iPhone X EXCESSIVE data usage

Bam. Yeah I am suffering the same thing, the first morning I set the phone up I was connected to WiFi and backed up my phone whilst connected to my laptop, it finished up date I unplugged my phone and went to work, once at work as you do I looked at my new iPhone, not much longer I received a text to say I only had 1000 mb of data remaining out of 28gb. I checked my app and it was true all gone. I have been with Apple for 10 years and never have I gone above 10gb PCM. Only the other day I has 1.4gb remaining came home and checked some time later only to find out I was back to a big fat 0 of data left, it’s getting a joke, turn this and that off, what’s the point in having a £1150 phone that I have to switch stuff on and off all the time, I am waiting on a call back from Apple to see what they say, failing that I will be taking the phone back to my service provider and telling them to stick it where the 🌝 dont shine. Hope this helps somebody else who has same issue.??.

I got the X a month ago and just discovered today that I've burned through 1.8G in 3 weeks. I'm in WiFi almost constantly and rarely use the phone out. My normal use is 200Mb per month. I have yet to figure out what is going on with this X gobbling up cell data while I'm in Wifi. Neither ATT nor Apple seems to be able to figure it out.

Richard Caughlan wrote:

Neither ATT nor Apple seems to be able to figure it out.

You should be able to figure it out yourself by going to Settings > Cellular > [Cellular Data]. There you can see the apps using large amounts of data.

I have a supervisor at Apple looking at this. I’ll let you know what we discover. At this point, he had me turn off cell data. Wednesday he’ll call back to analyze any cell data use. Shouldn’t be any. He hadn’t heard of the issue. AT&T said to call Apple. They had no idea why this sudden change to heavy cell data use with the iPhone X if switches were off and WiFi environment stable. They both mentioned that with the new X screen resolution cell data is going to increase substantially, so be careful if you are out, away from WiFi, and your cell data plan is limited.

Richard Caughlan wrote:

They both mentioned that with the new X screen resolution cell data is going to increase substantially,

For comparison, I have an iPhone X using AT&T. I use Wi-Fi perhaps 75% of the time.

I last reset my cellular data statistics 15 days ago. Since then, I have used 233MB of cellular data total, or about 15½ megabytes of cellular data daily.

This is a negligible number!

Well that’s a relief to know. I only have 1G a month plan. Normally carry over .8 every month until X. Cable went out the other day for a couple hours and I burned through 500Mb. Watched a couple YouTube videos for about 20 minutes. My cell data YouTube usage alone in the month I’ve had the new X and under 98% WiFi coverage was 989Mb. In 13 days of almost constsnt WiFi coverage I’ve used 1.8G cell data compared to 200Mb per month on my 7. I only get one or two cell bars here in the house and can barely make a call cutting out constantly without WiFi assist on.

Calm down. Your anger makes your post difficult to understand. From what I can gather, you're saying that your phone used nearly a gig of cellular data in five minutes of "non-usage." Is that correct?

My first suggestion is that you leave the cellular data switch on (or turn it on if it's off) BUT turn the switch off for EVERY ONE of the apps. Wait long enough to determine if the problem is still present. If it IS STILL PRESENT, we haven't learned much and we have to figure out a "Plan B."

If the problem is NOT present, turn on one app at a time until the problem returns. Then you will know a rogue app is causing the problem and you'll know which app it is. Then, focus your troubleshooting on that app - check the Settings, delete/reload, etc.

Your voicemail, iTunes media & Apple ID services alone and individually are consuming a large amount of data in system services, on top of all else 😮

I'd turn off Automatic downloads and updates for apps, streaming for music, adjust playback on media, etc, automatic backups (and, no idea what to say about voicemail, except for woah), unless you feel okay with the current status now.

liv0123 wrote:

Your voicemail, iTunes media & Apple ID services alone and individually are consuming a large amount of data in system services, on top of all else

I'd turn off Automatic downloads and updates for apps, streaming for music, adjust playback on media, etc, automatic backups (and, no idea what to say about voicemail, except for woah), unless you feel okay with the current status now.

Well, no. Voicemail consumes very little unless you get hundreds of messages a month. iTunes media, only if you turn on "Use Cellular Data" in settings/iTunes & App Stores. You can leave Automatic Downloads on as long as you restrict it to Wi-Fi in this way. Automatic backups NEVER go over cellular data. They only happen if the phone is locked, connected to power, and connected to Wi-Fi.

Music streaming is a choice; while it uses data, it doesn't use huge amounts.

But rather than a "shotgun" approach of randomly turning off stuff, just go to Settings/Cellular and you can see how much cellular data each app and system service uses to allow you to make an informed decision. And in the same place you can turn off the apps and services that you don't want to use cellular data.

No, a "shotgun" approach isn't wise. Just commenting on that particular user's cell data usage in system services. The voicemail size alone shocked me a bit.

I feel it's obvious to go to cellular usage. I agree - everyone should go there first.

However, I've noticed a significant difference in what some of my apps show for data usage within the app vs what it states under cellular usage. I adjusted my settings accordingly in apps, restarted phone & so on. Everything seems to be on point now and aligned.

Regarding automatic backups, etc, I need to call my carrier back. They caught me at a "good time" to tell me that WiFi services are still pushing cell usage regardless. I just went right along with the extra creative explanation they gave. I dunno...agitated with myself now and, I see how irrational and contradictory the info they stated is. If it were another person, I'd have caught at least some of the reasoning they gave that I know to not be true. But when it's me, I give them too much say and I just follow along; I become very passive and the complete opposite of my tech mode. Not good.

I am in charge of several mobile devices alone, at work is the irony. I tend to rotate use of them. Those are fine, with minor adjustments needed at times. I stay on top of those. But, I have two personal devices - the one I pay out of pocket for is the one I tend to use the most and just hand over to them essentially and tolerate lots with. Bottom line, I realize I need to get this straightened out asap, minus distractions so I'll be more engaged vs following directives that they know I'll just follow, so I can get back to work, for example. 😑

Thanks for setting the scene better. In general the figures in cellular data should be accurate. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and propose a way they may not be - retransmission when a connection is weak. Based on my knowledge of digital communications (which is pretty extensive). An app sends data, or receives data. If everything works, I send 1000 bytes, the the communications channel adds some overhead and sends 1000 bytes. The overhead includes integrity checks ('checksums", but not really) that verify that the transmission was received correctly. If the checks fail the packet is re-sent, and repeated until it is received correctly. It's possible, even likely, that the function in iOS that records the data used by the app only knows about the 1000 bytes, not the retransmissions. But the carrier still records the retransmissions as data (remember that the carrier doesn't know anything about the contents of the packets). So my 1000 bytes will be displayed in Settings/Cellular as 1000 bytes, but if it was retransmitted twice the carrier will "charge" for 3000 bytes. This is just speculation, but it could explain why the data usage reported by the carrier (and charged for) is higher than what the phone displays.

Regarding Wi-Fi, if Voice over Wi-Fi is enabled the carrier actually records that Wi-Fi usage and reports it on your bill as usage. It's one reason that most carriers have gone to unlimited talk (the other is that more people text than talk these days). However, If I call a friend in Paris from New York I get charged for an International call, even though it went over Wi-Fi. Not hypothetical; I DO call friends in Paris from NY and see the charges on my bill.

However, backups do not use cellular data - ever. Voicemail does; it can't use Wi-Fi. Likewise for some notifications and for MMS. Anything that goes through the carrier must use cellular data, because the carrier's system doesn't know how to address your Wi-Fi channel.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

If the checks fail the packet is re-sent, and repeated until it is received correctly.

I'm going back a few years but I remember a limit of three retries. Is that no longer true? I'm really hazy about this but I think that, after three retries, the transmission ceased and it was necessary for the human to request a retransmission of the entire message (which could range from diddly-squat to humungous).

To give you an idea how far I'm going back, I'm thinking of 3270 "Bisync" protocol.

Well, 3270 wasn't packet switched. I don't know the number of retries; 3 is reasonable. The app would then be notified of the failure. The app can then retry, but that would count in the data usage numbers in Settings/Cellular. I have long suspected that heavy data or battery usage after an update is caused by apps that never know when to stop retrying after they are interrupted by the update.

There was no packet switching when the 3270 was popular! On the other hand, I don't think that it really matters whether it's private line or packet - in both cases, it's a transmission protocol that's intended to reduce undetected errors to a minimum. I think you'll agree that 100% error-free transmission is not possible.

Your explanation makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, each app is given individual control over message retransmission and conceivably they could all make different decisions, not unlike the humans at the 3270 consoles.

Okay, now we're talking. I understand this....this brought up knowledge I thought I had pushed so far aside to focus on software and hardware, that I felt I may never recoup.

Retransmission. You nailed it with this. That's me at home, 98% of the time I'd safely say. My cell connection is either null or extremely poor. But, that app data and so on gets through regardless, even when my WiFi decides it's going to act up, which it does a fair amount.

It's all making sense now.

I too call internationally- two friends in particular. I was counting on this one, so yep - concur and same with me.

Lightbulb moment though: App retransmission. I knew there was something regarding my apps that had them at a usage just too high. The cell issue began about 7-8 weeks ago now, I'd say. I saw the peaks.

I just couldn't place it....they are retransmitting and I feel sure, trying to the maximum attempts. This adds up to the stats I was seeing. It also explains why my phones at home use the same or more cell usage than my devices at work, where my cell connection is exceptional. I kept wondering how I could use equal to or greater cell usage in an area that isn't responding to cellular coverage like it should (and, where I naturally have to rely on my home WiFi) vs my work devices with superior cell coverage in that area and typically, less usage of activity on them overall. Now, I know.

*Good to know I can discount my backups. I really like iCloud for syncing & backing up, so this just heightens my bias towards it.

I feel very confident with this knowledge given back to me again and better prepared, once again.

You really should post this as a user tip somewhere, Laurence. Anyone, from the average consumer to your software techs, analysts, etc, can use this, as we tend to have our mindset on software and hardware which is very difficult to deviate from....I get so focused on the software specifically, that it gets to be very trying on the mind to consider other elements, and I find myself reaching out for counsel. Working with multiple devices regularly makes me quite dependent on guys like you for the cell, WiFi and transmission of an array of data issues overall and to help bring all of a device's components together to help resolve issues, improve device performance and so on.

Really good stuff here. You helped me put the pieces together...finally.. This will assist in many ways for me and in turn, others.

Thank you so much. Love when things just make sense.

Please consider publishing somewhere. Well written, user friendly, concise, and practical - makes for the perfect combo of info that needs to be shared.