HELP! Insane amounts of Data being used

[sstevens]

I am on a 20GB plan alone through my parents. I work in an office without wifi and I text moderately throughout the day, send and receive pictures with friends, etc. I browse Instagram on and off..maybe 3 times an hour. I was streaming podcasts via YouTube that can sum up to 2 hours worth of audio and video. Our pay period ends the 26th or so and last month I was accountable for 17GB.

**I havent deleted conversation threads in maybe a little over a month or two but on the "Details" tab on some convos with friends the photo exchange can be up to 2,200. Does it cost me data to receive photos from others even if they have an iphone??

I dont know what my settings should be but I have since shut off Cellular Data on Tumblr, Instagram, Chrome, Youtube, App Store, etc. and at the top I turned off Enable LTE (left Cellular Data on). When I am at home, I am automatically connected to WiFi. However, do I need to turn off Cellular Data too when I am connected? I reset my statistics in Settings for Data Usage and so it reads as this:

Last Reset: January 7th, 2015 3:10pm
Cellular Data Usage Current Period: 738MB

Mesaging Services is at 237MB
Instagram: 116MB
Chrome: 106MB
Tumblr: 56MB

Largest ones consuming most data. Why is Messaging so high?

Is it just a simple restraint I need to set on myself and not use Chrome/YouTube for watching and listening to podcasts? Instagram and Tumblr dont account for a lot of megabyte usage.. I think I'll invest in an audio cable to run from my computer for headphones.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[tillsbury]

If you're watching 2 hours a day of YouTube then 17 gb is not very high for total usage.

If you're working in an office surely you wouldn't be using your phone, unless it were required for work in which case wifi would be supplied by the company?

All photos you receive will cost you data, as will all photos you send out.

 

[sstevens]

If you're watching 2 hours a day of YouTube then 17 gb is not very high for total usage.

If you're working in an office surely you wouldn't be using your phone, unless it were required for work in which case wifi would be supplied by the company?

All photos you receive will cost you data, as will all photos you send out.

Everyone streams videos, netflix, pandora, etc. on their computers but I don't because I dont have an audio cable (yet). It's fairly lenient and also somewhat slow this time of the year. WiFi is also available however it is password protected and none of us employees have access or are granted access to that. A bit ironic considering I can see minimized windows on other monitors of youtube, netflix, vimeo, etc. (we all have two monitors)


As a more understanding scenario. Lets say during an 8hour work day I send 5-10 images (copy&paste images or ones taken from phone). Let's say I also receive just as many if not a few more (I have friends that are photographers who are always showing me current peaks at their work). Is that something I should be worried about? Should I just turn off cellular data for the better half of the day when not at home and on WiFi?


EDIT: to be more realistic, I'd say 1-1.5hours a week as a sum of time spent watching or listening to youtube videos.

 

[IrishVixen]

YouTube streaming is almost certainly the culprit. Any kind of streaming eats data at a ridiculous rate. The audio cable for the computer will cost you way less than using your data will. Or download the podcasts while at home via iTunes, etc., so you can play them locally instead of streaming them.

Regarding images: the average image size I'm seeing for pics taken on an iPhone 6 is just under 8 MB. Images taken with an SLR can be even bigger; if your photographer friends are using "real" cameras, those files they're sending you may be pretty large. So yes, 5-10 images being transmitted each way daily over cell data will add up. Not to 17 GB, probably not enough to even worry about really, but yes, they're using a fair amount of data unless they're transmitted over iMessage on WiFi.

 

[Applejuiced]

Why is it so hard to figure out what you're using the "insane amount of data"?
Everything is listed for you in settings,cellular,cellular data usage:
Every single kb used by each app is displayed and you can turn off cellular data for any apps that you don't want using carrier data.
Good luck.