How can i temporally disable bandwidth hungry applications?

Question

How can i temporally disable bandwidth hungry applications?

I often need to use my iPad and iPhone via a BGAN satellite terminal in various remote locations. This is effectively a device that provides me with a wifi internet connection via satellite, albeit at a substantial cost and with a slow connection. On my devices i still have WhatsApp and a number of other instant message applications which are bandwidth hungry if I'm sent large files, therefore I'm after a way of effectively disabling a number of applications all together as i generally only wish to use my email over wifi and do not want to receive messages or large files over these other applications due to the substantial costs of data. I also want these applications to be easily re-enabled once I'm able to use a conventional wifi connection.

any help is greatly appreciated

iPad Mini, iOS 10.1.1, null

Posted on Feb 8, 2017 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 8, 2017 9:49 AM in response to Saifan Pilot

Saifan Pilot wrote:

Settings → Cellular → Disable the apps you don't wish to use cellular data (each app will have it's own individual switch)

Which will do nothing when connected to Wifi which is the case here. Cellular is not the issue:

This is effectively a device that provides me with a wifi internet connection via satellite,

The OP just wants to limit the apps when connected to a specific type of Wifi. Which in this case is a satellite connection.

I do not believe there is a way to do that however, other than not using the Apps in question.

You could ostensibly turn off Background app Refresh for said apps to prevent them from doing this like connecting the internet if you are not actively in them.

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Answer 2

Feb 8, 2017 9:48 AM in response to Phil0124

my issue is that on the IM applications i am a member of a much wider company wide chat group where large files are often shared. obviously when I'm tethered to my BGAN i really do not want to be downloading these files.

The only other option i can think of is to sign out of these applications or temporally delete them, although its really not ideal.

I was hoping there would be some kind of third party application which could effectively quarantine other applications.

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Answer 3

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,738 points

Feb 8, 2017 9:50 AM in response to SB Communicator

For WhatsApp on your phone, if you go into the app and into its Settings > Data And Storage Usage you should be able to turn off automatic downloads for audio, videos and documents (assuming that those settings do what I think that they do and that they work).

Do the other apps have similar settings (or an option to turn off content being pushed to you), or have an account logout option so that you could temporarily log out ?

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Answer 4

Feb 8, 2017 9:36 AM in response to SB Communicator

Settings → Cellular → Disable the apps you don't wish to use cellular data (each app will have it's own individual switch)

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Answer 5

Feb 8, 2017 9:40 AM in response to Saifan Pilot

thats purely to disable applications use via conventional GSM network, I'm really after how to disable a number of applications over wifi specifically, i should have detailed this further

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Answer 6

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,738 points

Feb 8, 2017 9:50 AM in response to SB Communicator

I was hoping there would be some kind of third party application

iOS is a sandboxed operating system, third-party apps can't block other apps.

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Answer 7

Feb 8, 2017 9:53 AM in response to King_Penguin

yeah, the main culprit which is an IM application called Slack does allow me to disable push notifications which will definitely help - thank you.

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