iPhone iOS 9 high general data usage

[AppleMatt389]

Since updating to iOS 9, I have noticed my data usage is much higher than normal. I looked in Mobile Data usage and found "General" under "System Services" to be extremely high. And because it is "General", I have no idea what is using up this data.

Anyone else experiencing this? Or have any idea how I can stop it?

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I had the same issue here when I upgraded to iOS 9. No idea what the cause was. Not sure if it's still going on.

 

[mattyu007]

Could it be related to the new Wi-Fi Assist feature?

 

[AppleMatt389]

Could it be related to the new Wi-Fi Assist feature?

I thought that, but it's turned off...

 

[cynics]

I wonder if this is area specific. I don't have a "general" under system usage at all...

 

[AppleMatt389]

I wonder if this is area specific. I don't have a "general" under system usage at all...

I think it might be. I'm in Australia.

It's really annoying, because it gives no indication what General is for.

 

[mattyu007]

Hmm yeah I’m not really sure then. I have Wi-Fi Assist turned off too, but I still have some usage under General.

For me, I’m more surprised by how much Media Services is taking up, given that all the music I listen to on my phone is available offline.

 

[Altis]

Apple seems to act like everyone has unlimited data now. I've had 6GB of data per month for over 5 years now and I never went over until I got my iPhone 6 (on iOS 8). Now I've been over every single month since.

I think the main culprit is how everything gets booted out of memory so aggressively, and it has to reload everything over and over (tabs in Safari, videos, etc).

I'm hoping it's better on iOS 9. I tried disabling Cellular Data for some apps like Music, and it gives me an annoying message every day or two when I open the Music app that I've turned off cellular data. I can't really think of why it needs it so badly as to be so insisting.

 

[t12013]

Hello guys, it is under system services ::> general. I guess it referes to settings apps, for me it seems that it starts updating to the cloud ? Because nothing else uses internett, i have all apps updated, all music is downloaded, so i dont really know, its 4th extra gigabyte package now and on my wifes phone it used 600 mb on one day. So we have both 0 internett left and huge phone bill now coze of the "extra" ussage.

 

[perkedel]

I have it in general, but mine says 960 KB. I updated to iOS 9 using iTunes. It could be some of the iOS 9 updates.
Everything is set to on in my iPhone, except the iAds, diagnostic location, and wifi services.

 

[pmemon]

I think it might be. I'm in Australia.

It's really annoying, because it gives no indication what General is for.

I don't think it's area specific, I'm sitting in Pakistan and my General under System Services shows 1GB, even though I just got my fresh data plan yesterday. I've changed all the settings to not ever use mobile data (including iCloud Drive, automatic app downloads and updates etc) but I'm not sure it'll work. If anyone finds an actual fix, please let me know!

 

[bushido]

Apple seems to act like everyone has unlimited data now

yep i am not sure if it is a iOS or iPhone 6 thing but i used to have a 1GB plan and i never reached it. nowadays i am always barely missing my upgrated 3GB limit each month for doing nothing special. i dont even stream music on mobile data

 

[invu]

It happens in the US, too.
I had never seen "General" appear under "System Services" before updating to iOS9,
but now it's the main data hog.
Apple should fix this or at least make things transparent so people know what it's for.

Looks like they just released 9.0.1 update.
Let's see if updating the iOS fixes it.

 

[liteshow]

I have a 5s. My "general" usage since beginning of this month is 20.0 KB I updated to ios 9.0 on the 16 Sept OTA. Then I did a restore from itunes to 9.0.1 yesterday. Both cases no data usage issues.

May I suggest trying a restore from itunes and see if that fixes it?

 

[FeraCampos]

Since updating to iOS 9, I have noticed my data usage is much higher than normal. I looked in Mobile Data usage and found "General" under "System Services" to be extremely high. And because it is "General", I have no idea what is using up this data.

Anyone else experiencing this? Or have any idea how I can stop it?

View attachment 582488

Having the same issue here!
Help please!!!

 

[teobf]

Any new on how to fix this issues, same here with ios 9.01 iphone 6

 

[t12013]

hello guys, yes. apparently the guilty one here is the new and amazing feature called "WIFI assist" .. so just turn it off and you will save 10´s of gigabytes on cellular.

 

[C DM]

hello guys, yes. apparently the guilty one here is the new and amazing feature called "WIFI assist" .. so just turn it off and you will save 10´s of gigabytes on cellular.

So is that proven or just a theory? So far practically everything about it has been people thinking it might be behind high usage, and yet nothing that really truly shows that's actually the case.

 

[liteshow]

I have wifi assist on and no issues on my 5s with 6.0 and 6.0.1. My wifi setup at home and at work are very good. Good coverage and consistent bandwidth.

If wifi assist if giving some of you issues, I am thinking it just might be that your wifi connections are really bad or you are always on the fringe of a wifi coverage - forcing cellular to take over.

Here's a simple test, check how good your wifi is by turning off cellular data where you usually use the internet. See if your wifi connections are good or choppy. Can you play a your tube video without delays due to buffering, etc. If they are bad or mediocre, then the problem really is your location or your wifi router, not the wifi assist.

hello guys, yes. apparently the guilty one here is the new and amazing feature called "WIFI assist" .. so just turn it off and you will save 10´s of gigabytes on cellular.

 

[Aniseedvan]

I came to this yesterday when I got a text from my providers saying I'd hit 80% of my allowance in three weeks. Talk about poor timing; I switched from an unlimited 3G contract to a 2GB 4G one at the start of September.
I'm not completely convinced that this is the main culprit. I've switched off all cellular data last night and during today using my mifi have racked up nearly a 1GB of use between my iPad and phone. I was in a conference all day today, just sending emails and writing notes in draft on the iPad. Something is chewing up background data still...

 

[bushido]

i am on 9.1b2 and my "General" is only 700 kb. I have "music" "appstore" "itunes" over mobile data and the wifi assistant thing disabled. oh and iCloud over mobile data is disabled as well

 

[Altis]

I kind of wonder if this feature was in iOS 8 as well but without the ability to disable it.

I had quite a number of times where I was on wifi and I could get the message "could not activate cellular data".

Like I said before, I've never gone over my 6GB/month cap in 5 years, and I've been over every month since with the iPhone 6.

 

[yanki01]

Apple seems to act like everyone has unlimited data now. I've had 6GB of data per month for over 5 years now and I never went over until I got my iPhone 6 (on iOS 8). Now I've been over every single month since.

I think the main culprit is how everything gets booted out of memory so aggressively, and it has to reload everything over and over (tabs in Safari, videos, etc).

I'm hoping it's better on iOS 9. I tried disabling Cellular Data for some apps like Music, and it gives me an annoying message every day or two when I open the Music app that I've turned off cellular data. I can't really think of why it needs it so badly as to be so insisting.

I swear I thought I was the only one. not until I got the iPhone 6 and iOS 8, data usage has been nuts! I would never go near 5-6gb a month. that's even with me going to the gym at least 4 times a week and streaming Spotify at least an hour. I haven't used Spotify in over 6 months and still my data has spiked to 10-11gb a month? I don't get it. I've turned everything in the background off, locations, auto update off, everything!

 

[yanki01]

FWIW, this is my system services.

 

[t12013]

And this stupid phone did it again !!!! it used my 6,5 gigabytes in 3 day .. iam soooooo pisseed off i have this s hit phone !!! i want to cry. second month now without internett.

WIFI assis is of course off and running 9.0.2 but last night i got the message that the phone at 05:00 am used my last 1 gigabyte left after using 4gbs on monday night 04:00