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IOS 9 Cellular Data Usage Restrictions not working

Hello, I just updated several devices to IOS 9 and I noticed the Cellular Data Usage Restrictions are turned on. However, when I check the Cellular settings I am able to make changes under User Cellular Data for section. This is the same behavior with all upgraded devices I have. Is this a known issue?


Thanks for your help with cap data plan having this feature working is critical for my family plan and devices.

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 9

Posted on Sep 16, 2015 6:03 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 8:24 AM

I am having this issue as well for enterprise. After updating a couple supervised devices to iOS 9 the cellular settings are supposed to be restricted from being changed but this it's only half true. In iOS 9.0.0, when you shut off the items that you do not want working over cellular data and changes are not allowed for cellular data, the items that were already shut off at the time the restriction was engaged will stay off, even though they toggle back to green.


For example, let's say you toggled Music to not work over cellular data, then apply the restriction for cellular data changes, you'll still be able to toggle Music back over to work on cellular data so it APPEARS that it is back on, but as soon as you move away from the Cellular menu and come back Music will show as shut off for cellular data.


While this is really great for things that you already have shut off and restricted it's a real problem for things you NEED to have working over cellular data. For example, let's say that the App Store is something that you want to work over cellular data. If it the App Store is shut off after the restriction is applied, it is going to stay off until it is turned back on by the user.


So basically, any apps that you shut off in Cellular Data at the time the restriction to not allow changes was applied will stay OFF, even though the user thinks they toggled it to ON. Any apps that you leave ON in Cellular Data can be turned OFF by the user or turned back ON.


This is a real problem if you need something to stay ON.

319 replies

Sep 27, 2015 11:21 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

My iphone had cellular issues immediately upon the update. My ipad cellular issues started within a week of the update even though I had taken precautions to turn on all the cellular data to it before the update. Now, I'm wondering if the bug was there all along with the ipad and just took a few days to manifest itself or if it was infected when I backed it up. I use Icloud on both the ipad and the iphone. I also use the iphoto library on the ipad, but not the iphone. I accidently turned it on on the iphone and only noticed when photos started to have an icloud image before they fully loaded on my phone at which time I shut off the photo library. I also airdropped a few photos between the iphone and the ipad. Now, the ipad has cellular issues too, but not all the same apps are affected on both. Very frustrating to say the least. My biggest concern is potentially losing the large number of photos I have on the ipad so much so that I'm considering purchasing a Mac to transfer them.


I have also filed a report for both devices.

Sep 27, 2015 11:41 AM in response to Mohammad Zain asad

No luck with my understanding of this approach (same as Lawrence's bullet points). I was able to verify the issue is resolved when the device is set up as new through an iTunes restore. However, restoring the iCloud backup caused it to reassert. Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems to give me the same result as using a local backup. Don't have time right now to deal with setting up as new - I'll just be content with having submitted report to Apple and wait for fix. But I can understand how some users can't wait due to more vital apps being disabled.


Lawrence - General thanks for your input to this thread.

Sep 27, 2015 2:20 PM in response to tvtvt

tvtvt wrote:


Hello,


where can I get more details about this extraction and settings file? I can verify the same if I know the process.


thanks,


kr,


Tamas

Here's the link to the post about editing the backup file. Note that you must make an unencrypted backup, edit it, then restore it. As it's unencrypted the backup will not include passwords or health app data.


Re: iOS 7 cellular data settings won't save on iPhone 4s???


If the link doesn't go to the specific post look for a message from nuno.bett.

Sep 27, 2015 11:37 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hello,


Thanks.

I've found the procedure yesterday and tried. It has not worked. I created the backup, checked the CellularUsage.db, it contained 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 values, not only 0 & 1.


Then I tried two things:

deleted the CellularUsage.db from the backup and restored the complete backup with iTunes - no success.

edited the file to have only 0 & 1, and restored that single file with iBackupBot - no success

(I also tried to have only 0 in the file, but same, I cannot enable any app to use cellular).


Thanks for suggestions.


Kr,


Tamas

Sep 28, 2015 8:55 AM in response to Turko

I went to an Apple store and had a very nice chat with a rep. He was the first person from Apple to acknowledge this issue, however, he was under the misguided impression that 9.0.1 was the fix. I explained that it may have worked for some but not for the 25,000+ people that have viewed this thread. He said he did not anticipate there would be another release to fix this issue anytime soon as less than 4% of users around the world (his words) were experiencing the issue. He said anyone that updated directly with 9.0.1 would be fine but that anyone that had done the original update would absolutley have to do a Restore on iTunes. So, I reluctantly gave up and did just that. I uploaded my photos first and ran the Restore. Everything is working fine now.


As an owner of multiple Apple devices and a shareholder of Apple stock I am very disappointed in how Apple handles issues of this type. Why couldn't a tech come on this thread and just tell it like it is. Admission of an issue does not mean you are weak - in fact it means just the opposite. If they are worried about public confidence in their product they should do more to help those of us already supporting their bottom line.

Sep 28, 2015 10:25 AM in response to DevMegsMum

DevMegsMum wrote:



As an owner of multiple Apple devices and a shareholder of Apple stock I am very disappointed in how Apple handles issues of this type. Why couldn't a tech come on this thread and just tell it like it is. Admission of an issue does not mean you are weak - in fact it means just the opposite. If they are worried about public confidence in their product they should do more to help those of us already supporting their bottom line.

Apple absolutely, positively never responds officially in the Apple Support Communities. This is a user to user forum. There are many other ways you can get a direct response from Apple, but none of them are for public viewing. (The only exception is Community Specialists who respond to posts that have gone unanswered for more than a day, but all they are allowed to do is to quote published information.)


There a couple of likely reasons. One is to avoid getting into arguments with users, or being perceived as interfering in discussions between users. But probably the most important reason is that anything that Apple publishes must be reviewed and approved by Apple's Legal department, and there is no practical way to have that review, which can take days or weeks, in an open forum. This is common to all large corporations. When there are widespread issues Apple will issue a (legal-reviewed) Tech Note or Knowledge Base article, as they did for the "slide to update" issue. These can then be referenced in the forum.

Sep 28, 2015 4:33 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Lawrence,


You may be right - although from the links you provided it looks like it was relatively rare before. Now we have over 850 people saying they have this problem (and that's just the ones that have found their way here to post about it) and Apple says that IOS 9 is just now rolled out to 1/2 the customer base.


Now that it can be recreated by restoring an iCloud backup we should be able to address the "hard to reproduce" claim.

Sep 28, 2015 7:31 PM in response to rpalminha

I had this issue too, and did a clean install, however, all of my installed apps are no longer showing in the list, just the apple ones that are pre-loaded onto the phone. I'm traveling next week, and was hoping to limit data usage on some apps, to minimize data usage, unfortunately, none of them are showing up for me to toggle on or off....

Sep 28, 2015 8:02 PM in response to Rotax

Found an answer on the developer forums, not good



" upgraded to iOS 9.1 beta 2, the problem still persists. Since my bug has been closed (as duplicate of an internal bug report), I hope it will be resolved with iOS 9.1 beta 3."



It appears Apple has an internal bug report on it so there should be a solution soon

IOS 9 Cellular Data Usage Restrictions not working

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