Apps that Suck (your data allotment)

[Old Muley]

Our family has 5 iPhones (6s and 6s+ on Verizon), and our son is consistently using up 90% of our data allotment. We've gone from 10GB a month, to 15GB to 20GB to 25GB and still he continues to consume our cellular at an amazing rate. He insists he is not streaming music nor videos, so I'm trying to figure out what apps might be using up so much data. I know the kids these days do a lot of the SnapChat thing making "stories" but I have no idea how much data that uses. I've looked online for a list of Apps that tend to be demanding as far as data use goes, but I haven't found any.

We will probably be implementing the Verizon "FamilyBase" to throttle his monthly allotment if he can't cool it.

 

[ardchoille50]

Any app that allows streaming of music, pictures, and/or video (YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, hulu, etc) should be suspect.

I'm wondering if Settings > General > Restrictions would be of any help.

 

[CNeufeld]

Look into the "WiFi Assist" on the Cellular tab of the settings. Sometimes people are using cell data when they think they should be using WiFi.

Also look at disabling cell data for most of his apps. Just leave the ones that are valid.

C

 

[HEK]

Do the battery check and it will list the apps by highest usage be sure to click the clock button that will show standby vs on screen. That should clue you in on the apps using the most.

And the wifi assist for sure turn that off.

 

[Berthacrowley]

You can see how much data each app uses in Settings > Cellular, then scroll down to "use cellular data for:"

It will give you a list of all apps & how much data they have used underneath.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Our family has 5 iPhones (6s and 6s+ on Verizon), and our son is consistently using up 90% of our data allotment. We've gone from 10GB a month, to 15GB to 20GB to 25GB and still he continues to consume our cellular at an amazing rate. He insists he is not streaming music nor videos, so I'm trying to figure out what apps might be using up so much data. I know the kids these days do a lot of the SnapChat thing making "stories" but I have no idea how much data that uses. I've looked online for a list of Apps that tend to be demanding as far as data use goes, but I haven't found any.

We will probably be implementing the Verizon "FamilyBase" to throttle his monthly allotment if he can't cool it.

Snapchat, Instagram and FaceBook suck data like crazy. We have unlimited data with AT&T, but my younger sister uses over 5GB a month on Snapchat alone. I asked her to show me her Settings -> Cellular. Snapchat is over 75GB in less than a year. Its insane. I send maybe 1 snapchat a day or two and in the last 3 months I've used over 1GB.

 

[Jimmy James]

You can see how much data each app uses in Settings > Cellular, then scroll down to "use cellular data for:"

It will give you a list of all apps & how much data they have used underneath.

This. You can find out exactly where data is being used. Then take corrective action.

 

[lordofthereef]

Facebook will do it. All my mom (she is on our family plan) does on her phone is use facebook and she has hit 10GB in a month, easily. Facebook videos will stream in the background too (byt this I mean without pushing play) unless the setting is turned off.

 

[Megalobyte]

Facebook and messenger suck.

 

[jpgr15]

<deleted>

 

[Old Muley]

Well, we discovered that he had cellular assist turned on, so we shut that off. SnapChat and Twitter had used 3.7 and 3.2GB respectively. There was also something called "media services" that had used over 3.2GB as well. Twitter was set to automatically play videos, which I'm sure didn't help. Oddly iTunes and other music streaming apps like soundcloud were hardly used at all.

 

[ardchoille50]

Well, we discovered that he had cellular assist turned on, so we shut that off. SnapChat and Twitter had used 3.7 and 3.2GB respectively. There was also something called "media services" that had used over 3.2GB as well. Twitter was set to automatically play videos, which I'm sure didn't help. Oddly iTunes and other music streaming apps like soundcloud were hardly used at all.

I still think Apple should have turned off Wi-Fi assist by default.

 

[lamborghini392]

Disable background app refresh (General > Background App Refresh) for pretty much all social media apps, they like to refresh A LOT in the background even when the app itself is closed which uses quite a bit of data. Media services is often (social media apps yet again ) Facebook and Twitter, but could possibly be wifi assist at work.

 

[HEK]

I still think Apple should have turned off Wi-Fi assist by default.

One of those damned if you do, damned if you don't things. Turn it on and in right conditions eats your cellular data like it didn't cost anything. Don't turn it on and some nice functionality will most likely never be discovered and user convenience is impacted.

Since these phones are sold world wide. Someone in countries where cellular company are not allowed to rape the consumer will find the wi-if assist greatly helping them stay connected. When you pay $12 a month for unlimited cellular, well it's not an issue.

Learn and understand your technology. These forums help. Each year new features, and iOS updates will effect things. There is only so much handholding a company can do. Look at it this way, after the first huge cellular bill for data overages, the consumer found out and won't make that mistake again.

Reminds me of the the guy that took his car to the dealership complaining it was running out of gas. And while they checked on that, could they look at what that annoying dinging was. It seemed to happen just a short time before he runs out of gas.

 

[HEK]

Well, we discovered that he had cellular assist turned on, so we shut that off. SnapChat and Twitter had used 3.7 and 3.2GB respectively. There was also something called "media services" that had used over 3.2GB as well. Twitter was set to automatically play videos, which I'm sure didn't help. Oddly iTunes and other music streaming apps like soundcloud were hardly used at all.

Think you nailed it. This should really drop your data consumption. Also take a look at system services. Most of that stuff is not helping you directly and is calling hundreds of times reporting location, wi-if sites you pass while driving, telling and inquiring ads based on your location. Google it, Apple has a description for each, or look up on here. The names are very misleading. I turned most off except for find phone and find friend. Routing & Traffic for instance sends Apple your traffic conditions to help update their system. And wi-if network send Apple GPS coordinates of any wi-fi sites you pass so they have the geographic location. All using your data, and your battery.

 

[woodekm]

I only used 1GB of data for the past year with my iPhone 6 plus (and NEVER went over .5 Gb before that. Everything was fine (no facebook app) until my iPhone 6S plus (wifi assist off, no location services and only used apps checked).

Im now using 3 to 4 GB. Couldn't tell you what is going on now

 

[willmtaylor]

Well, we discovered that he had cellular assist turned on, so we shut that off. SnapChat and Twitter had used 3.7 and 3.2GB respectively. There was also something called "media services" that had used over 3.2GB as well. Twitter was set to automatically play videos, which I'm sure didn't help. Oddly iTunes and other music streaming apps like soundcloud were hardly used at all.

Over the course of when? To say that he had used 3.7 and 3.2 GB but not give the timeframe is misleading. The USER must reset those statistics, so unless you had reset them at the beginning of your cellular billing cycle, then those two numbers are since the device was activated.

Given the amount of data your son is using, I don't see how his story about his app usage and his actual data usage align (something is amiss). I would suspect that he's being untruthful with the apps that he is using/how much he's using them.

FWIW, there are threads on Apple Support forums and Reddit looking into the "media services" data usage, but no one really knows. The most predominate theories involve background app refresh and iCloud syncing (iCloud Drive, Apple Music, etc.).

 

[geoff5093]

I only used 1GB of data for the past year with my iPhone 6 plus (and NEVER went over .5 Gb before that. Everything was fine (no facebook app) until my iPhone 6S plus (wifi assist off, no location services and only used apps checked).

Im now using 3 to 4 GB. Couldn't tell you what is going on now

Wait, do you mean you only used 1GB of data total from January > December?

 

[woodekm]

Wait, do you mean you only used 1GB of data total from January > December?

Na. Sorry. Less than 1 gb per month avg.

 

[Old Muley]

Over the course of when? To say that he had used 3.7 and 3.2 GB but not give the timeframe is misleading. The USER must reset those statistics, so unless you had reset them at the beginning of your cellular billing cycle, then those two numbers are since the device was activated.

Given the amount of data your son is using, I don't see how his story about his app usage and his actual data usage align (something is amiss). I would suspect that he's being untruthful with the apps that he is using/how much he's using them.

Sorry, the timeframe was just shy of month; our most current billing cycle. The phone was brand new at the beginning of the cycle, and all the data usage records were zeroed out to begin with. As for apps, he was doing a lot of YouTube stuff that I didn't know about as well as using the NFL Mobile App as well. So there were more things being used that what we originally suspected.

Since our billing cycle reset on December 3rd, I switched our plan back to 18GB/month and activated the "FamilyBase" plan. $5 per month allows me some pretty granular control of my kids data usage. Based on past performance, we set our son up with 10GB, my daughter with 5GB and my wife, my mom and myself will share the remaining 3GB.