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AT&T 200MB Limit Horror Story

L

LotuSviLLe

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 6, 2008
70
0
So I went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter last weekend and took over 200 pictures/videos which all look amazing with the new camera on the 4, but not realizing that the camera was using Location Services to tag a "Place" to every single one of my photos and when I check my billing cycle 3 whole days in I'm already at 85MB of my 200MB allotted per month. The last 6 months I checked on the AT&T site I only went over 200MB of data usage once in a whole 30 day billing cycle.

Sucks.

I'm curious to know whether is was indeed these photos that racked up my data usage or if it was some app running in the background with multitasking that was using my data. I don't use Pandora or anything like that. So I'm pretty certain it was the Camera app.

WARNING!
Check your settings and turn off Location Services on Camera before you go cam crazy!


Pics requested of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10392467/
Vids requested of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10392499/
 
I've used 202mb since the 22nd..

Haven't taken many pics but have done a bit of surfing and downloading apps since I can actually run cpu/gfx intense apps now!
 
How bad were the lines? During opening weekend, I heard the wait time just to get in was around 7 hours.

I'm going in July. Can't wait!
 
Huh. I was under the impression that GPS wasn't a cellular service. Am I wrong? All it's doing is grabbing the coordinates from the freely available gps satellites, right?

Anyway, you should have seen the location icon pop up if it was a gps issue.. What they really need is a data indicator. It sounds like it's just way too easy to request data without realizing it.

It would also be neat if the iPhone could track each app's data usage. There's no reason we should be have to commit to capped data blindly.
 
This is exactly why I will keep my unlimited plan, even though I use nowhere near the bandwidth that is allowed on the less expensive plan--

As more and more apps use services in the background, more and more bandwidth will be consumed.

I would rather "overpay" for my unlimited plan now, than get a surprise bill at some point in my future.
 
Not possible. Tagging pics with your location uses the GPS but it doesn't use any data. Try this: in network settings turn off cellular data and then take a pic. It will still be tagged with its location.
 
TheConfuzed1 said:
This is exactly why I will keep my unlimited plan, even though I use nowhere near the bandwidth that is allowed on the less expensive plan--

As more and more apps use services in the background, more and more bandwidth will be consumed.

I would rather "overpay" for my unlimited plan now, than get a surprise bill at some point in my future.
Click to expand...

I agree! I'm going to try to keep it as long as they'll let me!
 
I was on the 200MB plan, but after calling AT&T with some help with our tv service, they told my mom that I should upgrade to 2GB since they saw I had an iPhone. So I decided to go ahead and pay for the 2GB. It feels better knowing I don't have to check everytime I make sure that I'm within limits, cause once I get this iPhone 4 jailbroken, I'm going hell overboard.
 
LotuSviLLe said:
So I went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter last weekend and took over 200 pictures/videos which all look amazing with the new camera on the 4, but not realizing that the camera was using Location Services to tag a "Place" to every single one of my photos and when I check my billing cycle 3 whole days in I'm already at 85MB of my 200MB allotted per month. The last 6 months I checked on the AT&T site I only went over 200MB of data usage once in a whole 30 day billing cycle.

Sucks.

I'm curious to know whether is was indeed these photos that racked up my data usage or if it was some app running in the background with multitasking that was using my data. I don't use Pandora or anything like that. So I'm pretty certain it was the Camera app.

WARNING!
Check your settings and turn off Location Services on Camera before you go cam crazy!
Click to expand...

The more important question is, where are these pics!?
 
randomerratum said:
Huh. I was under the impression that GPS wasn't a cellular service. Am I wrong? All it's doing is grabbing the coordinates from the freely available gps satellites, right?

Anyway, you should have seen the location icon pop up if it was a gps issue.. What they really need is a data indicator. It sounds like it's just way too easy to request data without realizing it.

It would also be neat if the iPhone could track each app's data usage. There's no reason we should be have to commit to capped data blindly.
Click to expand...

LOL @ people who think agps = gps.
 
Good thing you checked before you went over. Then you'd have a horror story.

I considered giving up the unlimited, since I've never gone over 120 MB in a billing cycle. But, I don't know how much more data I might use with the new phone, especially if the network speed is bumped up. As it is, I'm almost always near a wifi hotspot, so my 3G usage is pretty low. Saving $15 a month isn't worth the risk to me.
 
Dude we have three iPhones on my plan...one owned by a pubescent teenage girl. My data usage last month was 8gb. I couldn't imagine not having unlimited.
 
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