iOS5 using excessive cell data?

[hfletcher]

I don't want to turn off iMessage, Location services or anything like that. Otherwise what is the point in iOS 5 if you can't use any of it's features. Nobody sends me iMessages apart from a few people, and it certainly shouldn't be 20MB a day!

I am still waiting to see if iCloud being off causes any improvement, then I will probably move on to turning off Push Exchange email & calendars

 

[EasyRyde]

I don't want to turn off iMessage, Location services or anything like that. Otherwise what is the point in iOS 5 if you can't use any of it's features. Nobody sends me iMessages apart from a few people, and it certainly shouldn't be 20MB a day!

I am still waiting to see if iCloud being off causes any improvement, then I will probably move on to turning off Push Exchange email & calendars

Hey! I agree with you and that's what makes me annoyed about this whole thing. Why have a Smartphone!!??

I would move to the push settings next. That helped for me.

iMessage actively polls so that does drain some battery.

WAITING FOR iOS 5.X!!!

 

[Don Kosak]

I've had my iPhone 4s for about 2 days now.

Cellular Network Data
Sent 468 Kb
Received 470 Kb

I was in WiFi range all but about 5 or 6 hours. I'm guessing those kilobytes of data were sent then.

I have everything turned on, 2 iCloud accounts, 3 exchange accounts, 2 imap accounts, wifi sync, wifi backup.

Are you running specific applications that use the cellular network? Maybe some chat or video conferencing software that's running in the background?

I see some cellular data use, but nothing at the level some folks here are reporting.

 

[hfletcher]

Ok, an update: I turned off iCloud completely, and now my data usage has dropped from 20MB a day (on average) to just 4MB yesterday. So, it looks like iCloud was doing *something*, though I have no idea what? I only used Contacts/Bookmarks/Reminders and also PhotoStream and Documents in the cloud, but PhotoStream and Docs were both set to wifi only.

 

[ah123]

Wow - I just checked my account with o2 and apparently, every night at midnight, my 4S has been downloading up to 80MB of data. I'm now over my 500MB allowance with 11 days to go till my bill date. I think it took me over a year to reach 1GB of total usage with my 3GS. Wtf is going on with iOS5?

Btw, I have most of the iCloud services turned off. Just reminders and bookmarks are turned on.

Again - wtf?

 

[mom333]

Wow! So glad I read this thread. Same thing happened to me and I'm guessing it was the 3G on the iCloud. Just turned it off today. I hope I don't go over my data for this month - I'm going to have to watch it. I wish I never gave away my unlimited plan.

 

[Hurricane9]

I'm having the same problem here. I barely use cell data in the first place, but apparently I just started using a ton. I'm seeing jumps of about 7 MB per day.

Last month, I was suddenly getting close to my 200 MB limit, and I noticed this huge data usage. To be safe, I decided to turn off the data on my phone. This is where it gets weird. Even after the data was disabled, I was still seeing 7 MB jumps per day. Obviously this shouldn't have been happening.

I'm not sure what it is yet, so I'm going to try some things in this thread and report back. I've turned off location services and some of the iCloud options. The only iCloud options I have left on are Documents/Data and Photostream, both of which are supposedly set to run only on Wi-fi.

My guess is that there is a bug somewhere in iOS 5 that allows iCloud or the locations services to use data when it shouldn't.

 

[cfedu]

I have been using 400 MB to 600MB a month for the past year, I decided to downgrade my plan last month to save some money 6 gb to 1 . 4 weeks after I changed my plan, I'm already at 1.6 gb. I saved 5$ to downgrade but will be charged 5$ for going over 1gb. I guess my timing was bad, never thought an iOS upgrade would kill my data use.

 

[Frasern1]

I've always been a heavy data user since the WiFi at my school is so terrible but I have seen a huge increase of data usage since I got my 4S. 8 days into the current billing period and I am already at 1.2GB

 

[applehappy]

Well, my data usage has tapered off since the first week of 4S ownership, but it is still high. I'm hoping the 5.X update that addresses battery life will also address whatever is using cell data in a way that it should not be. I'm guessing Apple will not acknowledge a data usage bug, if they did then they might be accountable for all the overcharges people have experienced.

 

[blewvelvet]

Let's Face it. LION, iCloud and iOS 5 are disasters in translation

You know..I'm sitting here..looking at all these sites regarding problems with phone data, syncing, updates and LION and I'm here contemplating whether or not I should update my iPhone to iOS 5.....while I still need to use Snow Leopard and Mobile Me.

It's a total Vegas crapshoot.

While it's great that there are people out there (probably newbies) that haven't touched a computer the first times in their lives until a year or two ago and just bought an iPhone or iPad....having no knowledge of history or mac applications..and they just buy into the blind planned obsolescence system.

Well people, this is a doozy of an upgrade!! Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

As a PAYING CUSTOMER and long-time user of macs (1986)..this is the first time I feel like I'm completely screwed as an Apple user. AND yet..the crappy PC user gets backward support for iCloud. W T F !!!!!

I have THOUSANDS of dollars on applications that need to run on Rosetta. Not to mention..if there IS an update for them..they are not adequate (do I NEED to bring of the MS Office toolbar or macro issue??) or EXPENSIVE Adobe apps.

I would think that a multi billion dollar company such as Apple had test groups of people who, of course would still want to run their snow leopard (as if this issue didn't come up) and would've been able to continue the option on the new iOS to sync to mobile me.

BUT BESIDE the lack of consideration....and forced-to-upgrade to LION issue (which has been a DISASTER in our office including problems with simple COPYING FILES from drive to drive) I'm sitting here with 3 devices that potentially won't be able to sync once I update one device to iOS 5. The upgrade to LION is not an option..and would in the end COST me a bundle even though the update is cheap (of course it is)..just wait till you pay it and can't run software.

Now I'm sitting here looking for Google Sync options...or Outlook Exchange syncing options for the iphone to my Snow Leopard.

AND ANOTHER EXAMPLE of poor foresight for the paying customer...I mean WHY would apple remove Calendar functions such as "Sharing a Calendar" in the iCloud upgrade? What if you are a teacher or in a band and everyone in your group needs to update a calendar to share remotely? Why give us the functionality that has become necessary and remove it? I've only been able to share an iCal from a Mac running a Server. But how many people run Mac Servers.

I don't know people. Reading all the the stuff over the internet...I think I'm going to wait it out..because it's been a strategy that has worked well. Watch everyone else go through the grief first, then bitch and complain..and then finally the company has to solve it.

OR then the good old fashioned competitor steps in and says..We have a great iPhone app that does calendar and address syncing and used to work like your Mobile me with 10 GB - 50 GB of space you can sync your documents, videos and photos too..and WOW have access to them!

Is that too much to ask for?

 

[Zcott]

(snip)

It's hardly Apple's fault the programmers of your thousands of apps still use antiquated technology in the form of Rosetta. Do you run them on your steam powered Mac?

On this forum and countless others you'll hear the complainers. What you don't hear is the millions of satisfied customers out there happy with Lion, iCloud, and iOS 5. Myself included.

 

[steve-p]

complainers

Your choice of word says a lot. Everyone who has a problem is just a complainer, right? Nothing's perfect. Including Apple. Many people have legitimate problems with Lion, iOS5, iMessage, batteries, iCloud, 4S, Apple TV etc. Even though I use all of those, and don't personally have major issues, that doesn't make people who do just "complainers".

 

[Zcott]

Your choice of word says a lot. Everyone who has a problem is just a complainer, right? Nothing's perfect. Including Apple. Many people have legitimate problems with Lion, iOS5, iMessage, batteries, iCloud, 4S, Apple TV etc. Even though I use all of those, and don't personally have major issues, that doesn't make people who do just "complainers".

Ok, so 'complainers' was too strong. But my point stands: those with issues come here, those without issues stay away. And i'm willing to bet that there are more without issues than with issues.

 

[jcorson]

Used 500MB in two weeks - but problem solved now!!

After two weeks of iOS 5 on my iPhone 4s, I had managed to use all 500MB of my data whilst most of my use was at home and thru my home wifi.

I decided to find out whether apps were running in the background and eating data unnecessarily. In settings Menu observed cellular data usage and could see it clocking up almost by the second, only a few kB at a time but it was constant! I closed down each app one at a time and checked the cellular data usage but even when all apps were closed down in the background it was still downloading data from somewhere...

I then opted out of iAds by visiting oo.apple.com and also deleted my iCloud account. Hallejulia! The data stopped clocking up- although I don't know which of the two aforementioned things I did were the key. As my data allowance for the new month begins tomorrow, I shall be keeping an eye on this- but at the moment all seems good!!

 

[white4s]

im glad i came up on this thread. i have an unlimited plan so i dont have to worry about the amount of data but the battery drainage is what im most concerned about and this all makes sense. i did delete my icloud account as well

 

[aznjonny]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but has anyone found a solution yet?

I didn't notice this problem on my phone until I got the bill last week and got charged $10 for data overage. I only have a 200 MB plan on T-Mobile (factory unlocked iPhone 4S on 5.0.1). It's only been 8 days since my billing cycle reset and I've already used 42.2/200 MB. Insane! Before, on my iPhone 3G, I would only use about 100-120mb A MONTH. I have everything turned on for iCloud except for photostream and documents&data. I can't turn off iCloud because I rely on it for my email, contacts, and calendars. I have just gone through the hassle of moving everything from google/microsoft exchange onto iCloud...

The only way I can avoid this excessive data usage is to turn off cellular data. I can live with this for now since I have wifi at home and school, but there has got to be a real solution. Why would I buy $649 for a glorified iPod touch that can make phone calls?

 

[moonman239]

Check your connection to WiFi.

 

[aznjonny]

Check your connection to WiFi.

Yes, my wifi works fine, but it still consumes cell data when I'm asleep. I think it's because the phone disconnects the wifi while it is on standby, so the only way to prevent the usage is to turn off cellular data even when connected to wifi :/

 

[rabbitjetta]

I have unlimited data on Verizon but the main things are photo stream and iMessage.

 

[bp1000]

Although I'm on an unlimited data tariff too i would still like to know why the phone is consuming so much data.

Data amount also counts upload too so perhaps a lot of this is iCloud backups.

Either way in my case my 4s is using 4x more data than my previous phones.


I'm glad I'm on an unlimited tariff. It just doesn't add up because I'm within wifi coverage most of the time.

 

[britboyj]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Turn off error reporting.

 

[goodcow]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Turn off error reporting.

Error reports are text, which compress very well and use hardly any data. There's no reason to let errors go unreported to save one or two megs of data transfer per month.

 

[sbailey4]

I have unlimited data on Verizon but the main things are photo stream and iMessage.

So whats the deal with iMessage? That cant be a lot of data. Unless sending pics and such within the message. If strictly text i would not think it would be that much. But it DOES use data thats how it saves your text allotment from your carriers plan. Of course PhotoStream would be a hog

 

[PNutts]

Error reports are text, which compress very well and use hardly any data. There's no reason to let errors go unreported to save one or two megs of data transfer per month.

It was much more than that on the wife's iPad. She used to bump into her 250 MB cap even when using wifi at home. I turned off diagnostics and a few other things and right now she's used 36 MB so far this month.