Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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/
 
F

fuzion

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2010
483
0
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!
 
jfrancis04

jfrancis04

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2010
608
174
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!
 
R

randomerratum

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2009
289
0
Santa Monica, CA
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.
 
T

TheConfuzed1

macrumors 6502a
Jun 4, 2003
925
0
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.
 
anjinha

anjinha

macrumors 604
Oct 21, 2006
7,324
205
San Francisco, CA
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.
 
kds786

kds786

macrumors regular
Jun 25, 2010
116
1
Tennessee
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!
 
Krafty

Krafty

macrumors 601
Dec 31, 2007
4,439
308
La La Land
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.
 
H

Hawklight

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2009
92
0
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!?
 
T

tempusfugit

macrumors 65816
May 21, 2009
1,112
1
Chicago
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.
 
B

bluenoise

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2008
756
0
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.
 
N

nospeed411

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2010
586
0
east coast
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom