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Cellular data drain (iOS 8.1.1) with "Documents & Sync"

I have been a loyal Apple customer for the past few years, but this iOS 8.1.1 is driving me crazy. I have 500Mb of mobile (cellular) data with my monthly plan. It used to be fine for me, now this is going in just TWO DAYS! After the new update the phone is eating data like crazy (not to mention the battery that goes with it). The main culprit seems to be "Documents & Sync" under "Systems Services". I have no idea of what exactly this is. I have "Use Mobile Data" toggled off at all possible places with no luck. The only way to prevent this is to actually switch off "Mobile Data", a pointless solution. I've tried to "Erase All Contents and Settings" as someone suggested in another forum, but after reinstalling my apps I have again the same problem. In "iCloud", I've turned "iCloud Drive" off, "Photos" off, "Backup" off, but my data keeps vanishing. Any help will be highly appreciated as at the moment this "smart" phone is driving me crazy.

iPhone 4S, iOS 8.1.1

Posted on Nov 29, 2014 3:30 PM

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99 replies

Dec 4, 2014 11:00 AM in response to paul_nyrup

I have this same issue and it seems to be iCloud in general that is eating the data. Not a permanent solution but if you log out of iCloud the data drain seems to stop. I have done the same turning off all settings for Use Cellular data as well as logging out of iCloud Drive and PhotoStream but nothing made any difference until I logged out of iCloud all together. I even tried logging back in again and the drain started right back up. I did find another article that mentioned logging out of iCloud on older non Yosemite devices as a possible fix.


Here is another thread that is basically the same.

High data usage since updating to 8.1.1


The very last entry on this post is the person talking about logging out of iCloud on older devices.

IOS 8 High Cellular Data Usage

Dec 4, 2014 12:41 PM in response to paul_nyrup

Based on the suggestion of Walter from another post 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.

Dec 6, 2014 1:18 PM in response to paul_nyrup

Anyone else got this?


On my iphone 5s I'm having the same problem in Settings > Cellular > System Services > Docs and Sync and I'd be very surprised if there aren't many others with the same as it seems to me to be fundamentally linked to the iOS.


In the first 12 days of this billing month ( since Nov 22 ) my cellular data usage was nearly 8GB - my limit is 8GB and usually I use around 500mb of that. So I'm now paying Vodafone for extra data, which I'd like Apple to refund me for if this transpires to be a hardware or iOS issue.


Spent a couple of hours online with Apple Support today - my cellular data usage increasing from 3mb to 30mb as we spoke - and much of the time I was on wifi.


Result was that Apple had me restore iphone as a new phone over itunes and reinstall 8.1.1 afresh; theory being that a fresh restore ( ie none of my apps, non-Apple mail accounts, or media on the phone ) should clear anything that may be causing Settings > Cellular > System Services > Docs and Sync to show high data usage.


But with Settings > Cellular Data switched on, and no apps open or any activity on my part, I'm seeing he exact same thing - around 45mb of data use in Settings > Cellular > System Services > Docs and Sync in less than an hour.


Feels like the phone has been hacked in some way - and this is costing me money. I'll talk to Apple again tomorrow and update here.

Dec 8, 2014 3:56 AM in response to ajstorey

Hi ajstorey, this didn't work for me either. I've disabled iCloud on both my MacBook Pro and my iMac. But still about 100Mb of 3G cellular data went (again with "Documents & Sync") in just **three hours** this morning. I only have 500Mb to last for the whole month, so I'm having to switch off "Cellular Data". This is clearly a bug that Apple needs to fix!

Dec 8, 2014 12:38 PM in response to ajstorey

Yeah, I've noticed that if I log out of iCloud altogether then the drain stops. But then you don't have your contacts and calendar synced! The main reason I have an iPhone is to keep my details sync'ed with my laptop and iMac. I really hope Apple will fix this soon as otherwise I will be the next one moving to the Samsung side... By the way, I'm also suffering from this:


http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/13/apple-remains-mum-as-complaints-mount- over-2011-macbook-pro-gpu-failures

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/widespread-2011-macbook-pro-failures-continue -petition-3497935/


I have a MacBook Pro from 2011 :-(

Very unlucky with Apple, or is Apple becoming what Microsoft used to be, with widespread bugs and faults??

Dec 10, 2014 2:26 PM in response to paul_nyrup

Quick update on the situation. I've updated to the new iOS 8.1.2, unfortunately problem persists! :-(

I've also tried to switch off my three email accounts (Exchange, Gmail, and iCloud) hoping that this might be the source of all mysterious syncing, but it didn't help. I've lost 60MB of data in less than an hour this morning, and had to quickly switch off cellular data before my monthly allowance went up in smoke...

Dec 11, 2014 2:21 AM in response to paul_nyrup

I took the phone to Apple Genius yesterday - there was a suggestion that the solution may be to turn off iCloud Drive, but I felt strongly that it's a hardware issue and the phone was eventually replaced. In the 24 hours since then, ( on wifi except for the journey home) the new phone shows 27mb of data use. Will update if this increases dramatically.

Cellular data drain (iOS 8.1.1) with "Documents & Sync"

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