iOS 8 chews through 600 MB in 15 minutes

[katewes]

I have to economize on mobile broadband WiFi, so I was alarmed to see, using Datamonitor app, that something was chewing through data at a rate of about 600 Mb in just a few minutes.

To summarize, I double clicked and turned off all apps but still the insane rate of data usage continued.

Incidentally, a few days ago when setting up the new iPad Mini Retina, I had previously gone through the settings to turn off anything in the settings that could eat data, for example, background app refreshes, all the app store and iTunes background app and music updates.

Given that I turned off all the apps, and the massive data usage continued, I can only think it could be the iOS that is doing something like downloading an iOS update but I am on the latest 8.1.2.

Do you know any apps that can tell me where all the WiFi data is going? I saw that iOS can I see identify where cellular data is going, but I am using WiFi here.

The app, My Data Manager, claims to have that feature but apparently that feature doesn't work in iOS 8.

 

[nightstalkerz]

Do you have a lot of purchases/downloads on your iTunes account?

iOS will stupidly download ALL your purchased app icons whether you have visited the Purchased section or not.

 

[katewes]

Do you have a lot of purchases/downloads on your iTunes account?

iOS will stupidly download ALL your purchased app icons whether you have visited the Purchased section or not.

Yes I do have a lot of apps, perhaps a coupLe of hundred - many which I tried and didn't use. About I've had the new iPad for a week. Is this downloading of app icons something that happens a few days after the iPad has been in use? And can icons really take up that much data?

 

[Max(IT)]

Do you have a lot of purchases/downloads on your iTunes account?

iOS will stupidly download ALL your purchased app icons whether you have visited the Purchased section or not.

Icons can't take 600 mb....

 

[Armen]

Sounds like iCloud background activity. Sign out and back in to your iCloud account.

 

[MartyCan]

Settings>Cellular will tell you what is using cellular data. Does Datamonitor do the same for WiFi?

You can even reset the monitor to find the one burning all the data.

 

[jacqueg]

iCloud is my guess also. I have concluded that iCloud is not for us mortals on a budget!

 

[Abazigal]

I think I experienced something like that once or twice. I am fairly certain I did not use my iPhone for anything out of the ordinary, yet I was suddenly hit with a "80% data used" warning in the first week alone. Never did find out the cause, though I was on iOS 7.

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Had the issue once. The culprit was the documents and data.

Go to iCloud-iCloud drive-use cellular data.

Turn it off and let all the apps download it's data through wifi once and then you can turn it on again if you really need it.

I normally keep it off.

Let me know if it helps.
Also check usage under settings-cellular data-system services and see if anything is not normal.

 

[jacqueg]

I think I experienced something like that once or twice. I am fairly certain I did not use my iPhone for anything out of the ordinary, yet I was suddenly hit with a "80% data used" warning in the first week alone. Never did find out the cause, though I was on iOS 7.

Apple ads don't warn you about this little consequence of keeping all your devices syncing via the cloud at all times. You wouldn't have to use your iPhone to make any calls at all, and you would still see this jump.

For me, not worth it. Laptop syncing works just fine.

 

[katewes]

Had the issue once. The culprit was the documents and data.

Go to iCloud-iCloud drive-use cellular data.

Turn it off and let all the apps download it's data through wifi once and then you can turn it on again if you really need it.

I normally keep it off.

Let me know if it helps.
Also check usage under settings-cellular data-system services and see if anything is not normal.

Yes, turning off documents in ICloud seems to have put an immediate stop to the hemorrhaging of outgoing data. Thanks!

 

[Max(IT)]

Had the issue once. The culprit was the documents and data.

Go to iCloud-iCloud drive-use cellular data.

Turn it off and let all the apps download it's data through wifi once and then you can turn it on again if you really need it.

I normally keep it off.

Let me know if it helps.
Also check usage under settings-cellular data-system services and see if anything is not normal.

I'M KEEPING it on, but I don't have any anomalous data consumption

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Yes, turning off documents in ICloud seems to have put an immediate stop to the hemorrhaging of outgoing data. Thanks!

What kind of documents do you have on your iPhone?

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Yes, turning off documents in ICloud seems to have put an immediate stop to the hemorrhaging of outgoing data. Thanks!

I am glad it helped.

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I'M KEEPING it on, but I don't have any anomalous data consumption

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What kind of documents do you have on your iPhone?

Its not what type of documents are stored.

From what i understand, after a restore or update, the data cache are deleted and then after restore the data is once again downloaded from the icloud.

So let all the apps who use icloud drive download their stuff over wifi once and then i think you are good to go.

 

[Max(IT)]

I am glad it helped.

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Its not what type of documents are stored.

From what i understand, after a restore or update, the data cache are deleted and then after restore the data is once again downloaded from the icloud.

So let all the apps who use icloud drive download their stuff over wifi once and then i think you are good to go.

I've restored my iPhones several times, but always within Wi-Fi coverage, so maybe my data were downloaded on Wi-Fi and I didn't realize it.

 

[nightstalkerz]

Icons can't take 600 mb....

Icons take up over 200MB for me.

Some of them are over 1MB in size.

It just depends whether the developer has optimised the icons for size or not.

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Icons take up over 200MB for me.

Some of them are over 1MB in size.

It just depends whether the developer has optimised the icons for size or not.

How do you know icons take 200 MB for you? Just curious how did you find out..

 

[nightstalkerz]

How do you know icons take 200 MB for you? Just curious how did you find out..

You can setup a proxy server or use your router to monitor the network traffic.

 

[Max(IT)]

You can setup a proxy server or use your router to monitor the network traffic.

Yes, but how you can say that the traffic generated is all about icons?

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Yes, but how you can say that the traffic generated is all about icons?

I would love to know how you managed to identify the icon traffic from the router.

 

[Max(IT)]

I would love to know how you managed to identify the icon traffic from the router.

Me? I think you quoted the wrong user

 

[nightstalkerz]

Yes, but how you can say that the traffic generated is all about icons?

If you use something like Fiddler, you can see all the requests made to the mzstatic.com site. That is the App Store CDN and if you inspect the contents of it, they are icons.

I would love to know how you managed to identify the icon traffic from the router.

Some routers/router firmwares can have this capability. I'm not sure which routers do.

 

[Steve28]

iOS 8 chews through 600 MB in 15 minutes

How do you know icons take 200 MB for you? Just curious how did you find out..

He means the apps themselves. He's just calling them "icons" the same way people say "my phone has a GPS in it" when what they really mean "gps receiver" .

 

[afsnyder]

Icons take up over 200MB for me.

Some of them are over 1MB in size.

It just depends whether the developer has optimised the icons for size or not.

You mean app or icon? An icon is just an image.

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Me? I think you quoted the wrong user

My bad. didn't mean to quote you.

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If you use something like Fiddler, you can see all the requests made to the mzstatic.com site. That is the App Store CDN and if you inspect the contents of it, they are icons.



Some routers/router firmwares can have this capability. I'm not sure which routers do.

Since you said yours have downloaded 200 mb of icons, I thought you have everything in place.

Technically, it's possible to have even more than 200 mbs of icons if you keep thousands of icon.

However it's very unlikely to have 200 mbs worth data for a few hundred when the icons are very small in size.

 

[nightstalkerz]

He means the apps themselves. He's just calling them "icons" the same way people say "my phone has a GPS in it" when what they really mean "gps receiver" .

You mean app or icon? An icon is just an image.

I actually mean icons (i.e jpeg/png images)

Since you said yours have downloaded 200 mb of icons, I thought you have everything in place.

Technically, it's possible to have even more than 200 mbs of icons if you keep thousands of icon.

However it's very unlikely to have 200 mbs worth data for a few hundred when the icons are very small in size.

I've seen icons up to 1.5MB since Apple now has a requirement for icons being 1024x1024px.