Excessive data usage...

[moneyshot]

I have an iphone 3gs and my mobile data usage went through the roof this past month! I can't work out the reason for this... I have had the phone for over one year and never had an issue before.

After checking through my mobile bill, edge/gprs has been clicking on around every 4-5 minutes for around 3 minutes of usage. My data plan is charged by the minute...

The thing is my phone is almost always in a wireless network... Is there any way that my phone would use mobile internet instead of a wireless network?? Or both at the same time? I thought the iphone would only use a wireless network when available over any mobile internet..?

Also what app would use internet every 5 minutes? Most of the time my phone sits in the dock not being used... I don't use push mail and have notifications turned off.

Any ideas would be welcome as I think my mobile carrier has had some kind of glitch but it will be hard convincing them of that...

Thanks

 

[iphone1105]

Really man, search the boards and the other bazillion threads that cover everything you answer....

good luck!

 

[deeddawg]

First question is what's different about the apps you have loaded between then and now. Anything at all? Any new apps, any new updates to those apps? I'd look there first. Delete apps one by one to see if you can effect a difference in behavior, ideally checked via your carrier's website if they have an online way to see your data usage on a day by day basis. There's also the Usage screen in Settings under General thats supposed to show sent/received cellular network data -- check that as you delete apps to see if anything you've changed in the last few weeks is the cause.

 

[moneyshot]

Thanks deeddawg I have been trying to work out what has changed but can't seem to pin it on anything yet.

iphone1105 - I have done a search of the boards and I couldn't find any threads that cover my particular problem.

My main question is why would my iphone use edge/gprs over wi-fi? My phone is always within my wireless at home and there has been no outages on my router in the past month. Every time I have looked at my phone it has been using wi-fi so I don't understand why my phone carrier says I have been using edge/gprs...

 

[TonyC28]

I had a problem in the past where my phone starting using far more data than it ever had before. One time I even used more data in a day than I used in a typical month prior to that. I never did get a good explanation from AT&T about that. But anyways, I have since starting using WiFi whenever I'm at home so that cut it down a lot. As far as your phone using mobile internet instead of your WiFi you may want to make sure your phone is connected to your WiFi when you assume it is. I have noticed lately, since 4.1 I think, that my phone does not always connect to my home network when I'm in range. Twice now I've had to reset the network settings to get it to connect.

 

[anjinha]

Thanks deeddawg I have been trying to work out what has changed but can't seem to pin it on anything yet.

iphone1105 - I have done a search of the boards and I couldn't find any threads that cover my particular problem.

My main question is why would my iphone use edge/gprs over wi-fi? My phone is always within my wireless at home and there has been no outages on my router in the past month. Every time I have looked at my phone it has been using wi-fi so I don't understand why my phone carrier says I have been using edge/gprs...

It is true that the iPhone will always use Wi-Fi over 3G or Edge. But what also happens is that when the iPhone is asleep it will disconnect from WiFi so if you get notifications during that time it will use 3G/Edge instead of WiFi.

What's the difference between your data usage before and now?

 

[moneyshot]

Okay now we are getting somewhere...

I didn't realise that the phone would disconnect from wi-fi whilst asleep... I guess that could explain at least why my phone has been using edge/gprs over wi-fi.

The problem seems to have started around the same time since updating to 4.1.. Has the 'wifi off whilst asleep' been added with this update?

I still can't seem to find any app that has been the cause of this constant connection though... Maybe an update to an existing app has caused the constant connection... Ill monitor it over the coming days and progressively narrow down the culprit.

I wish there was a settings tab for apps using a constant connection, which could be toggled off/on. It would save people much hassle and time as well as data costs

Thanks for all the helpful replies people! Very much appreciated