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

Data being used by itself?

A

afterburn11

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2008
22
0
My girlfriend bought an iPhone the day after I did, but she didn't get a data plan like I did (I got the $30/month 6GB plan, which is overkill for me, but the other plans were ripoffs). She didn't get a data plan because she wasn't going to use her iPhone for any of the features that needed data, because she always has access to wifi, either at home, at university, or at work. But in the week, her iPhone seems to be using data on its own. She has received 15kb and has sent 58kb. At $0.05/kb, that's only $3.65, but still—what could have been using data? She has moved all the applications that do use data to a separate page that she never goes to, and has changed all the options so that she won't access data. She is positive she hasn't accidentally pressed the Safari app, for instance.

Any ideas?
 
afterburn11 said:
My girlfriend bought an iPhone the day after I did, but she didn't get a data plan like I did (I got the $30/month 6GB plan, which is overkill for me, but the other plans were ripoffs). She didn't get a data plan because she wasn't going to use her iPhone for any of the features that needed data, because she always has access to wifi, either at home, at university, or at work. But in the week, her iPhone seems to be using data on its own. She has received 15kb and has sent 58kb. At $0.05/kb, that's only $3.65, but still—what could have been using data? She has moved all the applications that do use data to a separate page that she never goes to, and has changed all the options so that she won't access data. She is positive she hasn't accidentally pressed the Safari app, for instance.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Google maps?

Strictly speaking, I think anything & everything besides phone calls & txting is considered data so there's too many things out there to list. You should check out the detailed bill online first. If you can't find anything, call AT&T & ask.
 
Voicemail counts as data.

Either that or a momentary loss of he wifi connection, and the iPhone reverted to edge for a very short time.
 
visual voicemail downloads over the cellular network, but I am not sure if ATT counts it as data or not
that would be my only idea
 
shinenjk said:
Google maps?

Strictly speaking, I think anything & everything besides phone calls & txting is considered data so there's too many things out there to list. You should check out the detailed bill online first. If you can't find anything, call AT&T & ask.
Click to expand...

Well, the only thing she has done with her phone has been 1) make phone calls 2) text message 3) use the iPod feature 4) use the camera to take pictures. No Google maps, no weather app, no stocks, no anything! So who knows.

It's just odd. In theory, if she doesn't use any of the apps, data won't just use itself, right?

Either way, we're with Rogers in Canada, so I don't know if their bills are as detailed as AT&T's are in the States.
 
slapguts said:
Voicemail counts as data.

Either that or a momentary loss of he wifi connection, and the iPhone reverted to edge for a very short time.
Click to expand...

She doesn't have visual voicemail, I don't think. Does regular voicemail count as data, then? Because she has a "value pack" plan that includes voicemail.
 
shinenjk said:
When she turns the camera on, there will be a pop-up asking her to use her location. She should say NO to those. Geo-tagging I think would mean data usage.
Click to expand...

Right, I disabled the "location services" feature for her as soon as she bought the phone, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have to worry about it. I've looked through her options a bunch of times, and all the options that could potentially use data are off! But I'm probably missing something.
 
Yea iPhone's got too many capabilities. Just make sure she won't use anything else besides calling & txting. Maybe she accidentally opened up apps that uses data (weather?). At least the bill was a paltry $3.50.
 
afterburn11 said:
Either way, we're with Rogers in Canada, so I don't know if their bills are as detailed as AT&T's are in the States.
Click to expand...

I knew you had to be outside of the U.S. If you buy a phone here, it is required that you sign up for a data plan when you buy the phone. If you don't sign up for a data plan, they won't sell you the phone.

How's the service/reception in Canada? Is it good, or is it lousy?

My best guess on the data would be that it happened when she set up her voicemail box. Here in the U.S., when we setup the voicemail box, we record the greeting on our phone, then it sends the audio file to AT&T. When we receive a voicemail, it downloads the message (as an audio file) onto our phone. I'm not sure if Rogers works the same way or not. My best suggestion would be to just simply call their customer service and ask. Maybe call Apple's customer service and ask if it's the voicemail, or ask what they think it could be. Good luck.
 
I also noticed this. Happened ever since I got my iPhone way back. I just live with it, but turning of location services reduced it. Its bad for me because I have it unlocked on a contract with no data bundle. If I want a data bundle the biggest I can get is 2MB for £5 which is about $10. So I don't want to think how much 2MB is costing me without the data bundle...
 
afterburn11 said:
She has received 15kb and has sent 58kb. At $0.05/kb, that's only $3.65, but still—what could have been using data?
Click to expand...

Is that 5 cents per Kilobyte? :eek: the usage of 15kb sent and 58kb received is miniscule and could be almost anything.
When I wake the iPhone at home it takes a second or so for WiFi to show on the status bar so it could be that it's using data in that short period before WiFi kicks in. Another thing to check is if you have Exchange Push on I believe it always uses the cellular network to check for new messages even if connected over WiFi. Don't know if MobileMe is the same or not, but it's worth turning push of in case

On the UK phones there's an option under settings/ general / network / cellular data network where the carrier's internet settings are stored. If you put garbage in there it should prevent it ever connecting to 3G/Edge (you'll get a popup error message if it ever tries too which may help you track it down).

At the cost per kb though I'd be tempted to add at least a small data plan to avoid running up huge bills without realising
 
afterburn11 said:
My girlfriend bought an iPhone the day after I did, but she didn't get a data plan like I did (I got the $30/month 6GB plan, which is overkill for me, but the other plans were ripoffs). She didn't get a data plan because she wasn't going to use her iPhone for any of the features that needed data, because she always has access to wifi, either at home, at university, or at work. But in the week, her iPhone seems to be using data on its own. She has received 15kb and has sent 58kb. At $0.05/kb, that's only $3.65, but still—what could have been using data? She has moved all the applications that do use data to a separate page that she never goes to, and has changed all the options so that she won't access data. She is positive she hasn't accidentally pressed the Safari app, for instance.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

The iPhone is a data hog. That's why it's sold with a data plan. I know your explanation about not wanting to have a data plan since your GF is around wifi most of the time. But that's the risk you run if you do not subscribe to a data plan with the iphone.

Your best fool proof method is to call your provider and have them block internet access on the phone line. Your 2nd best proof is to hack the iphone and install Boss Pref (I'm not sure if they have this on the iPhone 3g yet....it was on the original iPhone) Boss Pref hack allowed you to block EDGE data.

As to why the small 3.65 charge even though your GF is supercareful. Like the other poster have mentioned, it could be because of location services. It could also be when your GF manually downloded emails or surfed the internet via Wi-Fi, there could have been a temp. lost in connection and the connection reverted to the cellular data and than reverted to WiFi again.

So it's her risk by not signing up with a data plan.
 
afterburn11 said:
Right, I disabled the "location services" feature for her as soon as she bought the phone, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have to worry about it. I've looked through her options a bunch of times, and all the options that could potentially use data are off! But I'm probably missing something.
Click to expand...

Even if you turn off Location Services, when you go into Google Maps and press the Locate Me button, I believe it automatically turns Location Services back on, and since the iPhone 3G has aGPS, it also uses cell tower triangulation, which may use a small amount of data. Not sure about this, just seems like a possible cause.
 
I would be careful, you can turn Location Services off, but the camera can also use data if you choose to let is use your location, it will simply just turn Location Services on.

Now that being said, my fiance is using my old first gen iPhone (we're here in Canada to), the phone is jailbroken and she doesn't have data plan, so I called Rogers and had all data blocked for her account so she doesn't have to be tip-toeing around the phone.
 
afterburn11 said:
Right, I disabled the "location services" feature for her as soon as she bought the phone, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have to worry about it. I've looked through her options a bunch of times, and all the options that could potentially use data are off! But I'm probably missing something.
Click to expand...

Poor girl, isn't she allowed to have any fun at all?
 
Turning OFF location services doesn't disable the camera asking if you want it to find your location. All location services does is prevent the phone from downloading the GPS satellite locations periodically. That is how A-GPS is able to acquire a satellite lock so quickly. The iPhone downloads the sat. locations periodically.

I had this data mystery where I went to Canada and I was trying to avoid using data. My conclusion was that the phone was checking for PUSH email. I think even if you don't have email setup on the phone, it still checks.
 
Call Rogers and block data on the phone. It's too risky to go without a data plan. Your GF could give her phone to a friend to see for a minute and rack up a huge bill. If data's blocked, there is no risk of accidental charges.
 
The answer to the original posters question is that the Iphone contacts apple regularly whether you have data on or not this "feature" can not be stopped, it's built into the core api and it's how apple can use things like it's blacklist feature to "protect" you from malware.

If you really use no other data then get a 5meg/month add on if they'll let you and you'll have more than enough for it's checks.

Out of curiosity wtf did she get an iphone for if she's not using data???? Thats like buying motorcycle so you can push it cause you dont' wanna buy gas ever.
 
OK i have an awesome but simple solution disable the Edge by changing the APN name which is the Access Point Name like cingular.att.com

here is the link for it

and a tutorial :)

8-9-2008%204-05-58%20PM.png
 
I'll definitely tell my girlfriend to give that a try! Thanks!

And I might her tell her to call Rogers and ask them to block data to her phone.
 
Lightbrazer said:
Out of curiosity wtf did she get an iphone for if she's not using data???? Thats like buying motorcycle so you can push it cause you dont' wanna buy gas ever.
Click to expand...

Yeah I always wonder the same thing on these types of posts. Why you would get a phone with all kinds of options you will never use, when you will only use the options that are on standard free phones, is beyond me. What's the point? OK, OK...if you have widely available wifi access that you will NEVER be out of (doubtful), then fine, but that has to be so rare. Breaks from school? In the airport? In the bar a few blocks from school? Wifi isn't everywhere, so I can't imagine completely disabling data. In this case, I would just not have an iPhone. But whatever, it's not my problem what others so wish to do.
 
yah it totally blocks all network traffic except phone calls even visual voicemail you have to call in
 
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
Back