Apps are updating over cellular data with option turned off

[ckurt25]

I happened to glance down at my phone a few minutes ago and saw that apps were updating. I'm never connected to wifi when I'm at work. I fired up the App Store App, saw I had 17 pending updates. As I'm typing this it's down to 2. I confirmed in Settings > iTunes & App Store that Use Cellular Data is off. So... why did this happen? How can I prevent it from happening in the future? I'm on AT&T. Is there a way to see how much data I used between X & Y time today? If this was an isolated incident I'm not worried about my data, but if this is happening all the time then yeah, I might be in jeopardy of running though my data plan.

Update:
I have an iPhone 7+ and am running iOS 10.3.1

 

[Russtopher]

Go into SETTINGS and turn off the background app refresh option.

 

[ckurt25]

View attachment 698427 Go into SETTINGS and turn off the automatic app refresh option.

That's content, not the apps themselves.
[doublepost=1493911017][/doublepost]

View attachment 698427 Go into SETTINGS and turn off the background app refresh option.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202180

 

[Russtopher]

That's content, not the apps themselves.
[doublepost=1493911017][/doublepost]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202180

I stand corrected.

Thanks.

 

[ckurt25]

It's weird, 23 apps updated today and 2 didn't. I know there is a 100 MB limit when you have the Use Cellular Data option turned on. It's like the phone ignored the fact the option was off but stuck to the size limits. At least that's why I'm assuming it didn't update Facebook and the other app.

 

[cswifx]

It's weird, 23 apps updated today and 2 didn't. I know there is a 100 MB limit when you have the Use Cellular Data option turned on. It's like the phone ignored the fact the option was off but stuck to the size limits. At least that's why I'm assuming it didn't update Facebook and the other app.

Did you start the download on WiFi and disconnect? Or did it simply update by its own accord on data?

 

[adrianlondon]

Did you start the download on WiFi and disconnect? Or did it simply update by its own accord on data?

Yep, that's happened to me. I was abroad updating some apps on a friend's slow wifi, then we went out. The apps continued to update over 3G and depleted a roaming package I'd bought (with the hope it'd last me a week!) in 5 minutes. Took me a while to work out what had used it all up.

 

[ckurt25]

Did you start the download on WiFi and disconnect? Or did it simply update by its own accord on data?

It started completely on it's own. The last time I was on wifi was around 8 AM and the updates started around 10:50 AM.

 

[EM2013]

App Store updates are weird. Cellular data and app updates are on for me but the apps will never update until I go to bed and plug it in the charger.

 

[zorinlynx]

My girlfriend's iPhone 6 used a large chunk of her data plan because it was updating apps over cellular. I went into cellular data settings and disabled cellular for app updates, but if this is a bug it may end up continuing to do this.

She is on a 3GB prepaid plan so it's really annoying for it to all run out and end up with a slow rest of the month just because a few games decided to update themselves.

EDIT: So this is interesting; I turned off cellular data for the app store, turned off Wifi and opened the app store. It warned me that cellular data was off for the app store, so I hit OK and tried to update an app... which then updated successfully over cellular.

This seems like a bug.

I checked a few other apps like Reddit and they do indeed lose network access when cellular data is switched off for them. The app store must use the network in a different way.

 

[simonsi]

Turning off Cellular for the App store has always worked for me but check you also have WiFi Assist OFF - its at the bottom of the Cellular Data for each App page, its criminal that Apple put that there and default it to ON...

Also be aware if you Hotspot your iPad to your iPhone you will be able to update apps on the iPad even if App store is set to Cellular OFF on the iPhone...

 

[ThunderMasterMind]

I had a similar thing happen last year on iOS 9. I have YouTube 1.3 installed since it's my favorite version, and on the way to the beach it updated itself to the latest even though I have auto updates off and never even opened the App Store from the house to the beach. I don't know why it did it, but it did and it never happened again.

 

[stooovie]

Happened to me too. Phone burned through the whole allotment of data in a matter of minutes, even when mobile data for all these things were disabled. Even the higher-up support person from Apple didn't have a clue as to why. Cost me a pretty penny.

 

[ckurt25]

Turning off Cellular for the App store has always worked for me but check you also have WiFi Assist OFF - its at the bottom of the Cellular Data for each App page, its criminal that Apple put that there and default it to ON...

Also be aware if you Hotspot your iPad to your iPhone you will be able to update apps on the iPad even if App store is set to Cellular OFF on the iPhone...

I'm assuming the numbers next to each app, under Use Cellular Data For are how much cell data has been used for each individual app. I wonder if just turning it off for the App Store will prevent cellular updates. I've give that a shot and play around a little.

Ok, I turned it off, when into the App Store App. I already had 1 pending update. When I tried going to Categories or Top Charts it said the App Store was unavailable. Out of curiosity, I clicked Update for the pending app (Lyft) and it updated.

I'm hoping with cellular data turned off for the App Store apps won't update on their own. I wouldn't even expect the apps to know there is a pending update if they can't connect to the App Store.

 

[atmenterprises]

My apps don't update over cellular BUT the App Store DOES show which apps have pending updates, even though I have cellular service turned off for the App Store.