Phone continually draws data, even when it shows being on wi-fi.  This past holiday weekend, the phone did not leave my house from Friday at 6:00 p.m. until Monday at 5:45 p.m.  The phone still shows data being used throughout that time period.

     

    Tried every possible "fix" on the Internet, and nothing has worked.  No stuck email in the outbox, email account deleted, cellular shut off to multiple apps, iCloud turned off, apps deleted, and finally entire phone was factory reset via iTunes.  No apps added to default setup, and data still being charged!!

     

    Spoke to multiple Verizon reps, the last being the Executive Office.  I spoke with their Technical Analyst, and sent them screenshots of all of the weird stuff occurring including a marked-up version of my data log, detailing which charges were cyclical (every 6 hours) and which just couldn't possibly be, including the periods when the phone had the cellular data SHUT OFF, and periods on wi-fi.  Within 5 days, Verizon said nothing was wrong with the network.  It was the phone.  REALLY???  Because this happened with both the iPhone 5s AND the iPhone 6!!!

     

    I called Apple on Tuesday 10/14.  The Advisor was very nice and even follow-up with another call to collect information.  I sent him a gazillion screenshots as asked.  He supplied me with an upload link of additional pictures I had taken off the phone.  I couldn't use the upload link at the time, but I had already sent those pictures to Verizon, so I forwarded the emails to my advisor at Apple.  I was supposed to hear back from them YESTERDAY.  So far, nothing.  I did get a survey from Apple, asking how their Advisor did, though! 

     

    What a scam!!  I swear Apple and the various carriers are all in cahoots.  We spend big bucks for these phones and phone plans (I pay over $3,100 A YEAR for our phone plan!) and yet, the data just MYSTERIOUSLY occurs, and WE'RE paying for it!!  Oh, and when I asked Verizon exactly what or who was actually using my data, she said she couldn't tell me.  I said if I was the FBI, I'm sure you could tell me exactly where, when and who was using the data!  She said, "Yes, but we can't divulge that information to you.  We'd need a court order or a subpoena."  I was like, "WHAT??!?  It's MY phone, MY data, and MY money that's paying for it. Why would I need a court order to find out what I SUPPOSEDLY used??"  She just kept saying that's how it worked. I would sue, except that by signing my contract with Verizon, I sign-away my right to bring or participate in a class-action lawsuit.  If a carrier is HONEST, then why is that??!?

     

    I have now returned the iPhone 6, and my daughter is back on the iPhone 4s.  THE TOTAL USAGE FROM THE IPHONE 5S AND 6 THIS MONTH TOTALED ALMOST 9 GB.  Her previous use was less than 1 GB even when she was on summer vacation.  Now the kid is busy from 6:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., and she mysteriously shoots through 9 GB a day, even when the phone is off??? Since the return to the 4s (7:00 p.m. on 10/14),  her usage is so low, that the is NO data is showing AT ALL for yesterday (10/15) -- with the 5s or 6, I would've seen continual data hits during that time!

     

    P.S.  I also upgraded from the 4s to the iPhone 6.  I got my phone on 9/30/14.  I can see data charges every 6 hours on my line too -- however, the amount of data being used for those are just a fraction of the data charged for those on my daughter's line.  I use my phone off and on, ALL DAY LONG. I am on Facebook, emails, an app for my daughter's grades, etc. throughout my 20 hour day.  I used 1 GB the ENTIRE MONTH.  Now compare that to my daughter's supposed 9 GB, when she honestly gets 5 minutes a day to even look at her phone.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see there's a HUGE problem here!!

     

    APPLE YOU NEED TO ADDRESS AND FIX THE PROBLEM THAT THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL HAVE!!!!!!

  • by MadApplePie,

    MadApplePie MadApplePie Oct 16, 2014 4:01 PM in response to MelissaRz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2014 4:01 PM in response to MelissaRz

    I Completely agree with this and other comments.  The iPhone 6 is gulping data for no good reason.  We are halfway through our data for the month and using LESS than we normally do.

     

    FIX THIS PROBLEM, APPLE!

  • by John Schulenburg,

    John Schulenburg John Schulenburg Oct 17, 2014 9:11 PM in response to Mitton79
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 17, 2014 9:11 PM in response to Mitton79

    same problem here. Every day like clockwork its downloading between 25-75mb at 3:00 and 9:00  not possible since im almost on wifi at this time

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