iPhone data usage System Services Time and Location

Hi branches,

I'm glad you were able to find the culprit behind your location and data activity! You're on the right track by reaching out to the app developer for assistance with that app. Be sure to check out the Apple Support Communities in the future if you ever need any assistance.

Cheers!

Hi

I'm new to the iPhone (wife and I changed to the iPhone 5SE at the weekend) and already alarmed at the data eaten compared to what Android uses: it's a huge amount more. I've axed everything from mobile data (including turning off wifi assist and background app refresh for everything as well as disabling mobile data use for everything we don't need) except email and got most of the data haemorrhage under control but for some reason, although my iPhone has no entry for Time & Location services and therefore system data usage has slowed right down, my wife's iPhone, which is identical but has fewer apps than mine, does have Time & Location services in the system data usage list and it keeps using significant data. I have turned off all Location services etc - even more than on my phone - but still this service exists and is using data whereas it doesn't on mine. I set up both phones so know what I have and haven't done on each.

Both have the same software version of 10.3.3 so no reason for the difference there.

Any ideas why one phone has it and another identical one (bar colour) bought at the same time in the same shop doesn't? My wife's data plan is half the size of mine so she doesn't have any capacity for this and her being 20% through the month's allowance after 4 days is a problem...

Any help / ideas here would be gratefully received: I'm no fan of Android (for the last 10+ years I've been using BlackBerry OS for personal phones) but at least you don't need a second mortgage to pay the data bill if you leave all of Android's settings at defaults.

P.S. Just exactly what does the iPhone use all this data for by the way?!

Thanks for such a useful thread. Now that Apple's "System Services" is the bulk of all our LTE usage, it would REALLY help for Apple to break down such usage by app for us, so we don't have to spend weeks of trial an error to figure out who's using up our entire month's data plan. 🙂

It's gotten to the point where the individual Apps LTE reports don't even matter, because it's nothing compared to System Services - and of course, by the name, we just assumed this was Apple's fault - that it meant iOS was using up all the data, when in fact it was an App based issue.

Apple - please consider this.

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Jeff, I read every one of these emails, and we'll make sure to get it into the next version of iOS!

- Tim Cook

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Wow! I'm impressed! That was fast - Apple really does care.

That's great! I have been working a new job since May, and I have been blowing through data since I started. I have virtually no service in the office, so I am always on WiFi while there. when I get home in the evening after an hour commute I am right back on WiFi at home. Also I have a work issued phone that I use for maps and data, so I rarely use cellular data on my personal phone. Here is the good part: I am blowing through 6GB a month, and I don't stream videos, or music while not on WiFi. This morning I reset my data put my phone in my pocket. Once I arrived at work I had gone through 47.7 Mb. Before starting to turn off location services it went up to 47.9 while I was on wireless! SInce I turned off a bunch of things I have used 0 data.

Hi branches,

Thanks for checking out the Apple Support Communities and for the detailed information of what's happening with your Time and Location data. I can understand wanting to make sure you're able to easily manage your data usage and wanting to know what app is causing that additional usage.

Since you've already completed those steps, I recommend to turn off the Location Services for all of your apps, then turning them back on one or two at a time, as needed, to help determine which apps might be using your location. You can disable Location for both apps and system services with these steps.

Turn Location Services on or off. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can turn it off for some or for all apps and services. If you turn off Location Services, you’re asked to turn it on again the next time an app or service tries to use it.

Turn Location Services off for system services. Several system services, such as compass calibration and location-based ads, use Location Services. To see their status, turn them on or off, or show the Location Services icon in the status bar when these services use your location, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.

You can find the steps listed above in the iPhone user guide.

Privacy - iPhone

You can also find additional information about your Privacy and Location settings in this article.

About privacy and Location Services - Apple Support

Cheers!

I face the same problem and despite doing the suggested steps it still exists. Please help i cant afford to waste my data on such things. Thanks

Have mercy! This 11.7 represents about 1/4 to 1/3 of my usage too!

Can't wait for that feature either!