• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

iOS 8 Using an abnormally high amount of cellular data?

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/how-to/ios-8-high-data-usage-iphone-fixes/

Some users are experiencing higher than normal cellular data usage on their new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and older models, according to users on the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors forums and InsideCupertino.

The problem exists in iOS 8 and iOS 8.0.2. Users, after checking their data usage, are seeing higher than normal usage (including ourselves). Part of the problem may be possibly related to new options in iOS 8 which use cellular data as part of iCloud. Here are some possible fixes to try and reduce your data usage.

Under Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data, toggle off ‘Use Cellular Data’ and any other apps you don’t want to use data.

I would highly suggest toggling off WhatsApp before launching it on a newly restored device setup as a new iPhone. Why? At the first launch (if you’re not in Wi-Fi range), the app sees your iCloud backup and starts restoring from it and will do so over cellular. The same goes for Camera+, especially if you have lots of photos being stored in iCloud.
Click to expand...

They post a few recommended fixes in their article but most of that stuff I already had toggled off by default and I am still seeing large spikes in cellular data usage of up to 100mb over my normal usage per day. To say the least, I'm concerned.

My mother is on a share plan with me and she's been at home recovering from surgery. Even though she's been out of the apartment (and out of wifi range) maybe twice in the last two weeks she has used 600mb of data since iOS 8 was installed. That is more data than she used the entirety of the previous month (around 80mb in total).

With bendgate, this issue seems largely ignored or people have large enough data plans that they don't see it. Tracking day-to-day usage over the previous month definitely has me concerned though.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6542316 Apple discussion on the subject. Looks like setting up a phone as new may solve the problem.

Suggested fix for those experiencing it:

This solved my question by Mitton79 on Sep 23, 2014 1:21 AM
OK, so I got it fixed, had to reset the phone completely and set it up as new.

Settings>General>Reset> Reset all Content and Settings.

Log in to App Store and all Apps are there for download.]
Click to expand...

I will give this a shot over the weekend.
 
Mine hasn't changed, but I actually go through my options when I do an OS update.

One of the things I turned off that I didn't see in that article was "preload top hit" in Safari's settings.
 
Something is going on, and it's not just iOS 8. My mother in law is always on wifi, and has an iPhone 4 that we won't be upgrading to iOS 8 for obvious reasons. Her data usage has sky rocketed the last 2 months for no reason at all. I'm talking almost 2x usage, while all she does is occasionally check out Facebook or YouTube.

Spoke to AT&T this morning and they told me that the Facebook app has a big bug that isn't being reported on: the videos in your newsfeed default to stream over 4G or LTE even if you are connected to wifi.

This seems very far fetched, but you can easily force Facebook to only stream those embedded videos over wifi. Regardless, it sounds like the carriers have done some "tweaking" to ensure we upgrade our data plans.
 
My usage was unusually high this month, and I attributed it to having a new phone and using it too much. Definitely turning this off though.

For all the criticism Apple has had over the years over lack of configurability, there are quite a many layers upon layers of things in that settings app these days.
 
Not having this issue with an iPhone 6 and iOS 8.

But then, that goes along with "setting the phone up as new" solving the problem.
 
Weird. My combination of settings and apps must have me avoiding this issue. I've probably used less data since I installed iOS 8 a couple months ago (beta). I keep track of it.
 
I'm on almost the exact same usage, going from an iPhone 5S on 7.1.2 to 8.0, then to an iPhone 6 on 8.0 and now on 8.0.2.

I'm pretty particular about my cellular usage. In August I left a 4G Vodafone contract with 12GB data allowance a month and moved to O2 with 8GB data allowance a month (cheaper and far, far better reception). So I'm constantly checking the My O2 app to look at my data usage.

I started my iPhone 6 fresh. I signed into my iCloud during the setup but never carried over the backup from my 5S.
 
Maninthemirror said:
Could it have to do with all photos instantly uploading to the cloud
Click to expand...

No.. I have all the features that use iCloud via cellular turned off.

I know my usage very well. There has definitely been a spike on iOS8 and I'm not alone in noticing it.

Resetting the phone completely and setting up as new seems to be a working fix. I am going to try it over the weekend. In the meantime I'm keeping cellular off.

Ninja Dom said:
I'm on almost the exact same usage, going from an iPhone 5S on 7.1.2 to 8.0, then to an iPhone 6 on 8.0 and now on 8.0.2.

I'm pretty particular about my cellular usage. In August I left a 4G Vodafone contract with 12GB data allowance a month and moved to O2 with 8GB data allowance a month (cheaper and far, far better reception). So I'm constantly checking the My O2 app to look at my data usage.

I started my iPhone 6 fresh. I signed into my iCloud during the setup but never carried over the backup from my 5S.
Click to expand...

Apparently if you start fresh you should be fine. This seems to be for people who just ran the update.

The thing is though, I am on a 6+ now. The update between iOS 8 and iOS 8.0.2 seems to have caused the issue to happen on my device.
 
interesting... the last 2 months are the first time ever I've gone over my limit too (I only get a pitiful 500mb/month) but before then I don't think I'd ever even hit 50%

This month I've already gone past 100% and have 8 days left

All I do is browse websites, I don't stream video or anything...

I already had iCloud disabled and don't have whatsapp... so it's not those (in my case at least)
 
here is the way to find out which apps are using the most data

Settings
Cellular


Go all the way to bottom and click reset statistics then monitor your whole day useage And come back to this settings screen and see which apps is draining data
 
This is why it's always best to wait for the 6S model. This is like routine for Apple. The first gen are always fucked up in some ways.

Antenna/Reception
Build Quality
Software glitches

And funnily enough, this all started to happen after the 4. What's going on?
 
AyaisMUsikWhore said:
This is why it's always best to wait for the 6S model. This is like routine for Apple. The first gen are always fucked up in some ways.

Antenna/Reception
Build Quality
Software glitches

And funnily enough, this all started to happen after the 4. What's going on?
Click to expand...

This isn't an iPhone 6 issue. It's an iOS 8 issue that is affecting certain users with different iPhone models. It appears to be affecting those who did not do a fresh install when updating their OS.

There may be some other criteria as well.

Maninthemirror said:
here is the way to find out which apps are using the most data

Settings
Cellular


Go all the way to bottom and click reset statistics then monitor your whole day useage And come back to this settings screen and see which apps is draining data
Click to expand...

I plan to do that but this isn't a single app issue. If it just suddenly spiked on my iPhone alone I would have thought that. The huge spike took place on my mother's phone as well. If it's a specific app, it may be one of the ones that iOS comes preloaded with. Or one of the features iOS comes preloaded with.
 
DoctorWho said:
This isn't an iPhone 6 issue. It's an iOS 8 issue that is affecting certain users with different iPhone models. It appears to be affecting those who did not do a fresh install when updating their OS.

There may be some other criteria as well.



I plan to do that but this isn't a single app issue. If it just suddenly spiked on my iPhone alone I would have thought that. The huge spike took place on my mother's phone as well. If it's a specific app, it may be one of the ones that iOS comes preloaded with. Or one of the features iOS comes preloaded with.
Click to expand...


This shows system services too so its not just app monitoring
 
Something is definitely up with it. I hardly ever use my data as I am always near a wifi signal, and I got a text from AT&T telling me they were going to throttle my 4gLTE speeds because I was at nearly 5GB of usage. All I ever use my phone for is to make calls, text, take photos, play games and occasionally use Facebook. My usage has DECREASED in recent months, so for me to hit nearly 5GB is very suspect.

I've since turned off a number of settings and I'm still sitting at nearly 2GB.
 
At 11:07AM EST I turned my cellular service back on and reset the cellular usage statistics. I am going to leave it on for the day and see if anything weird pops up.

My data usage for the month with the carrier just rolled over so I have my usual 2gbs to play with.
 
Isn't it highly likely that a lot of apps were updated for iOS8 in bulk or that Apple started backing up more things to iCloud and that spike in usage was just a one off right after the update? Or the actual downloads of the swift release of 3 consecutive updates.
 
Zeppu said:
Isn't it highly likely that a lot of apps were updated for iOS8 in bulk or that Apple started backing up more things to iCloud and that spike in usage was just a one off right after the update? Or the actual downloads of the swift release of 3 consecutive updates.
Click to expand...

Well, all the iCloud cellular data usage options are turned off. Other users with issue are saying they have theirs turned off as well.

iOS updates were all done on wifi so it wouldn't be that. I also have apps set to only update when on a wifi connection.

I checked for all of that.

The usage spike didn't happen on one day. It's a noticeable 100mb+ usage per day over what I usually use.
 
/look at my data usage on T-Mobile unlimited plan
/25.05GB so far this month cycle.

/shrugged smugly.

okno said:
Something is definitely up with it. I hardly ever use my data as I am always near a wifi signal, and I got a text from AT&T telling me they were going to throttle my 4gLTE speeds because I was at nearly 5GB of usage. All I ever use my phone for is to make calls, text, take photos, play games and occasionally use Facebook. My usage has DECREASED in recent months, so for me to hit nearly 5GB is very suspect.

I've since turned off a number of settings and I'm still sitting at nearly 2GB.
Click to expand...

Scary. Weird shit going on there.
 
DoctorWho said:
Well, all the iCloud cellular data usage options are turned off. Other users with issue are saying they have theirs turned off as well.

iOS updates were all done on wifi so it wouldn't be that. I also have apps set to only update when on a wifi connection.

I checked for all of that.

The usage spike didn't happen on one day. It's a noticeable 100mb+ usage per day over what I usually use.
Click to expand...

Odd
I just opened viber after a long time and exchanged 5 text messages and it used 22 mb. Although it did pop up some in app advertisement saying why don't I use these and that stickers and try viber out but 22 mb is a lot
 
DoctorWho said:
I'm genuinely curious how people are using 13gb of cellular data a month.

That sounds insane to me.
Click to expand...

Easy done, I'm a very mobile person. Always on the go from one place to another, I use my phone constantly.

That really sucks that data plans are so low for you guys. Most of my friends have unlimited and we can just use as much as we like.
 
DoctorWho said:
I'm genuinely curious how people are using 13gb of cellular data a month.

That sounds insane to me.
Click to expand...

I have used 25GB this month because:
a) Moving to a new place, no home wifi, depending on mobile data solely for communication.
b) Watching tv shows during daily workout on eliptical machine at the gym.
 
Here's something odd: iOS8 is reporting 10gb of data usage for my current usage period, but my provider is listing 2.5gb.. obviously something somewhere isn't being measured properly.
 
DrEvil said:
Here's something odd: iOS8 is reporting 10gb of data usage for my current usage period, but my provider is listing 2.5gb.. obviously something somewhere isn't being measured properly.
Click to expand...

My current usage period said 6.8gb. I think that stat is actually your usage since the last time you reset it. I just reset mine now and it went back to 0. Before it was accumulated from December 2013.
 
Something is definitely up with ios8 and data usage.

I live on a college campus and am covered by Wifi about 80% of the time. In seven years of iPhone owning I've never gotten anywhere close to my data caps

Got a warning yesterday that I've used 1.6GB/2GB on my plan for this month. This has never happened once before. Looking at the graphs it seems like the spike in usage occurred right after ios8 came out.
 
Kemal86 said:
Something is definitely up with ios8 and data usage.

I live on a college campus and am covered by Wifi about 80% of the time. In seven years of iPhone owning I've never gotten anywhere close to my data caps

Got a warning yesterday that I've used 1.6GB/2GB on my plan for this month. This has never happened once before. Looking at the graphs it seems like the spike in usage occurred right after ios8 came out.
Click to expand...

Yeah. All the graphs on my usage say the same thing.

Did you do a straight update or a fresh reset of the phone? Apparently a reset fixes the issue.
 
I haven't updated to IOS8 (still on IOS7) and the last 2 months my data usage has been crazy! I have 6GBs an month and rarely ever went about 2, I hit my cap in August and almost did last month. This thread makes me think something is up (haven't updated my OS during that time nor do I use the Facebook app as someone has mentioned.) hm...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

One of the strangest UFO cases. Westall high school 1966. 400 witnesses, teachers and students
2
67
1K
jason10mm replied
How to deal with high salary jumps?
2
89
2K
p_xavier replied
South Korean goverment loses 858 TB of data due to fire at single datacenter site
2
59
2K
StreetsofBeige replied
8 Reasons Its Tough to Watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Today
2 3
138
2K
jason10mm replied
Anyone using a Digital Audio Player?
11
537
Cyberpunkd replied
Top Bottom