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Carrier Verizon is blaming Apple and Apple says there's no problem...

S

susan12369

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 20, 2015
438
33
So here's the deal. In the past couple of months, my phone has been absolutely HOGGING data! No changes on my end, no streaming, nothing new. I have a 2GB plan (yeah, I know, you can't imagine only 2GB, but I don't stream and I'm mostly on wifi). I have never gone over my limit and I've rarely even gone over 1GB. But here I am with a week left on my billing cycle and a measly 190MB left. I went to Verizon 2 weeks ago and they updated settings and said it must be something with the iPhone (6S+, by the way, running 9.3.5 iOS).

I went away for Labor Day weekend, was at family's on their wifi. Saturday morning got a text from Verizon notifying me that I was at 51% of my data for the month. Sunday morning - yes, 25 hours later - I got another text from Verizon that I was now at 75% of my data for the month. And except for maybe one hour, I had been on wifi the entire time. What the????

Had a genius bar appointment a few days later, they ran diagnostics, said nothing going on with phone. Did a full "reset all settings" anyway, and I'm still seeing cellular usage while I'm home on wifi. This morning I wake up to seeing stuff on FB about lots of Verizon customers experiencing this. So I go to Verizon today. I've been a loyal customer for nearly 20 years, but come on. They check some settings (wifi assist off, etc) and I spent half an hour on the phone arguing with one of their techs, and they want me to turn off cellular when I'm home and on wifi to see if it's still using data. Supposedly they're going to call me Monday night, we'll see if they follow through. They of course blamed Apple, said it could be a problem with the antenna. And the service manager comes to talk to me and suggests that it could be because they increased their data speeds recently. I don't get why faster speeds means running through data faster - I'm not an idiot, but can someone explain that to me? I feel like everyone keeps passing the buck and I don't know who is actually the cause of this madness...
 
K

kjotwani

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2014
227
79
susan12369 said:
So here's the deal. In the past couple of months, my phone has been absolutely HOGGING data! No changes on my end, no streaming, nothing new. I have a 2GB plan (yeah, I know, you can't imagine only 2GB, but I don't stream and I'm mostly on wifi). I have never gone over my limit and I've rarely even gone over 1GB. But here I am with a week left on my billing cycle and a measly 190MB left. I went to Verizon 2 weeks ago and they updated settings and said it must be something with the iPhone (6S+, by the way, running 9.3.5 iOS).

I went away for Labor Day weekend, was at family's on their wifi. Saturday morning got a text from Verizon notifying me that I was at 51% of my data for the month. Sunday morning - yes, 25 hours later - I got another text from Verizon that I was now at 75% of my data for the month. And except for maybe one hour, I had been on wifi the entire time. What the????

Had a genius bar appointment a few days later, they ran diagnostics, said nothing going on with phone. Did a full "reset all settings" anyway, and I'm still seeing cellular usage while I'm home on wifi. This morning I wake up to seeing stuff on FB about lots of Verizon customers experiencing this. So I go to Verizon today. I've been a loyal customer for nearly 20 years, but come on. They check some settings (wifi assist off, etc) and I spent half an hour on the phone arguing with one of their techs, and they want me to turn off cellular when I'm home and on wifi to see if it's still using data. Supposedly they're going to call me Monday night, we'll see if they follow through. They of course blamed Apple, said it could be a problem with the antenna. And the service manager comes to talk to me and suggests that it could be because they increased their data speeds recently. I don't get why faster speeds means running through data faster - I'm not an idiot, but can someone explain that to me? I feel like everyone keeps passing the buck and I don't know who is actually the cause of this madness...
Click to expand...


Turn off wifi assist?
 
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I7guy

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
35,165
25,358
Gotta be in it to win it
susan12369 said:
So here's the deal. In the past couple of months, my phone has been absolutely HOGGING data! No changes on my end, no streaming, nothing new. I have a 2GB plan (yeah, I know, you can't imagine only 2GB, but I don't stream and I'm mostly on wifi). I have never gone over my limit and I've rarely even gone over 1GB. But here I am with a week left on my billing cycle and a measly 190MB left. I went to Verizon 2 weeks ago and they updated settings and said it must be something with the iPhone (6S+, by the way, running 9.3.5 iOS).

I went away for Labor Day weekend, was at family's on their wifi. Saturday morning got a text from Verizon notifying me that I was at 51% of my data for the month. Sunday morning - yes, 25 hours later - I got another text from Verizon that I was now at 75% of my data for the month. And except for maybe one hour, I had been on wifi the entire time. What the????

Had a genius bar appointment a few days later, they ran diagnostics, said nothing going on with phone. Did a full "reset all settings" anyway, and I'm still seeing cellular usage while I'm home on wifi. This morning I wake up to seeing stuff on FB about lots of Verizon customers experiencing this. So I go to Verizon today. I've been a loyal customer for nearly 20 years, but come on. They check some settings (wifi assist off, etc) and I spent half an hour on the phone arguing with one of their techs, and they want me to turn off cellular when I'm home and on wifi to see if it's still using data. Supposedly they're going to call me Monday night, we'll see if they follow through. They of course blamed Apple, said it could be a problem with the antenna. And the service manager comes to talk to me and suggests that it could be because they increased their data speeds recently. I don't get why faster speeds means running through data faster - I'm not an idiot, but can someone explain that to me? I feel like everyone keeps passing the buck and I don't know who is actually the cause of this madness...
Click to expand...
Wifi-assist has nothing to do with a massive data increase. You didn't say what phone and what IOS version, but on my phone after about a month, wifi assist uses 8mb. I have VZW.

o Check your icloud settings to see if cellular is being used for backup.
o Do you have a lot of voicemails, somehow visual voicemail uses cellular
o look at the cellular screen and see what apps are using cellular
o when you are on wifi, turn cellular off and see if that helps.
o turn off apps you don't want to use cellular

I'm probably forgetting a few but turning off cellular when you are on wifi should stop the problem although I'm guessing something changed on your phone.
 
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Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
I7guy said:
Wifi-assist has nothing to do with a massive data increase.
Click to expand...


I wouldn't call an additional 800mb's in a month a massive data increase.
I can blow through that in a half hour.
Best thing to do is reset your cellular usage data stats at the 1st morning of your billing cycle and check to see what used most your data. Every single mb is listed there.
 
Last edited:
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Omen87

Omen87

macrumors regular
Oct 9, 2011
175
103
Kansas, USA
Is it at all possible that someone has managed to get a hold of OP's IMEI and has duplicated it into another phone? Not sure if Verizon tracks data usage by the IMEI or the ICCID.
 
slippery-pete

slippery-pete

macrumors 68020
Jun 23, 2007
2,284
1,263
susan12369 said:
So here's the deal. In the past couple of months, my phone has been absolutely HOGGING data! No changes on my end, no streaming, nothing new. I have a 2GB plan (yeah, I know, you can't imagine only 2GB, but I don't stream and I'm mostly on wifi). I have never gone over my limit and I've rarely even gone over 1GB. But here I am with a week left on my billing cycle and a measly 190MB left. I went to Verizon 2 weeks ago and they updated settings and said it must be something with the iPhone (6S+, by the way, running 9.3.5 iOS).

I went away for Labor Day weekend, was at family's on their wifi. Saturday morning got a text from Verizon notifying me that I was at 51% of my data for the month. Sunday morning - yes, 25 hours later - I got another text from Verizon that I was now at 75% of my data for the month. And except for maybe one hour, I had been on wifi the entire time. What the????

Had a genius bar appointment a few days later, they ran diagnostics, said nothing going on with phone. Did a full "reset all settings" anyway, and I'm still seeing cellular usage while I'm home on wifi. This morning I wake up to seeing stuff on FB about lots of Verizon customers experiencing this. So I go to Verizon today. I've been a loyal customer for nearly 20 years, but come on. They check some settings (wifi assist off, etc) and I spent half an hour on the phone arguing with one of their techs, and they want me to turn off cellular when I'm home and on wifi to see if it's still using data. Supposedly they're going to call me Monday night, we'll see if they follow through. They of course blamed Apple, said it could be a problem with the antenna. And the service manager comes to talk to me and suggests that it could be because they increased their data speeds recently. I don't get why faster speeds means running through data faster - I'm not an idiot, but can someone explain that to me? I feel like everyone keeps passing the buck and I don't know who is actually the cause of this madness...
Click to expand...
Boost mobile might be the answer
 
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blaine07

blaine07

macrumors 68030
Nov 14, 2014
2,502
2,460
Oklahoma
I'm wondering if their isn't some "bug" in 9.3.5? Is that even possible? I know this cycle I've used 48gb and have 7 days left. Normally I use 45ish gb for whole month. Last month I used like 52gb which is a bit more than normal(but I didn't think much of it) and I haven't been doing anything different than normal...
 
Nikos

Nikos

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2008
1,651
323
New York
Go to Settings -> Cellular and scroll down to see how much cellular data each app is using. I would suggest resetting it at the very bottom and monitoring the page. You can turn off cellular data usage for individual apps there as well.
 
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blaine07

blaine07

macrumors 68030
Nov 14, 2014
2,502
2,460
Oklahoma
Nikos said:
Go to Settings -> Cellular and scroll down to see how much cellular data each app is using. I would suggest resetting it at the very bottom and monitoring the page. You can turn off cellular data usage for individual apps there as well.
Click to expand...

58189895f37eb0292c020cc7d62270f2.jpg


So if I have never manually reset it 350gb would be life of phone or does system updates ever wipe it or anything or ?
 
K

kjotwani

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2014
227
79
I7guy said:
Wifi-assist has nothing to do with a massive data increase. You didn't say what phone and what IOS version, but on my phone after about a month, wifi assist uses 8mb. I have VZW.

o Check your icloud settings to see if cellular is being used for backup.
o Do you have a lot of voicemails, somehow visual voicemail uses cellular
o look at the cellular screen and see what apps are using cellular
o when you are on wifi, turn cellular off and see if that helps.
o turn off apps you don't want to use cellular

I'm probably forgetting a few but turning off cellular when you are on wifi should stop the problem although I'm guessing something changed on your phone.
Click to expand...


Wifi assist does impact. And on top of it, sometimes reports wrongly. I had a similar issue and turned off wifi assist and never again had the same issue.
Wifi assist might not be a solution in this case but in general it is a problem
 
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I7guy

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
35,165
25,358
Gotta be in it to win it
kjotwani said:
Wifi assist does impact. And on top of it, sometimes reports wrongly. I had a similar issue and turned off wifi assist and never again had the same issue.
Wifi assist might not be a solution in this case but in general it is a problem
Click to expand...
How do you know it reports wrongly? I'll take your word for it but based on the description your home wifi has to be iffy to incur any substantial data usage)
[doublepost=1473564213][/doublepost]
Applejuiced said:
I wouldn't call an additional 800mb's in a month a massive data increase.
I can blow through that in a half hour.
Best thing to do is reset your cellular usage data stats at the 1st morning of your billing cycle and check to see what used most your data. Every single mb is listed there.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. Without Wifi assist you will use cellular anyway, except your internet connection will stop working before cellular kicks in.
 
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willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
blaine07 said:
58189895f37eb0292c020cc7d62270f2.jpg


So if I have never manually reset it 350gb would be life of phone or does system updates ever wipe it or anything or ?
Click to expand...
It's only reset if you reset it. If you've never reset it, the stats you're seeing are since day 1 of owning your device.

I do so at the beginning of my billing cycle just to keep tabs on my apps/usage.
 
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blaine07

blaine07

macrumors 68030
Nov 14, 2014
2,502
2,460
Oklahoma
willmtaylor said:
It's only reset if you reset it. If you've never reset it, the stats you're seeing are since day 1 of owning your device.

I do so at the beginning of my billing cycle just to keep tabs on my apps/usage.
Click to expand...

Can I ask a dumb question... Why doesn't it allow you definite cycle start day and reset itself automatically...
 
willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
blaine07 said:
I have fat fingers... Excuse me. Why doesn't it allow the user to define billing cycle and automatically clear and track data usage itself by each period and allow a "look back" feature?
Click to expand...
My guess? It's just a buried feature that's there if needed but doesn't/won't get much more attention from the software engineers. Too much else going on (heck, Apple hasn't ever released a stock calculator app for the iPad.)

Would something like what you're describing be nice? Sure, but I'm not bothered by setting a reminder with Siri once a month.
 
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Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
I remember bitesms had a feature like that. It would count all the texts for you and keep track back in the day where people had different amounts of text messaging packages.
You put in the day your billing cycle started on and it did the rest automatically.
 
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