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Apple Attempts to Ease Concerns Over Wi-Fi Assist Data Usage
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I guess it depends on what you'd have an issue with--that you are getting switched over to cellular that you actually have a device that is performing something that you are expecting it to perform at that time, or that you are sitting on WiFi without a good connection and your device is either not doing what you are waiting for it to do or doing it very slowly with inconsistent results.
I suspect it is because my personal usage (my line only) as of right now is 900 MB since 9/21. I had updated to the iOS 9 official release and I reset my cell usage on 9/21. On the day I got the iPhone 6s on 9/25, I checked my data usage before wiping the old phone and somehow I used 400 MB from 9/21 to 9/25. I saw WiFi assist switched on and immediately turned it off (Yes, I made sure it stayed off on the new phone). It has been off since then and I've only added an additional 500 MB from regular usage in 20 days, which was used in only 4 days when WiFi assist was on.
I'm not saying correlation means causation, but it's very likely that I used so much unknowingly at the beginning of the month because I was at home thinking I was on WiFi while actually using cellular because I was too far from my modem/router. All 400 MB was used on Safari which I do mainly at home. I'm on Twitter most of the time I'm not home but on my phone.
I understand your argument but the fact of the matter is it's the customers responsibility to educate themselves on the products' usage.
yeah sure Apple needs to do a better job of highlighting new features and product use for anyone who doesn't keep up with their keynotes. They are terrible at advertising new features or publishing a comprehensive manual.
However this is not an Apple-only issue. Just like we learn how to use an alarm clock, bike, iron, coffee maker, car, and every other tool correctly; so too must we learn how to use technology correctly. your car manufacturer didn't teach you how to drive nor do they tell you about new features. you aren't born with this knowledge and not every manufacture supplies a detailed manual.
Bottom line is, it's the customers responsibility to educate themselves.
I love this feature -- it's much better than finding your connection frozen because your phone connected to some B$ fake wifi network (I'm looking at you, Boingo...)
I guess part of that question is did you see your WiFi connection drop and that you weren't on WiFi when you were expecting to be on it?
I didn't see a drop because I didn't pay attention to the signal. When I'm at home, I assume I'm on WiFi. That's why this feature being automatically enabled is a problem. It's not a rare habit to think you're on WiFi where your WiFi is and the feature being automatically enabled just exploits that habit.
Oh okay...i misunderstood. Anyhow..to be perfectly honestly..no there hasn't been statically shown..or at least I haven't heard any. Unless you are asking for ...for example bend gate issues like 9 out of websites indicating that iPhones were bent by many people..then again..no.
However, there are sites where people are talking about increase usage after the update to iOS 9..
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/09/prevent-ios-9-wifi-assist-data/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-ios-9-wi-fi-assist-feature-could-devour-your-data/
However, there are sites that people mention about high usage that MAY lead to wi-fi assist as a culprit.
So what is Wifi assist? Well, isn't it when you're signal from wi-fi is weak..and replaces it with cellular data?
Apple should've added Wi-Fi Assist to the initial set up screens for iOS 9 (like Location Services and Send Usage Data are), and explained how it works like they've explained it now and then allowed the user to turn it on or off right there. I bet they'll make that change in iOS 9.1 or 9.0.3.
My problem is that at school, the wifi isn't amazingly strong, but it was always good enough for my safari browsing (which is what a big majority of my data goes to)
I generally go through about 6gb per month due to having wifi at home and school, but after upgrading to the new OS my phone went through 7gb of data in less than one week!
I was surprised and called my carrier and they told me to turn off wifi assist and gave me 5gb overage for free just for this month.
So yes, it's a huge issue of your wifi isn't super strong, but good enough for browsing safari (no videos or any streaming music/services)
Since turning it off, I noticed I'm back to my normal usage.
I'm at home or at work with WiFi but there are times when I don't get connected waking my device from sleep or when the connection drops, which is indicated by the change in the network showing me on cellular vs. WiFi. It's not something I expect or really happens often, but it can happen and I do notice it at times if it does happen. I would think similarly it would apply to this--it normally wouldn't happen where you normally have always had a good WiFi signal, but might happen in marginal area where you would see it drop the connection at times (as you might have even seen it at times before WiFi assist if the signal was bad enough). I guess something to keep an eye on to see if that's really behind increased data usage or not, given that there are other factors (like simply updating iOS) that could be in play.
Right, that functionality of changing to cellar data when WiFi signal drops out has been there, it's just that it's been adjusted to be more sensitive with WiFi assist now.
There are mentions of higher data usage (and natural linking it to a new feature and thus potentially more press coverage because there's an actual new feature that it could potentially be linked to), but there have been mentions of higher data usage with iOS updates prior to iOS 9 (before WiFi assist) and/or new iOS devices that were out prior to iOS 9. For example:
http://www.ios8jailbreak.org/ios-8-causing-excessive-data-usage-here-is-how-to-fix.html
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/unusually-high-data-usage-on-ios-8.1799293/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6542316
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-7-eating-all-my-data-plan.1620724/
http://forums.imore.com/ios-7/270210-anyone-using-much-more-data-ios-7-a.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5364520
interesting...okay...so if i'm usually under 3 gb of data usage....what POSSIBLE reason(s) could cause to increase more than 10gb. Let me give you a background of mine: I'm pretty well off with under 3 gb of data usage...mainly because 1) i have wi-fi at home, 2) i use some apps that uses some data...but not much though in IOS 8.
Since i updated iOS 9, this happened.
Yes, I got the same message yesterday and wondered why. We share 1 gb of data, and never get this close, so thanks MacRumors for the explanation. We have factory Navigation and Sirius in the cars so don't need much data.
WiFi assist is certainly one of the top suspects when it comes to iOS 9, but it would need to be monitored to see if it's actually that or not. Given the examples of plenty of similar higher data usage reports with iOS 8 and 7 updates it seems that there have been things other than WiFi assist--which didn't exist in iOS in those versions--that could have been and could still be behind higher data usage that some people see after iOS updates and/or with new iOS devices.
It might be more than 1 factor then. I wonder if there is way to monitor wi-fi assist usage.
frankly, my wife doesn't read release note on any update.....
She has a 2 Gb data plan, not something to be worried about, but I think it would be better to have such an option off by default
This comment would kill many users still using limited data plan, and yet there is no sign of implementing unlimited mobile data.
Can't believe it is in the BOTTOM of mobile data section. Looking at and scrolling through my prolong app list is a pain. So I didn't bother checking the bottom and didn't realise wifi assist is there.
And what about those iPhone 6 users, and all iPhone prior than iPhone 6s users? Where would their user manual contain such feature when it just doesn't exist? Plus, how many people would download iOS manual even if is provided for free? You say this is a user issue?
I know I'm late to the thread, but I go on wifi for a reason. To avoid eating up my data quota. I may not care of that connection is slow, as my data usage is more important the wifi performance.
I'm one of the many who turned this "feature" off.
I'm one of the many who turned this "feature" off.
In all likelihood your excessive usage is being caused by the fact that you got a new phone and all of your apps and data are being synced in the background. This happens to me every time I get a new phone or I have to restore from a backup. Even on my home 50MB connection, most of those services take a few days or more to fully sync. If I'm concerned about data usage, I just turn off cellular data for the most part during that time and only turn it on when I need it.