iOS 10 consuming mass quantities of data

If you go to Settings>Cellular>and then look at the apps under Use Cellular Data For: and you can see which apps are using how much data. I'm not sure what plan you have with AT&T, but I can say that most of my data is wi-fi, since I have it at work and also at home. So, it is seldom that I use a great deal of data. Our family of 5 doesn't use our 15GB monthly plan, normally. You should be able to tell from there where the data is going, and also check at the bottom under System Services to see what is going there as well.

The lone act of updating the iOS should not affect your data usage, unless there is something that is stuck attempting to process. Try powering the device off and then back on again to see if that helps. A reset by holding the sleep/wake and home buttons together if using an iPhone 6s series or below, or the sleep/wake and volume down button if using the iPhone 7 series and see if that clears anything.

I've not experienced any differences in my cellular usage since iOS 10, and I use iCloud for calendars and contacts. my usages have not increased, so I'm not sure what you are referring to as far as a "switch" is concerned, and what Apple is doing different that you call inefficient. If you are not syncing across iCloud, then you should not see any usages there, and there would not be any. I just changed my iCloud settings just prior to my getting my iPhone 7, since I was picking it up while on vacation and wanted my calendar and contacts available. Even with that being out of town for the weekend, I did not see any significant increases in my data usage.

One of the best things to do to test out software versus hardware errors is to restore a device to factory and not add any content to it. Test the device for a specific period of time and note any differences. For you, it seems your issues are data usage while in Safari. You could restore your phone and spend a day with it, or at least up through your lunch hour. After that, take a look at your usage statistics. See if there are any differences. Generally, people that experience data increases that state they are not doing anything different, especially after some update, there can be a process stuck trying to complete, like a mail, or other download that is continually using some data exchange. Something is happening, but it is not an overall iOS usage issue.

If things don't change with the restore, then it very well could be something with hardware. However, I believe you should find relief with the restore. You can try restoring to your backup after that test, and if the usage increases, then there is something corrupt in your backup. Good luck.

Well, I never said you were losing your mind. However, given the information in that article you linked, that report is for both iOS 10 and Sierra betas, not the final versions. However, if you are syncing documents in iCloud as the article speaks about, then yes, it could use more data. I don't use a Mac, and the only things I use iCloud for are as I indicated earlier, calendar and contacts.

If you have a backup of your device, a restore is not going to be a problem. If you do your backup in iTunes and you have health data, you need to make the backup an encrypted one, or you will lose the health data. Again, restoring to factory will wipe everything, but with a backup, you can restore again to that backup and recover your data. The restore will verify things as I mentioned. I've seen others report data increases after most of the last updates since iOS 6, so it is not unusual to see this, but most everything I've seen can be corrected once the problem is identified.

You're welcome, and don't worry, I've understood everything you have written.

In iOS 10 I have noticed sometimes when I am in a location where my phone could switch to a known wifi network, it has stayed on LTE. Until I manually select wifi.

Hi -

I am having the EXACT same issue. This all started after I upgraded to Sierra on my home iMac and then my work iMac.

ATT contacted me on Monday, after 1 week into the billing month, saying I had used 75% of my data plan. By Tuesday morning I had used 90%, by noon on Tuesday I was over my limit. They charged me $15 for 1GB Extra which I just exceed Thursday morning. I am not doing anything different on any of my devices. We ALWAYS have rollover data from month to month.

My ATT bill shows my iPhone 6S Plus and iPad pro as using the most massive amounts of data. My Husbands iPad and iPhone and my kids iPhones/iPads are not using heavy amounts of data.

My apps on both my devices don't show that much usage. However, according to my ATT bill I have something connecting at every 3 hours around the clock, each day, transferring massive amounts of data on both devices.

I found a 18 tip article online (http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-stop-running-out-mobile-cellular-dat a-iphone-ipad-ios-9-wifi-assist-data-usa…) and did everything it said to do. I made sure wifi assist was off. I deleted apps I don't use. I turned off iCloud drive on all my mobile devices and both my iMacs. Turned off automatic updates and cellular data in iTunes itself. Data roaming off. I removed my Facebook account. Turned off cellular data for Facetime. I turned off cellular data for 90% of my apps and only kept those I always need like messaging and Safari. I turned off iCloud Photo Library and cellular data for Photos. I turned off push notifications for every app that isn't absolutely necessary like mail and messages. I turned off push data for all email accounts. I turned off background APP Refresh. I made sure Wifi is on for home and work. I turned off use Cellular Data for the reading list in Safari.

It looks like from my ATT bill that my data usage has severly decreased on both devices since I turned all of this off, but is still connecting every three hours. However, today at noon there was another half-way large data transfer. I happened to check the iCloud drive in System Preferences on my home iMac this morning and.... it was turned BACK ON. Now, I did not do this as I am trying to conserve my data. I turned it off two days ago. So how and why was is back on???? If you are having the same issue, I would double check it every day for a good week. I can only assume there was some sort of update to the computer that allowed it to turn back on????

I also checked the 2 other accounts I have on my computer and sure enough, my Husband was logged in with his Apple ID and had iCloud Drive turned on (on his laptop as well) and my mother had it turned on too. I deleted both of them from my iMac so it would stop syncing their accounts from my computer to their iPads and iPhones. I turned iCloud Drive off on my Husband's laptop.

My kids also had it turned on on their iMacs which just upgraded to Sierra so I turned it off there as well.

Does anyone know how to stop my phone from automatically using data every three hours??? Now that I'm over my data plan for a second time in three days, I need to conserve it as much as possible while still allowing my messages to come through. Something other than turning off the phone completely or something that I have already tried or turning off cellular all together?

Thanks.

-A VERY unhappy Apple customer.

I've never seen this kind of usage. What is using that much data in two days? What apps are showing that data usage? It seems you have something turned on that is trying to sync data with the device. Are you using one of the photo syncing settings for handling photos between devices?

Well, I'm not a Mac user, so how it syncs with the Mac is beyond me. As far as consistency with AT&T records, they bill in blocks. In other words, you do not get billed immediately when you use data, it is billed in blocks at different times of the day. They bill at night, so the blocks of data you see on your AT&T bill at night, while you are at home and on wi-fi does not mean you are using it at that particular time, but have used that since the last set of data was billed.

Given the number of issues you have experienced, and that you have attempted user troubleshooting and have not come up with a resolution, I suggest that you make an appointment at the Genius Bar of the nearest Apple store to discuss the issue. You may also want to bring your Mac, if it is portable. I am not aware of any other settings I can recommend, since I'm not familiar with Mac computers. There has to be something going on, especially with this large usage with Safari. If you restored the device to factory and then tested it for a period of time without adding any additional content and you are still experiencing this large amount of cellular data usage something strange is going on that I cannot imagine to help you troubleshoot.